Planning to jet off to a beach destination for spring break? Or, planning a spa weekend with your closest girlfriends? Traveling with your friends creates a bond you’ll always share. But, conflicts can easily arise when your travel styles, priorities, and budgets don’t align. Luckily, guest blogger Lara Stewart has you covered with her five best tips for traveling with friends.
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Five Tips For Traveling With Friends — And Still Being Friends Afterwards
Whether you are traveling for a spring break trip, a girls’ getaway, or backpacking around Europe or Asia, you’ll find five tips listed below for traveling with your friends.
1. Travel With Friends Who Have Similar Travel Styles
Before even planning your trip with friends, be clear with your priorities. Do you want to be pampered at a luxury resort? Or, are you going to explore your surroundings, get information about the local events planned at the time of your visit, and enjoy the new environment?
To be honest, you can find a luxurious experience almost anywhere, and it is going to be more or less the same. However, when you experience local festivities, you’ll come home with unique stories, cherished memories, and plenty of photos for your Instagram.
Both kinds of trips — or a mixture of the two — can be fun to share with your closest buds as long as you all want to share the same kind of experience.
RELATED: Luxury All-Inclusive Stay In Costa Rica
(Copyright Erin Klema)
2. Make Smart And Calculated Moves With Your Budget
Now, the next task is to make sure you don’t spend all your money at once. Travel requires budgeting, and you and your friends should agree upon a budget that is comfortable for everyone going on the trip.
As you begin planning your trip, you should research the destination to determine costs related to transportation, accommodations, activities, and dining.
For example, if you want to go to Tulum or elsewhere in Mexico’s Riviera Maya, you should check into special packages offered by hotels and resorts. When it comes to all-inclusive resorts, be sure to carefully review the benefits included in your package. Some packages are truly all-inclusive, while others place limitations on meals and/or premium liquors and wine.
(Copyright Erin Klema)
Plan to spend your days drinking by the pool? A drink tab can add up quickly. Therefore, it might be financially beneficial to stay at an all-inclusive resort where all drinks are included in the upfront cost.
On the flipside, if you don’t drink alcohol, you are likely better off staying at a hotel or resort where food and beverage are billed a la carte. Which option you select just depends on the kind of trip you’d like to have.
So, be honest with yourself with where your priorities lie for the trip, and then choose your destination and accommodations. This will ensure you have the relaxing vacation or exciting adventure you seek.
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3. Pack The Essentials In Your Daypack
While traveling, you may want to pack everything in your suitcase to take the burden of a heavy bag off your shoulders. Trust me, that is the worst mistake you can ever make.
You should make sure you have instant access to your travel documents, toiletries, and first-aid kit. Unfortunately, luggage can get lost or stolen along the journey. Luckily, that is usually covered by travel insurance. However, that won’t help you in the moment when you need your medication, identification, or sunscreen. Even if you don’t need your first-aid kit, I bet you’ll want to touch up your makeup before that group selfie. 😉
While one can hope that nothing goes wrong, it is always better to be safe rather than sorry.
For more packing tips, don’t miss:
- Costa Rica Packing List: 10 Things You Should Take
- What To Pack For Peru – A Guide For Women Traveling 2+ Weeks
- Five Must-Have Hygiene Essentials For Women Traveling In Peru
(Copyright Erin Klema)
4. Leave Unplanned Time To Explore Your Surroundings
When you plan a trip with your friends, try to pick a destination where you can experience something new together. Maybe that will be learning to surf along Hawaii’s iconic Waikiki Beach, doing yoga on a stand-up paddle board in Thailand, or taking a class to make authentic Mexican food in Playa del Carmen!
While you’ll want to plan out some of these activities, especially those that require reservations, don’t restrict yourselves to only those activities you have pre-planned. Many times travelers fall in love with places they find while simply exploring their surroundings. So, wrangle up your friends, grab your camera, and go explore!
Here are some ways you can explore the local area:
- Eat the regional cuisine at a local restaurant
- Take a hike or walk around town
- Go shopping at local boutiques and shops
- Browse a market to see what food is locally grown or produced
- Experience the local nightlife at bars, music venues, and nightclubs
- Rent bicycles to pedal around town or on a bike path that connects to a neighboring town
(Copyright Erin Klema)
5. Keep Your Bucket List In Mind
What is on your bucket list? Skydiving in the Swiss Alps? Snorkeling in the Maldives? Learning to cook traditional Italian food in Tuscany? Pick some activities from your and your friends’ bucket lists, and add them to your trip itinerary!
Even your transportation around your destination can be bucket-list-worthy. If you’ve seen the Back to the Future movies, I’m sure you know what hover boards are. Try taking one out for a spin while exploring a new destination!
Instead of walking, driving, or relying on public transit, try:
- cycling around a wine region
- motorbiking around a Greek island like Paros
- taking a Segway tour of an urban metropolis
- kayaking between breweries in a waterfront beer city
- scootering around a quirky small town
Apart from that, try a new sport or a new kind of food that you have always wanted to have. Try to challenge your group to cross at least two things off your bucket lists during your trip.
As you travel with your friends, get out and explore by going to local festivities, listening to local music at concerts, and eating local delicacies. Be sure to have packed all of your essentials in your daypack, keeping documents safe at all times. If you do all that while sticking to your planned budget, I’m sure your squad will have a blast traveling together.
About The Guest Blogger
Lara Stewart is a fitness expert and gym owner obsessed with physical health and healthy eating. She has in-depth knowledge about the fitness needs of the body and how one can stay healthy on a budget. Lara also regularly writes for Scooter Scouter.
Where would you like to travel with friends?
Traveling with my own friends, I’ve visited such destinations as the Riviera Maya in Mexico, the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica, Napa Valley wine country, New York City, and Las Vegas. In the future, I’d love to take girls’ trips to New Orleans, Austin, and Traverse City, Michigan. Please leave a comment below telling me about the best trip you’ve taken with your buds or where you’d like to take a group getaway someday!
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I love your ideas and you are right about traveling with someone with similar travel style. It can make for a long trip otherwise! Also, I agree to not schedule every moment because there is something that always ends up popping up you want to do once you get there.
Traveling with friends who have similar travel styles can make all the difference! You’re so right that things always pop up when you travel.
Such a fun post! I adore traveling with friends, though mostly I travel with my family. These are great tips and I think it’s always important to save some time for exploring what you want to at that very moment, being spontaneous is one of the best things about traveling with friends for me as traveling with kids doesn’t always allow for this.
What a great point that spontaneity is sometimes easier when traveling with peers than with children!
I think your first point is so important. I’ve been on trips with friends that don’t have the same vacation vision as me and so it may the trip less-than-desireable!
Yes! You all have to be on the same page about the kind of trip experience you want and how much you are willing to spend on it.
Yes! These are great tips! I’ve had an interesting experience with friends who had a completely different plan than the rest of us.
That is always a tricky situation, Kim. Unfortunately, it’s also one many of us have experienced to some degree when traveling in a group setting, and it can really tarnish a friendship. So, if I could add my own tip to this guest post it would be that it is OK to split up from the group when you want to do different activities. However, this should be done with safety in mind, i.e. using the buddy system and/or setting up a meeting time and place to join back together.
We haven’t picked out a destination just yet. I am so excited about using your tips when we finally make this trip.
I hope these tips help. 🙂 Wishing you and your friends safe and fun travels together wherever you go!