Here is a great travel party idea–rent a furnished house and have local restaurants deliver food.
This is Dan of Vagabond Buddha. This travel party idea will work alost anywhere in the world using services like Airbnb.com.
My three sisters and I just hosted three parties in Chicago where none of us live. The parties were family reunions for my mother’s 80 birthday. We rented a beautiful furnished 4 bedroom house in the Beverly area of Chicago. My sister Peggy found the house on Airbnb.com. My sister Kathleen arranged to have food delivered to the house from local restaurants each day. Kathleen’s boyfriend Chris picked the restaurants from those suggested by family and yelp.com. Our adopted sister Debra brought my mother to Chicago in style, flying first class. My sister Jenny and I just soaked up the fun and helped pay for things.
Benefits of renting a house for an out of town travel party idea:
- Place to Stay: It was a 4 bedroom house so we didn’t have to get hotel rooms with this travel party idea.
- Place to Party: The house was big and had several areas for entertaining including a back yard, so it was an intimate setting.
- Transportation: We didn’t rent cars. We just took an Uber.com taxi from the airport to the house and made a few Uber.com taxi trips to pick up party supplies.
- Things to Do: Public transportation was nearby, so we could take a train into the city. There are a million things to do in Chicago.
- Parking: The house was in a beautiful residential location so our party guests had a free place to park.
- Booze: We bought beer, wine, booze, and juices at a discount store and provided everything people would need to be their own bartender.
- Food: We had great food brought in from local restaurants. This party travel idea is much cheaper than bringing people to the restaurant and paying retail prices for drinks.
- Mingle: People are able to walk around the house and mingle with each other in many different settings: Living room, dining room, kitchen, patio, and backyard.
- Easy Clean Up: We bought paper plates so they clean up was greatly reduced with this travel party idea.
- Exercise: Those of us who wanted to could go on a nice walk or run has a beautiful neighborhood right outside the front door.
- Super Cheap: The savings from the paying for a single house for a week instead of multiple hotel rooms plus a hall were substantial with this travel party idea.
This travel party idea is great for family reunions
My mother turned 80 this year. She has everything so there is nothing left to buy. So we asked her what she would want for her 80th year of life. She wanted to visit her family in Chicago. Although my mother and her children were born in Chicago, we moved to California for 55 years ago. Her wish was our command. Over one hundred family members were invited to a house in a state where neither my mother or any of her children live.
My mother Margaret is the only living child of Joseph and Agnes. My grandparents Joseph and Agnes were immigrants and had eight children born on US soil: Tom, Patricia, Mary, Barbara, John, James, Rita, and my mother Margaret. My mother Margaret was missing her nieces and nephews and wanted to see them all again. Her parents, brothers, and sisters have all passed away, but she wanted to see their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.
My sisters Peggy and Kathleen organized multiple smaller parties so my mother would have time to talk to everyone. Peggy rented a house for one week and we had 4 family parties. The first three parties were smaller intimate gatherings of between 20 and 40 people on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Then on Saturday, the first cousins were invited–about 60 people.
Everyone had a blast. Plus it was one of the best trips we ever had as a family. We really had a chance to talk to our cousins, and we had the intimate setting of this house so we could relax for hours.
The photos were taken by everyone. Please enjoy.
Plus on the days off (Sunday, Tuesday, Friday), we were able to recharge our individual batteries or catch up on any work projects we had.
The week cost $5203. But if you divide that over 7 people staying at the house it is cheap. It is like paying $750 each for 7 days of food and lodging. But the $750 includes the expenses for 4 parties with food and alcohol and none of us had to cook for the parties. This travel party idea is better than other ideas like renting a hall and multiple h0tel rooms.
This is Dan from Vagabondbuddha.com. Go have some fun!
| Accommodations | |
| House ($432 x 7) Airbnb.com | $3,021 |
| Restaurants | |
| Pizza from Fox’s Sunday Night | $117.00 |
| Lindy’s Chili/Ice Cream Mon night | $224 |
| Paul Barbeque Wed Night | $302.16 |
| Gatto’s | $323.19 |
| Mariano’s Grocery | $286.08 |
| Aldi | $52.29 |
| Groceries and Alcohol | |
| Mariano’s Grocery | $143.47 |
| Mariano’s Grocery | $38.06 |
| Mariano’s Grocery | $339.28 |
| Mariano’s Grocery | $156.68 |
| Server for Saturday Party | $200 |
| Total | $5,203 |