I like to mix up my travel experiences, which means that sometimes, I travel solo, while other sometimes I travel with a companion. If you choose to travel with a companion, I strongly encourage you to proceed with caution to ensure everyone enjoys the trip.
Always start by defining the objectives of the trip. Relaxation? Adventure? Culture? Attend a specific event? People have different ideas about what constitutes the perfect trip. Preferences, person habits, interests, and even physical limitations should be considered. Early riser or night owl? Structured itinerary or go with the flow? I encourage you to start with these conversations before you even start planning the trip.
Before you plan the “trip of a lifetime” with someone, you may want to consider starting small. Kind of a practice run, just to make sure you are compatible travel partners. A long weekend. A short cruise. Enough of an experience to get an idea of what it will be like to travel together.
Establish ground rules. This can be a simple conservation to manage expectations. Having this conversation before a trip will minimize the need for potentially awkward conservations during the trip, or worse, coming home not speaking to each other. What do you expect? What do they expect? A deal breaker for me is traveling with somebody who expects to do everything together. I need to know that my travel companions are comfortable doing things independently if there are things they are interested in that I’m not, or if I’m interested in something that doesn’t appeal to them. If you are sharing a room, or a cabin if on a cruise, that can be a lot of togetherness in cramped quarters. How will you handle this if you just need a little quiet time or privacy? Make sure each person agrees to say something in a mature, respectful way if something is impacting the travel experience.
Even if you are married or in a relationship, you may choose to travel with a friend for a variety of reasons. I am currently reading a lot of posts on social media regarding the European Christmas markets. A couple of people have asked about things for their husbands to do while they shop the markets, to which several replied that they may want to leave him at home. Again, this is where managing expectations is important. If the spouse is fine doing things on their own, there’s no problem, but if this is not discussed in advance, there could be conflict.
One last point to ponder….the more people on the trip, the more opinions, personalities, and preferences will need to be balanced. I know a number of people who travel with large groups of friends or family members. If that appeals to you, great! You need to understand what you expect from a trip and not be afraid to share it, especially if a number of other people are involved. Unless you are fortunate enough to have unlimited time and money for travel, plan wisely!
