<p>I am looking for ideas for a bonding vacation for myself, my husband, 2 of our sons, their girlfriends and 2 boys that are now part of our family. So, that is 8 of us all together. We have a week at the end of May that I think we could all do something together. I could rent a house at the beach like we have many times before, but I am looking for something different. I wish I had a bunch of money so we could all go to Europe or something, but I can probably spend $5000. I’m thinking about renting a camper and driving across the country from NC to the Grand Canyon and then flying back. It looks like that would be about $5000 and could be done in 9 days. Any body have any ideas?</p>
<p>I would create some sort of scavenger hunt, couple v couples, or boys vs girls, what team cancollect most state license plate list, etc</p>
<p>Also, if driving, people make CDs of favorite songs for road, and no matter how bad, everyone has to suffer through</p>
<p>Ghost stories</p>
<p>Every night different team is in charge of dinner</p>
<p>Cards</p>
<p>Charades</p>
<p>Bad movie night</p>
<p>Trivial pursuit</p>
<p>Some arts and crafts guys can get into this</p>
<p>Make sure where u stop has fun stuff</p>
<p>How old is everyone? A camper/driving vacation could be great, or it could be a nightmare if everyone is too close together for too long. We had a great family vacation on a cruise ship. My mother + my brothers and sister and all our kids. The cousins really enjoyed spending time together. My take was that a cruise was nobody’s first choice as the ideal vacation, but it was the best thing for the group. There was always something for someone to do and enough space so we weren’t always forced to be together.</p>
<p>Sea of Cortez in Baja? Rent a big ol’ condo. Would look into safety first, and whether there is easy transportation…Grand Canyon is awesome, though!!</p>
<p>Driving cross country with 8 adults would be my idea of nightmare, and sleeping together in a camper? What if someone snored? I did a trip like that as a child, and I still remember waking up multiple times at night. </p>
<p>I think renting a beach house at a more exotic place would be the way to go. End of May is not a busy time, you should be able to get some great deals.</p>
<p>They don’t make a camper big enough for my family (and maybe even the camper) to survive a 9-day cross-country trip. 
My suggestion is to come up with a situation that allows people some private downtime. Were you thinking of going to RV camps along the way, or driving to hotels occasionally?</p>
<p>All of the kids are college age and very easy going. I was thinking we could bring a tent so that we could spread out a little at night. I need to do research to find interesting places along the way to stop. I could see spending a few nights in a hotel or something. I also thought we would travel via Colorado so that we could see the Rocky Mountains. According to Google Maps it adds about 200 miles on to the trip.</p>
<p>First, have you checked to see if you can do a one way rental on the camper? I would be surprised if you could but maybe there are companies that do that? I would not like a cross country trip in a camper with all of those people, but that’s me. I would prefer to take a larger suburban or whatnot and stay in hotels along the way–showers in close quarters like that are a good thing. Even staying at Microtels, etc. is going to be less expensive than renting a camper for a week.</p>
<p>If you want to see the Rockies and camp, I would plan a trip through some of the national parks in that area. If you want to specifically see the Grand Canyon, I would fly into Phoenix, stay at a nice resort there, take a day trip up to the Grand Canyon. We’ve been to the JW Marriott Desert Ridge in the Phoenix area a couple times and it would be a great place for a bunch of college kids to hang out for a week. Day trips to Sedona, Grand Canyon, even an overnight to San Diego could be an option.</p>
<p>If you do go the Grand Canyon route, consider doing one of those hikes (or donkey rides) down and back. With all eight of you doing it, that would create some good bonding. Also, some whitewater rafting down the Colorado.</p>
<p>The camper sounds tough to me with a serious lack of privacy and inadequate bathrooms for a group that large. Vacation Rentals by Owner website has some amazing houses for rent in Sedona, which is not too far from the Grand Canyon, but there’s also a lot of other things to do in that area, and the end of May should be warm but not uncomfortable. (In the Phoenix area it is really hot by then.)</p>
<p>another vote that the camper sounds claustrophobic, nice for young kids and parents, awkward for college aged kids especially with girlfriends, you’d have “couples” sleeping together in the same space as parents…</p>
<p>cruises are nice because you can do your own thing for parts of the day but share meals, and select activities…renting a cottage sounds lovely, but I’ve done this with my college aged kids and they found it a tad boring. I’d make sure to have access to bicycles, or other activities if I did a cottage.</p>
<p>What about renting a cabin in the smoky mountains. Closer to you (assuming east coast from other comments). Lots of stuff to see and lots of time for water sports and cards, board games,etc.</p>
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