The joys and complexities of planning a group holiday in your thirties

Group holidays are for kids, right? Teenagers slumped over one another on European streets, warbling nonsense into the night sky through tears, sweat and kebabs. School leavers soaked in fluorescent paint, doing shots of some obscure spirit that’s probably illegal in the UK. And university students waking up poolside with their jelly sandals still strapped on, their bodies burning in the scorching afternoon sun.

With this in mind, the prospect of planning a group trip when you’re over the age of 25 might seem bizarre. By this point, people tend to have serious partners. Proper jobs. And possibly even a child or two. . At least, this was how I felt in the middle of 2022 when, following a breakup, I found myself looking out at an entirely blank, and consequently rather bleak, summer. It wasn’t that people didn’t want to go away together – “I’m gagging to drink rosé and talk s*** for seven hours by a pool,” said one friend with a three-year-old