Over the past weekend, I found myself involved in a weekend wedding in an Australian beach town I had never been to before. 

I was excited to finally spend some time in the little beach town and was even more excited to be included in a house with 10 good friends. I was excited until we actually tried to do anything together.

When you have a large group of people on any sort of trip that isn't already planned down to the minute (like a tour where cheap flights, accommodation and activities are on a set itinerary), then you are going to find that the group splits. 

It turns out that everyone had something extra they had to run off and do; some just changed plans at the last minute or got side-tracked one way or another.  That's understandable, but it really makes it difficult to do activities together, as a group.

One morning, for example, we wanted to do a group brunch in town before the wedding, but the whole process of finally getting down to a place and ordered took several hours!  For someone like me who is ready to eat when they first get up in the morning, that waiting can become just a little frustrating -- and it was not just the waiting, but the time wasted in doing so.  At first we were leaving in 30 minutes, then it was another 30 minutes.  Sound familiar?

Basically, it came down to my morning disappearing -- a morning I could have spent otherwise exploring the area if I had only known it would take 3 hours to round up the troops for brunch.

And that's the problem with group travel. Time often disappears in the process of appeasing everyone's needs and wants, so is it worth it?

Group travel probably has a time and a place.  While I wouldn't recommend big group travel on long adventures, I would recommend them for shorter getaways.  Also, you have to decide whether you value the togetherness of the group more than the idea of seeing what you want, when you want.

As for my weekend, having the group together was definitely the way to go.  The memories created as a whole were worth all the hassle!

CC Flickr photo credit: Garry Knight