Travel Tip: Find the Right Travel Partner
Greetings from Madrid and the end of my Euro Trip. This is my third trip to Europe this year (all paid for by frequent flyer miles) and I’m so grateful for the opportunities miles and points have given me over the last few years.
With that said, there are definitely some things I have learned about traveling and myself during these last three European trips. My first trip was with a close college friend in mid January. My second trip was work-related and was only a week to visit the Airline Interior Expo in Hamburg, Germany with a short weekend visit to Copenhagen, Denmark by myself. My last trip was more of a road trip around Spain and into parts of southern France with my family.
My parents and my brother all have different travel styles and interests. My mom and I like to look at the scenery, take pictures of landmarks and try the local food and drink in the various cities we visit. We don’t necessary care about the history of every landmark or about the famous artwork inside world renowned museums.
My brother, on the other hand, loves reading Rick Steve’s travel books from cover to cover and “checking off” as many things as possible during a vacation. I have lost count of how many times I’ve heard, “let’s make a slight detour to visit ____, it’s really cool.”
By comparison, my mom and I are happy to walk around the city the city for hours then sit in a cafe for an hour, have a quick snack and catch up on our email.
My brother thinks we are wasting our time sitting in a cafe, but I say the same thing when he wants to visit another castle, church, monastery, cathedral, chateau, museum, garden, etc. After you have seen 5 or 6 cathedrals, they all start looking alike (I apologize, but it is true).
My dad is essentially the family “tour bus driver” and drives to wherever my brother/Garmin tells him to go. He likes history and ancient civilizations so he usually accompanies my brother for whatever castle, church, cathedral, etc. my brother wants to go inside.
Moral of the story: find a travel companion/buddy/friend/partner that shares similar travel styles as you. If you are a foodie and a “drinkie” like myself, find someone who also likes eating the local cuisine and drinking a pint (or 2) of the local beer/wine/sangria. If you are an art-history buff, find someone who can tell the different between Picasso and Monet, Beethoven and Mozart, or Charles Dickens and Ernest Hemingway. You will end up getting more out of your vacation and arguing a lot less about what to see/do/eat. You may have multiple travel partners, depending on where you are going. This may take some time (aka trial and error) to figure this out. You may even like traveling by yourself and meeting locals or other tourists. Find whatever makes you happy.
What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with my thinking? What type of traveler are you? Please leave your thoughts below.
