THE girl's trip guide
for when the trip makes it out of the group chat, and for the group chat to make it out of the trip.
Hi,
I write to you as I cough my left lung out post weekend beach trip.
We went away to a beach town 2 hours outside of Seoul called Yangyang. It was our third year in a row spending a random weekend in June on the beach - it’s become somewhat of a tradition for my friends and me.
We booked an Airbnb overlooking the ocean. We packed lunches in hopes of saving a little money. The food was good, but saving was a total failure. Turns out being by the beach and sunlight makes you want lots and lots of yummy drinks.
The water in Yangyang was cold. I dived in every single time, just to get over the initial shock. In return, the ocean was soft and gentle. I felt the weary of city living washing away with every lap of water on my skin. I could have stayed in the water forever.
Over two nights I felt closer to my friends than I had ever been before.
We laughed, we cried, we held each other and reveled in how far we had come and how different of a person we were every time we came to the ocean. We cried some more.
Reader, I’m here to guide you through what we did to make our annual trip so meaningful and good.
One thing to consider is your relationship dynamic. A happy group of 4 is one where every single member is comfortable in their relationship to the other members. It can’t be that A and B are a good pair, but A can’t really be with C because they’ve got nothing in common. Every single member of the group needs to be good friends with every other member in the group. Don’t go on an overnight trip with people you don’t feel fully comfortable with.
Acknowledge the fact that everyone has a different way of travelling. Some people are going to want to enjoy a lie in and a slower start to the day. Some will want to go on a walk to see what the area looks like, maybe take a dip in the freezing water first thing in the morning. My friends and I were the perfect mix of both.
C and I were the early risers who went on a walk, did the groceries, took a shower and made breakfast before blasting Cotton Eye Joe to jolt W and A awake at 9:30. It was a lovely, calm morning for all involved.
Bring card games. We are big fans of That Sound Game for the day and We’re Not Really Strangers for the evening. That Sound Game will have you in stitches in no time - if anyone knows how to make the sound of a mechanical bull, let me know.
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Night 2 of our trip was spent with Aperol spritzes, whiskey and a bottle of Absolut that we mixed with watermelon juice. We laid out WNRS, we talked about our mothers and we cried. (I had already had a good sob session over a random TikTok video of a lovely couple’s wedding kiss which I watched six times in a row, so I was well primed for subsequent cries.) We then drunkenly slapped on some makeup and went to dance at a local taqueria. I think we might have reached some sort of enlightenment that night.
Allow for quiet time/phone time. Conversations dip and flow, as do energy levels. Don’t feel the need to be consistently engaged and on - quiet time is needed for a necessary recharge.
Take record of yourselves with something other than a phone. My body dysmorphia hit me hard this trip out of nowhere. Normally I would have avoided being in front of the camera, but as I wrote before, I’m trying to push myself out of my comfort zone and take better record of myself at my current age. The solution? A secondhand camcorder with a tiny viewfinder that makes it hard to really look at anything that it took.
If you can’t tell how you look in the photo, you have to wait to get home to delete it. And most likely by the time you’ve waited for your shitty little SD card reader and laptop to do its work, you’ll be delighted to see how your images and videos turned out. (life hack.)
Relax. Let go of any expectations for how the holiday is meant to go. You won’t be able to go to that specific burger place because you didn’t account for break time and your level of hunger. But you might find the best waffle fries ever in the next spot. You won’t be able to surf because the waves are tiny and you don’t want to waste 40 bucks on a board. But you’ll get hooked on that novel that your friend packed that you’ll inhale on the beach. You might instantly want to turn around and leave the taqueria because you don’t like their music and the weird smokey room people pop in and out of to dance in. But you’ll absolutely score free drinks for every single one of your friends because ‘you dance good’.
Things won’t turn out exactly how you planned, but you’re on a trip with your best friends.
It can’t get much better than that.
Until next time,
Kim xx