Vacations don’t always include your family. One or more of your friends may be your travel companion on your next trip. Traveling with friends can be a fun and life enriching experience and with a few tips, you can ensure that your travels can be positive and not take a wrong turn and ruining a fun experience.
Make Travel Plans Together
There is typically one person in the group that likes to plan every detail and ensure all of the travel plans are scheduled and confirmed. Although this needs to take place, doing so without discussing with the other travelers can cause problems before the flight takes off. Everyone has their own ideas of what their ideal vacation is, whether it’s international travel or within your home state, and being able to accommodate everyone to some degree is vital to having a successful vacation.
Visiting theme parks, golfing and sightseeing are all activities that may be on someone’s list for the trip. The amount of time spent on these or any other activities should be figured out in an open discussion. Knowing what everyone’s expectations are, planning to accommodate everyone as best as possible becomes feasible. With everyone’s input, each person becomes a vital part of the experience.
Dollars and Sense
You and your friends are on vacation; don’t count your pennies every time money is involved. It gets too difficult to ensure everyone pays the exact same every cab ride or bar tab. Taking turns will help keep costs even or at least close. If it is extremely important that everything turns out even, keeping track of your purchases throughout the day and settling each evening or next morning will keep anyone from over extending themselves throughout the trip.
Talk with your travel party before your trip and discuss how you all want to handle group purchases during your trip. Keeping travel expenses down on room and board and flights are a great way to keep tensions at bay for the day-to-day expenses.
Knowing Your Triggers
Long trips can take a toll on your temper. Knowing what sets you off can help you prevent getting upset on your trip. Everyone is different and has different ways to get through the more difficult moments. If you get grumpy when you’re hungry or whistling is your biggest pet-peeve, knowing what sets you off and how to keep yourself calm is a great way to ensure a positive vacation.
Help ease tensions by adding a rest day. If you have a busy itinerary, adding a morning to sleep in or an afternoon off in the middle of the trip can help recharge the batteries and calm tensions of a non-stop adventure. Communicating with your friends, early, if you’re getting upset, will be the best way to make sure it does not get beyond reconciliation.
If you’re interested in taking a trip, feel free to contact us about how you can travel with your whole group of friends.
