I love to travel with my friends. I consider myself very lucky to have more than a handful of people to choose from when I want to visit a new destination. Traveling with friends isn’t easy but from my personal experience, it’s my favorite way to travel. I’ve traveled with just 1 extra friend and even up to 22 different people. How do I do it with pulling my hair out?

Here are some of my tips that might just help you in planning your next trip with a group of friends:

Find motivated Travel-Loving Friends

7 Tazas Natural Park, Chile

This might be the hardest step because it’s really a two-step in 1. First, We all love the people that we call our friends, but we also know which ones you can spend a whole week with without a problem and you know which ones have a 72-hour time limit. Second, Be Honest with yourself and your friends. It’s also important to know how they manage stressful situations and how quickly they can adapt to other cultures when traveling. How open are your friends? Are they will get a little dirty or how flexible are they if plans change?  Travel can make or break friendships.

Decided on a Place that Everyone Would Like to Visit

Little Tokyo, LA

Get together like you usually and start talking about destinations that you would love to see. Create group chats and start sending ideas. Pick places that you can do on a short weekend trip and places that might need a minimum of two weeks to explore. It usually takes one person to randomly say a destination and the other one who says “oh yeah, I haven’t been there either!” or “I’ve been dying to visit that place”.

Plan and Create a Budget

Catamaran Sunset Tour, Santorini, Greece

Knowing what your spending budget is and those of your friends is crucial in the planning of a trip. Start looking into flights, hotel stays, tours or costs of food in the area that you and your friends have decided to visit. Create a Google Drive Excel and share with everyone so you’re working on the same document and you can see the changes being made.

Pinterest, skyscanner.com, and booking.com are my go-to sites when trying to create a budget. I just do a quick search of prices and then round up. For example, if something costs $7, I would round up to $10 and add $5. If something cost $250, I’ll round up to $280 and add $20.  I always do this as a way plan for more than I except that I would need. Also when I go back weeks later to actually book I can take into consideration if the price has gone up a bit or feel like I’m super saving if the price goes down. Mind games…yes I know. But it works for me. Plus if I have that cash into consideration and it’s left over, I can buy something nice that I didn’t have planned.

Download Payback

London Bridge, UK

Most hotels and restaurants won’t let you split the bill 5 ways. I know back home in the States one of the first things they ask “is this separate or all together?” Unfortunately, in most parts of the world, this just doesn’t work that way. I stumbled upon an app called Payback (only available for iPhone) that is my “MUST HAVE” on my phone when traveling

During the trip, each person starts to pay for different things; Hotel stays, lunch for everyone, gas for the car, whatever. At the end of the trip or every new city, it’s up to you, this app will automatically calculate who owes who and how much. It’s amazing. You can divide the cost between all or just a few of your friends. From experience, I’ve learned to have one person in the group as the designated payback app person. When you share the same “trip” online it’s not very friendly and money can get mixed up.  

5. Research,  Again!

.Chiloe, Chile

Once you’ve done all the logistical research it’s time to figure out what you guys are actually going to do on the trip. Like I’ve said before, I’ve traveled with 1 other person and I’ve traveled with 20 people at a time. I’ve traveled with all girls, me being the only girl, couples, only singles, you name it. From experience, I can say it’s best to have an idea or a list of things that you can do in a city and then work from there. Prioritize your list and be flexible. You never know how the weather is going to be when you wake up, check to see opening hours for museums (most are closed on Mondays), and consider that you’re going to be doing some parties with your amigos so Chill days are also necessary to cure that hangover.

Travel Day

Travel Day Ibiza- Naples

Make a copy of everyone’s passport and flight/hotel reservations just in case. You can have one or two copies but make sure that everyone has a digital copy.  This is important if you’re going on an international trip and you get separated at customs. Each person needs to know where they are staying and for how long they are staying in each location. If you want to take additional safety measures, send your group’s travel information to a loved one back home that you trust. You can also take pictures of what each other is wearing on that travel day just in case anyone gets lost. It most likely won’t happen but you never know.

Have fun

Macchu Picchu, Peru

Traveling with friends is my favorite way to travel. You have time to connect with your friends and talk about things that you never have time for. Plus you’re visiting a new place so you’re creating new memories! Don’t forget to meet other people while you’re traveling. Don’t close yourself off to just your friends. You never know who you’re going to meet. Don’t be afraid to split up either. Ya’ll don’t have to be together 24/7. Sometimes it’s nice to take a break from each other, especially if you’re traveling for a longer period of time.

Those are my tips! Are you ready to tackle on a trip with your BFFs? Let me know in the comments below where you’re going and who you are going with! Happy Travels!