The planning of any family or group vacation is no doubt a difficult task to undertake. However, when you do take advantage of group rates, not only do you get to go with a group of people you either know, are friends with or that are family members which makes a vacation a lot more fun but you will be able to take advantage of group pricing which generally gives you discounts and better pricing on virtually everything you're doing. Whether you are driving or flying, going on a cruise or staying in a hotel or even a rental property for a week, being able to split expenses or get discounts on flights and room rates because of the group travel planning, you will be virtually guaranteed to save money over individual rates.
There are some steps you can take to make putting together group travel plans a lot easier:
• Put together your group and nail down a specific time and place for the vacation to take place. This gives you the information you need to be able to present to transportation companies, hotels, rental places and other places of interest and is the first step in the group travel plan process.
• Going online to websites like Orbitz and Expedia can help you to put together numbers for flights and hotel reservations. These will give you baselines you can work from so you can have an idea of the amount of money that'll be needed for traveling.
• Arrange for a van rental once you reach your destination so that you can save money on local travel by splitting the cost amongst the group.
• Setting a trip itinerary allows you to have a general idea of how the trip will flow. Not only does it make it easier to keep the group together, doing the same things, it also makes group travel planning a lot easier as well.
• Another way to make the process easier is to use the resources offered by a travel agency. Most travel agencies are more than happy to put together group travel packages since group trips are usually one of their business mainstays. Not only do they have the resources and knowledge of how to put together everything for you, but with their connections and by continually working with companies they can get you even better discounts and group rate prices.
Even though you can put forth the effort to putting together your own group travel plans, having a travel agent take care of things for you provides you with a much more hassle free experience. Between them being able to take care of the planning for you and the money your entire group will save, you may be able to opt for an even more exotic location for the same monies you were looking at. A typical beach trip could eventually turn into an exotic getaway in Costa Rica or Nicaragua. Of all the ways you can put together custom group travel planning, not only is a travel agent the easiest and most complete way to achieve your goals, but it's also going to provide you with the most satisfying vacation and save you the most money at the same time.