Ski. Drink. Giggle. Make it a Girls’ Trip.
Posted on January 31, 2008 8 Comments
Last weekend, five semi-sisters and me loaded into two trucks for our first annual girls’ weekend escape road trip/ski trip extravaganza. It didn’t really matter where we were going (it happened to be Michigan) or how many stops we made along the way (two). It didn’t matter what we planned to do when we got there (ski, drink, giggle). What mattered most was celebrating this fleeting precious time in our lives, this together time, standing on the cusp of so many monumental changes – motherhood, marriages, moves – and confirming that no matter how far apart our lives take us, we’ll always be a part of each others’. Equally hilarious, joyous, emotional and sacred, I will tuck away the memories of this trip and keep them in my pocket for comfort when the world seems too big and cold.
For my first time really skiing, the trip was a smashing success! I honestly think every group of girlfriends should take a last hurrah trip before the pregnancy bug hits, if for no other reason than you may have more motivation to keep an annual appointment once the babies start coming. Let’s call it a GirlyMoon. Or a WoMoon. Or a Girl-aganza.
To be clear, I am not the one having the baby! (Phew! Glad we cleared that up!) But my best girls are, and that puts us all in the position of knowing our time together might change.
If you’re interested in planning your own Girl-aganza, here’s how we did it. It ended up being very reasonable…and worth every single penny.
1. Set a date WAY ahead of time. We started planning this trip on Labor Day. We set a date that we knew worked for a majority of people and the group decided that no matter what, the date would not change. With a lot of people involved, we usually find that if you try to accommodate everyone’s schedules by moving around dates, you’ll never actually do the trip. So pick a date and stick to it… months ahead of time.
2. Know your price point. When using the term “weekend getaway,” one woman’s Michigan is another woman’s Paris. Get everyone to agree to a price limit, say $500, and then designate one or two planners to start researching appropriate trips. Road trips work best to keep the price down. As I mentioned, with Girl-aganzas, it’s not really about where you go, just that you go together.
For our trip, we spent:
- About $300 per person on lodging at Boyne Mountain for a 6-person cabin with outdoor hot tub, fireplace, high-end decor and ski-out access to ski lifts
- About $40 per person on gas
- $22 on groceries (we went shopping as part of our road trip)
- $30-ish on alcohol (lushes, we know)
Then, each person spent different amounts on ski rentals (about $30 per day), lift tickets (about $50 per day), spa services and ski lessons. Interestingly, we split a private ski lesson among three people and it ended up being the same price as the big class lessons (about $30 for one hour). Keep that tip in mind!
3. Plan ahead, and involve everyone. We had schedules mapped out, we had drivers, we had meals planned and made, we ski lessons arranged. Let each member of your group contribute their strengths to the planning process. If someone loves to cook or make playlists, let them! In the end, the planning process was great because we got to see a little bit of everyone’s unique skills, and of course it kept us in touch from September through January.
4. Share stuff. To lessen the cost, those who had stuff to share brought it. I used borrowed goggles and ski gloves. It saved me probably about $70 in sporting goods purchases.
5. Let loose. Live in the moment when you’re there. These are the people who know you the best, so don’t hold back! If you’re afraid of falling, you’ll never learn to ski and you’ll miss out on the experience. Choose a trip that allows your whole group to reconnect over new experiences and you’ll remember why you became friends in the first place.
6. Make it count. I am clearly a fan of getting a little emotional sometimes. I lost a good friend a few years back who meant the world to me, but I had neglected the friendship for a while and we had lost a bit of touch. After his sudden death, I very much wondered if he knew how important he was to me. Tell your friends how much they mean to you. Do it now. Don’t be afraid to be cheesy. The daily grind, the work stuff, the commutes, the office politics we get wrapped up in … none of that stuff really matters. Make the time today to let your semi-sisters know how much you love them. That’s the important stuff.
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Have additional ideas for your WoMoon/Girl-aganza/GirlyMoon? Have a better name for it??? Share with us and let’s all get cheesy and emotional together.
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Comments
8 Responses to “Ski. Drink. Giggle. Make it a Girls’ Trip.”
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January 31st, 2008 @ 3:38 pm
Hey Nicole,
I do this every summer/fall with four girlfriends from high school. 2008 will be our 6th installment. We call it “girls’ weekend,” and the rules are simple: no husbands/boyfriends and no kids (unless they’re breast feeding). We’ve had a few years with kids, and a few without. It’s actually really fun to have the babies there for one year… we all get a chance to bond with our friend’s kid. We change up the location almost every year, but we always try and meet somewhere in the middle (we live all over, from Minneapolis to Madison to Chicago). We’ve done the cabin thing, the spa/resort things, the big city/downtown thing, etc. I look forward to it all year… it’s incredibly rejuvinating and super fun.
January 31st, 2008 @ 4:53 pm
That sounds like a ton of fun. I think the money stuff is the main reason why my girlfriends and I keep putting off trips like that…we all have very different budgets and its hard to organize. But you’ve inspired me…I need to get crackin’ before the marriage and babies happen, too!
January 31st, 2008 @ 7:35 pm
I am sure you had loads of fun. My friends live all over the world. Now only if I could get together with them once a year every year!!
January 31st, 2008 @ 8:57 pm
I love the Girls’ Trip!! (My name for it isn’t as creative as your options.) Me and three girlfriends are going skiing in a couple of weeks; none of us have been since we were little, if at all. I am SO excited about the skiing/hot-tubbing/drinking/giggling. I was also surprised how easy it was to pull together, though cheap it aint. Flights, hotel, lift passes, ski rental, and airport transit are totaling almost $1000 a head. We’re staying 4 nights though.
It’s way easier to do cheap trips to the beach or other cities though. Last year me and some other GF’s went to Vegas. SO FUN! It’s cheap to fly there (from TX at least), and though we splurged for a nice room in a cool hotel (The Palms), it was still pretty cheap once you split it. We didn’t spend much money at the pool all day and partying all night. (We drank for free all wknd, courtesy of various groups we met who let us share their bottle service. Otherwise it would not have been as cheap). It ended up being a trip full of drama, but great memories still!
February 1st, 2008 @ 6:22 am
My college roommate and I moved to separate states after graduating in May. Since we won’t see each other any other time, we planned a special trip to Mexico this summer. We’re using my parent’s timeshare and getting our plane tickets well in advance.
We also coordinated our earned vacation time and decided to go over the Fourth of July weekend, so we are only using 3 vacation days for 6 days of fun in the sun! That was really the key to ensuring we would go.
We’ll also set up a budget in advance for activities and day-to-day expenses. Doing a lot of research and planning in advance should ensure we won’t overspend (too much.)
February 1st, 2008 @ 7:32 pm
Your trip sounds like a lot of fun!!
February 7th, 2008 @ 2:53 am
A guy’s $.02 – I have a dream of going to the annual pond hockey tournament up in Minnesota (I think it is there?) one of these winters, which I trust will lead to some similar (yet WAY different) sort of male bonding. Good for the soul, no question. There’s no insurance that every one will make it, but if we can get a core group of guys there it will be just what you said… sacred time with important people. Thanks for the reminder!
Jerry
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February 13th, 2008 @ 3:16 am
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