Picking up on recent posts about the joys of travelling companions, what has been your most frustrating experience? I%26#39;m not intending this to become an opportunity to back-stab our friends or families, rather to give an opportunity to reflect, laugh, sigh, groan, etc......and what would you do/have you done differently next time?? (apart from the obvious - travel on your own!)
Sandra
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One trip several years ago my daughter wanted her young college friend to come with us so I told her OK. This friend of hers was a terrible traveler always complaining!
She would only eat at Quick or Mac D%26#39;s or candy and ice cream and milkshakes. Meal time was a real pain.... I finally told them they could eat lunch and dinner on their own as I did not to spent 2 hours looking at menus on the windows.
We have a good laugh now as we nicknamed the gal %26quot;Pez Girl%26quot; because that is what she seemed to eat the most of while in Paris even though she called herself a vegetarian!
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Traveling with other people can be tough. I tend to like to travel by myself just because I have my own preferences and prefer not to have to adapt them for others. I have a close gal friend and we enjoy going to Las Vegas but what drives me crazy is that she likes to get up at 6 am, after we%26#39;ve been out enjoying the town for the better part of the night. I prefer to sleep late.
I think that when you travel with others perhaps adjoining rooms is good and if the person you are with is independent enough, splitting off to do your own thing and then meeting up again later in the day can help.
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I%26#39;ve had different types of traveling experiances.
I have usually traveled with my family, mostly my parents and younger sister. My parents love road trips, so our trip meant sleeping in the car, quickly moving from place to place, and eating homemade sandwiches or at McDonalds. When I was little, I couldn%26#39;t care less, but I%26#39;ve grown to hate it.
My other experiance was with my sister%26#39;s in laws.
They invited us to a cabin on Lake Michigan, where they were staying. They were polar opposite of my parents, prefering to do nothing and not really go anywhere. I enjoyed it at first but then got antsy.
I did a repeat of the trip with only my younger sister, and I loved it. We moved at our own pace and had a great time. Unfortunately, she wasn%26#39;t very adventurous so we didn%26#39;t do much exploring. We also tend to get on each other%26#39;s nerves, because she worries alot and I plan too much.
So my Paris trip I decided to do on my own to avoid a bad traveling partner. And also, I know no one else who wants to go as badly as I do. I%26#39;d be worried that they would not share my enthusiasm and ruin the trip.
~Anna
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This is a fun topic.
Several years ago my huband and I invited my sister to come along with us to Paris. She brought a friend, whom we%26#39;d not met before. Upon arrival in Paris we were dog tired and hungry. I suggested we go out to eat and then unpack. When we arrived at a little nearby cafe my sisters friend announced that she had studied French for years at USC and therefore, she should do the ordering. So I asked her to ask for a glass of water. She spoke to the waitress who promptly returned with a piece of cake. It only got worse from there. LOL
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Last year I went on a long anticipated trip to Paris that I had planned for months with 2 friends with whom I work and know well. One friend called and asked if her sister could come along, I said sure as long as she understood that it was going to be very expensive and that we had decided in advance that we all could afford it and were not going to worry about money. Supposedly she passed this message along to her sister who agreed. We no sooner landed then the whinging and complaining started. She also had this hight pitched voice that bore a hole right thru me. Her favorite expression was %26quot;I ain%26#39;t payen that%26quot; which I heard ad nauseum. I better person would have been able to overlook all this and enjoy herself anyway but not me. I am only scratching the surface of this very expensive trip from hell. Needless to say I am returning again this May to experience the city on my own. We live, we learn.
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About every third trip or so, I MUST go on my own. Paris is a wonderful city to share with other people, but I find that traveling with others, even really good friends, can be one of the most painful experiences one can endure.
So, occassionally I share, but I always plan trips for myself. Paris, for me, is one of the greatest places ever to be by myself. I can linger when I want to linger, rush when I want to rush, spend my quiet time deep in the crypt at St. Denis next to Louis without anyone to bother me, climb to the top of the dome of the Sacre Coeur, and come down when I darn well please, stay out all night at a club and wake up when I want to, eat at McDo without fear of reprisal (LOL), feed the birds in front of Notre Dame without hearing %26quot;Oooh, that%26#39;s nasty%26quot; when you%26#39;ve got 30 of them sitting on your palms, your shoulders, your head.....not having people ask you the stupidest questions in the world that they would never ask you if you weren%26#39;t in France and they didn%26#39;t have a general clue....like when you just finish telling them a brief history of the Conciergerie, and they ask you why the man standing to your left is wearing red, or if the line at the crepe stand around the corner is going to move fast. Duh. I don%26#39;t know. Oh....I have discovered so many people in my travels who apparently check their common sense with their luggage.
Alas, maybe I%26#39;m the one that%26#39;s hard to travel with.......
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This IS a fun topic. About ten years ago, a work friend asked me to go with her (at her expense) to visit her daughter who was doing a semester at Oxford. We stayed at a lovely hotel in Oxford and went on a weekend trip on the Eurostar to Paris and daytrips to London. Omigod this woman should have stayed home. She sat in the hotel and smoked and drank coffee the ENTIRE day. In London she hated and complained about EVERYTHING. The smog, the walking, the food, the people (they TALK funny). In Paris, she hated everything too, especially the fact that NO ONE spoke English. Oh it was awful...
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I have yet to travel solo. I want to, but then feel so guilty when one of my (lazy!!) friends says, %26quot;Oh...how fun....wish I could go!%26quot; Note that its not a monetary issue of going--no, instead, it%26#39;s the fact that they don%26#39;t take the initiative to PLAN to go. I have fallen prey to this twice. The first was a whirlwind Euro-trip this past June. We visited my brother in Switzerland, drove to Torino, then back to Switzerland where we later flew to Madrid, then flew to Paris, then the train to Amsterdam and then caught a flight home. This took a lot of planning which I didn%26#39;t mind, and actually quite enjoyed (travel and the coincident planning is a big hobby of mine). I took my roommate at the time whom I have known since high school. DEAR GOD. It started with a layover in Newark where she (well, and I, too) decided to win the favor of a bartender who then %26quot;blessed%26quot; us with probably a few too many drinks. Well, who cares!! It was the start to our big trip! My friend, however, didn%26#39;t know her limit, and proceeded to %26quot;get sick%26quot; even before we got on the plane. Then she was sick on the plane. Even %26quot;got sick%26quot; on me...ON THE PLANE.
So, upon arriving in Switzerland, I was refreshed (slept the whole way over) and ready to go. My friend required a stop at a roadside Turkish toilet--TWICE. Because she hungover beyond belief she didn%26#39;t want to go and do anything. And then proceeded to get irritated with me when I was going to leave her at the house.
I managed to eat some peculiar meat in Torino, from which I got food poisoning. This caught up with me in Madrid. I was really sick and decided to stay in for the afternoon, but my friend was going to tour around for a couple of hours and then meet back up with me. She never came back. In the meantime, however, I started to become violently ill and ended up having to go to a hospital (horrible, long story). I left word with the hotel clerk and my friend finally shows up at the hospital around midnight (I had last seen her around 1 pm). I was so ill that I thought I was going to have to go back to my brother%26#39;s house. Granted, not what I wanted to do, but at that point, I was more inclined for what I needed to do. My friend actually gets mad at me for being sick. LIKE I CAN HELP IT!!!
After a night%26#39;s hospitalization, I felt better. Stayed on Madrid for another day and then headed to Paris armed with anti-nausea medicine and loads of crackers.
I love Paris--love to see it, walk it, enjoy the food, and just feel the energy of the place. Can%26#39;t say the same for my friend. I cannot tell you how many times I heard %26quot;my feet hurt%26quot;. Then WHY did you bring flip-flops! Then there was the chanting of %26quot;I don%26#39;t like that%26quot; (UGH! Major pet peeve!). She didn%26#39;t want to go to any museums, which was a bummer for me. And the kicker was, even though I had been hospitalized two days prior, she insisted on afternoon nap. WHAT??!! We were 25 then!!! I went the first day, figured I could use the rest, too. But after that, I balked, which ticked her off. UGH!!!
I guess what got under my skin the most is that her intention was to tour Europe for the purpose of gathering party pics. I enjoy going out and having a good time, but there are other things to see and do aside from visiting bars and clubs and staying most of the night (which puts a damper on the next day). I live in New Orleans...I can go out here!!
Then there was the complaining of %26quot;Well, how come I didn%26#39;t get to pick what we got to do%26quot;....Because you didn%26#39;t want anything to do with the planning! I had been planning our trip for almost 6 months, hhad asked for input, etc, but she was always indifferent and uninterested. But, when we actually are on the trip, then she wants to weigh in on hotel choices, etc.
Wow....this go really long. Guess I needed to vent. haha. Thanks Sandra for the opportunity!
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I%26#39;ve been to Paris twice, and both times I accompanied my husband, who attended a show for several days. At first I was nervous about being on my own during the day, but it didn%26#39;t take me long to realize that you don%26#39;t need a companion to tour around Paris and have a great time. It actually turned out to be an advantage because I did whatever I wanted at my own pace. I was completely free to enter shops and not have Mr. Shoesy complain that shopping is a waste of precious time. Now don%26#39;t get me wrong - I adore my husband and love being with him, but aside from the fact that he isn%26#39;t interested in shopping, he loves taking a million photos, and to tell you the truth......not only do I hate posing, I also dislike the way I look in most photos. So, during the day I didn%26#39;t have to smile and say %26quot;cheese%26quot; - I only had to do that in the evening, and by then I was really happy to be with my hubby because Paris is soooooooooo romantic.
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I LOVE my friends and familty, so traveling with them is alwuas a treat and I have had lots of opportunities to indulge... picking up hitchhikers in Cuba, cooking classes in a Tuscan Villa, backpacking in SEAsia, baseball with local kids in the Dom. Rep., hangin%26#39; at the hoestead with the fams.... Now that we live in Paris, waht a treat!!! Day trips to London, biking in the Somme, exploring the Marseille fishing port, jam making, eating our way through Rome, hiking the Algarve....
I have been so blessed!
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