Traveling Europe with Your BFF - How to plan with a Friend or Group
One of my bucket list items has always been to travel with my best friend. Originally I thought it would be a cross-country road trip (still not off my list!) but when an opportunity to explore Europe arose, my bestie and I immediately knew we had to go! The only problem is she is currently residing in the USA, and I in Germany, a total of 6 hour time difference. Not only is communication difficult normally, but we have to determine who pays for what, where we want to go, do, stay, etc. It is never easy to decide when you are sitting next to someone discussing possibilities, imagine thousands of miles away. We made it work and now can tell you just what worked and didn’t to help you plan your adventure with your friend, sibling, or even a group of people.
We are already knee deep into planning! See what we have got so far:
- Choosing your destinations - Check it out here!
- Spreadsheets galore - Check it out here!
- Planning with a Friend - Scroll Down :)
- Determining your budget - Click Here to See!
- Buying Airplane Tickets (March 31st)
- What to Pack (April 4th)
- Trains, Planes, and Automobiles (April 9th)
- Where to stay? Read Here!
- One month to go! (April 21st)
- Itinerary or wing it? (April 24th)
First download our Google Doc spreadsheet and share it with all of the parties involved. Google docs is our biggest resource, with the chat ability, custom maps, and ability to share documents or photos you find (or even take during the trip, makes it easy to share all of the moments with your friends!). We began by filling in the spreadsheet in a specific order, and a new sheet for each until a decision was agreed upon, then it was copied over into the final detailed itinerary. Input ideas and suggestions in this order: Destinations, Accommodations, Transportation, Activities, and Restaurants/Food.
Pinterest is a wonderful asset. We created a shared board that we can both add to and reference whenever we need. It has the handy map function as well, so if you tag your pins with a location, it will show on the map and makes it a million times easier to decide where to go, what to do, and what may be a little too far away to see or do this time around. Check out our board HERE!
Google Maps (Classic Version) has a very easy to use custom map function that is brilliant for those of you who need to meticulously plan ever part of the trip! I love it because I can map out our known transportation routes and leave notes for myself for later. In this case I have put in not only transportation, but main landmarks, our possible activities and restaurants, our hotel, and anything else we think we will need later (main train station, central hub, or maybe a pretty park we can sit at and relax).
Our Custom Google Maps showing our planned path through Europe!
Planning with a friend, especially one so far away, doesn’t have to be tricky. Apps like WhatsApp or Viber work great to call internationally for free (as long as you have a data connection or Wi-Fi), Pinterest and Google Docs both have chat functions which makes discussing edits, ideas, and suggestions easy. I suggest determining a time and day of the week that works best for everyone (lots of people in your group? Use Doodle.com to find the time that works for everyone – or almost everyone) and get everyone on Google Hangouts. You can video chat with up to 10 people, screen share, and chat making it the most versatile free resource you can use!
We used a rating system throughout the process as well. If I liked a hostel on our spread sheet, I put a number between 1-10 in a separate column marked “Dee’s Rating” and later my BFF would put her rating in her column and we could easily see which ones we both agree are the best choices. This worked for activities, accommodations, transportation options, and even restaurants. We could both then research and add things and rate them at our own speeds and discuss at the next available time what is the next step.
Last but definitely not least we determined how we will pay for everything. Another spreadsheet was added and any expenses were added calculated to determine if anyone still owes the other, if we need to still pay for something, and our final actual costs for the full trip (will help for the next one!). Color code everything so it is easy to see and quickly determine who is paying for dinner this time around, or who has the receipt for that ticket we bought online.
We are figuring all of this out along the way, and of course different methods, apps, or sites, work better or worse for others than for us. Try them out and let me know if you find anything that worked better for you! As much as I love planning, technology is ment to make life easier so I plan to use all they offer!