How to travel with a group doesn’t come naturally to some and this isn’t a character flaw, simply a lack of practice. The ability to travel with a group of friends is a skill, and how finely honed that skill is can determine whether the trip is a dream or a nightmare. While there is no doubt that certain personalities can make or break a holiday, there is a lot your group can do to prepare yourself before you go to make sure you all walk away remaining friends.
How to Travel With a Group (and still have fun)
Choose Wisely for Group Travel Success
Be realistic about who you’re going with. Chances are if they drive you crazy over dinner, they’re going to push you over the edge when you’re on vacation. This may not be the person to invite along with you. You also want to consider how personalities within your group will get along. If two people will make everyone else’s life miserable because they can’t find common ground, you may want to consider planning two trips.
Hold a Pre-travel Meeting
Nobody wants to plan their holiday down to the most minute detail but it’s a good idea to get a sense of what everyone is looking to get out of their vacation. Plus, it’s a good way to avoid lugging duplicates of items on a trip. Shared Google spreadsheets work wonders and group chats can work out kinks ahead of time. Plus they help build excitement.
Embrace Time Apart When Travelling with Friends
You are not one unit destined to walk in lock step for the duration of your trip. From the beginning it should be clear to all that if someone wants to break off from the crowd there will be no hurt feelings. Just because you came as a group doesn’t mean you need to stay that way the entire time. Some may want high adventure, while others prefer to huddle and plot world dominance. It’s all good.
Be Flexible
Learning how to travel with a group means being flexible. So your plan to soak up the sun on the beach has been upset by a freak monsoon, time to get a new plan. But what if most of the group wants to go see a movie and you want to hit the mall? You either go with the flow my friend, or see previous tip.
Breathe
Traveling with a group means it will take you longer to get everywhere. It’s more people to get out of the house, more people to feed, more people to stand in line. More personalities to navigate. Practice the fine art of patience.
Be Prompt
If the group has collectively decided that your departure time is 8am, don’t saunter out in your PJ’s at 8:05. If you get left behind, circle back to you are not one unit please and maybe spend some time reflecting on your time management. I can honestly say my group excels at being prompt. I truly believe it’s one of the reasons we’ve had so many successful trips together. Being on time shows you respect each other.
Accept That You Are Not Perfect
The second you can do this you’ll remember that no one else in your group is either. A week or weekend in close proximity with others can reveal a side to your friends that you didn’t know they had, and it might annoy the hell out of you, until you smack yourself on the forehead and say “Oh yeah, maybe I’m annoying the hell out of them.” Be real.
Pick Up After Yourself
Knowing how to travel with a group includes respecting shared spaces and keeping things tidy. You came with friends, not servants. Pick up after yourself or risk not being invited again.
Contribute Your Fair Share
Don’t let money come between you and a good friend. If you ate some, drank some or used some….contribute for it.
Be Mindful of Varying Budgets
We all have spending limits, whether they’re self-imposed or dictated by our budgets. When planning trips, try to keep everyone’s financial comfort in mind. Sure, you might be able to swing that pricey experience, but some in your group could feel the pinch long after the trip. Ask yourself: is it worth splurging if it means leaving some friends out, or would it be money well not spent to choose activities everyone can enjoy together?
Have a Holiday Debrief
This doesn’t have to be a big event. Just a quick call or group chat to discuss the trip and share fun memories or even to clear up misunderstandings can go a long way. On the other hand, maybe you want to have it over dinner so you can start planning your next holiday together. After all you just navigated this one successfully.
We ALWAYS travel with my parents and my brothers. Sometimes my husbands family joins us as well, so we are entirely use to be a group of 10+ We find it makes the vacation even more fun 🙂
Great tips!
Great tips Candace! I find that the money issue is the stickiest. We make sure that we’re very clear upfront that each family is paying their own share. Ask for separate tabs at meals. In the pre-meeting, I think that it is useful to discuss if there is going to be any child-minding to allow each couple to have an evening on their own. Nobody wants to get stuck babysitting because others assumed that it would be ok.
Travelling with groups is so hard, but as long as everyone is flexible it can be fun!
Great tips, Candace! Pre-trip meetings are vital, so everyone can share expectations, wish lists. We do a lot of family travel, and the biggest successes have been when we’ve had a clear itinerary with what we’re doing and with no obligation to participate in everything. That way people can opt for alone time when they need it, and participate in the things they really want to do:)
Traveling with our kids is always somewhat difficult, because all five of us have to agree on activities.
We’ve travelled in groups before with friends both staying at hotels and renting cottages – the best advice I can give is to have one member of each family as the spokesperson for that family in coordinating activities/flights/lodging. It makes it so much easier to plan!
Great tips! A tip I have is to take 15/20/30 minutes at night to unwind. Whether you find a quiet nook in the hotel, take a quick walk around the area…something. It’s great to have me time to reflect on the day.
Definitely choose carefully who you will be travelling with!
For me the biggest thing is choosing people who will get along well together. Even if I really enjoy the company of both people A and B, those two might not like each other at all. Also a good mix of some activities for everybody and some time for people to do their own thing
These are all excellent tips and I think the best is to go over your expectations right from the start. If they want to hit the pool/beach all day and you just want to do theme parks, they might not be the travel companions for you. And always have time apart from each other.
lots of planning–also plan for some time to NOT be together! Go and do whatever you want
When travelling in a group #1: RELAX!!!!!! #2: Make a plan but don’t stress if everything doesn’t go 100% on schedule #3: HAVE FUN AND TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES!!!!!!
Travelling with a group sometimes means you don’t always come out on the winning end of what you want to do – take time for yourself too!
I’ve never traveled as a group but I think picking accomodations where you can spread out and have your own space is key
I’ve only traveled with husband and children. I think traveling with a group would be a great time.
If you know they are always late, give them a schedule that is 10 minutes earlier than the rest of the party. 🙂 Okay, I jest, but don’t travel with someone who is always late to things, it sux to have to spend your vacation sitting around waiting on someone else everytime you want to do something
It might be a good idea to have a basic outline of what you plan on doing, but make sure to be flexible with how the day will unfold. Make sure your outline includes time to relax and extra time in the morning for everyone to get ready.
I think the best thing to remember is that not everyone HAS to stay together all the time. Each person going should make a small list of the things they MUST do on that trip, and then make sure they do them, with or without the group. It’s not YOUR vacation, it’s everyone’s.
My advice would be to make sure everyone gets to do at least one thing that is important to them. It’s easy to plan all you want to do while not thinking about the others in the group!
Don’t expect your whole group to do every single thing you want to do. Have your own time and give them theirs!
Schedule, schedule, schedule!
Organize a schedule. Always keep in contact with each other if you split into groups. Meet up once in awhile at locations you choose to meet up.
Be willing to compromise!!! Not everyone has the same likes, so work with everyone so everyone has a GREAT time! Thats what its all about! Having a great time and making memories!
Be willing to compromise. Give everyone a chance to say and do what they want to do most. Remember it’s their vacation too.
Everyone is equal, everyone gets a say. We usually camp with 5 other families each summer (yes, at the same time, and yes, the kids outnumber the adults), and it is such an awesome time because we don’t spend every waking moment together, but we do ask others to join us in activities. And, we always end the day with a campfire with all of us, and chat about the fantastic day 🙂 5 months to go til this years’!
It’s a good idea to arrange a meeting place in advance so if anyone gets “lost” they can easily be found. Also, dressing alike can help with a larger group.
Have some flexablity and realize not everyone is going to agree on what to do. Everyone has different views and desires. Its ok to seperate but still stay on groups.
Plan ahead with flexibility built in.
love group travel and with kids in tow it totally helps to have friends or family join us. Great tips! I usually take the lead in penning the details and getting feedback via emails but a pre-meeting is a way better idea!! I’m gonna start doing that!
I love to travel with group too! Usually with my family not with friends since i married. You need to prepared and also having lots of understanding. But thank you the tips, i got a few pointers…going to use it on my next trip
Setting expectations and cost structure prior to the group trip is essential in my opinion!
We have travelled in a very large group for a wedding, I think it is always important to take time outside of the group so that everyone gets their own personal down time from each other and can enjoy some moments alone, whether you are traveling with your spouse and group, or solo in a group!
never been before but would like
Be flexible and plan a meeting place and time for every day.
We always travel with family
Be flexible and take turns picking what to do.
If traveling with a group, I would hold a meeting beforehand abd clearly explain everyone’s expectations for the trip. I would then chill and relax and not stress.
For group travel, I highly recommend having a meeting (or two!) first, to coordinate details with everyone before the trip! 🙂
When we travel as a group, we do leave time to split up. I like to be lazy, while others like to run. Thanks to cell phones and smart phones, it is way easier to meet back up. We plan to get together most at meals. 🙂
For group travel, designate a time when the group should try to spend together and also time when it is okay to split up so that every has their own space.
My best advice is to set some ground rules in advance as well as a basic schedule so that there are no surprises!
Be flexible!
i would make sure that plan activities away from the others.
My best tip for travelling in a group is to plan for everyone to have both things you do together and some alone time. I find that makes the together time better and much less stressful. I like to actually plan for times and a place to do this.