Julika
I’ve traveled with lots of different people in lots of different situations: From exchange student weekend trips to the Algarve with way too many drinking games to a family vacation with my grown-up sisters in Croatia; from a 12-person-pilgramge to attend a wedding in Romania to spontaneous city getaways from Bruges to Budapest with the boyfriend.
I traveled with people I’ve known all my life and with people I’ve barely known at all. I’ve traveled with clingy couples and people who need hours to get ready in morning, but also with people who don’t mind spending the hottest summer days in museums and churches with me.
But there was one kind of trip that I took for the very first time when I was 26: A real girls’ getaway!
And I mean one of those girls’ getaways you’d see in a movie: Girls abroad painting each others nails while chatting about their amorous adventures with handsome strangers with sexy accents. Something like Sex and the City meets The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants meets The Lizzie McGuire Movie.
I simply never had the oppurtunity to take such a trip before, but I also dreaded it a little bit. And was a pillow fight really going to be necessary to fulfill all the girl trip clichés?
Back in March though, I met up with three other girls in Madrid. For the first time ever, I experienced what a real girls’ trip can be like, and I learned a few things along the way that that I wanted to share.
And just to give you a heads up, yes, we thought of the ambiguous hashtag #GirlsGoneMAD for a reason — and yes, the first photo I took on this trip shows makeup and cheese on our kitchen table:
Yep, we definitely had our priorities straight! In many ways, we were the girly movie cliché you’d expect from four girls in their mid-twenties on a trip abroad. But before I get into that, let me introduce you to the three hilarious blogger ladies who made my time in Madrid extra special:
Ashley of Ashley Abroad, the multilingual French cheese and arugula expert
Amanda of Farsickness, the craft beer lover with the world’s coolest tattoo
Jessica of Curiosity Travels, the Californian who has been an expat on three continents
And whether you’re just curious about potential girl drama and pillow fights or you’re here to find inspiration for planning your own girly getaway to Madrid, or any other European destination, here’s how the #GirlsGoneMAD did it in Spain and what you can learn from us:
Rent an apartment — but talk about responsibilities
For a group of four, there is only one way to create the perfect fun accommodation setting: Rent an apartment! If we had booked a hotel we would have needed at least two different rooms, which would have been totally anti-social. A hostel wouldn’t have been right for us either, because we wanted to get to know each other (after all, we had been digital friends for two (!) years!).
Of course, we also wanted to share a few drinks and go a little crazy, but without hostel bindge drinking games, awkward late-night conversations in the shared bathroom, and limited breakfast hours (I like hostels, but there definitely are a few undeniable downsides).
Renting an apartment with GowithOh in Madrid, was just perfect for us though: We had a cozy kitchen to spend hours drinking coffee in, comfy couches and everything else we needed.
Plus: The apartment was travel-themed with a giant map and skylines painted on the walls and thus it immediately made us dream of moving in and play roomies for good!
However, one thing you have to be prepared for when renting an apartment in Europe, is that there is no cleaning lady and no room service staff stocking up your minibar. There might be a few things there like dishwashing detergent or a roll of toilet paper, but most of the necessary supplies have to be bought once you get there.
Luckily, our wonderful Madrid apartment was located literally right next to a supermarket, so stocking up the fridge was a very easy task.
And regarding tidiness: It’s good to talk about who takes care of cooking, buying groceries, setting the table, or doing the dishes — especially if your getaway is longer than just a weekend, you should have something like a rotating cleaning/cooking plan.
I know a cleaning plan doesn’t sound very much like you’re on vacation, but trust me, it makes things so much easier!
And one most important thing you can learn from us: Choose a person responsible for the apartment key!
We had two sets of keys for our apartment, but one afternoon all of us left the house thinking one of the other girls took the key. You’d think the chances that one of four girls would think of taking one of two keys are pretty high, but — nope.
Luckily, our rental apartment landlord was super nice when Jessica called him and immediately offered to meet with us in front of the apartment a few hours later to open the doors.
Good thing no one of us had a full bladder or was wearing a bathrobe when we locked ourselves out. But learn from our mistake and always make sure at least one girl in your group feels responsible for bringing the keys!
Prepare meals together — but keep it simple
Having a perfectly equipped kitchen waiting for you is such a luxury when traveling: We could stock up on juices and yogurts, because we had a proper fridge, and we could drink as much coffee as we wanted, because we could always make fresh one.
We were absolutely excited to be preparing meals together, but we quickly decided that we weren’t aiming for cooking three course dinners. Spain had so many delicious savory foods waiting for us to try them, it would have been almost stupid to cook our own dinners with so much gloriously greasy and salty tapas right under our noses!
But we still found a way to have many delicious meals in our apartment — thanks to our epic long breakfasts! We spent up to three hours just eating breakfast, sipping liters and liters of coffee and talking about all the girly things.
And honestly, these breakfasts in our apartment are still my favorite memory from my time in Madrid. It doesn’t get better and more relaxing than strawberries, fresh coffee and girl talk, right?
Explore a foreign culture — but don’t stress yourselves out
We had just a weekend in Madrid together before Amanda had to be on her next flight. And two and a half days is really not a whole lot of time for sightseeing, partying and squeezing all the much need girl talk in.
Granted, we didn’t do any museum-hopping together. Instead though, we strolled past the most iconic buildings and squares together, and went crazy for all the gorgeous balconies of Madrid.
We also declared the culinary exploration of the Spanish capital as our kind of sightseeing so we had the best excuse to eat as much tapas as humanly possible (ahem, which we totally did). And craft beer and café con leche also count as cultural sights, right?
For us, strolling through the picturesque streets, taking photos of pretty lamps and indulging in all the Spanish deliciousness, was the best way to experience Madrid: We wandered around with open eyes, sipped tinto de verano on a rooftop with spectacular views over the city, and walked past Palacio Real and its gardens.
Maybe we didn’t manage to see Picasso’s Guernica, but we all felt like we hadn’t missed too much: After all, it was getting to know each other and the experience of living like a local in Madrid that we had come to Spain for — and this just included way more extended breakfasts in our PJs than sightseeing among tourist crowds.
Have group adventures — but include a little solo time as well
Given we are all rather independent women, we weren’t really used to spending that much time with other girls. Don’t get me wrong, we really got along perfectly (sorry, no drama here!), but every once in a while it’s absolutely okay to split from the group you travel with for a bit.
Whether it was a little nap or half an hour of checking our social media without talking to each other, we automatically found a way to combine group activities with a little solitude when necessary.
With two different bedrooms, two couches and one big dining table, taking a little solo time (even though we still were in the same apartment) was never a problem. And after a while we would still all meet up in the kitchen for a cup of coffee (or three).
Just because you live, party, and sightsee eat together, you don’t have to spend every single second taking or entertaining each other. Maybe this even was the secret why there was absolutely no drama between us.
Go clubbing — but watch out for each other
Spain is famous for its nightlife and of course you have to go out to party on a proper girls’ getaway! Honestly, I was a little scared and wondering if I could keep up with Spanish nightlife, because I’m just not 21 anymore and dancing until sunrise does sound a bit terrifying to me.
But after meeting up with the Madrid blogger scene for rooftop bar cocktails and post-cocktail pregaming in our apartment, I was definitely ready to hit the dance floors to channel my study-abroad-on-the-Iberian-Penisula-self.
We hit the club rather early (that is what 2:30 am is considered in Spain), but it gave us a good chance to look around — and there was definitely a lot to see in the seven story mega club Teatro Kapital, which used to be a fancy old theater.
Every floor had a different music style playing, and the main floor even had electric violin players, dancers in feather bras and raining balloons: It was pure insanity!
Obviously, the drinks were horrendously expensive (as was the 17 Euros admission fee!), but it was a once in a lifetime experience — and I honestly think Spanish nightlife is something everyone should have experienced at least once in their twenties!
Just one quick note on safety in clubs though: I never felt unsafe partying in Madrid, but in a giant club like Teatro Kapital, it’s way too easy to lose someone and not find them again.
With ridiculously loud music in the background and hundreds of people dancing and pushing their way through the crowds, it’s pretty much impossible to notice if your friend is going to wait in line for a drink for 30 minutes or if she is just off to the bathroom.
Before we entered Kapital, we thus made a just-in-case plan: In case we lost each other, we would meet up at a certain spot in the foyer.
And even if you’re having the time of your life: Try watching out for your friends and never venture off alone without telling someone where you’re going. (I know I might sound like a granny who’s never been clubbing before, but trust me: I partied from Lisbon to Prague, but this Spanish club was unlike anything I had ever seen before!)
…and don’t forget the mirror selfies!
The fun thing about the four of us is that we all are really passionate about photography and we loved taking each other’s photos in Madrid.
But naturally, since this was supposed to be a group trip, we needed photos with all of us in it: That’s why we took all the mirror selfies we could get. And honestly, what is a girls’ getaway without mirror selfies?!
So take as many fun mirror selfies as possible, because these photos — and your girls’ getaway trip — will be the best kind of travel memories, I promise!
(Oh, if you’re still wondering if there really were any pillow fights and strangers with sexy accents — well, you know, what happens on a girls’ getaway…)
Have you ever been on a real girls’ getaway in Europe?
What are your best tips to plan such a trip?
Note: GowithOh kindly hosted us #GirlsGoneMAD in Madrid, but all opinions and meticulous breakfast displays are 100% my own. GowithOh has apartments in 24 amazing European cities and I honestly recommend renting an apartment with them if you’re planning your own European girls’ getaway.