Travel With Friends

By Brenda Williams

If you are trying to plan a trip with friends or if you are thinking about it, traveling with friends is almost always fun. However, there is a modicum of trust that needs to exist in order for everyone to enjoy themselves and part of this has to do with how responsible each person is financially for their share of the trip as well as for their personal behavior during the trip.


At no point in our lives to we get the travel bug than when we are young and in college. Suddenly, we're planning weekend road trips to the beach with our friends and making bigger plans to spend spring break in some place like Miami. I can still remember when I was in college and a few of my friends (myself not included) decided that they wanted to spend our spring break at Myrtle Beach. When they came back a week later, I was subjected to all of the wild stories of what went on- how they ran out of money and had to hitch hike back to their beach house as well as an even more disturbing story about how they were at a party one night and were too drunk to drive home. As they started to leave the party, a couple of guys that they had never met before offered to give the three of them a ride back in the back of their pick up truck late at night....Needless to say, this was not their smartest idea. And while nothing happened, there is nothing to say that something couldn't have just as easily happened.

Travel with people you trust and respect. You should never plan on being irresponsible when you are away from home. Also, make sure that wherever you are traveling to- even if it is around the block- that you have enough expendable cash as well as some other backup should you need it. Make sure that you have the contact information of all of the people that you are traveling with (if it's a small group). In the event that something happens and an emergency contact needs to be reached on your behalf, it is always a good idea to exchange this kind of information prior to the departure for your trip.

Another reason that you want to make sure that you travel with people you trust and who are responsible is to make sure that you are always looking out for each other so that no one gets left behind, lost or put in harm's way. Too often we hear stories about young men and women disappearing while on spring break with their friends or while enjoying a brief weekend getaway. Traveling with other people doesn't always guarantee you safety in numbers no matter what the age. Plan ahead, and somewhere in that planning phase, plan on being responsible for your actions lest you live to regret it later on. The practice that you experience with travel while you are young will serve you well in future trips.