How We Planned Our Get-Together: The Easy Way

What makes a trip exciting? Of course, a well-planned trip! In every outing or get-togethers, there are different roles that we need to play and duties to perform.

Are you the Financer? The Photographer? The Treasurer slash Auditor? The Joker? The Music Lover? The Planner? The Provider? The Shopper?

I already mentioned in my previous article about the trip I've had with my high school friends in Zambales. We enjoyed the trip but how did we come up with that?

The Financer

Our friend from Colorado came back home in the Philippines and asked us to schedule a trip. She knew we are busy and that some struggle financially so she mentioned already that it's her treat. She sponsored Php 15,000 for this trip to happen. She did that so there's no reason for all of us to back out.

The Planner

I will admit, I'm the planner in every group that I belong to. I love planning - whether it's a trip or not.

Since our friend already mentioned the specific amount, I already told my other friends to look for a place they like BUT with limitations. Just like in research, for us to have the answer we're looking for, we need to be clear with the scope and limitations.

I scheduled a video-call meeting with my friends so we can set up the agreement - the date and the location. If we need to find a specific resort, we should limit first the location.

In that video-call meeting, we decided to have the trip on May 7-8. The location should be in Batangas but since there were a lot of news that time about the Taal Volcano, we decided to change the location to Zambales.

As a teacher, one of the things that I do by default is to make deadlines and assign tasks. I let my friends search for a specific resort until as early as April 20 for us to have ample time to vote which resort is the best and of course to track our expenses and to book it early. It's peak season that's why we need to hurry.

Before that, I also met them again via video-call to set up our agreements when it comes to the resort, to ask them what are our non-negotiables. This is also a part of limiting the scope of researching for the resort.

We come up with the following:

• bathroom inside the room

• can fit 8 people inside the room

• has cooking stove, gas, and utensils

• has a griller

• near the beach

• airconditioned room

• no-corkage fee

These are our non-negotiables or what we call our conditions when looking for a resort for our trip, and of course it must be worth Php10,000 for May 7-8.

There are a lot of resorts we've contacted. Unfortunately, they were no rooms left for May 7-8.

These are just some of the resorts available that time:

• Gasera De Liwliwa

• Monte Carlo

• Tess Tinio (This isn't really the name of the resort, it's just the person we've contacted, she doesn't want to disclose the name of the resort unless we already agreed to get the available room)

• Limliwa

• White Beach Resort

As the planner of the group, I gathered all the pictures and information about these resorts and presented them to my friends so we can vote which one is our preferred resort for this trip.

I'll include here the photos and information I gathered for you to have a reference as well if you want to visit these places.

Gasera De Liwliwa (San Felipe, Zambales)

Fortunately, they have a griller, free of use. All we need to do is to bring charcoal. The only disadvantage of this place is that it is 5 minutes away from the beach.

Monte Carlo (Iba, Zambales)

Why we didn't choose this one?

The rooms can only accommodate 4 people. We need 2 rooms to accommodate all of us. Even if the fee is cheaper than the other resorts, we don't want to have separate rooms.

Another thing is that we need to pay for usage of gas stove and there's a corkage fee.

Tess Tinio (Olongapo, Zambales)

Although the price in this resort is cheaper, there's only 1 bed for 8 people. Sketchy! The owner said we can fit in here but I guess we can fit only if we will not sleep. Lol.

Limliwa (San Felipe, Zambales)

This one is our first option! I really love the ambiance of this place plus it is beach front! Although this is cheaper than Gasera De Liwliwa when it comes to the fee, it has a fee for using the gas stove and corkage fee as well, including the griller.

If we will tally it, we'll spend here more than in Gasera De Liwliwa.

White Beach Resort (Iba, Zambales)

This one is pretty decent too! What we love here is the pool. Unfortunately, our non-negotiable here is the corkage fee and the cooking stove. We are desperate to lessen our expenses when it comes to corkage fee because we'll bring some alcoholic beverages. A

After presenting these, I also did an overall report so we can see which one is the best.

Based on this table, we decided to go for Gasera De Liwliwa because it meets our conditions.

The Shopper

A day before the trip, our friend volunteered to shop for the needed things and food. Even though I'm a lot more near the market, they already know that I'm the one who contacted the resort and plans things. Our shopper friend bought all the needed stuff.

The Provider

Two nights before the trip, I conducted once again, a video-call meeting to list down all the things we need to pack. Two of our friends are the providers, meaning they are the ones who will bring stuff for us not to buy those things anymore. One friend is the car provider and her sister will be our driver. The other one volunteered to bring a lot of stuff like cooler, beach mat, utensils, camera, and a lot more. It feels like they can bring their house too! Haha

The Treasurer Slash Auditor

This is the one who audits every expense and also the receiver of the funds. The provider transferred the funds to him and he transferred it to me because I'm the one who contacts the resort personnel.

He also audits who has debt to whom. We're all lucky to have this kind of friend. We can just sit back and relax and just pay, thanks to them!

The Joker and The Music Lover

Well, in our friendship, the joker and the music lover is just one person. He's the one assigned to play music all the time and also the one who makes sure that no one is sleeping all throughout the trip by his funny jokes. He made our trip memorable!

I hope you liked this article. You can search the resorts on Facebook if you're planning on having a trip like ours. We chose Gasera De Liwliwa and we're happy that we had our memorable trip there. The staff are accommodating and nice.

In these roles, which one are you?

June 21, 2022