The Best Do’s and Don’ts when travelling with friends
You have wonderful friends. They may be life long friends or friends of only a handful of years. You have been wanting to go on a holiday and you’re thinking you will invite a friend or two to do a trip together. Travelling with friends sounds fun doesn’t it? Well, things can turn ugly quickly when you travel with someone you’ve never travelled with before. No matter how well you think you know them, travelling with someone else can bring out sides of people you never knew were there. I want to make sure you have the best trip. Here are my top DO’S and DON’TS when travelling with friends.
DO have an honest conversation with each other to talk about how you each like to travel. Does one of you want to relax and take in the ambience, and the other wants to get more into nature and hike some trails? You want to make sure you know what each of you wants and expects out of this trip.
DON’T assume that both of you are on the same page on how you like to travel. We all know what assuming does and you don’t want to remember this the hard way. People can act differently when they are in places they don’t know. Their fears can get the best of them. Get the conversations going to really pinpoint each other’s traits.
DO talk about money. Budgets are a big thing. You may not really know how much a budget someone is on as people can be good at camouflaging it. Get the details and be upfront as well on money items when travelling with friends. Determine what the comfort levels are for each of you with regards to flights, and accommodations. If one of you is on a tight budget and the other is not, this needs to be known upfront. This can very quickly create friction on the trip if you don’t know this beforehand.
DON’T feel that you need to spend every moment together. This, again, needs to be discussed before the plans start. You want to allow each other to do things on your own when the other doesn’t want to. This will let you both enjoy the holiday you each want. You’ll have great conversations over wine and dinner listening how each other’s day went and what they saw and experienced
DO enjoy the time you have with each other experiencing new things. Focus on the positives, even if something goes awry. Go out with each other and enjoy the wine, the ambience, and the new experiences. Go ahead and order dessert for dinner. Giggle at the ups and downs. You’ll quickly know that you’ve made an even deeper friendship with each other by travelling together.