City breaks for a group

What fits, with guide prices

These guide prices assume you share rooms. They cover the travel and the bed, which is why they start where the day-out ideas stop.

The window and its edges

A Saturday to Sunday break avoids Friday altogether and gets everyone home by Sunday afternoon.

If one person can only join on Saturday afternoon, the break can still work, but Vennado will not show it as a window. It suggests nights away only when the whole group is free throughout. Plan that one by hand: the late arrival needs their own train ticket and a room that does not depend on them turning up with the rest.

Breaks get planned further out than anything else, often before people know their diaries for those weeks. Book what can be cancelled until they do.

If someone in the group is on shifts

The weekend itself is often fine. The trouble is a late finish on Friday or nights starting on Sunday, and the plan's settings deal with both.

• Allow sleep after a night shift. The seven hours after a night shift count as busy unless you switch this off, so the morning after nights is not counted as travelling time. Nobody should be on the 9:10am train after finishing a night at 8am.
• On call counts as busy. It is on by default. Someone on call for the weekend is not coming to another city, so leave it on.

The guide to planning around night shifts covers the Sunday problem, and the page for doctors covers on-calls.

Trains and flights for six or more

National Rail's group travel page says GroupSave gives three to nine people travelling together up to a third off at off-peak and super off-peak times, and that groups of ten or more may get further discounts by booking directly with the train company. Some companies do not offer it, and the group has to stay together. If one of you is coming up later, leave them out of the group ticket.

Reserve train seats in one booking so you are in the same carriage. For flights, book everyone on one booking, check each name against the passport, and look at what it costs to sit together before assuming you will.

Rooms

Decide who shares with whom before you look at hotels, and whether anyone needs a room alone. With an odd number, someone has a single, and a single costs more a head. Either that person pays the difference or the group spreads it. Both are fine. Finding out at reception is not.

Book the rooms in one booking and ask for them to be near each other. Until everyone is sure of the date, pay the extra for a rate you can cancel.

Passports and paperwork for Europe

Collect everyone's passport issue date and expiry date before paying for flights. There is always one. For countries that follow Schengen rules, the government's travel advice says a passport must have a date of issue less than 10 years before the day you arrive, and an expiry date at least 3 months after the day you plan to leave. The same pages say the EU's Entry/Exit System is being brought in across the Schengen area, so read the entry requirements for your destination before you book.

Protecting the money

• ATOL. The ATOL scheme protects package trips that include a flight. A flight bought directly from an airline is not covered, and nor are separate bookings that are not part of a protected package.
• Section 75. The Financial Ombudsman Service says it can apply to credit card purchases where the cash price is more than £100 and not more than £30,000. On a group booking the card provider may argue it covers only the cardholder's share. In one published decision a provider offered only the cardholder's and his partner's share of a coach holiday for sixteen, and the ombudsman made it refund the lot.
• Insurance. Each person needs their own travel insurance, bought when the trip is booked.

This is general information, not advice on your booking.

Splitting the cost

Rooms are paid by the people in them. Travel is each person's own, because people come from different places and on different railcards. Keep a kitty for taxis and the shared round.

Collect the money before the lead booker pays. Then agree, in writing in the group chat, what happens if someone has to drop out: the usual rule is that whoever drops out covers anything that cannot be refunded, unless they find someone to take their place. The guide to a group trip on a budget goes into the sums.