Friday Question #115
When traveling for pleasure, who do you prefer as your travel partner? Does it depend on the length of the trip and where you are going?
Loading ...A few people had their spouses with them this week for the work-training in DC. Of course, I thought about how Steven was with me when I came for work in September, and what a fun time we had. I still had fun this time without him, and actually struck up a lot of conversations with local people (something that is probably less likely to happen when you are with someone), but knew he would have enjoyed being in DC.
I think it’s very hard for me to find someone (that isn’t Steven or family) that I can travel with for a long duration of time, to a place far away, where we will be together the entire time. I traveled with a few classmates to various places around Europe when I lived in Rome and found myself constantly craving alone time. I like to be around people – but I need time to myself too! I did go to Denmark in college (after I returned from Rome) and had a great time with one other student – actually, the only female I’ve ever met and traveled with and not been annoyed with in the end. I could be upfront with her and tell her when I needed alone time, and she was cool with it.
Wow. I sound like a pleasure to travel with, don’t I?
Now, I like to travel with Steven, but don’t mind being alone, like in DC this week. I would love to try a trip with some girlfriends or a girlfriend (if I had some/one). And I wonder what it would be like to actually travel with my family. They came to visit me in Italy and I had a great time, but didn’t actually travel with them from start to finish (Steven did though!).
With Steven in Aruba, on our honeymoon.
Themocracy
I like to travel with my boyfriend but I’ve taken a few trips with friends and family and had a great time as well. My trip to Mexico this spring was with 2 girlfriends and we were with each almost constantly and managed to not get too sick of each other (we even shared a small cruise ship cabin). I think the trick is to find people that don’t drive you crazy to begin with.
I love to travel with my husband. I am not an easy traveler, but he always is sensitive to helping me find places where there are menu items I can eat. We have had a couple of great vacations in Belize and our honeymoon in Maui was incredible. I would also love to go on a vacation with just my mom…she’s my best friend and we would have a ball, just the 2 of us 🙂
I totally know what you’re saying. My mom and I travel really well together and there are some friends it’s okay to travel with for a week or so but beyond that, I really do enjoy doing it alone. It can be hard always having to compromise about doing certain things or being with another person 24/7.
I definitely prefer to travel on my own. When I’m trying to get a relaxing vacation in, it’s hard if you’re with someone whose “vacation style” doesn’t jibe with yours!
<3 <3
I’m with you! I usually get annoyed when I travel with people.
I’m going on a 2 day conference trip at the end of July and I really wished that Luke could be there. But alas, he cannot. I suck at being alone when it comes to going to a new place with a ton of people. If it’s a place I’ve been before, I don’t mind going there alone but still at the same time, I would like to show people things I’ve seen or done and then be able to talk about the adventures of the day with someone at the end.
I travel well with my girlfriends and their children. Mostly because we’re all pretty upfront with one another. You’re annoying me? Go away. I want to go for a walk. By myself thankyouverymuch. It works for us. I don’t travel well with my family anymore. I’m just too different than them.
Depends on where I am going. For work trips I like to go alone or with a co-worker (only a handful though). For pleasure I like traveling with my husband and with a few friends.
i love to travel so much that i usually don’t care who with! i always like traveling with a boyfriend, but i’ve done loads of solo trips and loved those, and last fall i spent 8 days going through eastern europe with a girlfriend and we had a lovely time. i’m a pretty easy traveler – i eat anything / stay anywhere / don’t need much alone time so i can usually be happy with whatever my companion wants to do 🙂
It’s funny, I travel a couple of times with one of my best friends, and she got on my nerves both times. It was little things that screamed “high maintenance” and I just couldn’t deal. There was nothing major, and there was no fighting or anything, but it definitely showed me that if we went on a 2-week long vacation we wouldn’t be friends anymore by the time we got back! Luckily, Karl and I are the same way when we travel (super laid back) so it works.
I LOVE traveling with my husband for vacation! He is so easy going and easy to be around for long periods of time. But I can say that when I am traveling for work or for a conference I typically like to go alone.
i love traveling with my husband and his family – but we’ve all gotten into our groove and know HOW to travel with one another. but being by myself can be fun – for a few days, at least.
I will only travel in very specific circumstances. Lawrence is my #1 travel companion. My mom and I have traveled together before and we are very compatible. We tend to have the same expectations for activities, food, etc. I would like to travel with her again… it’s just that with limited vacation time, I would always choose Lawrence first. I don’t think I could travel with my sister. I’m totally comfortable with her, but she likes to go to threat level red countries that have toilets in the ground. And she only eats french fries. I also like traveling alone. When I went to visit my friend in New Orleans, I was on my own much of the time and I love that freedom. I went to Spain alone too and loved that. I couldn’t just travel with an acquaintance though. I like to relax and feel free on trips, not worried about what someone else’s routines. Good question!
It’s difficult to find someone who you can stand to travel with for long period of time who is not your spouse/signficant other.
I went to Greece when I was in high school and one “friend” would not stop criticizing me and being..well a bitch. So we had a huge fight and that put a damper on things. The guy in charge of this trip was also a jackass and I didn’t like him much either.
Maybe travelling with people is easier when you’re grown up. (Then again, probably not)
When I was younger, I think I was more adventurous when it came to travel (i.e. going to study in Rome without anyone I knew)… but now I feel very on edge when I travel alone (like I will forget something or set something down & forget to pick it up, etc).. I like to travel with my husband. I think there is only a small handful of others that I would enjoy traveling with:)
I had to put my spouse (wife) because we do travel good together. Especially when we are driving. We tend to talk a lot, we have a good vibe when we are in the car/truck together, we tend to like most of the same music.
A close second is my daughter. We take a trip together (just the two of us) to someplace she’s not been before. We may not talk as much as my wife and I do, but we have a good time and after we get back, she talks a lot of positive from the trip. Which makes this papa feel good.
This post is good timing since this weekend starts one of our many trips this year. We are heading to Bellingham, WA with my wife’s sister and her sister’s husband. Unlike other trips where it’s just the two of us, all 4 of us are riding in the same car. This should prove interesting. Yep, I’ll be blogging it the best that I can (her sister reads my blog).
Yep, you can’t just travel with anyone. If it’s not Ken, my husband, then I have one very special best friend who I travel very well with. We have the same approach to traveling in terms of what we like to do and when we like to do it. I consider myself very fortunate to have found someone like her.
Since I don’t have a significant other I chose friends.. although I love doing little traveling stints with my mom and/or sister. Since I consider them to be some of my closest friends I guess that I could group them in the friend category.
Since I travel for work, I get a lot of traveling alone – which is PROBABLY what I prefer….but I still voted for spouse. The reason is because when I am traveling alone, no one gets to listen to all of my witty remarks! 🙂 I gotta share the love.
I like to travel with M. Hubby just because I like to do everything with M. Hubby. Although we have certainly had some squabbles on trips.
I also really like to explore a city by myself.
I can ONLY travel with Ali because he always goes along with whatever schedule I put together. I am a take charge kind of person and so I can’t travel with other people who might want to have input. Not that I blame them for wanting input but I can’t help myself!
This post is so timely! I was just thinking about how relieved I am that Harrison and I didn’t have some kind of relationship-killing trip, especially since this was our first one together. The stress of travel (particularly international travel) can really test relationships, can’t it?
I went to Paris alone for two months over the summer in college. It really sucked because I got so lonely. I do crave alone time when I’m traveling, which is why running is so nice, but it really gets me down to want to point something out and have no one to listen. So sad. 🙁
I’m glad you’re a good “independent” traveler–it must make these work trips easier.
I love to travel with family, but I prefer to travel with ONE friend. I don’t like traveling in big groups because it limits me from doing the things I want to do and eat. I try to find a friend who is reckless and adventurous like me, and definitely one who loves food too! 🙂
Kim – how come one of the choices wasn’t “your dog”? Ted would never know that I would have chosen Shane 😉
I do not mind traveling alone at all– this month I’ll put about 4000 miles on my car (June is my travel month this summer, apparently!) and that will all be alone. Bring it on! I do like traveling with friends and family though…travel at any time is just an adventure! 🙂
I just got back from Mallorca- my first holiday alone. Although I was fearful that I might feel lonely, it turned out to be an amazing time. I met the most enjoyable family and spent 4 days with them. If I had been traveling with someone else, I would have never met these new friends. Fate is a funny thing.
It’s just easier when I travel with The Man, I don’t have to work as hard at things… but I enjoy traveling alone and with others.
Travelling with other people is hard sometimes. I dont care how close I am to someone, they get on my nerves. The boyfriend and I are ok travelling together. He annoys me all the time, so its really no different than usual. 🙂
Even my closest friends, when Im with them non stop for an extended period of time, I just want to shake them and say “leave me alone”.
Im so much fun!! lol
I travel with my family well. We have been on about 4 major trips that were out of the country and surprisingly they were the most fun and memorable times. I do agree it may be hard to travel with friends as they may not have the same things they want to do as you. I struggled with that a little bit when I was studying abroad in Italy. I usually just ended up doing what everyone else wanted to do – I was in Italy so anything was going to be awesome anyways! But if I had it to do all over again or the next time I go, I would do more research and speak up for myself more. Glad that you and Steven can travel so well together. The bf and I had taken our first alone trip during spring break, and I was so happy at how well it went. We make good travel buddies. YAY! 🙂 This post made me think a lot about my times in europe – that is sweet about your relationship with Riza. 🙂