The stars that play together...

Anna Coogan

SHARING a holiday with a good friend might seem like a relaxing plan, but you'll need ground rules to make sure you both have fun

Sunshine, sand and sandals are on just about every woman's mind after a miserable winter, and you can rest assured you're in good company if you're planning a break away with friends. Celebrity pals Beyonce and Gwyneth Paltrow are also reportedly planning to go on a break away together -- a yoga-based holiday with their children in Tuscany, Italy, later this summer.

The two friends -- who originally met through their respective husbands Jay-Z and Coldplay rocker Chris Martin -- are believed to have hired a villa for a luxury yoga-based break.

Beyonce (30) is expected to take eight-week-old daughter Blue Ivy, while 39-year-old Gwyneth will include daughter Apple (seven), and son Moses (five), in the trip.

A yoga hollier might not be everyone's idea of R&R, yet friends Beyonce and Gwyneth are thought to be planning daily yoga sessions and early morning sun salutations at the private five-star villa, which has its own pool.

It seems Beyonce has been taking her daughter Blue Ivy to baby yoga classes after Gwyneth recommended it, so they will spend some of the holiday doing family yoga sessions.

The pair is also expected to get stuck into a menu of Gwyneth's favourite organic grub while they are away.

Margaritas

Yoga and organic food won't be everyone's cup of green tea when it comes to planning a holiday. Traditionally, girls-on-tour getaways are more about margaritas, managing to get an all-over tan, and markets that sell fake designer goods.

They can also be about forbearance, forgiveness, and a willingness to forget friends being bold, as any veteran of girly hols will know.

Think of the enduringly popular film Shirley Valentine in which Pauline Collins finds herself talking to a rock on a beach for company when the friend she is in Crete with hooks up with a man and abandons her.

Courteney Cox and Jennifer Aniston are the poster girls for friends who regularly go on vacation together. The duo has an annual break away in Cabo in Mexico, where they spend their days sunning themselves by their private pool or on the beach.

It's even been reported that the actresses who met on the set of Friends are thinking of buying a holiday home together.

Other celebrity pals who are known to have shared a break in the sun are Kate Moss and Lily Allen, though the friends have reportedly fallen out since -- and it seems that yet another girly occasion was to blame for the freeze in the friendship.

It was reported that Allen was upset when she heard Moss was planning to throw a hen night on the same weekend as hers. Afterwards, it seems Moss was upset not to receive an invitation to Allen's wedding and didn't invite Allen to hers, according to reports.

Cool

We will never know for sure the sequence of events which caused the friendship to cool, yet there will hardly be a woman who won't believe that friends can fall out over something as seemingly insignificant as a hen's night.

Sometimes it only takes something small to trigger a major meltdown in a friendship. Whether it's over money or boys, there are many reasons why friends fall out during what should be one of the most enjoyable times of the year for them.

In fact, we may even be seeing the result of a friendship break-up in Gwyneth's decision to holiday with Beyonce. Not so long ago Gwyneth and Madonna were inseparable and yet they are hardly ever seen out and about together these days.

So the moral of the story is, if you're planning to go on holidays with friends this summer, make sure you have some ground rules. These include not stealing someone else's sun lounger or hooking up with the first waiter who gives you the come-on.