Personally I like carefully crafting a mix CD for weeks beforehand, and then letting it playout as I trip hard, and then when the CD's over, I go explore. It doesn't really matter if I'm in a group, in a house, in the forest, I just have to explore. It's especially fun to be in a house you don't know to well (but know that no one who would care is home) and just peaking in every closet door, pressing all the buttons you find, and in general, just being a giant kid again.