Haute Tips for Traveling with your Girlfriends!

So you want to jet off to some place haute with your BFF? It sounds like a great idea after all girls just want to have fun, right? I’ve traveled with girlfriends both nationally and internationally over the years. There’s nothing like sharing fun stuff with your gal pals, but it can also turn sour if you’re not on the same page. It's not always a "Sex in the City" moment.

Here are my Haute Travels tips to making your girlfriend getaway one to remember for all the right reasons:

-Make sure that you’re on the same page when it comes to spending money.

If you want to take a taxi and your friend wants to take the bus because it’s cheaper that’s setting the stage for drama. And think about meals… I went on a trip with a friend once and she preferred to spend her money on shopping instead of dinner at a haute restaurant. So we parted ways when it was time for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

When it comes to hotels, some people prefer to go cheap as opposed to luxurious and posh. There is nothing wrong with spending less money on hotels because you’d rather spend the difference someplace else. The problem starts when you’re traveling together. The posh girl may want to stay at The Ritz Carlton, Park Hyatt or the Four Seasons, while the budetnista wants to save money and set up camp at a three-star hotel.

The way to avoid money problems that can ruin even the best of marriages not to mention friendships, decide up front about hotels, transportation and meals. If you can handle splitting up during your stay because you strongly disagree on these points, then go for it. But if getting away with your friend means you spend time experiencing fun things together—then pick your travel companions wisely or consider flying solo.

-Decide what you want to do before you leave home.

Talk about things that you want to experience on your trip… if you realize that you’re both thinking about two different ways to see New York City, perhaps you should travel with a friend who wants to do what you want to do. There’s nothing like going on a trip and finding that you have no interest in doing things that your friends find exciting. Again, if the point of traveling with your girlfriend is to spend time with each other, don’t forget to focus on things that you both want to do. It makes the trip much more exciting with less conflict. You can always agree to spend a couple of hours away from each other for a little “me time.”

-Know your friends

You can know someone for 10 years, but you’ll never really know them until you travel with them. When you’re in close contact with people for days or even a weekend little things about them can surface that you may find irritating.

Spend some time really getting to know your friends before you travel together. And like all good relationships sometimes you have to compromise and be flexible, don’t sweat the small stuff.

At the end of the day, you want to travel with your friends and have the time of your lives… but sometimes little things come into play that really could have been avoided with a little planning and communication. It may be that your friends don’t make good travel companions for you and that’s ok. Just send them a postcard from your haute spot! After all, you don’t want to turn a friend into a “frenemy.”

Would you travel with friends?