Are you celebrating a frenaversary with a friend who loves travel as much as you do?

I know that my 20th is coming up next year with my best friend and we hope to plan something epic to celebrate. We are still in the planning phase, so maybe this post will help me just as much as it will help you!

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Tips to Make Traveling with Friends Smoother:

1. Make sure that the trip is something you both really want to do. Don’t just assume that your friend will be just as happy to go to Australia as you are. Make sure that you both are excited to go to the same place. A great idea might be to create a vision board together! Collect your ideas and create a piece of art together to represent your trip goals. (Want more tips? Check out my friend, Chrissy’s, post about vision boards, she has some great suggestions!)
2. Go over the plans together and make sure that you both have a chance to do something you really want to do. If you’re going to multiple locations, then do this with each one as best as possible.
3. Understand each other’s boundaries and be flexible to give each other space when needed. Are there times that you both want to have your own adventure and split up for a period of time? Even with rips that are 10 days long, I found this to be true with our friends. We just wanted time to be alone and recharge.
4. Know each other’s budget. If you are going with more or less money then your friend then where you stay and what you eat might differ in expectation.
5. Discuss comfortability level. Are you both/all okay with hostels, or is your friend or someone in your group only okay with hotels? Can you share a bed without a problem to cut down costs on rooms? Is Airbnb okay?
6. Work together and make decisions together fairly. Take turns if it helps. But don’t leave all the plans to one person and don’t be that guy/gal who plans the whole thing without getting input from others.
7. When splitting bills, be fair and make sure you’re keeping track of how much you’re each spending to not allow one person to pay more than the other. But don’t be penny-pinchers either. A few cents here and there shouldn’t be grounds for causing tension on an otherwise lovely trip.
8. Always work important aspects into your plans like when and how you are going to eat and sleep. These are the essentials and when your tired or hungry, people tend to get cranky and spats can happen more easily. Maintain a normal meal plan and know where you’re staying the next night. Haven’t had a lot of sleep lately because it’s been all shared bunk rooms for 10 nights? Maybe splurge on a nice room with better sleeping arrangements.
9. Communicate, communicate, communicate: These tips get harder the more people that join your group. But this doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time. It just means that you need to always do your best to communicate.
10. All else fails, let it go and move on.

Mostly our travels with friends and family have gone well because we’ve followed these rules.

Our first trip with friends was good, but we had some tension here and there because the five of us were all squished together in an economy car and some unspoken expectations weren’t met. We also realized that sometimes personalities clash in these circumstances and so make sure that you remain flexible, communicate and try to enjoy your time.

You might find that your frenaissance travel celebration is so much fun that you can’t wait to do it again. Traveling with others is so much fun because not only do you grow closer and have a load of good times, the memories last forever. You will reminisce for the rest of your lives. You’ll be sitting in rocking chairs on the porch sipping tea as a couple 80-year-olds thinking back on your time traipsing around Europe, laughing at the craziness and smiling as you remember the good times.

So, what do these good times look like? I’ve compiled a few epic adventures for you to consider as your next trip with your best travel friend!

The Road Trip:

(Please don’t drive with your feet out the window! Yes, that’s the mother in me talking!)

Now, this is hard to say where to do this because I’m not sure where you live, but I can say where some great places are to have a fantastic road trip. Here are the top 5 road trip destinations of the world

1. • Europe: I just love Europe for the ease of driving between countries. You get to enjoy diversity and amazing architecture within a days drive. And there are so many choices to be able to see in a short time. First, decide if you want to tour multiple countries or if you want to focus on 1 or 2 countries to see more of each. We were able to see lots of Paris’ main attractions in a day, go to Disneyland for 2 days with our son, take a train (which is an amazing way to travel!) to Berlin, meet up with my parents, rent a car to circle down through Czech Republic (where we saw the lovely Prague), drive through Austria (Salzburg was beautiful!) and back up into Germany to see Neuschwanstein castle, the Black forest, and some amazing German town (Loved Meissen and Rothenburg the most!) all in about 2.5 weeks.

• USA: There is lots to see in the US! We haven’t had a chance to explore most of it since it’s so expansive, but we did have a chance to VW van it down the west coast from Victoria BC, Canada (where we lived at the time), through Washington, Oregon, and California. The Oregon coast is stunning and San Francisco with it’s Golden Gate bridge was amazing! We’ve also taken a trip down from Ontario (where we’ve also lived) to Florida, in fact, we worked in Florida for a summer and toured the area a bit. Our trips into Pennsylvania and New York have all been great, but we’ve missed a lot in the middle and South especially. We’ve enviously seen others road trips and plan to venture more into the US again.

• Canada: I put this third, but as my home, I do love it and think it’s an amazing country to see. Like the US it’s vastness can bring you from the rocky coastline of the East to the plains in the middle, to the mountainous West, and frozen North. Our friendly people stretch from coast to coast and you can enjoy meeting the people that make up our multicultural cities, bountiful farmlands, indigenous culture and so much more. We’ve had the pleasure to live in many different locations across Canada, but still have yet to see much of our own country (especially to the East of Ontario), this is also on our list because we know there’s so much to enjoy.

• New Zealand: We took a 6-week bus trip from Auckland on the north island down to Christchurch on the south island and enjoyed every moment. We’ve often equated NZ with Canada, only bite-sized and with an accent (to us, to them, we have the accent). You get to enjoy the variety of landscapes in a much easier to manage space and the people are super friendly. You can enjoy trekking through caves, hiking glaciers, and exploring Fjords. Sweet as!

• UK: We haven’t had a chance to see all of the UK, but we have had a chance to do a great road trip across Scotland. This was an epic adventure of visiting old castles, seeing Loch Ness (but sadly not the monster, he must have seen us coming), exploring our heritage, and getting freaked out as we drove on the opposite side of the road on far more narrow roads then we were used to. You can go on an adventure across England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland to enjoy the rich history that they each have to offer. Pop into the many pubs and enjoy a new brew in each area (Responsibly! No drinking and driving!) and enjoy the many tastes that have been around for centuries.

Now, these are far from all the road trips you can take and far from the only road trips we’ve taken. This is a good start. You can truly take a road trip just about anywhere in the world and have a great time. There may be some places you want to hire a driver to bring you around (we sometimes wish we had done this in Jordan and were happy we had a driver for Kenya) but look into your comfortability level of driving and what holds the most interest for you and your crew of friends. And don’t forget your license (yes, this happened to us…don’t ask…thankfully we were on a trip with others who were able to drive).

Active Adventures

Active adventures are waiting for you just about anywhere you want for your next epic adventure with your travel friends! Here’s how you can decide what kind of adventure you want to go on: 

1. Chat over coffee and Pinterest about the types of adventure you want and are willing to have.
2. Set your limits right away. I’m terrified of heights, so skydiving is out for me, however, I am willing to push these boundaries and have been known to punch fear in the face to be able to do some zip lining and rappelling adventures. I have my limits, but I do like to stretch myself. Find out what each of you are able to do and where some are willing to be stretched, it’s fun to try new and exciting things together.
3. Do you have the money to go farther or do you need to stay closer to home?
4. Once you’ve decided on your top 3 destinations and the type of adventures you’re interested in, then see what is available in those areas and narrow down to your top choice.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. See the sunrise in a hot air balloon in Cappadocia, Turkey or perhaps across the Serengeti Tanzania, across lush farmlands in North America, or maybe the mountains of New Zealand or Switzerland. There are so many places to do this!
2. Enjoy a glacial hike and see beautiful waterfalls before dipping into the hot springs of Iceland
3. Enjoy the Tibetan culture and trek to the base camp of Mount Everest
4. Go spelunking into the caves of New Zealand, Alaska or New Mexico. Or perhaps put on some scuba gear first and explore the great blue hole of Belize (now on my bucket list!)
5. Go Ziplining, cross suspension bridges, trek across the treetops and rappel down cliffs. This can be done in many countries
6. Sleep under the stars and experience aurora borealis of the frozen north while comfortable in the warm glass igloos of Finland

Simply Fun Adventures:

Maybe you aren’t into adrenaline rushing active adventures, but you really just want to go out and have some fun with your friends. Here’s a list of some simply fun adventures you can have together:

1. Disneyworld/land or other favorite amusement parks: Who doesn’t love Disney!?! (Don’t admit it if you don’t, just a bad idea…lol). Truly, Disney may be the place you love to go to bring back your favorite childhood memories, but maybe it’s not for you and you would rather universal studios (Harry Potter World!! Yes, please!) or other fun amusement parks. I love roller coasters and so amusement parks are a fun day or week-long trips that I would LOVE to have with others.
2. Cruise: Cruises can be great fun. You can go for the themed cruise (i.e. Disney – including Star Wars and/or princess, culinary cruises, wellness cruises, etc) or choose according to what countries they stop at. No matter what, you will have fun swimming, watching the ocean for beautiful creatures, eating, enjoying live entertainment and so much more.
3. Train ride: Taking a train ride across a country can be both leisurely and fun. Think of all the sites you’ll see while enjoying in-depth conversation. Trains come equipped with sleeping carts, good food (better than airplanes, but not as good as restaurants), and some amazing views. You can do a trip across Canada, US, or maybe take the Trans-Siberian Railway across Russia. Some great choices all around.
4. All-inclusive Resort: This enjoyable and relaxing adventure can bring you somewhere warm with sandy beaches and all you can drink bars. But make sure to check out the other fun things you can partake in, like scuba diving or snorkeling, day trips, forest excursions and much more.

Well, I’m hoping this list has come in handy to get you started on what type of adventure you would like to have with your travel friends.

Do you have someone or a group in mind? What kind of adventure would you like to go on? Leave a comment below…