How to Avoid Conflicts on Group Vacations
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If you’ve ever planned a vacation with a spouse or best friend, you know that the travel planning in itself can be stressful on the relationship. But what if you were traveling with a group on vacation?
Traveling in groups brings all sorts of travel personalities into the mix. For example the more budget-minded traveler may have his or her mind set on staying in hostels in order to spend their money on experiencing the food and culture of a new country; whereas the more luxurious minded-traveler may have his or her heart set on a 5-star spa resort vacation.
Conflicts can arise when planning any group vacation when it comes to accommodations, travel arrangements, eating arrangements, choice of excursions and so on. Throw in the stress of traveling to a foreign country and you might as well prepare yourself for World War III. However travel conflicts with a group can be avoided if everyone feels they have an impact on the travel arrangements.
Take my own experience for example. Last February I traveled to
Costa Rica with a group of 6 friends. We were very much a mixed bag. We had:
- Our couple friends Jack and Sarah – the frugal travelers who had their hearts and wallets set on backpacking it all the way. We had:
- Mindy our planner extraordinaire, who felt the need to pre-book our days right down to where we would eat and at exactly what time.
- Michelle our vacation splurger, who couldn’t deal with a hotel that didn’t offer massage services and morning yoga classes.
- Sean, my partner at the time who’s sole purpose on this vacation was to find a hammock and a remote beach to chill out on.
- And then there is myself, the traveling free spirit who wouldn’t dream of staying all-inclusive or planning anything for fear of missing the opportunity at a “real cultural” experience.
So you can probably see the potential travel mess we were in store for?
Our super planner Mindy had our lunches timed to 35 minutes…just enough time to make it to a horseback ride up the active Arenal volcano at 1:30pm and then to the adrenaline-pumping zip line ride that had us strapped in harnesses approximately 300 feed above Costa Rica’s lush rainforest region. That’s not figuring in the fact that Jack is terrified of heights and I would have much preferred sitting over coffee and brushing up on my Spanish with our waiter.
No worries, Jack didn’t end up getting sick on a spider monkey and I did get the chance to brush up on my Spanish with Miguel, our charming waiter, we just had to set the following ground rules to avoid conflict on our group vacation:
- Recognize the different personalities in your travel group and realize you will have to compromise on some occasions.
- Every day must consist of some individual time for resting or exploring.
- Don’t plan your group’s every detail. You can plan your own vacation like that if you like, but some members may want the freedom to explore or the option to opt out of more expensive excursions and dinning experiences.
- Mix your trip up – 1 day do something luxurious and the next day have a cheap beach day.
- Be respectful of everyone’s travel desires. Michelle was not a reptile buff, but Sean was so she tried a midnight rainforest tour and even took a picture with a dragon-like iguana.
Once our trip was planned enough for Mindy’s liking and unplanned enough for mine, we had decided to stay in budget inns and even a hostel for a few days, which satisfied our budget traveling companions. A 3 day stay at Arenal Paraiso with their luxurious mineral pools and optional masseuses had our luxury travel companion Michelle in heaven. We even spent 4 days in Manuel Antonio Park on
Costa Rica’s rugged white sand beach region, where my partner Sean found the ideal hammock to relax in.
Everyone can be happy on group vacations, you just need to be tolerant and respectful of everyone’s travel purposes.
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