All You Need To Know To Make Your Group Travel Fun
Solo trips are cool but even better is traveling with a group of friends. Experiencing the benefits of traveling as a group is totally worth it. As I mentioned here, traveling creates an avenue for friends to bond and many other benefits which I will share in this post.
Not so recently, I was added to a WhatsApp group a by a friend who was organizing a trip to Chicago. In total, we were eleven friends coming from different areas. It was a much-needed trip for me. This was my second-time trip to Chicago and I was looking forward to a new and unique experience with other people.
Going on this trip was an eye opener, for one it made me realize that it was possible to travel on a pretty low budget. Beyond that everyone one brought their unique personality and it was quite exciting. I would be sharing the benefits of traveling and a few tips to making the best out of it.
It is cost effective
First, there was the carpooling for people who live in the same area. The money for gas and accommodation was shared. It was a great deal and came with free breakfast.
Tip: Getting good deals means planning beforehand. We had a pretty resourceful person who had all the logistics covered with cost in mind.
It is fun
The more the merrier. My introvert tendency was threatening to come in the way of the fun but I am glad it didn’t. I couldn’t go to certain places or stay up too late but I had fun with all the activities planned especially the game night. I learned new and fun games. That was one of the highlights of the trip. The evening we arrived we set out to a place called “escape room” and afterward we all went to a restaurant (p.s: we were not pleased with the service there) but the good thing about traveling as a group is that we laughed about it together. The next day we set out to go to the bean and wandered around downtown to the naval ship yard and ended up back at our accommodation for a game night. You get the idea we had everything planned and it was all fun.
Tip: Getting everyone ready on time can be a very difficult thing. Ensure everyone rests the night before. We slept late the night we arrived and had a challenging time getting prepared the next morning. We had a questionnaire that we filled to pick the places we were interested in going. As I said, we had a very resourceful planner in our group.
You meet new people
I did not know everyone in the group as other friends also brought along their friends. What didn’t make it awkward however was the fact that we had a WhatsApp group to familiarize ourselves with beforehand.
Tip: Form a WhatsApp group ahead of time and get everyone to introduce themselves.
It takes the planning/decision stress off you
As I mentioned everyone had their different personalities and experiences and that directly had an impact on our trip. Our friend who came up with the idea of the trip was a great planner and worked all the details out. We just had to show up.
Tip: Pitch in where you can to make it a wholesome trip. If your strong point is planning then be as involved in the planning as much as possible.
You go places you never expected to go
I had a distinctly different experience the last time I went to Chicago. The personalities of people in the travel group added to our choice of activities.
Tip: Be open minded. Try new activities. I learned new card games. Come prepared to have a wonderful time.
I could go on and on about the benefits and what you could do to make the experience better but most of what you need is an awesome you and your friends of course. Give it a try.
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