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You may want to limit the amount of luggage the girls can take!

Over the years, our family has enjoyed many trips to cities that are an easy day trip's distance from our home. We love being able to get away with the kids for the weekend, standard or extended by a day or two. However, traveling with our two daughters is slightly different from traveling with eleven 8th graders! That's what I did last weekend with my youngest daughter's Girl Scout troop. This is the third of a five part part post, in which I hope to impart my wisdom on traveling with teenage girls. We had a blast. I hope you have half as much fun just reading about it!

The fundraising was complete. The money was in the bank. The girls were chomping at the bit. "Mrs. W, when are we going on our trip?" "How many weeks can we go for?" "How about New York City?" "How about Mexico?"

After attempting to bring the girls back down to earth with a little chat about the cost of travel, we, their fearless leaders, got together to start brainstorming. How much money did we actually have to spend? Should some of the money raised be donated to local charities? How do we involve the girls in the decisions regarding the trip without a massive teen cat fight? These questions, along with numerous others, plagued us in the beginning.

We took the girls out for custard for a Trip Planning Meeting. Here are my recommendations for involving the girls in the decision-making process without creating too much of a headache for the leaders.

1. Give them an example of what hotel rooms cost and what a two-night stay would cost for the troop.
2. Tell them what the various activities available in nearby cities are, along with their associated costs.
3. Encourage them to consider a few "free" activities whenever possible.
4. Have them help figure out the cost of gas for a trip to their targeted cities. (Or - if funds permit, figure airline costs.)
5. Establish a proposed estimate for costs of food for the trip. (Will you pack lunches/dinners for the trip, or will you eat out? Perhaps, a combination of the two?)
6. Tally up the expenses, leaving a cushion for incidentals like parking, tolls and tips. (This was one we didn't necessarily consider all the way through, and the leaders were just out the cash for any tips to bellhops for bringing extra towels, forgotten travel amenities that the girls called down for, and tipping for help with our 14 person group's luggage.)
7. Have the girls vote on the top three recommended destination cities (as suggested by the girls and approved by the leaders). You may want to consider two rounds of voting if you have more than two choices. That way, the destination that is truly the most popular amongst the girls will come out on top.
8. Once the destination has been established, have the girls vote on what they'd like to do in the city of choice. The zoo? Museums? Shopping? Is an indoor swimming pool an important factor to them? Amusement park?

Over two more posts, I will cover setting the dates for our trip, selecting the hotel, the reactions of the girls on the trip and our general itinerary in St. Louis, MO. We had a wonderful time, and I'm excited to share more with you.