Travel Companion.....

Recently, I had dinner with a friend who is into photography. She stated that the last time we went on a day outing, I stopped at various times to wait for her to take photographs of various sights that was of interest her which made her uncomfortable and therefore she would not invite someone out with her again unless that person has an interest in photography. So, I said, "fair enough" for I don't think I could travel with someone who takes 6000 photos during a three weeks trip. She looked astounded as if I had said something sacrilegious. lol

In a recent Journeywoman article, I read that someone travelled with a matched tc from hell. This woman actually bullied her and made her trip miserable. Perhaps it is better to bear the cost of paying a single supplement then allowing someone to ruin your trip.

So, what are the worst traits that you came across when you venture out with a travel companion? And, is it wise to plan a trip with someone you haven't physically met but had conversed with over the phone?

I owe a bludger whom I was stuck wit, in the outback. He made aolo traveler out of me.

We worked the same jobs, same pay.

He'd finish a meal. Smile and say,"Why should I spend my own money?"

I couldn't get rid of him. Not many highways to choose from in the outback.

I can't even bring myself to stay at a dorm in a hostel. Private room only. Independent travel has enough frustration built in, e.g. language barriers, pushy/rude cabbies or shop keepers, or hurry up and wait transportation, without having to negotiate every move with an incompatible companion.

All I can suggest is don't pick someone you have to depend on, and risk being abandoned somewhere without your stuff.

Good luck

So, what are the worst traits that you came across when you venture out with a travel companion? And, is it wise to plan a trip with someone you haven't physically met but had conversed with over the phone?

i have struggled with being a single traveller at times, when the price for a single was almost double than it would be if you have a partner. I have had a couple of experiences travelling with another... once with someone I knew, and lived in the same city.. And that went well. We went out for many lunches to discuss compatibility, and we agreed that there was no need for us to be attached at the hip. We shared a bedroom (well a cabin, it was on a freighter) but often chose to do different things during the day, catching up with each other at dinner. It was a good trip.

But then there was the travel partner from Hell.... well from Australia, actually. Met her online, planned a trip, and it turned out that we were totally incompatible. she was cheap cheap cheap.... She was an expert on Canada, never having been here before... and of course what would Canadians know? She had worked with aboriginals in Australia, so she was an expert on First Nations people in Canada, of course. She snored massively. She ate with her mouth open. I avoided eating with her. I questioned her cleanliness. She was extremely rude to servers in restaurants, clerks in shops. drivers and guides,,,always telling them they were WRONG.. Let me tell you the ways she was a bad travel companion!! I was asked by several people on tours we took if she was senile or 'mentally challenged' That's how bad it was!!! and we were locked together in a ten day trip with our transport and hotels to an obscure place. I finally just stopped talking to her, and went my own way. I didn't give a damn what she did.

i prefer 'pickup' travel companions... travellers that I meet in the guest house or wherever, and who are going in the same direction as me. We would join up for a few days, and then split when we chose to go in different directions. .

Edited by: canayjun

I always travel solo unless I'm travelling with family, driving around Ireland I was so pleased I was alone when a bus group got out to go where I was going and they were complaining about who should pay for what fare, how some of them were always late etc etc etc, I enjoyed what I saw and then left, they had to wait for the group to return to the bus. At just about every B&B people were surprised that I was travelling alone. it was well worth the money

I've rented both beds, in a room for two, in hotels. still get the companionship.
When I want it.

Still cheaper than most hotels.

Oh! Chewing with mouth open or talking with mouth full.

gross. Why should anybody put up with that?

And of coarse hey get insulted if we mention it.

I've twice travelled wit people I knew in England. They begged to be allowed to travel wit me, claimed expertise in the language, etc. They lied! And I had to nursemaid inexperienced travellers who couldn't speak the language as well as me (i.e. abysmally) and could barely be trusted to tie their own shoelaces.
OTOH - a group of us independent and solo travellers met on the train station in Aswan, all going to Sudan or further. We peeled off along the way, on our various itineraries, and I left one guy in Khartoum, having spent the greater part of a week with him. He came to London last year and we went on a two-week rip to Devon and Cornwall, hiking over Dartmoor, etc. We were still talking - laughing, actually - at the tend of those two weeks. I'd travel with him anywhere.

I think people who are basically solo travellers can get on well together.
But people who feel the need to travel with someone else should stick to tour groups and such.
In other words - not to ME!

go2... i think you have said it in a nutshell... independent travellers CAN travel best together because neither 'needs' the other, and traavelling together with a like minded person can be a lot of fun.

Came across this TCFH post which I wasn't able to put down:

http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/this-is-why-i-will-always-travel-solo-from-now-trip-report--rome-and-sorrento.cfm#last-comment

OMG! one of it's kind and this Barb author was rightly labelled as Saint Barb.

Beware, do not read it if you do not have time to spare. Lots of anecdotes from other posters about their experience of TCFH. lol

Happy reading!

Lee - I HATE you!

I couldn't put it down either - and simply dn't have time to read it all today.
Uproarious :>))

I'm pretty much with Canayjun. I am fine on my own, and when I have company need time and space to do my own thing.

That link is great Lee...very funny story.

Spent two hours reading it.....impossible to put down..

Edited by: bokajo

Quite entertaining. Just as entertaining are the comments of those who identified with the divas. lol

Why would you want to hear the same stoties from a travel albatross?

Started reading Barb's story, and somehow, I don't always sympathise wth her.
I tok two people (one I had met twice, and his sister whom I had never met, and shared rooms with) to Solomon Islands last year. I was the so-called "expert", but my two companions could not have been easier to get along with.
They were happy to do and see anything on offer. I took them to where they could climb a volcano (No way I could do that, but I was happy to stay at the lodge while they climbed). They got to see things (like a squatter village) they would never have seen without my local knowledge, but hey were great to travel with.

This whole thread has led to some introspection!

Recent irritation has been a travel companion who drops me like a rock when there is someone around with whom she can practise her Spanish! Both of us are experienced travellers, so I would just leave her to chat, and move on. Sometimes I would be caught in a long drive in a car with this happening, but, kicking and screaming, realize that my listening Spanish was getting better, and would interrupt occasionally to get a translation.Generally, I would remind myself that I'm sure that I must be bugging her in some way, so let it go! I'm not really sure if I want to travel with her again, though.

Four friends joined me in Oaxaca last winter but they stayed in the hotel next door. The one fellow in the group amused me when, at the beginning, he would try to direct us, generally in the opposite direction. By the end of their time with me, and when he did get his bearings a bit better, figured he had some need to fill by "being the boss", so let him do so. And, the other day, ran into someone else who I had met up with in Oaxaca who expressed appreciation of having someone around who knew their way around so well, and shared this info with them. Being mostly a solo traveller myself, in many cases, I just pointed out many things, and let them explore on their own.

I did read Barb's story (later that day, tried to figure out where the day had gone - then remembered!!!), and while sympathetic at the beginning, also found myself thinking she was a bit of a control freak. However, I doubt if she will make the same errors of judgement if she should ever contemplate travelling with others again, namely being more forthright about her needs, both before and during the trip. I do think she was broadsided by thinking that she had planned, and therefore others should follow.

Many years ago, I had someone want to join me at the last minute on my trip to Guatemala where I had thought it would be my first solo trip. It was a disaster, and to this day, we no longer speak to one another. At the same time, I will be joining a friend I met years ago in India on a birding trip to Africa. We recently travelled together in Texas, and it must have been okay for her, as she agreed to travel with me again!!

{quote:title=canayjun wrote:}{quote}
go2... i think you have said it in a nutshell... independent travellers CAN travel best together because neither 'needs' the other, and traavelling together with a like minded person can be a lot of fun.

I think maybe because when independent travellers travel together it is always on a temporary basis. Temporary might last a day, week or longer. But when it's no longer what either person wants then they are solo travellers and go their separate ways. No need to get into a state of not talking, cannot watch them eat, all such things are unnecessary as both people are independent and can happily go back to being independent.

A long trip with some travel companions is like studying personality disorders
while confined to a penal institution.

OH what a lovely image BacHien. So So true. Also got stuck into Barb's tale of travel disaster. Loved the story but not sure I would have been too happy travelling with her all the time. Her other companions sound like a nightmare.
Travelled once with a companion I didn't know. We were introduced by a mutual friend who reckoned that as we were both going to roughly the same place at the same time we should go together. We sat down one evening came up with plan A, travelled through Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe before returning to Kenya 4 weeks later, on plan P by then with many adventures and tales to tell and never a cross word. Rather amazing and quite unprecedented as I am not the most tolerant of people. Maybe because she was a virtual stranger to start with I was more considerate??

What I have learned from Barb's and my own recent experience, travelling with a TCFH is that it is ok to travel with a like- minded experienced traveller but not with someone who had basically undertaken a couple of holidays abroad, resort style and is of the opinion that makes them a world traveller.

Someone who is needy as well as a KIA, and who also insisted on eating at a certain time, otherwise that person literally melts away if the schedule is broken and like D, in Barb's tale of woe, does not respect the personal space of his/her travel companion. And, who is a chatterbox. Infact, my TCFR depicts the personalities of most of Barb's travel companions.

I am aware and accepted that I get pretty impatient at times, that I do not tolerate 'fools' gladly but still, some needy, KIA and talkative people drives me mental. :)

Travelling with strangers have it's benefit in that if you do not care to put with their antics, you can part company with ease and go merrily onward and forward.

One week and two days to go! :)

or a Bible basher who only sees the surface of that too.

Ugh! I began walking up Gebel Musa (Mount Sinai) with one of those.
As I was doing the walk as a kind of pilgrimage I couldn't let fly and tell him what I really wanted to say.
Fortunately, he walked faster than me and soon left me behind....

from numerology there is a quick way to tell if the person is a chatterbox, just ask for their birthdate and if there are 3 no 1's you are in trouble, eg, born 11 mar 1940 or 15 12 1940 just check it out it always works for me

Doesn't work!

I can talk for England and have only ONE 1 in my birth-date.

Hi,

I always (nearly) travel alone. I find it is best for me simply because I am free to do as I, and I alone, wish to do without having to consult anyone. However on the few occasions in over 50 years of travelling that I have had a companion it has always been at their request. Must be my magnetic attraction or something.

Have had mixed feelings about companions when I have travelled like this. Hiking in Sweden with a Belgian guy we met up with a German guy, he asked the Belgian if he could join us, the Belgian asked me, we agreed all was fine - better even than being alone I felt. Travelled once with a Dutch lady, very little problems - I can be a bit crusty on rare occasions - did things together and also split to do our own things before joining back up. Good experience. Travelled with a guy in New Zealand from my own country, had to pull him up once over manner in which he spoke, got an apology all went fine for the 2 months after, can accept that no one is perfect so all well and good there. Climbed with a Canadian elder, almost my age in Nepal and did not like the way he spoke to natives, told him gently and he was sharp with me. No second chances, told him - we split, apologies galore, sorry no way back. Respect for locals is vital when traveling. Just recently was on a bus in SEA, driver announced that there were many spare seats and we could move if we wished. The French lady next to me then asked me if I would like to move, I joked that I would but did not just do it when the driver spoke as I thought she might be insulted. Then continued to joke that in the short time that I had been next to her how on earth could I have been so obnoxious that she wished me to move. Had a good laugh and she then said it would be a pleasure to travel together. I thought that she meant for the bus journey but it became apparent it was for longer. 2 weeks later we split. Different ages, different nationality, different interests - worked so well.

On the few occasions that I have partnered up I have always been free to do my own things as have they and also been free to call a halt to the union. I would never contemplate being locked in to a trip of any length if there was no get out clause, no escape route so to speak.

I've not had any bad experiences because I only travel alone, other than a couple of trips with someone I met in Tunisia back in the 70s. She is the best possible travel companion, we do not stick to each other like glue, and we end up laughing our way through a trip. We've also stayed with each other several times (Canada and UK).

Being a camera-nut myself I can understand your not wanting to travel with someone like me or your friend and I would end up not getting the shots I want because I'd be feeling uncomfortable the whole time..

"I want o. but I need somebody to go with." yuk.
Maybe half yank passports are never used. Because partner dropped out at last minute.

Those poor saps will never know the joy of simmering and digesting what you saw and learned. Takes time. Not constant prattle.

And we solo snails can jump on a different train if ..
No discussion. No sales job. No choosimg digs or translated menu to please non-adventurers.

Hey Gawks - I think this might be the song you were thinking of - {http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3Rl0aMtad8]

It's certainly a Roger Whittaker one. And this clip has the words if you want them. Enjoy.

grraciááááá !

Freighterman was a cool job. It taught me, stereotypes are so bogus.

I can be a chatterbox at times but I like to think that I only suffer from the occasional verbal diarrhoea when I have something interesting to say. Plus, I like to add, I rarely interrupt and do take the time to listen to others but only if they have something of interest to say.

Being a camera nut is ok, in my book so long as the camera is not an extension of your arm. Let me put it this way, when you travel halfway around the world and see a wondrous sight, do you immediately reach out for your camera and started clicking away or do you paused, take the time to 'drink' it in and to etch it into your memory?

If you are the latter, then you are likely the companion for me but if all you want to do is to prattle away and keep clicking, then yes, I would find that uncomfortable. It is not the fact that you need to stop often and take the time to get a great shot but that you simply do not have an appreciation of the wondrous sight before you. That there is this compulsion to capture everything with your camera and then to brag about your great shots and how many photos you took.

Chatterboxes rip off the others right, to have their own private thaoughts. C is only thinking out loud.

I thought I saw an old friend from Dallas, in Seville.
After thinking about him, I split. He has to tell you which screw was bured on the ship in his story. What the click clicks were on the bridge, what he was wearing.

And the there's the Jesus commercial.

ok you're right. I couldn't stand the competition.

Same reason I read Louis Lamore swashbucklers.
But I can put the book down and shut it up. :)