How to travel in a big group!
“Is 8 people too many to travel with?”
I love traveling with friends to new places. I am not the type of person that wants to travel alone. I like having the company during the trip and then people to talk with about the trip when we return home.
My friend had organized a trip for 8 people to visit Machu Picchu in November of 2017. Mind you-most of these people did not know each other or had only briefly met once or twice before. So, by no means was this a tight knit friend group.
For a guide on plenty of things to do in Peru click here!
I had never been on a trip with this many people-let alone people I didn’t know. So, how was I supposed to know how to handle traveling to a new country with 8 people! How was I supposed to handle this as a picky eater? What was I going to do when we had to eat? How was I going to handle still wanting to workout? How was I going to handle maybe having to share a bed with someone I didn’t know? I had so many questions in my head, but decided to jump in anyways. I knew this trip could be the trip of a lifetime! Plus I got to make new friends! Here are some lessons I learned when traveling with a large group.
- Rent a house
- We chose to rent an place for our time in Cusco. It was perfect-everyone got a bed, there were enough bathrooms to go around, and we all got to bond by being in one house AND we didn’t really have to wait on each other when going out. Everyone was already there!
- Plan ahead of time
- If you don’t like how something is going don’t be afraid to speak up. Communicate-this is key! Communication is crucial especially in a group this large. At the same time, make sure to remain a good listener and hear others out too
- Be OK with dividing up
- This was a big one for me-I am an extremely picky eater. I had to be ok with speaking up saying I wasn’t comfortable with some of the food places that were chosen. Not everyone has the same interests
- But also go with the flow
- If everyone was going out to the same restaurant for dinner then be flexible. I had to learn to just find things on the menu I could eat even if that just meant eating lots of rice.
- Be Forgiving
- I guarantee you there will be one and probably more than one disagreement on your trip if you are traveling in a large group. Be willing to forgive and forget
- Use a trip planning service
- For our hike to Machu Picchu we went with a trip planning service and this was probably one of the best decisions ever. It took a lot of the guess work out for us. They fed us, taught us historical information we probably wouldn’t have learned, and set up all our transportation.
- Have fun!
- Take lots of group pictures and enjoy your time all together.
