Tips for Travel with a Big Group and Green Beans in a Paper Bag 2 Ways!

Happy Monday!  If you are here for the Green Beans in a Paper Bag Recipes, that is extra content for paid subscribers at the bottom of the newsletter.  

I am in Italy right now with my whole family - my mom, my sisters and their families, and Hubs and our kids (plus my daughter’s fiance!)  We have tried to go on a trip all together several times and we were unsuccessful mostly due to a global pandemic and other unfortunate circumstances.  But my mom and I were persistent and made this happen.  It is NOT easy to get 16 people to agree on a week when everyone can go on a trip like this.  Specifically the difficulty is with the kids and different school breaks.  We had literally one week when we could all go.  Is it hot in Italy right now?  OMG yes. But we tried to be prepared.

I have been receiving a ton of DM’s about everything from hotels, restaurants, outfits, tour guides and the like.  I will create a specific newsletter or two with all the details after the trip is done!  

Traveling with a group is no easy feat, but memories of being with family are priceless!

Here are my tips if you are thinking about traveling with a group:

• Start thinking about it EARLY and get consensus on a date range first.

• Someone needs to be the group leader.  Not the dictator, just someone who takes charge and stays on top of getting the group to collectively make decisions. 

• Depending on where you want to go, renting an Air BNB or, in our case, a villa in Italy, makes a lot of sense.  It’s usually more affordable, creates more togetherness and just allows for more flexibility in terms of meals and downtime.

• Once you have selected your destination, if you need flights, call the group flights department at an airline to help you book and keep your group together.

• An experienced travel agent is worth using for booking excursions and guides.  If you have an American Express Platinum card, you can use the concierge services for free which I did for booking restaurant reservations in Italy. 

• Create a shared Google doc or Google sheets so everyone can add his/her suggestions for activities, restaurants, etc.

• Factor in downtime or what I call “flexible” time so that it’s not all rush-rush.

• I think it’s worth paying the money for unlimited international phone usage and cellular data for the whole family.  It’s important for everyone to be able to stay connected in case you get separated when there’s no Wifi, as well as have access to Google maps or Apple maps.

• You can’t really “wing it” for meals when you’re a large group. It’s best to have reservations made in advance. You can always cancel if you’re tired or not hungry for a meal.

  

• Set departure times 5 minutes in advance of when you actually want to leave and encourage everyone to use the bathroom before embarking.

• Take photos! The kids may be annoyed, but the more photos you have, the happier you will be. Start a shared Apple photo album (this is on your phone) and invite everyone in the group to add photos every day. If you don’t know how to do this, ask your kids!!

  

Even More Musings is an extension of my weekly newsletter, Monday Musings. My newsletter is a sponsor-free zone and is fully supported by readers like you. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to get Even More Musings! Each week, I share my tips and tricks along with a new recipe. For only $5/month or $50/year (less than $1 a newsletter), you'll also gain access to the entire archive, featuring favorites like My New Hyper-fixation High-Protein Fluffy Breakfast Bowl  and the Hillstone Copycat Emerald Kale Salad. There has been some buzz about the “green beans in a bag” recipe from Miznon restaurant and I did both a copy cat version and an even better take on this!!