Let’s first start by defining “group travel”. Google defines group travel as “coordinating trips for multiple people—typically 10 or more—under a shared itinerary”. Personally, I would categorize “group travel” as consisting of at least seven people, from at least two different households. I planned and coordinated a group vacation to Orlando for my family of seventeen people, from five different households, ranging in ages from four months to sixty-eight years. By anyone’s definition, I think that qualifies as “group travel”! Through that experience, I gained a lot of insight and knowledge that would be invaluable if I were to ever plan a vacation for that many people again (which I definitely hope to do). Here I will share eight recommendations for how to approach this endeavor based on my own experience. I hope you enjoy!
- Enlist a travel advisor – First, and perhaps most importantly, enlist a travel advisor you trust – ideally one who is experienced with coordinating large groups. A travel advisor is key in giving you a resource to book and manage reservations, make payments, answer questions and be your all-in-one point person when things come up! When I planned our big family vacation, we had our VRBO cancelled, not once, but twice! This can be a big stress when you have flights booked and need to accommodate so many people! A travel advisor can help you efficiently pivot to other options.
- Get an ally (or two) early on – I would recommend getting at least one other person in your travel group on board with your idea. They can give you input and help get other people excited too!
- Create a formal proposal – This is where your travel advisor can be a HUGE help! In my rookie days, I did a PowerPoint presentation for my family (Yes, I still call it PowerPoint. I’m in my 40’s, ok?). As a professional travel advisor, I now have other tools I use to create beautiful proposals for my clients. It’s so helpful to have something visual to drive your plans and that people can reference for details since it can be a lot to process all at once.
- Try to leave as little up for debate as possible – This may be controversial, but I believe that one of the reasons a lot of people don’t take large group vacations is not because no one wants to but because it’s a lot of decision making! In taking the lead, you have to be comfortable making some of the bigger decisions, starting with the specific travel dates and destination. Of course, you want to take into consideration different budgets, a place that most people will be excited about and a time of year that would usually work for most people, but I think it’s best to make these decisions early on and work them into the vacation proposal rather than by committee.
- Plan WAY ahead – Allow as much lead time as possible, both for people to make a commitment to the vacation and then for the actual planning and anticipation. I would recommend allowing as much as 1.5-2 years all together. Everyone is busy nowadays and calendars book up so far in advance especially with school calendars and kid activities. It’s going to be much easier for people to commit to something that’s at least a full calendar year away. It also makes it much easier budget-wise if you can present the cost broken out over several months.
- Decide what you want to do all together as a group and when you may break off into smaller groups – Depending on the size of your travel group, where you’re going and the varying ages/interests, it might make sense to break into smaller groups for certain activities. I recommend trying to plan these ahead of time as much as possible and enlisting your travel agent to help you!
- Make your meal plan – Everyone has to eat but you’re likely looking at different preferences, dietary restrictions, budgets and priorities when working with a large group. Decide ahead of time what meals you want to have together and when you will do your own thing. If you’re going on a vacation that includes meals as part of the cost, that can help minimize decision making but often you may still need to make reservations or at least have a general plan. When you have a big group of course the earlier you can make those reservations, the better (and your travel advisor will be happy to help)!
- Be flexible and go with the flow – As much as travel with large groups needs someone to take the lead and make the big decisions, it also requires being flexible! Things will inevitably come up, not everyone will want to do everything you want to do and plans may shift. At the end of the day, the most important thing is to remember you’re there to have fun and enjoy being together! That doesn’t mean every second will be perfect and go exactly as you expected but that’s ok!
Remember, if you’re considering planning a group vacation, I’d love to help and provide my services, which are always free! Happy travels, friends!