Traveling with Friends: 5 Crucial Questions To Ask Before You Go!
Traveling with friends can be a wonderful experience or it can be a nightmare. If you start out as friends, you want to make sure to come back as friends. There are 5 crucial questions to ask before traveling with friends that can help alleviate stress that may come up. You may be surprised by the answers but it’s best to discuss any issues BEFORE the trip.
How To Talk About Taking A Trip With Friends
Do you have a trip with friends coming up? What if you’ve been friends with them for years yet never traveled with them? Then it is even more imperative for you have this conversation because you have a friendship you want to keep intact. Even though you know each other so well, it is very different traveling with someone, especially when things go wrong.
Taking a trip with friends is fun, and shouldn’t end up in uneasy silence or awkward situations. It’s not a hard conversation to have. You can take this post and ask the questions. Easy, right? Just
Ask these question before traveling with friends and your vacation will be more pleasant!
- Are you a morning person or night owl?
- Do you plan on being together all the time or is alone time necessary?
- Can we bring company back to the room?
- What type of traveler are you?
- If you’re renting an apartment, who gets the bigger room?
1. Are you a morning person or night owl?
This is extremely important. Before I travel with anyone I always make sure to let them know I am not a morning person and they should refrain from talking to me until I’ve had my morning coffee (I even like to have my own mug with me when traveling). This way, they won’t be offended when I have the glare of death when I wake up because they realize that is just pre-caffeinated Roni.
It is imperative to let people know your preference so everyone can act accordingly and not get on anyone’s nerves.
2. Do you plan on being together all the time or is alone time necessary?
There are some travellers that do not want to do anything without their friends and that is ok. However, what is not ok is expecting someone to be with you every second of every day if they aren’t the type of traveler that requires that level of companionship. Ask this question before you travel so expectations can be met on all sides.
3. Can we bring company back to the room?
There are some travelers that love to have some fun of the sexual nature while travelling. As grown-ups that is a decision, everyone must make for themselves. However, if you are sharing a room or apartment rental with someone it is imperative you talk about what the expectations are regarding houseguests. Will they be allowed? Is everyone comfortable if there are strangers in their space?
This has become an especially crucial question to ask because of our current global pandemic. You or your friend may have completely different views on the safety of bringing a stranger into your private space. This is most definitely something that should be discussed before the trip.
4. What type of traveler are you?
What does this mean? Well, are you into fine dining and your friends just want to get something quick and keep sightseeing? Do you expect your friends to sit with you and have leisurely meals? Will you be upset if they don’t want to? What if they want to and you don’t, are you going to be mad? Are you a budget traveler? Are they? What do you value when you travel? What do they?
If you don’t talk about these nor know the answers to these questions, this can cause stress in friendships on vacations. Be sure to discuss what everyone expects so there won’t be any surprises.
5. If you’re renting an apartment, who gets the bigger room?
I know someone who lost a friendship over a room. One of the girls decided she was going to take the big room and put her stuff in it before the others got there. This person hadn’t put the trip together and was a friend of a friend who was added last minute.
It should be obvious who gets the big room (the person who found the place and did all of the reservations should get the big room, no?) but if not, talk about it.
Traveling with friends can be a rewarding way to travel. With these 5 questions under your belt, you’ll know what to expect and how your trip will go.
Good questions! I learned some important things about myself traveling with friends. Mostly I learned I shouldn’t travel with friends! On one trip a friend had her stuff EVERYWHERE, and she was the type to just drop her towels around the hotel room. Not to mention she was one of those who was naked in the room until ready to leave the room for the day. I’m not that modest, but I have limits. On another trip a friend was constantly asking how I was, what should we do, where should we go. Just relax! It’s vacation! I think it’s good to have some alone time – especially on a longer trip.
Alone time is very good! I’m not a prude but I hardly wanna see someone’s naked body all day. Thanks for commenting!
These are so good! I’ve had too many trips complicate friendships because people were completely different types of travelers. I hope I won’t be making such a mistake again.
Thank you! It really makes a difference to have a conversation before you travel.
Not friends with someone I thought was a friend of 30+ years. Can’t be fixed. We went on a 3 week trip throughout Madrid and Morocco. Big mistake. the 3rd person said I did nothing wrong. Oh well. Had nothing to do with these questions just a emotionally not well person.
I’m sorry to hear that.
Do your travel partners sleep with the TV or light on? I need total darkness to sleep. My friend slept with the TV on. As soon as I turned the TV off she would wake up and turn it back on. Needless to say, neither one of us got much sleep.