GroupTools Guide: Planning A Group Trip Checklist

It’s always fun to talk about going on a vacation with our friends and family, but it can seem challenging to plan the vacation. Planning for a large group might make it a little more complex, but this doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to plan the perfect getaway. Of course, you want to design the ideal trip full of adventure and fun, but first, you need to start with planning a group trip checklist.

Top Three Checklist Items

With a group trip checklist in hand, you can ensure you have all the perfect details ironed out for a successful trip. List items can vary from group to group, however, there are several that should be on any checklist when planning a group trip.

Budgets are Your Best Friend

Set a budget that accommodates the financial means of your group members before making any bookings, and stick to it. Having your budget set as you venture through the rest of your checklist will give you peace of mind knowing you are going somewhere that you can all afford. That peace of mind is why this item should be number one when planning a group trip checklist.

Be sure to set the budget openly with your group. By doing so, you can find out when the best time for you to travel is (off-season or not) and leave financial concerns behind ensuring that everyone can focus on enjoying the group trip.

Date Expectations

When working with a group, it’s essential to know the dates of your trip. This is the second key to properly planning a group trip checklist. Your group trip dates will influence everything from what activities are available to the most popular destinations by season.

GroupTools Tip: Consider adding a survey to your group trip checklist to determine the time of year for travel and narrow down the best places to explore based on weather and popularity. This group trip checklist item will keep your group members engaged in planning and make it easy to choose the best dates for your trip.

Location, Location, Location!

The next step in planning a group trip checklist is choosing a destination. The opportunities in the world are endless, so your group will have to decide whether they want to go international or regional? Are they looking for a nature adventure or Medieval city exploration? Your group trip destination defines what will be available to your group during your travels making this essential checklist item number three.

GroupTools Tip: Need inspiration for your group trip destination? Check out our other blogs for great group travel locations to consider!

Defining the Details

After selecting your budget, dates, and destination, it's time to dive into the nitty-gritty of planning a group trip checklist, defining all the individual details of your itinerary. This is the most exciting part, as these are the checklist items in which all of your planning will come to fruition!

Book Your Travel

When planning a group trip checklist, booking travel is pivotal to ensuring your trip happens. Without getting to your location, your trip won’t happen. To make sure all of your journey will happen smoothly, take advantage of a group travel planning app like GroupTools and confidently plan and manage your group's travel online.

If you’re flying to your destination, use a top-rated flight booking and comparison site to get the best prices on flights. These sites can also help you out with rental cars and other bookings while you’re traveling.

Book Your Accommodations

You’ll want to make sure you stay at the top-notch accommodations as part of your group trip checklist. If you’re interested in more laid-back vacation rental accommodations, great group room rates you can get online, or luxury boutique hotels, there are an abundance of options to choose from as you decide on your trip. As part of your checklist process, make sure to talk to all group members to see what is important to them when choosing lodging and arrange how many rooms and/or accommodations to reserve for the trip.

Plan Your Activities

All group members should take part in this step of planning a group trip checklist. Some activities like museum tours have to be reserved for larger groups. This should be coordinated ahead of time and added to your trip checklist so you don’t forget.

If You're Making a List, Check it Twice

Finally, planning a group trip checklist requires you to check your list more than once to be confident that you and everyone involved are ready to go. That said, about two weeks before your trip, run through the group trip checklist essentials again and send key reminders to your group. These reminders for them (and you) should include things like getting necessary vaccinations if not done already, notifying banks/credit card companies about traveling, purchasing travel insurance, and putting a hold on mail delivery.

Perfect Your Planning with GroupTools

Seasoned group trip planner or not, it is no secret that navigating an entire team of people and building an itinerary from scratch requires some mindful guidance. And the best way to remove most of that stress is to have something in front of you to reference from point A to B to ensure nothing (and no one) falls behind by accident.

Planning a group checklist is essential to making group travel a breeze. With a simple amount of planning and coordination, everyone's voice can be heard, and a great vacation can come together to make the whole group happy. In addition to your group trip checklist, you can really perfect your planning by using a group travel app like GroupTools visit grouptools.com to learn more, or click here to get started for free today.