A perfect girls getaway starts with ideal female travel companions

Once you decide you’re all in on a girls’ getaway, the next step is to determine which friend or friends would make great female travel companions to invite on your trip. Don’t take this decision lightly since the wrong choice could be a disaster. Trust me, I know. One year I ignored my instincts and allowed a friend to join a girls’ getaway and it nearly destroyed the trip. When I returned home I was a ball of stress.

I want you to avoid making this mistake. In this article, I’ll explain your role in the trip, how to determine which friends would make ideal getaway companions and how to handle friends of friends that want to come along.

After a few girls’ getaways under your belt, you’ll devise your own system for determining women that would be compatible and support the mission to relax, refresh and recharge with friends, and which would not.

This will prove to be invaluable because you will likely find that each year more and more ladies want to come along!

Your role: “The Initiator”

As the trip initiator, you have certain privileges that others do not have – yet. The girls’ getaway was your discovery, your brainchild so currently you’re calling the shots. I know it sounds rather bossy or bitchy, but it’s an essential starting point. Later you can choose to relax on your role, delegate or share the decisions with others.

In the beginning, you are the queen decision maker because you’re “all in”. The friend(s) you decide to invite can accept or decline your invitation to join. This role ensures your trip doesn’t get hijacked by highly influential or manipulative friends who’d rather go to a different destination, for a different period of time.

The initiator:

Gets to decide how many friends to get away with
Gets to decide which friend(s) to invite / which friends not to invite

Gets to determine whether the destination, budget and/or duration are determined by the initiator alone, or whether it’s a joint decision with the girl(s).

As you become a more experience getaway girl this role will become less and less rigid.

Calculate your friends’ companion score

Determining which of your friends would make an ideal companion is done using a scoring system. It goes like this…

Take out a sheet of paper and draw 5 columns. Label them “Name”, “High Drama”, “Like-Minded”, “Flake Out” and “Shared Interests”.

Name – list your friends in no particular order.
High Drama – If the friend is high drama assign -20 points.

Like-Minded. If you and the friend are like-minded assign 10 points. Likeminded people have similar tastes or opinions.
Flake Out – If the friend tends to flake out on plans you’ve made, assign -10 points.
Shared interests – If you and the friend share many of the same interests assign 10 points.

Now review the list.

Friends with a score of 20 are likely ideal companions.
Friends with a score of 10 are likely okay companions, but ideal companions are better.

Friends with a score below zero should be crossed off the list. Ain’t nobody got time for that drama!

Gals with a score of 20 should be invited first followed by those with a score of 10.

OK, I admit. It’s not a very scientific assessment but it has worked for me over the years. Feel free to add criteria that are important to you and adjust the scoring.

What if a friend’s friend wants to join?

This only works if you have at least one other friend going along with a companion score of 20.

Also, the friend’s friend must have a separate room from you – even if they’re rooming with your friend. That way, if the chick ends up being a real dud for whatever reason, it won’t impact you. You could literally have a trip completely separate from this person.