Not So Lonely Planet

Last March, Chenoa Taitt, 29, and her boyfriend Manuel Goncalves, 28, took a trip to romantic Florence, Italy. They brought along Matt, a mutual friend and former colleague, and Bob, Taitt's roommate at the time. They also invited Stephanie, Taitt's best friend from junior high, and an-other former co-worker, TracyLynn. TracyLynn in turn asked her mother to join, as well as a friend, Charlene, who also brought her mom. Altogether, nine people departed from Illinois, New York and New Jersey to spend eight days at adjacent hotels in Florence. "It was a real mishmash of characters," Taitt says, "but everything just fell together. It turned out to be one of the best vacations I've ever had."

For Taitt, trips with friends are a way to combine vacation with camaraderie. "It maintains and even builds our friendships," she says. "This is a tradition I want to maintain. A lot of us are getting married in the next year; I want to be sure we don't grow apart." In fact, adds Taitt, who is now engaged to Goncalves, "I would take them on my honeymoon if I could!"

What might sound like a logistical nightmare and cause for a postvacation vacation is becoming a popular leisure strategy. More Americans are traveling not only with their extended families but also with groups of friends--on average, seven people total, according to a recent survey by the marketing firm Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell (YPB&R). Fans of pack travel enjoy getting group discounts, but mostly they see it as the ultimate in multitasking: Why not catch up with friends while taking in a museum? And if you opt to skip the art, chances are there's a willing shopping companion in the group. According to a Travelocity poll, time with family and friends is the most popular way to spend a vacation: 43% of Americans intend to do so this year, compared with 28% in 2002. "The numbers of people traveling in groups of friends are overwhelming," says YPB&R managing partner Peter Yesawich. "We had no idea it was this high."

Traveling en masse was once occasioned mainly by such events as reunions or bachelor parties. Now travelers invent their own occasions, whether it's an all-girls outing, a male-bonding trip or a multifamily jaunt. Singles say they prefer to travel with pals, without the baggage of loneliness and the extra single-supplement charges for traveling alone. But even married couples cite the urge to get away with the gang. "People assume those who travel with friends are single, but that's not the case anymore," says Cathy Keefe of the Travel Industry Association of America.