Travel Tips: Travelling With Companion
Gauge coping tactics
Ask questions and draw from what you know about your companion to anticipate how they may respond to stressful situations. Is this person generally patient and flexible?
Sharp recommends asking a potential travel companion about their best and worst trips. What happened? How did that person respond?
Knowing a little bit about how your companion deals with adversity is advised, even if you would have done things differently.
“It’s not so bad if you’ve kind of predicted that that’s how they’re going to behave in certain situations, than if it hits you by surprise,” Sharp said.
Compromise
Be willing to make some concessions in the interest of having a good time.
“Agree to disagree. Do you really want to expend your energy harboring anger or ill feelings on what is supposed to be your vacation when what you should be doing is relaxing and enjoying it?” Sharp said.
He recommends purchasing travel journals for yourself and your travel companions as a way to reflect on the trip and defuse some of the frustration that may come up.
Take a break
Split up when tensions are high and divergent interests are pulling you in opposite directions. Be sure to set a time and meeting place and have a backup meeting set in case of an unforeseen delay.
“People tend to feel like they have to stick together when they are together on a trip,” Sharp said. “And anybody with someone breathing their air, so to speak, 24 hours a day needs a break from the other person.”
Source: CNN
Pages: 1 2
Filed under: Travel Guides