STORY TELLING | The Best Girl's Trip Ever!

It was summer 2013. A family friend moved to my city from out of town and we instantly became very close.  We hung out a lot together that summer, to the point of our social lives becoming engrossed in each other and our friends collided into one. So it only made sense that when her birthday came around that we decided to do a road trip to New York City (NYC) with a bunch of girls!

We decided on NYC because it is the city that never sleeps.  We initially were going for a particular party, however tickets were sold out, so we opted to attend another party on a different weekend. A much more amazing, and ride worthy, we later found out!
I took the lead on organizing the trip and delegated tasks to the other women so we all had a hand in the planning process. Due to being the 6 of us, we agreed to stay in an Airbnb due to space, flexibility & comfort.

The route from Toronto to NYC was a scenic one.  We started our journey at 10pm, which meant that it was dark and lonely on those streets. We needed to get a head start as the border tended to be quite busy during the mornings and in the day. With lots of fields on both sides, and windy roads that went up and down the hills, we sang loud to 90’s music and got into the mood with the current hip hop to pump up ourselves when our bodies were trying to force us to go into sleep mode. We loaded the car with a whole bunch of CDs, chips & candies, my favourite snack which was Raspberry Flakies, homemade sandwiches, & stories about our relationships both platonic and romantic. We left our worries behind while we got amped for a fun filled girl’s weekend.
The adventures started pretty instantaneously due to our rental car we received was a Tahoe. Beautiful big body truck, we wanted to make sure we had ample amount of space for the sleepers, and luggage of 6 women who have no idea how to pack light for 3 days. However, the Tahoe we quickly realized had major mechanical issues. Turned out the vehicle would be extremely difficult to turn left or right, whereby it would take a few of us at a time to help turn the steering wheel. Not Kidding! Since the drive was mainly straight, we didn’t really notice how baaaad it was until we got into the city and had to make a U-turn when we drove in the wrong direction

We were concerned.

The suggestions were that we should go to the nearest rental company and swap the vehicle, however we had told the rental company that we were not driving it out of the province. (Eeeeek!) The other suggestion was to not drive it at all when we got to our location, and at the time that sounded like the best decision. Collectively, we opted for what made the most sense, and that was to park it and only drive it home back to Toronto. Some of us however had other plans - we would later find out.
All in all, I drove most of the trip with two other people who took turns staying up to keep me company. The birthday girl laid back and was in and out of sleep most of the way, and would check in if I was hungry, wanted to stop or overall tired and wanted to change drivers.

When we arrived in NYC the shenanigans began. Our airbnb host was a young single male, who owned this well kept property, which was a decent size for the 6 of us. Two bedrooms on the main floor, and one on the top, there were two full washrooms, a kitchen, dining and living room areas. He stayed around on our first day in, and we thought maybe he was checking out one of the girls because he kept suggesting events and parties to hit up in the city. He was quite persistent that the 4 out of 6 of us eventually went out that night. Tired, I decided to stay in to catch up on much needed sleep if I was going to be partying it up the rest of the weekend.

I ended up crashing on the couch, and that became my home spot for the rest of our time there. Day 1 we explored Brooklyn and went shopping! Grabbed some amazing street food and walked around the strip. We realized how expensive this place was, when we tried to park our big truck in the parking lot. $60.00 for 1 hour due to the size of our vehicle was what they were charging us, and we were flabbergasted at those rates that we drove around in circles until we found a more decent parking fare. After a few hours of walking around the blvd, we headed back to our location to get ready for the night out on the town.
We ended up taking a taxi and headed down to Manhattan for some fun. We had seen celebrities that night on the street and in the party, but our main focus was the birthday girl who we hoped was having the time of her life. We met some very interesting people, and even had a couple proposals in the process of trying to just enjoy ourselves by dancing. When the night ended it was a mission to get a taxi to bring us back to Brooklyn. We were unable to locate a taxi large enough for our size. Needless to say, by 4 am we ended up splitting up to make it back to the Airbnb.
Day 3 was the epic party that we had planned our entire trip for. It was called “The Greatest Day Ever!” With adult rides, cotton candy, beer sponsorship, and a festival of music, it definitely turned out to be The Greatest Day Ever!

The event started at noon, and we arrived at 1:30 pm. The lineup was ridiculously long, and we were unsure if we were going to make it inside. One of the girls had a genius idea to speak with the bouncer to see if she could get us in. With a lot of convincing, and using the fact that we were from Canada, the sobbing worked and we made it in under an hour, when the line was already projecting a 2.5 hour wait. We really bonded that day, and met some more amazing individuals. When we left that night, we were drenched in sweat and was still going off the adrenaline of the festival. Later that night we went out again back to Manhattan and continued to party until the wee hours of the morning.
Heading back home, we decided to attend a day party that was also serving brunch. This time the parking was astronomical again, so we found street parking that costed half the price.

Unable to stay too long, we ate brunch, partied a bit and then began our long 8 hour journey back to Toronto. What made this trip the best female group trip, was that everyone had the mindset to have a great time. It was a well planned out event where everyone understood the purpose. We all got to do what we wanted, have fun in the process and created memories that would last a lifetime. From the time we left Toronto with the thought that we would get stuck with this rental car that was having issues, to proposals and unsure how we would make it back to our accommodations, we all took the adventures with stride and no one was high strung about any of it.

If you had a best girl’s trip experience, we’d love to hear from you!
Let us know in the comments below.

Happy Traveling,
The Luxe and Lavish Team