For many band directors, organizing a band trip is a meaningful tradition—a chance to showcase your students’ talent, bond as a group, and create lifelong memories. But when it comes time to start working on logistics, a critical question arises:
Should I plan this trip myself, or work with a professional group travel company?
Green Light Group Tours is a professional group travel company, so we want to share our expertise and experience to answer this question: what if you did plan your own band trip? What should you expect? And is it what’s best for your program?
How Long Does It Take To Plan A Band Trip?:
It takes Green Light roughly 200 hours to plan one band trip. Most band directors work at least 40 hours a week, so the real question is: when would you plan this trip?
Another element to consider is that we know who to call and what to do when planning a band trip- and it still takes us 200 hours! Most band directors do not know who to call when trying to squeeze it into their nights and weekends and that makes it take even longer.
The Cost-Saving Tradeoff Of DIY:
Though planning your own band trip can sometimes be the cheaper route, we advise you think of it in the same category as cutting your own hair or changing your car’s transmission. Yes, you’ll save money by doing those things yourself, but will it take you longer than a professional? And what will the finished product look like?
Many vendors set pricing based on volume. For example, if a band director were to purchase Orlando theme park tickets directly, they’d pay approximately $80 more per ticket than they would through a tour operator that does a lot of volume with the theme parks. This savings becomes the travel company’s profit, your students don’t pay more for the trip, and you just saved yourself a lot of time and effort.
What Would You Rather Be Doing?:
You probably became a band director because you love teaching music, not because you love emailing the 14th draft of a rooming list at 1 AM. The point is: when you delegate group travel planning, you get more time to focus on what you love doing, including teaching your students and enjoying the band trip!
Of course there’s the possibility you really love group travel planning in which case, have you considered a career with Green Light Group Tours? Just kidding. Or are we?
Experience Matters:
When making the decision to plan your own trip or not, take your experience into account and be objective. If you’ve been planning your own band trips for 30 years, this article doesn’t really apply to you and you could probably teach us a thing or two! However, if you’ve never organized an overnight trip, or are new to group trips and you want your band to experience those things, you probably want to work with the professionals.
Top 5 Things To Know If You Plan Your Own Band Trip:
Ok, so let’s say you’ve decided to plan this trip yourself. Exciting! Here’s the top 5 things we think you should know:
- Hire a Tour Manager: This is a professional guide who travels with your group and keeps things awesome and organized no matter what happens.
- Carry-post departure insurance: This protects your group from travel delays, cancelled flights, and whenever the “what-if” happens.
- Anticipate rooming list imperfections: you might want to consider charging each student a little extra to cover the cost of incomplete rooms if your number of boys and girls isn’t perfectly divisible by four.
- Hire nighttime security guards: Allow professional guards to watch over your group at night so you can actually sleep!
- Don’t forget to enjoy: Planning a band trip can be challenging. Savor every minute that you can!
No Matter What You Choose, We’re Glad Your Band Is Traveling!
The bottom line is, there’s no right or wrong answer here. We’re happy your band is traveling no matter who plans it. Hopefully this article has helped you to feel more confident if you choose to handle it yourself, or has opened your eyes to the value in working with a professional group travel company. Now that you know what to expect when planning your own group trip, at least you can make a more informed decision. Do whichever you feel will make the best trip for your students and what will benefit your program the most in the long run. Happy travels!
Now is the time to plan your next band trip! Consider a multitude of other destinations to excite and enrich your performance groups in the upcoming year. Green Light loves to see groups traveling, performing, and reaching their goals, and we’re happy to assist in that process however possible.
Green Light Group Tours is providing this FREE download of tried-and-true tips and suggestions for creating the best travel experience ever! Instant download available HERE. Ready to request a quote for your next band trip? You can do that HERE.
Special thanks to our business partners Green Light Group Tours for this article written by Erik Young. Green Light specializes in exciting and educational travel experiences for your students!
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