Hi, I'm Ben.
Over the last decade, I've organized more than 30 group holidays — and joined plenty more.
My belief is simple: group trips can be some of the best experiences of your life. They help people make memories, step out of their day-to-day routines, and connect in ways that rarely happen at home.
How it started
Why "Four Thousand Weekends"?
In the spirit of Four Thousand Weeks, we only get so many weekends — we should enjoy them. People find interactions most meaningful; creating them is hard, so I do that.
It's all about
the people you go with.
A great group trip depends on the group. It can't include people who are too high-maintenance, intolerant, or unwilling to adapt. The destination matters — the people matter more.
A £12 flight to Málaga.
In 2013, we found £12 flights from Edinburgh to Málaga. We spent a long weekend in Málaga and Granada, visited the Alhambra, and made full use of Oasis Backpackers hostel prices. On a tight student budget, it felt like we had hacked travel.
Skydiving in Dubai.
After my first proper paycheck, I decided I wanted to go skydiving in Dubai. I'd probably seen a video on YouTube and decided that was reason enough. To my surprise, two colleagues wanted to join. Only one of them actually came skydiving — but the three of us have been friends ever since.
Eight people in Frankfurt.
My brother celebrated his birthday in Frankfurt. I asked a few London friends if anyone wanted to come along. The trip became oversubscribed — not two, but eight people joined, which left my brother frantically organizing mattresses and forced me to build an actual itinerary for a weekend in Frankfurt.
The story kept getting bigger.
I moved to New York City in 2017 and organized several more group trips — an epic upstate road trip to Niagara Falls, Burning Man, Mardi Gras. But it wasn't until I returned to Europe in 2019 that I came up with my most ambitious trip yet.
Three things I learned about great group trips.
I had started to notice a few patterns. They've shaped every itinerary I've built since.
Choose places with fewer fixed expectations
It's harder to organize group trips to places people already desperately want to see. Take people to Mexico and they won't just want activities — they'll want Chichén Itzá. Eastern European cities sit lower on the average bucket list, which makes them ideal: people arrive open.
Make sure no one feels isolated
If you invite individuals who don't already know anyone, you need to either spend time actively integrating them – or make sure there are enough other people in the same position that they don't feel like outsiders.
Push people slightly out of their comfort zone
People are much more willing to try new things in a group, especially when others are doing it too. And later, they often look back most fondly on the experiences that challenged them.
So for my birthday in 2019, I invited everyone to Vilnius.
Everyone who came had met at least one other person on the trip before. And to challenge ourselves, we became some of the first visitors to the now-infamous Vilnius Nightmare Hotel horror house.
A full weekend, scored in eight acts.
We had a full itinerary: a gun range, a horror escape room, board games, great local food, a beer tasting, karaoke, a walking tour, and billiards.
- 01Gun range
- 02Horror escape room
- 03Board games
- 04Great local food
- 05Beer tasting
- 06Karaoke
- 07Walking tour
- 08Billiards
Each year bigger than the last, in a different city somewhere in Europe.
“The destination matters. The people matter more.”