The planning of any family or group vaction is no doubt a difficult task to undertake. But by taking advantage of group discounts, you are able to travel with friends and family members who you are familiar with and you can also get really great group rates allowing you to use the money you save on more activities that will make for a better trip. Whether you are driving or flying, going on a cruise or staying in a hotel or even a rental property for a week, being able to split expenses or get discounts on flights and room rates because of the group travel planning, you will be virtually guaranteed to save money over individual rates.

There are some steps you can take to make putting together group travel plans a lot easier:

• Put together your group and nail down a specific time and place for the vacation to take place. This gives you the information you need to be able to present to transportation companies, hotels, rental places and other places of interest and is the first step in the group travel plan process.

• Using online travel sites like Orbitz and Expedia will help you save substantial money on flights and hotel accomidations. These will give you baselines you can work from so you can have an idea of the amount of money that’ll be needed for traveling.

• Arrange for a van rental once you reach your destination so that you can save money on local travel by splitting the cost amongst the group.

• Setting a trip itinerary allows you to have a general idea of how the trip will flow. Not only does it make it easier to keep the group together, doing the same things, it also makes group travel planning a lot easier as well.

• One way to truly simplify the process is to take advantage of the resources of a travel agency. Most travel agencies are more than happy to put together group travel packages since group trips are usually one of their business mainstays. Not only do they have the resources and knowledge of how to put together everything for you, but with their connections and by continually working with companies they can get you even better discounts and group rate prices.

It’s true that with the right amount of sweat and effort you can handle all of the details of your groups travel plans but allowing travel professionals to assist you will allow for a much less stressful experience. Between them being able to take care of the planning for you and the money your entire group will save, you may be able to opt for an even more exotic location for the same monies you were looking at. A basic beach vacation may actually become a vacation to an even more exotic location like Fuji or Costa Rica. Of all the ways you can put together custom group travel planning, not only is a travel agent the easiest and most complete way to achieve your goals, but it’s also going to provide you with the most satisfying vacation and save you the most money at the same time.