Five Tips To Successfully Navigate Travel With Friends

Planning to jet off to a beach destination for spring break? Or, planning a spa and wine 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 Keeping Your Friendship Intact)

Whether you are traveling for a spring break trip, a destination bachelorette party, or an epic road trip, 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 your friends, be clear with your priorities. Do you want to be pampered at a luxury resort? Do you want to explore the local surroundings? Are you hoping to attend local events? 

When you experience local festivities, you’ll come home with unique stories, cherished memories, and plenty of photos for your Instagram. On the other hand, an all-inclusive resort vacation can be the relaxation you need to unwind and reset.

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 travel experience.

RELATED: Best Friends’ Getaway to All-Inclusive Resort in Costa Rica

2. Agree On Your Travel Budget Before The Trip

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, research your desired travel 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, 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 are truly all-inclusive, while others place limitations on meals or premium liquors and wine.

If you and your friends plan to spend your vacation drinking by the pool, a bar tab can quickly add up. In that case, it may be financially beneficial to stay at an all-inclusive resort where all drinks are included in the upfront cost.

On the flip side, if you or your friends don’t drink alcohol, you are likely better off staying at a hotel or resort where food and beverage are billed a la carte. The option you select just depends on the kind of trip you’d like to have.

As you can see, it’s best to be honest with yourself and your friends about where your priorities lie for the trip. Then you all can choose a destination and accommodations that fit your budget and travel style. This will ensure everyone has the relaxing vacation or exciting adventure they seek.

3. Pack The Essentials In Your Daypack

While traveling, you may want to pack everything in the coolest suitcase to take the burden of a heavy bag off your shoulders. Trust me, that is the worst mistake you can ever make.

When traveling, you should make sure you have easy access to your travel documents, toiletries, and medicines.

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 any medication, 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

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 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

5. Keep Your Travel Bucket List In Mind

What is on your travel 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 hoverboards 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

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.

Read More Travel Posts

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• Fort Lauderdale Weekend Getaway Guide For Foodies 
• 10 Culinary Experiences to Savor in Atlanta 
• Guest Post: Five Tips for Visiting Playa del Carmen and Tulum in Mexico’s Riviera Maya 

Save the image below to your Pinterest travel board to easily reference this post before future trip planning!

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!