When planning travel for a group, it’s important to choose the style of travel that best fits your group. Determining your group’s style can help with selecting or narrowing down a destination. Conversely, sometimes the destination determines the travel style – you won’t be photographing lions and giraffes from a cruise ship, or biking the vineyards of Tuscany from an all-inclusive resort. On the other hand, there are no beaches or plunge pools on a river cruise ship.
Here are four main styles of travel that work well for groups to help you plan and start narrowing down your choices. Each has advantages and disadvantages depending on the group’s needs.
Mainstream cruising – These ocean going ships carry from 600 to over 6000 passengers. They are frequently called floating resorts – for good reason. Most of the amenities expected at a resort hotel are available - and they move, giving you opportunity to visit more than one destination, but only unpacking once.
This option is good for larger groups, especially if you want to have some private activities on board, since they have a lot of space including meeting rooms. They’re also a great option for multi-generational groups with broad age ranges.
River cruising – Great for small to medium groups with a shared interest. This option has some of the advantages of larger ship cruising such as moving from one location to another without unpacking, but the ships are smaller and can go to villages and cities a large vessel would never make.
The most well-known of these destinations are the rivers of Europe, but the choices have broadened and now river cruising is available on five continents. Some of the rivers they navigate include the Danube, Rhine, Yangtze, Amazon, Volga, even the Nile.
All Inclusive resorts – All-inclusive resorts are popular options for all sized groups. They can accommodate large corporate groups with meeting needs and smaller family groups. There are adult only resorts, as well as resorts that specialize in families and children. If your group is one that likes water activities and beaches, these are good options, as there are numerous all-inclusive properties in the Caribbean and Mexico.
Custom itineraries – definitely the most flexible and specific to a groups’ needs. Biking through Provence, hiking the Inca trail, listening to the Sounds of Silence at Ayers Rock. Whatever your group wants to experience can be planned. This is a great option for smaller groups (40 or less) who have shared interests or want to go off the beaten path a little.
I'll go into more detail for each of these options in future posts. In the meantime, let me know how I can help.