Hello and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. I've been asked today to do an episode on travelling in a group as an introvert. It does tend to vary how big the group may be. Are you in a tour bus group? Are you in a group of friends? It is mainly assumed that introverts can't travel with groups or don't like it as much. I want to talk about some ways that can help things go smoother if you do happen to find yourself traveling in a group. It can be really interesting.

One of the things to do is to make sure that you have time and or space where you can be alone to recharge, be it that you pay extra for a room just by yourself, or that as part of the trip, you get a day where you just get to be alone, or there's a certain time of the day where everyone's always doing something, but you have a chance to slip away, whatever it might be. And if you do travel with the group, maybe you don't sit with everybody because there's nothing worse than flying and then realizing that you have to sit next to someone who's also going on the trip, who's also very excited, which is great, but then just talks the entire time, that might not be what you're looking for.

So, when you're looking into flights or rooms or that sort of a thing, try and carve out little pockets of time and pockets of space where you can recharge and or get away from it all. It's also very good if you are traveling with a group of mixed personalities where everyone doesn't have to do everything all the time. If you find that you're in a group where everyone has to do everything altogether all the time, that is probably not the group for you. You need a group of individuals that some people are super into X things, some people are into Y things, some people will just do whatever they want to do whenever they want to do it while still being part of the group.

Another thing that's really helpful to set up in advance is how payments for things are made. Payments for accommodation tend to be really easy. You're going to split it a huge amount of ways. But for example, restaurants and food, if you all are going out and there's a big group of you, say more than five and there's like 6, 20 of you, figuring out in advance, is it all going on one person's card? Is it being just split equally? Do you all eat and drink the same? Having that and knowing that's going to be the plan in advance helps you plan your money, plan what you're eating, how you just might feel about the entire situation, and then doesn't come as a surprise at the end. There's nothing worse than being with a group of people where maybe some people are bigger drinkers, or some people are more into smoking, or some people are more into lobster. For example, expensive foods than everyone else and then the person that isn't into all of that still has to pay their share. Or it's a really big group and people order, assuming other people will eat it all. So maybe they order all the entrée and all the appetizers and then split it. And one person is like, “Actually, I wasn't feeling well”, or like “I wasn't hungry”, or “I didn't eat that”, whatever it might be. And they just maybe had a starter but yet have to pay for like a three course meal plus cocktails and wine. So setting that up in advance and having a conversation and making sure everyone is okay with that is hugely important.

Also, as an introvert, if you are going on a trip with a group and you think it might be draining, book some extra time either end to prep at the beginning and at the end to decompress. So even if you come back on the Friday and then you've got the weekend to decompress, that can be hugely helpful because you might feel you need a vacation from the vacation. And the other thing is, be upfront about your needs. Communicate. Sometimes you might feel like going out with everyone and sometimes you might want to stay at home and get a take out. Whatever it is, everyone should be cool with that because you're doing you and you've set your expectations. So it's all about communication mainly and a little bit of forward planning just to make sure that you get the space and the time that you need to recharge and enjoy your vacation.

So, thank you for listening. This is Janice at TheCareerIntrovert.com. Helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.