Are you missing the good old days? Those times when you had a carefree life and spent a lot of time with your girlfriends? Why not try to relive those days by going on a trip with them?
Planning an all-girl getaway is an exciting yet daunting task. Whether you’ve been designated as the organizer or have taken on the responsibility voluntarily, the fact remains that you need to plan well to ensure that everyone has a great time. This means you’ll need to think about everyone’s interests, needs, feelings, and budgets.
When planning for a trip for the first time, it’s easy to make mistakes. Beyond not being able to get the most out of your time off, making vacation planning blunders can also lead to unplanned costs that can eat away your travel budget. Ultimately, not being able to plan your getaway properly can cause disappointment and can spoil the event.
To prevent these from happening, here are eight rules you must remember when planning an all-girl vacation:
Rule #1: Plan way ahead
One big mistake you must avoid when planning for a vacation with your girlfriends is cramming all the preparations at the last minute. While impromptu trips can sometimes be fun, there’s still a higher probability that things might go awry when you don’t plan ahead.
But how early should you start planning for a trip? Ideally, it should be at least a few months or one year before the actual trip. This will ensure that everyone involved would have every opportunity to add it to their calendar (and hopefully carve it in stone) to prevent other obligations from taking over. You and your friends may also need to get leave approvals, visas, etc., depending on where you’ll be having your holiday together.
The key is to make the trip feel sacred in a sense that you’re only allowed to miss it for life-and-death situations, like giving birth or getting seriously sick.
Rule #2: Make it a five-day trip
Another important aspect of an all-girl vacation you must think about is the length of your vacation.
The ideal length of an all-girl getaway is five days. Extend it longer, and it would be difficult to make your friends commit to the trip. Any shorter and you’ll find it to be lacking, not to mention it can limit the places you can visit.
To reduce the number of vacation leaves you and the girls need to take from work, you can extend the trip through the weekend. You can schedule it either from Saturday to Wednesday or from Wednesday to Sunday.
Rule #3: Keep it within your circle
People say, “the more, the merrier,” but this adage doesn’t apply to all-girl vacations.
Opening up the trip to people other than the “founding friends” might change the dynamics of the vacation and complicate scheduling. Plus, it might also lead to more requests for people from outside your circle to join in the future.
Remember that the trip is meant to serve as a time to bond with your best friends. Don’t let other people intrude, even if it’s your husband, boyfriend, or sibling.
Of course, you can talk with your girlfriends if they would allow someone (e.g., a friend’s sister) who’s not a stranger to all the members of the group to join the trip. Get a general consensus before allowing anyone outside your original group into the trip.
Rule #4: Establish a per-person budget
Budget is a crucial aspect of any vacation, but it becomes even more important when you’re planning an all-girl getaway. Set a per-person budget that everyone in the group would agree to. This will help prevent anyone from feeling left out because she cannot afford the trip.
For example, planning a Caribbean vacation might be a little too much to budget for, particularly due to the cost of the plane ticket. If you live within or near Dubai, why not try looking for venues organizing ladies’ night events for an awesome all-girl getaway?
Rule #5: Consider what your friends need
Being the designated planner can be a daunting task since you’ll need to plan a trip that should appeal to several people. Fortunately, there’s one rule that can help you lower the risk of disappointments: knowing your friends’ needs.
Remember to consider their “needs,” not their “wants.” With the excitement of getting a break from their busy lives, your friends would probably have their own ideas for the trip. However, you have to keep your focus on accomplishing the intention of the trip – giving what your girlfriends need most.
For instance, if everyone’s been too immersed in their work for a long time, going on an unplugged vacation might be your best option. If they seem overwhelmed by all their responsibilities in their families, you should think about getting some relaxing spa treatment on your trip.
Just remember to keep it within the budget and timeframe allotted for the trip.
Rule #6: Set aside downtime
Since you haven’t been together for quite some time, there’s a good chance that you and your girlfriends would need to have plenty of time to catch up. You cannot do that if your itinerary is full down to the very last minute.
Instead of filling it up with activities, set aside some downtime for you and your girlfriends to just sit and talk about how things have gone during the time that you haven’t seen each other.
Rule #7: Accommodate togetherness
Speaking of catching up, make your girl talk time cozier by choosing an accommodation that can help facilitate it.
Look for rental houses or hotels with comfortable couches where you can have some heart-to-heart talk with your friends. A condo, cabin, beach house, or suite with a kitchen as well as a deck or porch with comfy seating will also be a great choice for some late-night girl time.
Rule #8: Explore new things
When planning an all-girl trip, it would be best to go with things that you and your girlfriends haven’t done before.
For instance, if you’ve been heading to Las Vegas regularly during your getaway trips in the past, it may be high time that you spend a weekend at a waterpark instead. If you’re usually ordering pizza to your hotel rooms, you probably should consider going out for a ladies’ night out.
If you’ve made the all-girl getaway an annual thing, you should make sure to spice things up year after year. While it is nice to keep small traditions, it is still better to create wonderful new memories that you and your friends could look back to and cherish for the rest of your lives.
A Final Thought
An all-girl vacation is more than just a trip to get away from your busy life – it can also help you create deeper bonds with friends. Make sure you plan it the right way by following the rules listed in this article.
