Have you ever travelled with a friend, planned out everything, expect things will be great but then things got a little awry? We’ve got you covered. Here are pro tips on How Not to Kill Each Other when traveling. This applies to lovers, friends, families and strangers.
Disclaimer: No lovers, friends, families and strangers were harmed previously.
Ilocos Sand Dunes Adventure
1. Avoid the Selfie God.
There is a selfie master and there is your friend who will take down that master anytime. If you can avoid them in the group or be traveling with them, unless you want to spend 1 hour in the same spot perfecting only the same pose every time… Run if you can. But if you’re stuck as the designated photographer, and you can’t lose your beloved friend, try to talk to them. Come up with a compromise that if they wanted to do everything in your itinerary, you have to set limit on 2 selfies per 500m only. Haha. But really, don’t let that put off your travel mood, if you can’t take it anymore, explore on your own and agree to meet later for food. Food makes everything better.
2. The Super Late Riser.
Most travelers change their body clock whenever they travel. You are excited to rise up early, when earlier that week, you don’t even want to go out of bed for work. But then there are some people who take ages to get up and centuries to make themselves human, ie. shower, put make up on, choose the outfit of the day. How Not to Kill Each Other When Traveling? Give them alternatives to save time in the morning. Like taking a shower at night or helping them to choose the clothes for next day. So they only have to do their hair and makeup early.
3. Budget vs Luxury.
So you planned to getaway. Book your flights and now looking for options for Hotel stays and your friend wants this ultra luxe 5 star hotel in your destination and book a not so cheap organized group tour as well. It isn’t your style. You live for budget hostels and you do your own itinerary in an independent (diy) travel life for like forever. So how will you resolved to get her to your boat? Compromise, compromise, compromise and be honest. Tell her your budget is limited and you can only afford certain hotel range. If you are traveling for a long period, then you can agree to stay in a cheap, small room, and splurge in on one day stay to somewhere deserving.
4. Expect a Toilet break for every hour or so.
We have that one friend/family member who takes toilet break to the next level. You can’t blame them for having a super active bladder so you have to consider this when you are making itineraries. Adjust your timings to accommodate toilet breaks.
5. You are a photographer and everyone is not.
So you become the official photographer of the group. Everyone has some professional grade photoshoot and when you ask someone to get yours too, it’s either blurry or out of focus. And as if they are using film that is too precious for too many clicks, they only get you one shot. Not even a burst so you can choose from which blurry photos you can choose from. How Not to Kill Each Other When Traveling? Frame it for them and ask to take a re-shot of how you want it to look like. If all else fails, get a tripod.
6. Celebrate your Me time.
I want to go shopping, she wants to go to the spa. He wants to sleep, I want to explore the market. This is a common issue that you are bound to encounter when traveling with someone. This is also an opportunity to feel free. How cool is it that you are with someone, yet you also get to experience traveling solo and have both world at your hand. Celebrate your me time with whatever you want to do and meet up later for say, food?
7. Always let someone take the lead.
I’ve been on several trips with my closest friends from college and one thing that makes it more fun and easier is having someone take the lead.
Someone should always call the shots and not let everyone decide or ask everyone’s opinion on the smallest detail of the trip. Especially when you’re in a group of like minded people. More or less you’ll have the same preferences.
But if this isn’t the case and you’re all different, someone should take the lead nevertheless. Imagine the time spent deciding on the place where you’ll dine alone or the food you are going to order. LOL. Planning can be tedious and this will make it even more time-consuming.
Diplomacy is great, but not really a good practice if you’re traveling with a group of friends. In our group, we always have that one single friend who’ll do the planning and the booking for us. We sometimes (but not often. LOL) give our recommendations to her and she’ll try to include it on our itinerary. She usually shows it to us after for our comments and voila! Everything is set! ;) Good thing too that she likes organizing stuff and planning itineraries are her thing! ;)
Entry By Marvi of Osmiva
8. Eat, Drink, Sleep, Repeat.
Exactly a year ago I went with two of my friends on a girls trip to Bali. We had so many plans for the five days we were there. The only ones executed successfully were heading out every night. Every morning it was a mission getting together. We had arranged a trip to Gili Trawangan. It kept being rescheduled since every morning the hangover may have been a lovely gift. Regardless we had a ball and vowed to repeat the trip this year. My two friends had a really early flight. A last-minute call was made to catch a later flight the next day instead because no one wanted to go home. I’ve been traveling solo for the past year and can’t wait to organize another girls trip.
Entry by Petro Marais of WorldMission196
9. Don’t dare volunteer to handle the money.
Traveling with friends will always be a disaster since we all have different personalities. But since we are in a relationship called friendship we tend to meet half way most of the time, but not in terms with money. Because money is evil, but mostly it is because we all each are trying to be a budget traveler. Traveling in group is a good way to cut expenses, the more people involve the cheaper and the merrier the trip will be. Let us also face the fact that it is very hassle to deal with money.
Money has always involve in every activity. While eating, going on a island trip, the accommodation cost, or paying the rent for the motorbike. My advice is to list the cost of each activity, who already paid, and who borrowed money from you. It will be less complicated for the group and for you to not forget those tiny details. And always remember to split bills before the trip ends. Also, if you can avoid being the treasurer, avoid it!!!
Entry by Roneth Politud of The Fickle Feet Blog
10. Challenge your friends.
Get a fun challenge that you need to complete together. For example, my best friend and I had a funny challenge – to visit every single town or village in the country, whose name starts with our first name’s letter and take a photo in front of its sign. She visits towns starting with J, I visit towns starting with M. This has inspired a bunch of spontaneous and totally illogical (to others) trips for the last six years and we have had great fun, never ever getting bored.
Entry by Maria from 203 Challenges.
11. When she hates everything.
When she hates everything from food to culture to the place you are staying. This is the worst case scenario because it will obviously ruin your vacation vibe, more so your friendship. Before you say goodbye and friendship over, understand that people varies in expectations, satisfaction and comfort. Ask them how it can be more comfortable for them, maybe adjusting your itinerary to make a room to chill out. She might not like the food and environment but if there is a good massage place or a little nook on the beach where she can de-stress, give her a time off, also for the good of your body, mind and spirit and staying in good conduct since you’re not going anywhere the jail too.
I hope this light hearted post helps you out the next time you are stuck with a travel dilemma of dealing with friends from hell. Haha. Seriously, traveling with someone can get crazier but with the right kind of attitude, the more the merrier.
I wish I had read this post when i was a teenager before heading off on my first girlie holiday!! :) Loved reading this – I am always the one in charge of money and it is far to stressful! But my hubby is the photographer and has the patience of a saint!!: :)
Great post! so helpful and nice pics ;)
Some great tips here. It can be so hard to not fall out with people when spending a lot of time together.
Loved this post, particularly the point about celebrating your ‘me’ time. It has to be done, and its your trip too, so not everything needs to be done as a group.
The people who you travel with really make or break the trip! These are great tips to help make sure things go smoothly but in general its important to practice common courtesy and make sure you travel with people who do too.
It can be challenging to travel with different personalities, I know! I have always been this annoying type who wants to wake up early to get the most out of the day, and I go fåcking crazy when being with slow people! I had a friend where I on day 3 (after 2 days of sitting politely waiting for her to put on make-up etc.) gave her a time limit when we had to be out of the door haha :D It helped.
So so true! I’ve taken a ton of trips with different groups of friends/family and they all have such a different feel depending on who you’re going with. You have to go with the flow and be flexible with whoever you’re with! Love the tip about not handling the money, too, haha.
OMG, I know this list is funny but it’s also absolutely spot on – particularly the parts about letting someone be the leader, and avoiding managing the money! I’ve always been highly organised, I was a P.A. in a former life, and it’s only lately that I’ve realised that I don’t *have* to be the one to pull everything together and manage all the logistics… and it’s SO much more enjoyable when I don’t! I am more than happy to let someone else take the reigns on every trip from now on. The other tip that I would add (though maybe it slots into Eat, Drink, Sleep, Repeat) is: when things start getting tense, stop somewhere – anywhere! – for a snack and a drink. If you’ve just had an argument over which bus to take and ended up walking for an hour and everyone’s hot and tired and cranky, stop and eat/drink. If your flight has been delayed or cancelled, find somewhere at the airport and eat/drink. If you’ve followed them on a wild goose chase across half the country for something they want to do and it doesn’t pan out and you’re ready to explode, stop and have something to eat/drink together. Food and alcohol is just the great equaliser, it’s hard to be snippy with one another when you’re satiated. Thanks so much for sharing your (hilarious) thoughts :) cracking list!
Happy you like it. Food and Drinks are really the ultimate cure to any bad situation. We tend to be short minded when were hungry so if the situation is going so bad, its time for a refill of sweets.
I feeeeeeeel this. Every word is something most travellers can relate to…
Haha! This is super relatable. I always try to plan some “me time” when traveling with others. As an introvert, it’s super important to me to just have some alone time!
“Diplomacy is great, but not really a good practice if you’re traveling with a group of friends.” I soooo agree. There can’t be too many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak. Great advice. I also felt soooo called out while reading this because I’m the person who always has to pee hahaha.
True. Friends tend to be our comfort level that sometimes we get to be a pain already without noticing it. I do have friends who needs the bathroom often, we give in of course, what are friends for, but expect a turbulence of naughty remarks. haha.
A post that truly reminded my why I love travelling solo :D The tips could be murder preventing tho :D
I love the idea murder preventing. haha. I know the freedom of travelling solo, so tempting than going out with a bunch of people that needs you to pull out extra patience in. I feel it’s extra work on vacation.
Ha! Ha! Ha! ‘Love this!
I try to compromise when I travel with my husband and son. Really, I do!
Our son hates being in photographs, so we compromise on the fact that I only put him in the picture if he gives me permission to do so. My husband loves to take my photograph, but not in a way that I can actually use them! However, they’re both well trained as far as food photography is concerned, and pass their food over to me before anybody eats!
Haha. That’s so cute. I know the feeling, it could be frustrating taking photos that are not actually up to your posting standards, my husband and I also battles this one out. I told him, it’s his fault he marries a graphic designer, I always look at perfection. haha.