Planning A Girls Trip – 10 Tips For Planning The Best Getaway

Regardless of what life-stage you’re in, there’s something about a girls getaway that’s exciting, freeing, and in some ways even grounding! I’m talking about a trip with the people you call YOUR girls. Whether you met in kindergarten, or in high school, in university, at your first job, at your last job, or in pre-natal classes. Now planning a group trip can get a bit tricky, but here are ten steps to planning a girls trip for you and your crew!

1. Pick the right girls & get them together

This is the most important tip so I’ll just put it out there first. You’ve got to be picky about your travel crew, and there are a few things to consider. Pick your crew knowing what you all want to get out of the trip, don’t plan a trip with 9 people that love to hike and one person that wants to chill at the pool all day. It might not work out well for the person that just wants to chill.

Get the group together over drinks or via a group chat (with guidelines or they can get crazy!) as a fun way to kick off and get everyone excited about your girls getaway.

Tip: I wrote a blog post on finding and being the right travel buddies. Click here to read.

2. Assign a leader

No matter how you slice it, one person usually ends up taking the lead on trip planning either based on their personality, experience, group votes, or all the above. Now, once the group agrees on a leader, LET THEM LEAD. Everyone else can be supporting crew (yes, even you with the Type A control freak tendencies)! The leader is responsible for setting and communicating timelines to: agree on dates/locations, book flights, hotels, and agree on key activities.

Remember: The leader is not your employee though, so keep the nit picky requests to a minimum.

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3. Tips For Planning A Girls Trip – Lock in the dates for your girls getaway

Life can get busy and calendars get filled up months in advance (isn’t adulting crazy?). Personally, I start talking about group trips about a year in advance. So decide on how many days the group can travel and lock in the dates as soon as possible. There’s a good chance at least one person in the group is likely to double-book so block their calendars and notify partners/spouses to double check (We all have a friend or two that fall in this bucket).

4. Agree on a budget/budget range

The chances that everyone in the group is in the same place financially are slim to none. Address and discuss budgets BEFORE girls’ getaway to avoid disagreements or worse, silent discontentment. Agree on price ranges for meals/restaurant. Discuss activities that only some may be interested in participating due to funds. Don’t make it a taboo topic, bring it up maturely and create an environment where everyone feels comfortable to say what she can or cannot afford. If one person wants their own room and others are willing to share, then let that person pay to have a private room.

5. Agree on a Destination & Book those Flights

Knowing how many days you have and how far the group is willing to travel (drive or fly) will eliminate some destinations. Narrow down your destinations to 4 at the most and then take a vote. Where there’s indecision, the leader can help narrow down the options. For domestic travel, I recommend agreeing on destinations 3 months in advance and for international travel, at least six months. Then, book those flights!

Tip: Once I have an idea of possible destinations, I set up alerts for a range of dates on aggregator websites (Skyscanner or Kayak or Google flights) for the best deals! Otherwise, to save on time, sign up to Scotts Cheap Flights for email notification on flight deals.

6. Assign A Role To Each Person Based On Their Strengths:

Want to get other people involved? Assign each person an aspect of the trip to own. For example, have the foodie in the group pick out restaurant options, have the social butterfly plan the nights out. Have the person that’s pickiest about accommodations sort through the options, and the adventurous one look into any group tours/activities. Not only is this a great way to reduce stress on the ‘leader; but it also allows everyone to be a part of the process in ways that they enjoy.

7. Planning A Girls Trip – Plan a Few Group Activities:

What something you must do on a girls getaway? Share some new experiences that strengthen your bond while making new memories but don’t overpack your schedule! Depending on your destination, the options are limitless. Food and wine tasting tours, diving, snorkeling, walking city tours, hiking, spa treatments, brewery tours, photo shoots, cooking classes, or even having a private chef come in to cook for you.

8. Make Time To ‘Hang Out’

It’s great to have tours and activities with your girls, but if this is one of the few (or only) times a year that you get to reconnect, please save some time to just hang out. Take time to talk about nothing and everything. It is in the moments that truths are spilled, and old memories are revisited, that you laugh from your belly, you listen to and maybe forgive each other, and perhaps cry your heart out either in joy or from the sheer relief of sharing your recent struggles with your besties. These are the moments that fill your cup, leave you lighter and prepare you go to back and show up in your world.

9. Have A Tradition

Start a tradition with your girls on every girls trip. Some fun traditions could be: taking the same photo in every destination, write a postcard from every destination (or write one to one of your girlfriends), have a girls getaway playlist or theme song, invite one new person every other trip, pick the next destination on the last night of every trip, start every trip with champagne, have a spa treatment on every trip.

10. Tip For Planning A Girls Trip – Have Fun With It!

Plain and simple. Have the best time with your best girls!

We all deserve to go on trips with people we can be ourselves with, trips where we can reminisce on old times, celebrate life’s milestones, and share life’s challenges. Maybe we’ll get into a bit of trouble (aka TURN UP or whatever they call it), but it’s on these girls getaways that our best girls speak truth and love into our lives.

There we have it, ten steps to an amazing girls getaway. Have you been on a girls trip or are you planning a girls trip soon? What tips do you have in addition to this?

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Till next week,

Dee (Ms. Heels)