Girls Trip

This one might be a little taboo because nobody likes to talk about the tricky parts of traveling – difficult airlines, delays, etc. aside. Hear me out – girls’ trips are amazing BUT sometimes, they can turn into absolute chaos. We’ve all been there – a beautiful trip planned with your best friends and then *BAM* the drama tornado comes crashing in and rains on your parade. I went to Cabo with four girlfriends a few weeks ago and we realized that we had successfully pulled off a girls’ trip that had zero drama, fights, pettiness, cattiness, etc. I got a DM on Instagram asking if it was only “picture perfect” on the ‘gram and if not, how we pulled it off so, I wanted to share with you how we went about planning the trip as well as how the trip itself went off without a hitch.

First, you’ll need to accept that not all people are compatible to travel together – and that is 1000% okay. It’s a tough pill to swallow but honestly, once you embrace that there are just some people that you can be BFFs with at home that you might want to murder once you get an hour out of town, it’s pretty liberating (and a good thing for your friendship). People travel very differently and that’s completely fine and normal!! Going with a group that travels similarly can help mitigate any potential blow ups once you’re at your destination. Okay I’m not crazy though, I know sometimes you don’t have total control over the group as a whole so when that happens, you should just remember that you need to take some “me time” to keep yourself calm, cool and collected so you can actually enjoy your vacay. Go workout, take a walk, have a solo breakfast, whatever helps you recharge and disconnect from any drama that may come up. Being able to remove yourself for even a few minutes can really help you check the drama at the door and really enjoy your vacation.

Picking the destination can be one of the biggest potential issues. I’ve planned a trip where everybody throws in their two cents about where to go and being incredibly stubborn about not being open to any other options – it happens. Having everybody go into the trip happy (actually happy, not passive aggressive happy) helps kick the trip off on the right foot where nobody feels like they got shafted in wherever you’re going. For Cabo, literally one of the girls threw out the idea last year that she wanted to go and all of us were like “yeah, Cabo would be fun” and then we forgot about it for 6 months. Then it came back up again and we decided to look into hotels, flights, timing, etc. and all agreed that it would be a great time. I’m going to Cabo again for a wedding in October but that’ll be a very different trip, so I wasn’t worried about doing a similar trip in February. Get the girls on board and make sure everybody is 100% happy with the destination so there’s no bad blood or hurt feelings before you even get there!

Plan the living/sleeping arrangements ahead of time. This is sometimes the part that creates the biggest issues because it’s a throwback to picking teams in elementary school and somebody getting chosen last. Nip it in the bud but doing something that is completely objective – flip a coin (literally what we did in Cabo because we’re indecisive and really didn’t care who slept where), draw a card, etc. This is a pretty sure fire way to ensure nobody feels like they got intentionally put in the worst situation since it was really up to chance.

The girls that I went to Cabo with are all pretty much exactly like me when it came to what we wanted out of the trip – we really just wanted a relaxing vacation to celebrate our birthdays, take some cute pics and eat a lot of tacos. Nobody wanted to go hit the clubs or run around like crazy people, so we were all really aligned on this front. The other thing that is key with this is that we were all completely fine splitting up if some people wanted to do something and others did not. Three of us wanted to go on a sunset booze cruise and the other two were feeling a bit under the weather and wanted to lay low – this didn’t turn into World War 3 because we all were happy making the decision best for us in that moment. It’s not selfish to do what you’d like on your vacation, it’s YOUR vacation!

Don’t overspend the collective budget. This can get a little dicey depending on the group situation. If everybody comes in knowing they are going to spend a certain amount, stick to it unless everybody collectively agrees to do more. Everybody’s financial situation is different so peer pressuring somebody into spending more than they are really able to will only lead to bad blood. Everyone should agree on the cost of the housing/hotel ahead of time, period. The last thing you want to be doing is fighting with your friends on the beach over money when you should be working on your tan or riding jet skis.

Just like not overspending, don’t over plan/overbook/over-schedule. If you plan too much, people are going to get burnt out. Leave some of the vacation to be just that – VACATION. Relax, kick back, let people do whatever they want sometimes. If somebody wants to go to the beach, cool. If somebody else wants to stay at the pool bar for 7 consecutive hours, also cool. This way, when something is planned for the whole group, you can get everyone to rally behind it because they’ve been doing what they’ve wanted outside of the planned itinerary.

Feel free to catch up on all of our Cabo content on my Instagram feed @victorianelsonn (also have a Cabo IG Stories highlight) and let me know your best tips to keep travel drama free! xx