Travelling with friends offers you to make unbeatable memories. However, if you don't plan certain aspects there can easily be miscommunication and awkwardness in certain situations. Here I've compiled a few tips that I recommend you follow to ensure you have the best possible trip. Ultimately, just relax and enjoy the trip; your friendship is much more valuable than one disagreement or two on a holiday!
Budget
Discussing the budget beforehand is absolutely vital. Money underpins most disagreements both whilst travelling and when you're at home. In order to set a budget, you should discuss whether you'll eat out every night or cook, stay in a hostel, Airbnb, or hotel. Each of these aspects makes a huge difference! Compromise is key here. Someone who's on a slightly tighter budget may want to stay in a cheaper hotel in order to save money for activities. Alternatively, you may be wanting a more luxury holiday! If you aren't able to compromise and find a trip suitable for you all, maybe you should travel separately or wait until you're on a more similar budget.
Keeping track of the budget is again a key aspect of ensuring you stay within your set budget and avoid monetary disagreements. don't say 'we'll figure it out later', this is the main way you either over or underspend. If someone does pay the bill, make sure you keep a copy of the receipt and sort it out when you get back to the hotel later. You should also discuss if you are splitting the bill or paying for your individual orders, it also helps you decide what to order! With this, don't be too frugal and count every single penny. It will ruin your trip. As long as you aren't significantly over or underpaying that's what counts.
2. Share your reward points!
Reward points can often make a huge reduction in the cost of a hotel or activity booking. Perhaps consider sharing the points amongst your friends, especially if its a small group. This not only makes the booking process much fairer, it also enables you all to spend slightly more on another aspect of the trip; you may be able to stay one day longer as a result. I would often share my Klook Reward Points when booking activities through the app, this would save a few pounds here and there, but my friends have always really appreciated the savings.
3. What is the purpose of the trip?
People have different desires from a holiday. Some want to party all night and lay around the pool/beach all day. Others want to focus on the historical and cultural aspect of a country. I personally love a bit of both, and so do most of my friends so that's an easy one for us. However, if your friend is wanting to spend the days hungover drinking by the pool and hates history, and you love history, maybe this isn't a travel match made in heaven.
Roughly plan your days to make sure everyone sees what they want to see but leave time for relaxing and spontaneous activities!
4. Do you want to have time for yourself?
Discussing this in advance is the best way and it ables you all to prepare effectively. Some people like to have a day or two away from their friends to do activities they see as essential, or an activity that your other friends are afraid of doing (e.g. if they're afraid of heights). This is absolutely fine, but make sure you give your friends prior warning so they can plan something to do too! (just make sure your friend is confident to spend time by themselves in a new place if its just the two of you!)
5. Be decisive but also compromise!
Unless you and your friends are exactly the same, some compromise will always be needed to make sure everyone has the best trip. But make sure you also stand your ground by explaining gently that this was already agreed before and wouldn't be fair if you missed out on it. Perhaps discuss the idea of a member of the group choosing the dining option for the evening each night- this can be a great middle-ground between compromising and being decisive.
Follow these five tips and you're guaranteed to minimise most potential conflicts. But remember, you guys are friends so just relax and enjoy the trip... nothing on holiday is that stressful that you should fall out over. Ultimately, COMMUNICATION IS KEY.
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-Alicia
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