This is so interesting! I’ve always assumed people were super close if they go on a trip together because we only ever vacation with extended family (in part because we just wish we saw them more so prioritize inviting them). I absolutely can’t imagine 5 families. Even all my siblings on a single trip with two houses was so much negotiating and it was still like herding cats. I think it really works best with one other family with a friend for each kid.

Anonymous wrote:We don’t stay in one house. We do stuff not together on certain days.

Then it’s fun.

Agree. We go to the same beach with a few other families but all get our own places and we don’t do everything together. Even then it can be a lot.

Vacations aren't vacations with other families. F that.

I enjoy beach trips like this because I love the beach and pretty much always enjoy it but I'd hate say a ski trip or lake trip like this. For me the mere presence of the ocean makes everything bearable.

We have had fun on trips like this, however like others, I find them logistically exhausting and we don't do them anymore. I especially wind up disliking the food arrangements and it's always more stressful than it feels like it has to be.

But I've never gotten into a falling out over one of these trips or came away feeling unhappy. We've done the big group photos and they accurately reflected the fun time we had. It's just a lot of work to make it all happen and at this point we'd rather do easier trips with just our family and maybe meet up with other families for shorter visits at one another's homes.

Anonymous wrote:I don't do beach vacations with others. Not my jam

Same. I’m an introvert and I like quiet on vacation.

There are very few families that we would consider traveling with. Very few! Five families would be chaos.

There’s only certain kind of people who can do this, and I really think it’s the kind of people that have a high tolerance for annoyance and easy ability to let things go and not take things personally .

We just came back from the weekend at a lake house that is owned by a friend. It was 5 families, owners don't have kids, but a total of 6 kids between the rest of us. It's DH's friends from high school and their spouses who are all from the same hometown, except for one other DH. That DH and I tend to do our own things, because the rest of the adults are really loud and talk about so much that I have no clue about since I didn't know them when they were 12. It's REALLY hard for me. I appreciate the invite, and DS has the time of his life, but I am much more of a quiet weekend with a book in a hammock vs. staying up until 3 am doing shots. DH does well balancing between me and his friends at least, but I am exhausted now from the high energy, non-stop weekend. We do this at least twice a year, but at least DH gets it, I am just trying not to be a party pooper.

Anonymous wrote:We don’t stay in one house. We do stuff not together on certain days.

Then it’s fun.

+1

Better to stay at a resort in separate rooms, or rent separate condos etc. People need their own space.

We only vacation sharing a house with a particular family member of ours whose parenting philosophy aligns well with ours and whose kids are particularly fantastic.

For friends we want to travel with, we say what resort we’re going to and any who want to join can do so, but there’s no sharing space or food responsibilities— just the beach and someone else worries about the food and cleaning and childcare.

Ugh. I can’t really imagine voluntarily vacationing with friends. We’ve done trips with our siblings & their kids, and it’s been fun but definitely not tension-free. And these are people we love.

We don’t stay in one house. We do stuff not together on certain days.

Then it’s fun.

Anonymous wrote:Wasn’t there a post on here several years ago about one sign a couple will divorce is always needing to vacation with another family?

Ha, that’s funny. Actually a few families I know who always do this do seem to have unhappy marriages. But others just lucked out into finding friends with the same age kids and similar parenting philosophy.

I have little kids (7 and 3) so I won’t be ready to do this until I let go of my control freak tendencies, eg maintaining bedtimes and limiting sugar or screens.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would never travel and stay in the same house with a gluten free by choice family. Way too high maintenance.

This lady is so annoying. If she just ate gluten free and quiet about it, it would be fine but she has this preachy tone and also delayed every meal.

I have another friend who also makes every meal about her gluten free diet. Also quite annoying. It will be someone else’s birthday and she will be the one dominating and picking restaurants with gluten free menu.

I just won’t be friends with people
Like this. If you have celiac 100% supportive, but otherwise I’m not dealing with your disordered eating.

NP but do you say the same for people who are vegetarian?