Planning a road-trip with friends?

[Sewwattsnew]

Not sure if this is the right place for this...

I want to go on a road-trip/vacation with friends next summer (planning ahead a bit :D ). Aside from youth group retreats, I've never traveled with friends before. I'm hoping to start saving up now so I should have enough (or close) by next summer.

To those of you who have done this before... Is it cheaper to go hotel-to-hotel and eat out for a week, or to rent a place for a week and try to eat in for the most part (what my family usually does)? (I'm trying to figure out if it would be better cost-wise to do an actual road-trip, or to just go to one place for a vacation. I'm sure we'd have tons of fun either way.) How do you split costs like gas, food, etc (just have everyone split it evenly at the time-of? keep track of costs and figure it out at the end? I try not to carry a lot of cash, which is why I think the first option might be difficult- I can't imagine trying to pay for one tank of gas with five different people's cards! :lol: ) ?

I can't think of any other questions right now but advice would be appreciated... This is just something that occurred to me this week so I'm only starting my research and haven't even gotten in touch with the friends I have in mind yet.

[hollywoodveg]

There are so many travel deals right now, you can book hotels very cheaply through travel sites like expedia or priceline. Also you can save money packing some of your food like for breakfast. Have you considered camping? You can camp for a month on next to nothing.

[Skylark]

Camping is a great frugal option for those who either already have the camping gear or for those who can borrow the gear from someone else. Going out and buying all new top-of-the-line gear for camping will definitely set you out more than a hotel room!

[shellie]

The ways I've done things as far as splitting the cost of gas is to either have one person pay but save receipts, then everyone gives them their portion at the end of the trip (I've only done it this way on day trips) the other way has been to each take turns paying at the different fill stations. Obviously things won't be 100% even with the second method but it should usually work out to be pretty fair.

[Sewwattsnew]

Camping is a great frugal option for those who either already have the camping gear or for those who can borrow the gear from someone else. Going out and buying all new top-of-the-line gear for camping will definitely set you out more than a hotel room!

:yes: I can ask my friends and see what they have, though camping wasn't exactly what I had in mind.

That's really helpful, Shellie.

Thanks for the advice so far. :)

[TerseAdmonition]

Camping is a great frugal option for those who either already have the camping gear or for those who can borrow the gear from someone else. Going out and buying all new top-of-the-line gear for camping will definitely set you out more than a hotel room!

Many, if not most, camping places also rent cabins (basically room-sized wooden boxes with mosquito netting)- all you need are blankets. It remains much cheaper than hotels.

[dahlia]

How much fun! What I've done in the past with friends is try to plan my destination on based on places that I know people who live there, and then stay with them. Not only is it great for catching up with friends/family you don't get to see very often, but you can also make dinner together and save money on that as well! Hope this helps!

Let me know where you're planning on going!

[Sewwattsnew]

Thanks, Dahlia! That's a great idea. We (the group I want to get together) have a mutual friend in South Carolina, so that's a possibility (we're in Georgia, so the drive wouldn't be too bad, either).