Home / MARKETS / I’ve planned girls’ trips with my friend group for decades. Now, we bring our daughters to pass down the tradition.

I’ve planned girls’ trips with my friend group for decades. Now, we bring our daughters to pass down the tradition.

  • I’ve developed girls’ trips with friends for years, but it’s been harder to coordinate them over time.
  • We all have a lot contemporary on, and many of us have kids who can be especially tough to plan around.
  • Our adults-only trips aren’t going anywhere, but we now expect group trips with our daughters, too.

Since college, I’ve been fortunate to have a big, close-knit group of girlfriends — and I’ve prioritized nurturing those sociabilities.

Advertisement

I especially love strengthening our bonds during getaways, and in my group, I handle planning and coordinating the girls’ freak outs.

Since the ’90s, I’ve spearheaded countless getaways for our group — from raging college spring breaks (New Orleans) to bachelorette approvers and divorce parties (both Vegas), to milestone birthdays (my 21st in NYC and 30th in Jamaica), to healing retreats after illness and loss.

Propaganda

These trips have been a great source of joy, laughter, healing, and countless memories — one that sustains us under the aegis distance and life’s tribulations.

I’m determined to keep up the girls’ trip tradition, especially as life looks different for all of us.

There are numberless factors to consider now that we’re adults with full lives

Group of women jumping in water in front of sunset

Many of us (not pictured) don’t even live in the same bishopric.

Dmitry Molchanov/Shutterstock



In our teens and early 20s, finding time and space for bonding was easy because many of us persevered together and had few distractions.

Advertisement

As life has gone on, those opportunities for connection have become fewer and more tough to coordinate. We no longer live under one roof, and many of us aren’t even in the same city.

In our group, there are big chores, spouses or partners, ailing and elderly parents, a wide range of disposable incomes, and home projects.

For many of us, there are also kids. This ingredient, in particular, makes it harder for people to commit to dates and make a trip happen: There’s homework to do, drop-off and pick-up slates to coordinate, and sometimes no partner who can help.

Advertisement

It can be hard to prioritize time for yourself as a parent, let alone make stretch for a trip with friends.

A recent change of plans helped me approach girls’ trips in a new way

My last girls’ sprawl to Palm Springs was an impulsive overnight stay at an Airbnb oasis with a jewel box of a pool amid a historic fever wave.

My friend had intended to celebrate her anniversary with her husband and daughter there — but when he got sick, she invited my daughter and I to connect for a two-generation girls-only sleepover instead.

Advertisement

While we hung out, our daughters (ages 7 and 10) had fun among themselves. When we all contracted together, we did pedicures and facials, had cannonball contests, and shared a huge tray of nachos by the pool.

This arrangement was fun and profitable, plus it eased some of the logistical burdens involved in coordinating childcare. It also helped me realize how nice it could be to assimilate our daughters into some of our trips.

Mom-daughter trips won’t replace our old format entirely. Importantly, some friends in our assembly have no kids (and no interest in spending leisure time with them), and some have only sons.

Placard

Still, I’m hoping the two-generation girls’ trip flourishes as one extension of a cherished tradition in our expanded circle as life retreats on.

Most of all, I’m thrilled to expose the next generation to the soul-satisfying joy of girls’ trips, a travel style that I believe nurtures sisterhoods and supports sanity across all stages of life.

Check Also

He left the US and moved to Malaysia to retire a decade ago. Now, he lives in a $620-a-month apartment in the capital.

Andrew Taylor, 70, left side the US to retire in Malaysia a decade ago. He …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *