This post is all about how to always travel with the right people.
Have you ever gone on a trip with someone for the first time and realized that you hate the way they sleep, the way they eat, and the way they make decisions? You had a rough time on your vacation, didn’t you? If you’ve been on enough adventures, you’ll start recognizing who you do and don’t want to bring with you. Even if you two have a history and have the strongest friendship, if the vacation isn’t enjoyable with them, then they aren’t a good travel partner for you.
How To Always Travel With The Right People
1. Do they match your sleep schedule?
One of the most important habits to watch out for when you’re traveling with someone, or multiple someones, is their sleep schedule.
If you’re a morning person and they’re a night person, you’ll be in bed for a couple more hours before they wake up. They’ll be dragging you around to every night activity while you’re trying not to let your eyes shut.
With this scenario, you’ll both start having grudges against each other by day three.
Of course, there is an easy fix to this. If you’re a morning person, you can always wake up early, leave first, and explore alone. If you’re a night person, you’ll just have to go partying at night alone as well.
An even BETTER fix is to just make sure you’re traveling with someone that lives by the same sleep schedule as you. I went on a trip once with a good friend of mine and they had such a hard time staying awake while we were out (past 10 pm). Since my friend was so tired and couldn’t enjoy themselves, I had a hard time enjoying myself. I was more focused on how my friend was feeling.
So I highly recommend you follow my advice. Are you a morning person? Travel with a morning person. Are you a night person? Travel with a night person. You get it. With this tactic, you’ll be spending the entire trip with your friend and enjoying every moment together.
2. Do you have similar interests in food?
After sleep, food is the next big trait you need to watch out for. I believe that food is one of the best ways to connect with other people. Such as whenever you meet with an old friend, you normally go out for lunch or dinner. (Or breakfast). But the best way to bond over food is if you both can eat the same kinds of food.
Personally, I’m into almost everything. You could put anything in front of me that looks appetizing and I’ll probably eat it. But depending on the location, my leniency will only go so far.
For example, If seafood restaurants surround us, you best know I’m eating seafood. The biggest difference I see in myself and others is the love, hate, or intolerance for seafood. So if I’m on vacation in an area with lots of seafood restaurants and I brought along a friend that only eats chicken tenders and steak, you already know we’re gonna have issues deciding on dinner locations.
Again, you’ll have grudges against each other but you might have them by day two this time.
So as strongly as I say to match sleep schedules, I highly suggest matching food interests as well. You’ll have so much more fun this way and no one will be disappointed in the restaurant choices.
3. Do you have the same eating schedule?
I feel like eating schedules are constantly being moved around on a daily basis because it depends on your job, what you have planned that day, and so on and so forth. But I’d say when you’re traveling, it’ll be less stressful if you’re on the same eating schedule.
For example, if you want to schedule a chocolate factory tour after lunch, would you both agree on what time is considered after lunch? To you, after lunch could mean 1:00 pm. To them, after lunch could mean 3:00 pm. Either someone is going to be starving or the other won’t have an appetite.
An eating schedule isn’t as important as a sleep schedule and food interests, but it is another habit to look out for if you want less stress for your trip.
I’d say the only time eating schedules are important is if you’re traveling internationally and there’s a large time change that you need to adjust to. Your body is already stressed out about the time change, don’t make it stressed out from lack of food and nutrients too. (I didn’t eat or drink enough since I was traveling with other people and I got sick by the second week of my Europe trip).
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4. How willing are they to try new things?
Instead of focusing on specific activity interests, I’m going to discuss overall interests.
Even if you both don’t have the same interests in activities, being willing to do new things will make up for it.
You’ll be able to do what you want to do without worrying whether they dread their time or not. There’s always the chance they realize they like what you like too. And vice versa.
I constantly worry about how the people around me feel when I ask them to do something that I’m interested in that they’ve never done before. I also get sad when I realize they didn’t enjoy their time. To prevent this stress from being placed on anyone else I travel with, I strive to be the person always willing to try new things and to find some kind of joy in the activity even if it’s not one that I would have chosen for myself.
Being around people who are willing to do anything just makes traveling so much more carefree, authentic, and easy to plan. You’ll learn so much more about yourself and your travel partner.
5. How willing are they to put out expenses?
You want to make sure that you are both on the same page budget-wise and what the max spending is that you both can tolerate.
I would highly suggest you travel with someone that is willing to spend almost as much as you do. It would really suck if there was something you wanted to do but couldn’t because your friend isn’t willing to put down the money for it. Or if you’re the one that doesn’t want to spend what your friend wants to spend and now you’re stressed about whether you should just spend your money or not. Or even worse, discourage your friend from doing what they want to do.
As you can see, more grudges may form here. Of course, I am not encouraging you or your friend to go broke just because you want to do something. Definitely be reasonable.
If it’s you on the wanting to do it side, think about whether it’s a one-time opportunity. How badly do you want to do it? Would you do the activity without your friend anyway? The last thing you want is your travel buddy to be the reason you miss out on a great experience or go broke over financial disagreements. If you and your friend agree on expenses, you’ll have no issues.
I personally would be on the willing-to-spend side. I know I’m on vacation and I worked enough to enjoy every bit of it.
Just don’t go broke and don’t go into debt. If you are very likely to fall financially, then disregard everything I just said and don’t do that expensive thing. Debt will only snowball and make you go downhill from here. Don’t do it. Lol, have fun.
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6. Do you feel 100% comfortable around this person?
Do you feel as if you can say and do anything without feeling judged by your friend? Will they join you? Will they let you be and enjoy your presence regardless of what you do? Are they someone that would always support your opinions and decisions even if they don’t agree?
These are the questions you need to be asking yourself.
There are plenty of trips I’ve been on where I felt like I had to hold back my true self and not do or say everything that I wanted to do. You don’t want to leave a trip thinking about what all you didn’t do because of your fear of someone else’s judgment.
People may say “who cares what your friend thinks, just do it” but when you’re on vacation, and you’re being yourself, it’s really easy to ruin someone else’s trip if they don’t like your behavior. Even if you’re enjoying yours.
It’s just easier to bring people that you know will have a good time no matter what.
Ending Note
That’s it for this post folks. Do you have any other tips for choosing the best travel partners? I’d say I hit very good topics if I say so myself.
I just want to make sure I enjoy my vacations to their full potential and that my travel buddy feels the same. (Jamie is a very good travel partner by the way. We’re on the same wavelength and it’s GREAT.)
Thank you so much for reading this post and I’ll see you in the next one. Have a good day!
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