How to organise a girls trip
Organising a girls trip is mostly a project management job disguised as a fun idea. The flights get booked in a burst of enthusiasm, and then nothing happens for four months.
Here is the order that actually works.
Get commitment before you get consensus
Do not try to agree the destination, the dates and the budget all at once. Pick a rough window and a rough budget, ask who is definitely in, and let the group shrink to the people who mean it.
A trip of five people who committed early is far easier than nine people who might come.
Deal with money in the first week, not the last
Whoever pays the villa deposit is financing the group for months. That is fine as long as it is recorded and visible from day one.
Log the deposit as a shared expense the day it is paid. Everyone can then see what they owe long before the trip, and nobody has to send the awkward message.
Plan the nights before the days
Days on a girls trip largely look after themselves. Beach, pool, lunch, repeat. It is the evenings that need booking, and they need booking earlier than you think in season.
Get the restaurants and the one big night in first, with times, leave times and reservation names written down. Fill in the days afterwards.
Coordinate outfits before anyone packs
This is the bit no general planning tool handles and it causes a specific, avoidable disappointment: two people in the same dress on the night everyone takes photos.
Put each night on the board and let everyone write down what they are wearing. It takes two minutes and it settles it while people can still change their minds.
Build in a day with nothing on it
A week with something booked every day is a week nobody enjoys by Thursday. Leave at least one day genuinely empty and defend it.
Set leave times and stop nagging
The organiser usually becomes the person who shouts up the stairs. Writing the leave time down and making it visible moves that from a personality trait to a fact on a screen.