Have you ever taken a girls’ trip with your best friend?
It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.
I honestly haven’t taken a girls’ trip in about 20 years unless you count Z and I going away together – which I don’t because being in mom mode is not the same as being in relaxed, girls’ getaway mode.
Usually, when my bestie and I spend time together, it is either super early in the morning or in rushed, stolen moments between family obligations.
We always wish we had more time. We always say “if only we could plan a whole weekend to do fun things together!”
You see, my bestie and I love to do all the same things. We love to hike and spend time in nature. We love to meditate. We love to talk… and talk… and talk. We love to go walking in pretty places. We love to eat amazing food – specifically vegetarian food, often from other cultures. We love our families, and we also love to take breaks now and then to just relax, take our mom hats off and be ourselves. And we love to go on trips!
Bottom line: when we’re together, we get to do everything WE like – and it’s awesome. But it doesn’t happen very often. That’s why this trip was so needed!
We turned a necessary trip – picking up our German college student in Virginia and bringing her back up north – into a super fun girls’ getaway through WV and VA. If that path of travel sounds familiar, it’s because I took the exact same trip with my family back in March for our spring break getaway. And I loved taking that trip with my family – it was great!
But the idea of taking the same trip again, this time with my bestie and in my beloved hubby’s gorgeous new truck, filled me with excitement. I was so glad when she offered to come with me as company for the long drive to Virginia from Ohio.
I knew we would take lots of side quests – like going hiking in beautiful places and seeing lots of waterfalls. I also knew we’d seek out yummy vegetarian food and not just stop at the usual fast food places you see along the highway. A girls’ trip requires an elevated version of the typical road trip fare!
Sure enough, our 1,000-mile round trip was one of the most fun and epic road trips I’ve ever taken – even with all that driving. It felt like self-care. Parts of the trip even felt like magic.
So how can you turn a long road trip into a fun and unforgettable girls’ getaway? Here are my top tips.
- Choose your companion wisely. Travel with a friend (or friends) with whom you can really relax and be yourself. We got so silly on this trip at times! For example, there was a small town in Virginia named Midlothian and I decided that was a very cool word that I needed to incorporate into my everyday vocabulary. From that moment on, everything was Midlothian. It could double as an adjective, noun or verb – and it could mean absolutely anything or everything. The whole trip was magnificently Midlothian. If you don’t get it, all I can say is you had to be there.
- Stop whenever and wherever you like. Enjoy the journey! We knew we had an 8-hour drive ahead of us both days, but we planned to make our trek as fun as possible. We weren’t on a tight schedule; we had plenty of time. We agreed at the outset that we would stop anywhere that looked good – and of course, I had planned a special hiking and waterfalling side quest that I knew we both would love. We both fell in love with WV’s Sandstone Falls in the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve. It was so wonderful that it deserves its own post. I can’t wait to return again someday. We also made a completely spontaneous stop at the magnificent Falling Spring Falls in VA.
- Eat good food – not just road food. While I drove, my bestie used Yelp and Google to research an amazing vegetarian-friendly cafe in a small mountain town in WV. We both loved The Dish Cafe so much that we ended up returning the next day on our drive back up to Ohio. Before this trip, I never would have guessed you could find healthy, wholesome, made-from-scratch food in the hills of rural Appalachia. On family road trips, I’m okay with stopping at McDonald’s or the like – but for our girls’ trip, we wanted to take some extra time and make sure every meal was special. Our two lunches at The Dish were among the highlights of our trip.
- Make the most of the miles. We listened to music for a while, listened to a podcast about Buddhism for a time, and mostly we talked. The drive time honestly just flew by! Great company will do that. Neither of us felt like we were trying to get to a destination (even though, of course, we were). We were both simply enjoying the journey and our time together. The conversation flowed, we laughed a whole lot and anytime we needed a break, we took one. That’s how we turned an 8-hour drive into a 12-hour one, but it was honestly worth every minute.
On the way back to Ohio with all of our college student’s belongings and suitcases loaded into the back of our pickup truck, we didn’t feel like we could leave the truck for a long break to hike. We did stop at several scenic spots for photos and to stretch our legs, of course – and we spontaneously visited one more waterfall because we couldn’t help ourselves.
Virginia and West Virginia are both full of scenic spots and waterfalls. Driving through these states is a pleasure and I highly recommend it – especially if you can go with your best friend!
Have you taken a girls’ trip or friends’ trip? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below or over on Facebook or Instagram.
