Traveling is best experienced when you share it with others. Having someone take a photo of you, laugh with you, and share the travel expenses are some of the benefits of traveling in groups. However, it is not always as awesome as you wish it would be especially if you encounter these 10 worst types of travel buddies.
1. Fickle Minded Planner
A fickle-minded person is the one who is:
- constantly changing her mind and can’t decide
- constantly changing the topic without finishing or finalizing any of it
- constantly changing her decisions for no important reason
First, she would say she will join the tour, the next moment she won’t. These kind of travel buddies also keeps making promises and starts planning but never finishes anything. It’s really hard to finalize any travel plans if someone in your group keeps changing his or her mind. Imagine just trying to decide where and when to go but you all could not agree on one thing because one keeps changing her decision. The most depressing part is when all travel plans are set then your friend would flake out at the very last minute. Although there can are valid reasons for someone to change their mind or decisions, I think that he or she must at least give her share for expenses like hotels, tickets, and non-refundable other reservations.
Read this to help you with your travel planning: Best Travel Related Apps and Websites Travelers Should Know
2. Absent-Minded Buddy
If you have someone in your group who keeps forgetting stuff or losing things somewhere or needs to keep reminded schedules, then it will surely cause a delay. Having this kind of travel buddy is like having a little child travel with you. You need to constantly remind him and be a walking Siri or guidebook. Normal people don’t have a perfect memory especially when we get older or have been through physical trauma. This is tolerable and understandable. Being lazy to remember is a different issue because it’s an attitude problem. Piece of advice, do not give the responsibility of safekeeping things and remembering things to your absent-minded buddy.
3. Over Saver
Unless you won an all-expense-paid trip, then you better make sure you have enough funds for your entire trip. One of the most difficult parts of travel planning is budgeting. There are many ways to save money on travel and one of them is traveling in groups. It means you can share and divide all the expenses to your friends. However, there is such a person as over-saver. This person would eat street food for the entire trip and will constantly convert foreign currency equivalents. Over-saving is not always a practical thing to do especially if you need to sacrifice health, time, safety, and overall sanity. I knew some who are too adventurous to risk sleeping on parks and asking favors from strangers. This sounds fun but also can be dangerous especially if you are a girl.
4. Over Spender
Most people reading this are budget travelers otherwise, you will just pay a travel agency to do the planning for you and set up everything. Over Spender would always insist on choosing the more luxurious and costly option even if the rest of the group cannot afford it. The most irritating part is if he would not compromise yet he is not willing to pay for others who can’t afford. Traveling in groups needs a lot of compromising skills because if you can’t, then we all know the rules –majority wins.
5. Constant Complainer
I think, this his the worst travel buddy ever to encounter. Imagine traveling with someone who has so many food requests, travel restrictions, demands, and complaints. I am not talking about food allergies or vegetarians or exclusively meat lovers. I am talking about someone who doesn’t want to use their hands to eat, or wants their stews to be cooked in extra virgin coconut oil. These are people who would constantly complain about even the smallest things. They would complain about a slow elevator, the hotel slippers don’t fit, traffic, and other things a traveler doesn’t really have choice or control over. If it’s useless to complain and you know you just get what you paid for, why bother complaining over small things and other things you can’t control. You can rant all day about the traffic but your ranting will not help at all.
6. Culture Shamer
Why would anyone want to travel only to insult the other country? The entire purpose of travel is to learn other cultures, see the beautiful views, try to be a local, and connect with others. Every country has its own religion, beliefs, cultures, and law. It may be different from your own country but it doesn’t mean that other cultures are wrong or disgusting. This issue is most common in food cultures. People think it is barbaric and crazy to eat internal organs and other non-conventional meat like insects, rats, snakes, bats, and many more. For me, I think, as long as it is not cannibalism, it’s fine, at least I’m safe. May destiny never allow an event where we are caught in the necessity to eat other animals we are not accustomed to. Part of traveling is also blending in and trying to live as the locals do.
If you are planning to go to Japan, best to read this:
7. Control Freak
Having to travel with a control freak is really stressful and can be irritating. I understand that most control freaks are just worriers. They worry about following a strict schedule, organizing the rooms, seating or sleeping arrangement, and many others. The worst part is if they start forcing you to follow their ways and standards. They will throw in some attitude if you don’t go by their rules or even set penalties (seriously?). If you are traveling with children, your control freak skills are badly needed but if you are dealing with adults, you need to listen, respect and compromise. Make flexible rules and flexible schedules instead of following a strict one. Travels and vacations are supposed to be enjoyed, it not a job that we all should stress about.
8. Fun Pooper
Sometimes you would meet fun-pooper travel buddies who don’t want to join even the simplest fun. It’s normal to have some reservations when it comes to travel activities especially if you have some phobias, physical body limitations, and if the activity is illegal. For example, you can’t force your acrophobic friend to go bungee jumping. A certified travel fun-pooper is that person who would have no good reason not to even try the simplest fun activity such as karaoke, dancing, or shopping souvenirs. It must feel really awful if you had to leave someone behind because he or she won’t want to be part of it. Why did you even join a group in a first-place if you are not willing to participate?
9. Mess Maker
I would never want to be in the same room with this person. Once I joined a group tour as a solo traveler –one room with 3 other people in bunk beds. One of them keeps leaving her sanitary napkin on the sink of the bathroom. One of them just lets all the things from her luggage be scattered all over the floor. It may not be a big hindrance to have a messy travel buddy but it is irritating and disturbing.
10. The Borrower
Have you ever had travel buddies who always ask for toothpaste? I am referring to a traveler who borrows almost everything, clothes, towels, money, accessories, etc. Although this is not illegal and there is really nothing wrong with borrowing, it is a disturbing attitude. As a traveler, we learn to be resourceful which also means we may need to borrow sometimes. You are responsible for your own travel needs. You should always prepare enough supplies for the entirety of your trip. Don’t always rely on others because they may not have the things you need as well. The worse that can happen is running out of money.
If you want to learn how to save money for travel and other future plans, read this: 9 Steps to Achieve Financial Freedom
Imagine having all of these 10 types of people in one group. Would you still travel with them or would you rather be alone? I dare you to tag them in this post.
