As you may have seen in a past post about my trip to Cabo San Lucas, there was 13 of that went on vacation. THIRTEEN! That is a lot of people to account for. It broke down to eight parents and 5 “kids” (I’m 26, my sister and the two other girls were 23 and my cousin was 19). We are all a little different (drinkers, not-really-drinkers, people who want adventure, people who’d rather sit at the beach, etc.). Sometimes it was a struggle to get everyone together, but for the most part we had no problems at all.
Booking
This step of the trip I had no part in. My mom and another woman who went with us booked it through a travel agent. I don’t believe we had ever used an agent before, but I can imagine that it is an easy way to get a large group of people on the same flight and in the same hotel.
Daily
In the morning, everyone would go to breakfast when they woke up, but we’d run into each other while there. We were 13 people separated into six different rooms, so we’d come and go as we wanted. Usually the parents were there around the same time and the rest of us showed up as soon as we were awake.
As we were eating, we’d make plans to meet up at one of the pools. And then just as with breakfast, we all arrived at different times but in the same area.
Throughout the day, people would come and go, whether to the room or to get a massage or just to walk around. But for the most part, we were all together hanging out at the pool.
Dinner
We had dinner both on the resort and off the resort. While on the resort, we discussed where we were going for dinner while at the pool, and what time we’d meet up. Thirteen people is a lot, so we always gave the restaurant a heads up, so they’d be expecting us. We all got there around the same time, usually running into each other in the hallway. The few times we were off the resort, we called ahead and let those restaurants know as well too. We had a set time to meet in the lobby because we needed two cabs to get us anywhere. We never had a problem, as it seems we’re all pretty good at being on time!
After Dinner
If we were on the resort, we’d usually check out a show after dinner (they had a lot of em). Usually the kids (a.k.a. the four 21+ year old girls plus my cousin) went over after finishing dinner and the parents met up with us afterwards. We kinda did out own thing at this point: the dad’s off smoking cigars, the mom’s drinking at a table and us off drinking somewhere else watching the show. We always said goodnight to each other before going back to our rooms for the night.
The nights we left the resort to eat, we also went out afterwards. Both times we went out, not everyone stayed. We all discussed who wanted to go where and made sure no one was going anywhere alone. It is very important to stick with a group of a few people when out (especially somewhere like Mexico). Also, we always had at least two parents with us when we stayed out – they wanted to keep an eye on us!
Excursions
We planned a few excursions while in Cabo, and the majority we all went on together. We rented jet skis one day, and while the moms didn’t partake, they came and watched the rest of us on the beach. The days we were ATVing and on a catamaran, we all went together. It was so much fun for the group of us to do these excursions – since we were such a big group, it was usually just us and less than 5 other people, so we basically had it to ourselves. There was one day where two of the families went to swim with dolphins where my family and cousin’s family did not go. We decided get massages that day instead. But just like every other day, we met back up at the end of our separate plans.
In the end, traveling with such a big group wasn’t as stressful as I thought it would be! I thought we’d be scrambling every day, but we never had a problem. Everyone was always where they needed to be on time, and there was (little to) no arguments about the plans! I do prefer vacationing with fewer people more (just my boyfriend, or my best friend, or my parents & sister) but sometimes it’s nice to experience some place new with a group!
Great post! This sounds like such a fun and wonderful vacation. I’m with you—I’d typically like traveling with a small number, but sometimes those big group events and trips are really an adventure. It sounds like you guys made it work perfectly for your needs and expectations! Thanks for sharing.
Author
This is the second time this group had gone on a trip together and it’s always been a good time! But I usually keep it smaller otherwise 🙂
What a fun time! It was nice hearing about how large groups figure stuff out while on vacation. For groups, I feel a travel agent is a must! Let them do all the hard work lol.
Author
Oh definitely, I feel like if we all tried to book the resort/flight separately, it would have been a mess!
Wonderful Trip…. Thanks for sharing
http://jayashnisstories.blogspot.com
Wow 13 people and everything seems like it went well lol I try to plan a trip with five people and it falls apart somehow and ends up with 2. I would like to do jet skis maybe on one of my trips I will. Thanks for sharing your experience maybe I’ll try to plan a group trip again sometime next year 😊.
Author
I think it depends who you’re going with, idk if I could go with 13 people my age and it be successful!😹 Definitely do jetski’s, it’s my favorite thing to do!
My wife comes from a family of 12, so their travels were interesting. Of course, you’re talking varying ages as well. My family likes to go to the beach each year, but we don’t stay at the same place or anything of the sort. This sounded like you all had an absolute blast!
Author
My gosh, that’s a lot of people to travel with regularly🤣 It was definitely a lot of fun, go with your family to Cabo next!
This sounds like a lot of fun. As a teacher I take students on week-long residential trips (most was 54 at one time) each year, so I can relate to how traveling in big groups can be quite stressful. Thank you for sharing your experience!
Author
Oh wow, that’s a lot of people to look out for. I wish I got to go on trips like that when I was in school 🤣
ATVing sounds like a lot of fun. What a huge group!
Sounds like a wonderful trip. Great article!
Author
Thank you so much😊
Author
ATVing is definitely one of my favorite things to do while traveling!
I’m glad travelling in a big group was stress free for you! I totally agree that it’s so much easier once you agree on times and let everyone know what’s going on. I think it’s also nice to accept that not everyone will want to do the same things to limit arguments!
Author
Yes, it definitely went a lot better than I expected thankfully! We’ve all known each other for years, so we know what some people like and some don’t like!
Sounds like you’ve mastered the art of group travel – I admire your synchronisation! The biggest group I’ve travelled with was 10 of us and whilst we managed and had fun, there were certainly a couple of disagreements about where we wanted to go, and the group did do some separate activities. Mexico is on my bucket list 😍
Author
I’d like to think we got it down pretty good! Luckily (somehow) there’s wasn’t many disagreements on what we were doing that day/dinner plans, so it was all good! I would definitely recommend Cabo, it’s just breathtaking😇
Sounds like it was a wonderful trip!
Sounds like you had a great time! You have group travel down perfectly. I’ve also found that when everyone does their own thing (in smaller bunches) it keeps the group happy! Otherwise, there’s just too much compromise.
Caitlin | BudgetBreaks.org
Author
Sometimes it’s better to branch out and everyone do their own thing, but we had more fun when we were all together!