There is something so special about traveling and experiencing new things with your best girl gang. I grew up spending every summer at an all-girls horse camp, went to an all-girls middle school, and left the country for the first time with an all-girl group. Now as an adult, my girls’ trips mean rejuvenation, great conversation, and connection.
I’ve come to realize that the best girls trips are not JUST about eating good food, drinking copious amounts of wine, or unabashedly discussing the Kardashians (these things are still important). However, I’ve noticed that my favorite girls’ trips all have three things in common: (1) overcoming some sort of challenge together, (2) experiencing a change in perspective, and (3) relishing in shared experiences.
Overcoming Challenge: It is no secret that overcoming challenges together is key to building camaraderie and friendships in general. It is why my closest friends were made surviving middle school, military training, and brutal CrossFit workouts. I mean how many times has a friendship gone stagnant because all you do is go out to eat together? At some point, there’s nothing else to talk about. Consistent challenges ensure common goals and creation of new memories (that you can talk about next time you’re at dinner). However, that is not to say you need to craft some major adversity to have a memorable girls trip. Some easy ways to inject challenge into a trip are planning a difficult hike, taking a cooking class, doing an adventure sport, camping, geocaching, or tracking down your favorite artwork across a city.
Change in Perspective: This is where the element of exploration comes in. Going somewhere new offers opportunities to learn and change your perspective. Doing this with your girl gang is a special experience and fosters some of the best conversations. My favorite type of girls trip is going somewhere that none of us have gone before. While it may be unrealistic to achieve this, there should be some element of “newness.” This can be achieved by staying in a different part of the town, visiting during a different season, or engaging in different cultural activities/experiences.
Relishing in Shared Experiences: One of my favorite things about traveling with other women is the inevitability of finding more commonalities than you already knew existed. This is especially true for friends who are geographically separated and do not live their everyday lives together. Whether it be your shared disappointment with trying to make friends in a new city or struggling with a personal loss, there is so much comfort in realizing that you are not alone. On the other side, there is so much joy and humor in finding commonalities in your quirks. This “essential element” is inevitable, because as women we all have some common ground and shared experience. This is what makes girls trips so refreshing and why we ALL need to take them once in a while.
Ideas for the Better Girls Trips
- Plan your trip around a bucket-list worthy hike
- Explore on horseback
- Take a volunteer trip
- Plan a road-trip around your favorite food
- Re-trace your favorite artists’ steps
- Run in a destination race
- Take cooking classes in your favorite cuisine
- Ski/Snowboard lesser traveled trails
- Go camping in a scenic location
- Take SCUBA classes in an awesome location
- Track down your favorite wildlife
- Cycle your way through your location
- Visit your favorite artwork
ROAM + ROAR 
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