The best tools for a group trip, from sharing recs to getting paid back
The saying “the more, the merrier” is almost as romantic as the idea of planning a group vacation.
At first, you might share Instagram Reels from picturesque destinations or gush about the cooking classes, hikes or wine tours you could partake in. It’s the most idealistic phase of planning a group trip, during which you can operate off half-baked daydreams. But then come the trenches of coordinating group travel, where you have to decide on dates, flights, accommodations and budgets. The more people you add to your trip, the more complicated it can become.
Kathleen Rokosz, who oversees group travel for AAA, said larger group trips should be planned at least a year in advance, if not longer.
“Give people as much time as possible to pay for their trip. That’s my best advice right there,” she said.
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Luckily, there are several tools to help make the process as smooth as possible and minimize those hard conversations. Here are some favorites from travel experts.
For planning: Hopper, Kayak, MiTravel
One of the first steps travelers should take when planning a group trip is deciding on a date, Rokosz said. This can be the starting point to finding great hotel or flight deals, and it can help square away questions on the travel timeline.
The app Hopper, for example, allows you to monitor flight prices using the “Watch” feature; users can plug in the destinations and dates they’re looking at and be notified of any price changes, similar to Kayak’s Best Time to Travel tool. And if you find a great deal but still need time to coordinate with your group, Hopper’s Price Freeze tool allows you to lock in your preferred price and book once those details are confirmed.
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“When planning a group trip, it can be daunting to decide where to go and to get everyone to agree on the same destination,” said Hopper lead economist Hayley Berg. “However, in order to score the best deal, we recommend following the deal, not the destination.”
There are also travel planning apps such as MiTravel, which allows travelers to build itineraries and vote on the dates that work for them through polls.
Kayla Inserra Deloache, the consumer travel trends expert for Kayak, recommends the site’s Trip feature, where travelers can share trip details so others know their departure and landing times. The site’s Trip Huddle tool also lets people vote on destinations, travel dates and accommodations.
“You can also easily see if their flight is delayed so you know whether to stick around and wait for them at the airport or meet them at the hotel,” she said.
For staying in touch: WhatsApp
The command center of the group vacation comes down to the mode of communication.
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Tim Lee Hopfinger, founder of Tim’s Coffee, said he creates a WhatsApp group as soon as his group has determined where they’re going and runs every decision and question through that group. He has coordinated more than 10 group trips, with some including as many as 10 people.
“No matter how big or small decisions or changes I make, I run it by every single person in that group,” Hopfinger said. “Don’t leave any room for surprise, as it will only create problems later.”
During a recent trip to Thailand with 10 people, he used poll features in the group chat to decide on a hotel.
This also comes in handy for surprise trips. Liza Moiseeva, head of marketing for Commons, did this on a recent vacation to celebrate her husband’s 40th birthday in Morocco and communicated with an 11-person group using WhatsApp for eight months. They called the chat “Pink Estate,” the name of a prospective olive oil business she hoped to start so her husband didn’t suspect anything. Keeping the conversations out of texts and in one place kept the risk of spoiling the surprise low.
For saving recs: Google and Apple maps, Yelp
Apps such as Google Maps and Apple Maps can help travelers get around their destinations, but they can also be places to store recommendations and build guides.
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On a trip to Europe this summer across 23 cities in 10 countries, social media and brand consultant Austin Graff compiled guides for each city using Google Maps and Yelp, and assembled lists based on ratings and reviews for restaurants, sites or neighborhoods he hoped to visit. Graff, who wrote By The Way’s D.C. guide, spent hours on the guides and put them together months before his trip. Because they’re collaborative, his wife also began adding points to the maps.
Lists can be shared and edited among fellow travelers, where users can add favorite spots, restaurants and destinations, as well as notes on why they saved a specific spot. Graff also used Google’s Street View to take virtual tours of neighborhoods to find street art, shops and parks.
For managing money: Tricount, Splitwise
One of the most challenging parts of planning a group trip is the budget.
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The stress can compound once you factor in large groups of people. During Moiseeva’s surprise Morocco trip, she tracked all expenses with Tricount, which tracks individual and group expenses. They stayed at Airbnbs in several cities, including Marrakesh, Ouzoud and Essaouira, and they regularly posted how much the group owed for their stays. The same went for routine dinners and excursions over their week-long trip.
Using apps can also help trip planners in collecting deposits from others, which can be used for accommodations, transportation and group activities, creating expense sheets or even setting up an emergency fund, according to Stephanie Webb, a travel expert from See Sight Tours.
This also came in handy for Jade Oliver from Australia, who embarked on a six-week road trip alongside Australia’s eastern coast with her boyfriend and two of her friends. Many restaurants and cafes wouldn’t split bills for groups, so they stayed organized by having one person foot the bill and log their expenses onto Splitwise, which tracks and splits group expenses.
“I can’t stress enough how easy this made traveling with a group,” she said. “None of us ended up paying more than we needed to.”
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