This is the second installment of our 6 Part “Planning Your Sports Vacation” Series, in which we give you advice and tips on how to plan and prepare for a sports vacation. Our goal: help eliminate some of the stress that comes with planning the trip and let you actually get to the fun of the trip.

Hopefully, you’ve now decided upon a destination after reading Part 1 of the “Planning Your Sports Vacation” series. The next step: Who do you go with?

Do you go alone? With family? Associates? Buddies?

This seems so simple, yet it can be so difficult. Trust me I know!

The Blue Workhorse Goes to New York
Originally, our trip was to have 6-10 guys going (4 of which are contributors for The Blue Workhorse). All 10 of us being close friends, most of which played baseball and lived with each other in college. Making a trip to a different baseball ballpark every summer was something we had discussed during out school days and everyone thought it was a great idea…at least until I actually started planning and putting together the trip.

A couple of guys had prior commitments (recruiting is evidently a big deal in college athletics these days), some couldn’t make the ends meet at the time, and one just flat out decided he was no longer interested.

We ended up with 5 guys willing and able and then a 6th man who was a friend of a friend (who everyone else had never met) that wanted to go. No one had any issues with an unknown man joining our squad, so I graciously allowed this friend of a friend to become a part of our tight knit group.

Complications
That was my first mistake. My second mistake was not securing a deposit from all of those supposedly going. If I would have gotten some money to go toward the tickets and hotel accommodations, allowing the unknown friend of a friend may not have been a problem.

Unfortunately, it did become a problem when this friend of a friend backed out about a week and a half before the trip (and after the tickets and accommodations had been paid for by me). After a lot of unneeded stress and some searching, we did, fortunately, find a 6th man in the 23rd hour, and even though he too was a friend of a friend, he fit in great with our group.

Keeping You From the Same Mistakes
In order for you (and me in the future) not to have similar problems, here is what I propose you do when planning your awesome sports vacation:

Establish a set of rules/criteria that have to be met in order to be eligible to go.

Now, I’m not saying turn this into some kind of strange contract where others have to be 5-foot-9, 115 pounds, blonde haired, blue eyed with a heavenly smile amongst other heavenly features in order to be allowed to go (but if so, can I tag along for that trip?). However, this will help you in deciding who else to invite if this isn’t just a family trip.

The rules/criteria will be different for everyone who plans a sports vacation and may be different for each trip, but here is what I recommend you address in your set of rules/criteria:

  • The #1 rule, as always, when traveling with others…no bed wetters!
  • The dreaded friend of a friend. What’s bad for blind dates are also bad for your sports vacations. Unless he/she is known by other members who are going (and are willing to vouch for him/her), no friend of a friend. Not only can friends of a friend just leave you hanging like a stranded trapeze, but there is the possibility that they won’t fit into your group and the established dynamic of the group, which likely already knows each other very well. Inside jokes will fly over friend of a friend’s head. Reminisces will mean nothing to him/her, and this can easily lead to him/her feeling ostracized…and that’s just not going to help you have the best trip possible.
  • Age ain’t nothing but a #, unless that # is >21. Consider imposing an age limit or restriction if you plan on attempting to enjoy the night life. On our trip, we had one 20-year old, which severely hampered our bar-hopping abilities because in New York there was no where that was “18 to get in and 21 to fall down.”
  • Think about gender. I’ve got a lot of strife and grief from my girlfriend for not inviting her on the trip (since she is originally from NY), but our sports vacation was not intended as a romantic getaway, it was our way of old friends staying in contact with one another and getting a change to hang out at least once a year. However, if you do decide to invite someone of the opposing gender, think of the smaller details such as sleeping arrangements, bathing, etc. For a fun sports vacation, a couple of girls that are strictly friends but enjoy sports could be a great idea if all the small details can be worked out. Girls often attract more girls. Think about it.
  • No one who turns into “crazy drunk guy” or “hold my hair drunk girl.” If you plan on imbibing upon an adult beverage or five, rule out anyone who is going to become crazy, angry, sad, or sick when he/she becomes intoxicated. Everyone has had a night ruined by someone like that, and you definitely don’t want any of your nights ruined while on your sports vacation.

These are just a few simple rules that will help you weed out those to invite when you are planning your sports vacation, so consider these and feel free to get rid of or add any rules or criteria to your own list for your own trip. You have to try to finalize the crew as early as possible because a tally is needed when you decide the best travel arrangements, sleeping arrangements, and one of the most important aspects of “Planning Your Sports Vacation,” The Tickets, which we will discuss with the next part of our series.

Shotgun Spratling

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