Dont assume that you are ready to travel with friendsafter simply researching your cheaptravel options, such as cheap airplane tickets, cheap fares, cheapdeals, discount hotel rooms, cheap auto rentals, discounttravel deals, and cheap vacation packages.
While traveling with friends can be a great way tostrengthen friendships and create memories that you will look back on fondlyfor the rest of your life, it is also a great way to cause a rift that may ruinyour bond forever.
The following tips can result in great memories vs. therisk of coming back as mortal enemies when planning to travel with friends,according to Caroline Morse:
Talkabout your budget before making reservations. Agreeing on similar budgets for your trip is key to a successfulvacation with friends. If you want tostay at top of the line hotels, but your buddies can only afford hostels, youneed to plan different trips.
Reachan agreement on the importance of time vs. money. Attitudes towards costs vs. hassles isanother difference maker. If someone inyour party wants to spend money on cabs vs. public transportation to save time,while someone else would rather save money, this could cause big conflicts onyour trip. Before finalizing yourreservations, talk about whether you will take non-stop flights, considerground transportation vs. flying, public transit or cabs, etc. Your priorities need to be in sync in orderto get along while traveling together.
Discussdining priorities. A committed carnivorecan find traveling with a vegan challenging. Similarly, someone who wants to check out pastry shops in Paris whileanother person in your party eats gluten-free can prove a problem. Totally different dietary needs are a recipefor disaster. While compromise is key,you need to determine if you can find restaurants where everyone will behappy. Otherwise you should considertraveling with friends whose tastes more closely align with yours.
Reachan understanding up front that you will not be spending all of your timetogether. Everyone needs a little alonetime. If there are different things youwant to see, split up for a couple of hours. If you dont feel safe traveling alone, try setting aside a portion ofquiet time each day where each of you can read, nap or listen to musicwithout having to interact with each other.
Makesure that you do not take your bad mood out on your friends. If you wake up on the wrong side of the bed,slip away from the group for a little while and calm your emotions beforerejoining them.
Donttravel with early birds if you are a night owl. If you love sleeping on a vacation, you will not feel relaxed and restedif your friends prefer rising with the sun to explore new destinations. You can make different sleep schedules workso long as you are OK with splitting up and stay in different hotel rooms.
Rememberthe importance of compromise and that not every moment of every trip can be 100percent about you. Be willing to do whatyour friends want periodically even if it is not your first choice. If everyone on a trip gives a little, theneveryone is likely to get a lot in return.
Do notmake one person responsible to do all of the planning and research. By placing such responsibility on a single person,you are in fact placing a ton of pressure on that person. Instead get together for a group planning sessionwhere you can pick and agree on hotels/activities/etc. Make certain that everyone has a part inorganizing the trip so that if (or, more likely when) things go wrong, you arenot blaming just one poor scapegoat.
Dontbail out of a group trip as the last minute because it will probably increasethe costs for everyone else and others in your group might have made differentplans if they knew in advance that you were not coming. If you have no choice but cancelling, offerto pay any additional costs that your friends might incur so that they do notface an unexpected more expensive trip.
Makecertain that you spend more time with your friends than your phone. Some travelers tend to get buried in theirphones whenever there is free Wi-Fi. Putyour phone away during meals and join in conversations with the people you camewith. The reason you should have goneaway together in the first place was to enjoy some quality time and fun witheach other.
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