Who do you prefer to travel with?

My wife and our Jack Russell, thats it. We traveled with a friend to Vienna and it was kind of a disaster. My wife and I are very connected and on the same page about what we want to do. Thor (our Jack) has traveled everywhere with us and never has any complaints, he jumps in his travel carrier for the flight and is ready to roll when we arrive. He is also a great professional traveler on the trains and (in Austria) the Ubahns.

I prefer to travel solo! Having said that, I will be travelling with a couple of newly made friends from a trip last year. I made up a "10 Commandments for Travel" that everyone agreed to before we started making plans. One of the "commandments"....we are NOT glued at the hip, going off on ones own is OK ;) Also, we will each have our own rooms....no sharing.

"you never really know someone until you've traveled with them." Exactly! It's amazing how every idiosyncrasy comes out during travel and how something you barely noticed before the trip is now driving you crazy on the trip. As an adult, I've only traveled with friends. My sister and I are going to Paris in September and we've never traveled together as adults. We're trying to work out in advance how to deal with problems but I know we can't head off everything. After that I'm heading to London for a week by myself. I've never traveled solo before but I'm REALLY looking forward to it! I don't know how many times I've been on trips and wished I was by myself!

I travel a lot and have found most of my friends I am able to travel with quite well...otherwise they probably wouldn't be my friend. That said, my absolutely favorite travel partners are my grandsons (one at a time) and since they are pretty amiable and I am paying the bill I get my own way:) I am a photographer and tend to travel with other photographers, so we are relatively independent and can each do our own thing. We typically share a room to make it cost effective, and we are rarely in the room... as far as traveling with friends I did have one tense trip a few years ago... I traveled with 2 friends during the 2008 election and we were in England. The one friend was a Republican and the other two of us were Obama people. She brought it up ahead of time and said we would be sure not to let it affect our trip... great idea till her team lost (she was terrible and I would never travel with her again during an election!) I also travel alone frequently and that is fine too.

Several years ago I was planning a trip to the UK with a cousin. She backed out and as I was "complaining" to a co-worker she asked if she could go with me sometime. We had a glorious time. She loves driving and I navigated. Maybe we both tried harder because we didn't know each other well. I think we both lucked out. I've traveled there with my sister who on some days, on our last trip together, was a lot less fun than my friend. A very lot less. I'd still go with her again because she is good at chatting with strangers and usually we are in sync. Sadly, I think my husband is the least fun in a lot of ways. Maybe because I'm a spoiled brat (nah) and when I travel with him we do what he wants to do. He wastes so much time he makes my teeth ache.

Jessica - My favorite travel partners are a few friends that I will travel with internationally. We have similar interests and are flexible enough that we can all get what we each want out of the trip. We have gone on several trips (long and short) and always have an absolute blast. That said, I will pretty much travel with any family (won't put details out here or who is the most difficult in case they are on this board :-) ) or friends. I always try out short trips with people I haven't travelled with before I commit to a long trip. I just know what to expect with each travel partner/group and I won't commit to a trip that I think I will turn out as a miserable experience. As you said, you really don't know someone until you have traveled with them... I also travel solo on occasion and sometimes it's just nice to do what you want for the entire trip. On the other hand, it's sometimes a little hard to get used to eating alone or not having someone to talk about the day with but once on a trip I seem to get over that quickly.

Me. I get to do exactly what I want, when and where I want to do it. No arguments. No resentments.

I like to travel alone, too. The one time I went with a friend somewhere, I thought I would have to kill her before the end of the trip.

Julie has good advice, before a long trip to any place with anyone, suggest you travel with that person for a weekend or even a long day and see how you mesh. Have traveled with family and friends many times and the only thing we all agreed on is to be flexible, things happen, you get lost, lines are long at an attraction and if they can't handle it, those are not the people you want to travel with. Someone in our family I would never travel with spent four or five hours at CDG airport fighting with a van driver who did not show up to pick them up. In four hours, everyone could have practically walked to Paris.

I'm glad I am not alone with my travel partner thoughts. I agree, traveling on a short weekend trip is a good travel try-out. I really like the idea of "The 10 Commandments". What would you put on your list? I think a big one for me would be "No one freak out. If we run into a hiccup let's think of it as an adventure and have fun figuring out the solution". (My mother throwing herself on the lobby sofa of our Ireland hotel, in tears, after the tour bus accidentally forgot us, comes to mind. They realized we were missing as they drove away, they came back. She won't have that extra cup of coffee at breakfast again).

I love travelling by myself too, but I have travelled with two friends( seperately two different trips). I also travelled with another friend for several months many decades ago. In all cases I had a great time, in all cases these were very long time friends.. as in at least 20 years!
The only issue I had was when I took one friend to Paris a few years ago, she was great personality wise, but it was her first trip overseas and it started to wear on me to always have to be the one who ushered us around, read the menus, decided what to do each day.. She was always agreeable, but after one morning when I as usual said "what do you want to see today",, she AGAIN said "oh you decide" ... I didn't blow it, but I did say " no, you decide today!" lol She also tromped through the Louvre with me for several hours, without complaint, before she said " I think I like the outside of the building better" and I am like "pardon me?",, and then she told me she was sick of the museum and wanted to leave,, I felt very guilty , I thought she was enjoying it! As I said, she is a very nice person, so I felt terrible! Think is , she wasn't too comfortable on her own, so we never split up. I would however travel with her again in a heartbeat,, cause she is my best friend and just so darn nice! I enjoyed travelling with my kids, but since I took two of them to Europe ( two seperate one on one trips) bymyself I found it alot of responsibilty ,, they were good visitors though,, not complainers or whiners( thank goodness can't stand those types of kids or people) and they were not picky eaters either! My ex husband I travelled well together . Frankly, when I am travelling I am in such a good mood you would have to be a real turnip to p*ss me off. lol

I recently had a similar experience as the one pat had with her friend. She was not comfortable going off by herself, and when I would ask what she wanted to do she would almost always leave it to me, even when I encouraged her to decide. We got along great (she is a friend of 30 years), and she had a great time, so I guess I picked good things for us. It does get old occasionally having all the responsibility, but it was a good trip. It was strange not having my husband with me. He and I are great travel partners. We have a really good system (his preference) - I do the planning, and he packs his bag and off we go. He doesn't care to have much if any input and likes to be surprised by things when we get there. I have all the responsibility for trips with him too, but somehow it feels different. I like the idea of having a short trip with a potential travel partner to test the waters so to speak. Nothing has the potential to ruin a trip more than incompatible travel partners. Trust me, it happened to me. My travel partners were family and I will never travel with them again. I made the decision when the trip started going bad that I was going to have a good time no matter what, but it did put a bit of a damper on things.

My husband and I are great travel companions. Our way of traveling is that we have a general itinerary and know where we are going to stay every night, have ideas on what we might do or see in an area, but only have 1-2 things that are "scheduled" with a time and date. Other than that we wing it. Since I too do most of the planning, I have a good list of things we might do, how long it takes to get places. During the planning I do my best to make sure that my husbands "must do" are satisfied, and then he's happy rolling with the flow. Several years ago we vacationed with my husband's sisters and brother in laws in Florida. OMG, every minute of everyday had a plan; lunch, dinner, mini golf, to mirror what they do every year for their repeat Florida vacation. It drove me nuts.
As much as we love certain places and say we'll be back, for us, the draw of new places trumps repeat visits.

Jessica, I normally travel solo except when with a RS Tour. I like being with a group for awhile, but I also like to explore on my own and take photos. That's sometimes difficult to do when I'm following a tour schedule. After reading the experiences that Ed related concerning the "wine buddy" of his wife, my decision to travel solo has been STRONGLY re-affirmed! Cheers!

It is so true that you don't really know a person until you have traveled with them. I have traveled by myself, with one friend, and on a Rick Steves trip. Which do I prefer? It depends. The great thing about the Rick Steves trips are that I can go alone, and end up making new friends and being with a great group of people who love travel as much as I do! So, I would put that at No. 1. Traveling alone comes in at No. 2 because I can do what I want and not feel that I have stepped on anyone's toes by doing that. No.3 would be traveling with a companion; but someone who has a really easy going personality and is not a whiner. You have to both compromise on sights, and be willing to split up for several hours or a day if you want to do different things. Also both need personal space.

Let me piggyback onto this question. We now have the "Travel Partners" section here. Has anyone ever found a stranger to travel with? Since I'm comfortable going solo, I just think it's weird. If I wanted to go somewhere that made me uncomfortable, I'd probably choose a tour. Then at least you could get away from others if needed. Now, if anyone on the helpline were to be in the same place/same time on my trip, I'd gladly meet up for a drink. But to travel/room with a stranger? Don't think so.

i refuse to travel with anyone but myself. i love being able to do whatever i want, whenever i want. people are all into different things and it seems that if person a wants to do something person b does not, then person a becomes completely incapable of doing it independently and either tries to force person b to go with them, or sits and sulks forever. i am always person b.

My three preferred travel companions are: Me, myself and I.

Karen on a few of my solo or solo with a kid trips I have met "strangers" for some time together in Paris . When I took my 11 yr dd I met a lady on this forum who was also travelling alone with her child( a 9 yr old girl) we arranged to meet at the Tuilleries Gardens and our kids played at the playground for about an hour, then the kids wanted to go on the Ferris Wheel there , I did not want to go on it( heights) so the lady took my dd on with hers,, worked great for me . A lady I "met" through several years of us both posting on TA and I arranged to meet in Paris, we actually did a daytrip to Brugges together on day, and met for lunch another day . I was solo that trip , she had her 12 yr old with her .
And finally I met another fellow ( an older gent) that I had gotten to know on the forums(TA again) and we had a coffee,, he also invited me on a tour he was giving that day to St Sulpice , he was a former professor from NY who now leads small group tours to France and Italy.. All my meetings were alot of fun.

My favorite travel partner(s) other than myself are my daughters. They are great and don't mind the pace I set. I normally go to no more than 2 major sites in a day, with lots of breaks in between. I made the mistake of organizing a golf vacation with long time friends once, which turned out to be the biggest disaster ever. Unfortunately I only knew these people on the golf course,

Me, myself, and I. The only time that wasn't so great was in April when I fell and broke my ankle in Vienna. But I still got a lot of help from strangers. I'm taking my boyfriend with me to Munich and Berlin next spring when I redeem my unused return ticket. We'll see how that goes :)

Karen, I find the travel partners section a little weird, too. I would never advertise for some stranger to travel with. I mean, if you can't trust your own friends to remain reasonable, sane people over the course of a trip, how can you trust a stranger? And like Jennifer, I seem to be the person B, also. In my case, my person A found it inconceivable to go to the pool at the condo alone while I went to the bookstore (where she didn't want to go). Really? You can't hang out at the pool for 30 minutes without me? The resulting bookstore trip was pleasant for neither of us. Meeting up with someone along the way, or joining forces temporarily is different than being stuck with someone you THOUGHT you knew well for a whole trip.

You just want to make sure that whoever you're going with has similar interests on the trip. I've had great success traveling Europe with my mother (especially since we've had so many years to get used to each other's flaws, and we generally want to see/do the same things), and with my best friend (when one of us was cranky the other picked up the slack...we have a "no-judgement zone" rule, so forgiving each other's flaws wasn't a problem at all). I generally do most of the planning, but I would always encourage the person/people I go with to read some guidebooks so that I can work in anything that they deem mandatory for the trip. This fall, mom and I are going to London, and I will be spending a day doing some kind of Beatles-related tour even though I'm far too young to care about that kind of thing...but you have to be willing to compromise to be a good travel partner. On certain trips I enjoy traveling with my boyfriend. He's not the best in Europe (where I want to see museums and culture and he wants to go skiing or hiking all day and drink beer all night) but we had a pretty successful trip to Hawaii last month (it was always designed to be an active trip, so that was better for us).
I'd suggest doing a weekend trip somewhere with a person before committing to several weeks...it gives you some idea of what you'd be dealing with. And don't be afraid to go alone! I generally plan trips assuming I'll go alone and then someone else jumps in somewhere along the way to join me. But I'd gladly go alone if no one wanted to tag along.

The sweet lady who has put up with me for nearly 42 years!!!! She is low maintenance & easy to amuse as long as she gets fed on a regular basis.

I have travelled with husband, my sister, husband and my sister, and frequently with a small group of friends I have dubbed All The Usual Suspects. Always successfully and always fun . But one summer, many years ago, I went to France with a friend who had, unknown to me, arranged for her teen-aged son to meet us in Paris and join us for the next two weeks. He was a proper little horror, intent on ruining the holiday which he did with great glee and without interference from my friend. It is very true that you can't really know a person until you have travelled together.

I'm 26 years old. The bulk of my travel has been done solo. It's hard to find friends here that are actually willing to travel. Sure, they dream about doing it one day and they always say "You're so lucky.' But the difference between those people and the people is that we actually do it instead of dreaming about it. I get tired of hearing about how "lucky" I am. I have made a few friends with whom I share this love of traveling. I met these friends in France when I was working as an assistant d'anglais. It was perfect. We all shared the same love affair with the country and our travel rituals worked well together. We took time to make sure we all got to do what we wanted to do. I'm going back to France this summer. Again for schooling, so I hope to make new acquaintances that share this love. Traveling alone isn't as bad as some people would think. There are many advantages. After all, it's your fault if you don't get out of bed in the morning and do what you want to do. However, traveling with someone you are about is wonderful. Sometimes you just want to look into someone's eyes and share these special moments together.

I travel well with a couple of friends. I don't mind traveling solo but don't enjoy it when I'm on my own for more than 4-5 days. So far the tours I've taken were fine as there is a fair amount of structure and people are pretty controlled. Stay in touch with a few of my tour mates and we are trying to work out more trips.

My worst travel situation was 5 years ago when a (former) friend and I went to Europe for 2 weeks. We were having some problems before the trip and on the trip we lost our luggage and my friend got food poisoning, which didn't help at all. We agreed about everything we wanted to see but she was terrible with directions and she couldn't read a map to save her life. I was in charge of getting us around Paris and Amsterdam and Berlin, and that got old really fast. Once on the way back to our hotel in Amsterdam we started arguing. I wanted to stomp off and leave her behind but she didn't know the way back to the hotel so I had to go with her.

Norma,, that would have really p'ed me off, inviting a teenager along secretly on what you thought was an adult only trip. That friend was sneaky and mean .

Pat: I totally agree with you. That was awful. Maybe she didn't tell Norma because she knew how her son was and didn't want Norma to know beforehand so she might have time to call off the trip or make some changes.

James, Does being married mean you must do everything as a couple? My spouse does not like to travel. Rather than force me to give up something I love he sends me off with his blessing and enjoys all the photos when I return :-)

I travel mostly alone. I'm a very independent person and I like going where I want, when I want. Usually when I do a tour, I travel as a single, then I can make friends to enjoy some things with, but still be able to get off 'on my own' as I like to do. In the past I have traveled with a couple of good friends whose travel style meshed with mine very well (they were both independent also) and it's nice to share expenses as it can be terribly expensive traveling alone sometimes. The worst thing I can imagine (and it happened to me once) is an independent traveling with a dependent 'clinging vine' type who never wants, or is afraid, to spend time alone. That was awful, I never had a minute alone to myself - yuukkk. About the only time I get lonely on a solo trip is when I have something exciting or unusual happen and I want to tell someone about it, share it with someone. Otherwise I'm good.

"About the only time I get lonely on a solo trip is when I have something exciting or unusual happen and I want to tell someone about it, share it with someone. Otherwise I'm good." I most definitely agree! Not being able to share special travel moments or experiences with someone is also one of the issues I have when travelling solo. While that's sometimes a problem, the positive aspects of solo travel still outweigh the negatives.

My travel confession: I was once planning a girls' trip to Key West with my cousin, whose husband was going to be working (they live in Florida). Then he quit his job, and decided to come with us. That change, though, meant that instead of being "our" trip, I would essentially be coming along on "their" trip, so I told my cousin I changed my mind about going, and the trip got called off. But (here is the confession part).... I went anyway, alone (without telling her), and had a great time.

My past experience with traveling with friends has shown more about me than them. There were definitely times when traveling with friends was difficult, but a lot of that was me. It got a lot easier to travel with people when I learned to say, "You know, I'm just being difficult. How about we meet back here in in two hours?" Sometimes I think that we have this feeling that we need to please the people we're traveling with and be with them the entire time, but being able to step back and have that level of control helps keep conflicts at bay. The only way I know to avoid this type of situation is to travel alone, which is fine by me.

Much like Andrea, my husband and I travel very well together - I do all the planning, and he just likes to be there. Works well. We have traveled with friends a couple of times, and I've decided I will never do it again. They too wanted me to do all the planning, so I felt total responsibility for their fun and couldn't enjoy the trip like when it's just my husband myself. My fault I know (for being such a people pleaser), but at least I've learned.

Pat ( Columbus) I agree, many husbands and wives love each other very much and are secure enough and have independent personalities that they are not threatened by each one persusing their own interests seperately.. I never minded my husband going on golf or fishing trips,, and he never minded me going to europe, and we alway had vacations together that he was more interested in .. Some
people do become attached at the hip , or feel very nervous about a partners independent travel. Its a good thing when they find a partner who has no desire to travel solo, and there are many who are like that, but for those of us who enjoy solo travel we are lucky to find partners who do not mind . There is no right or wrong way,, each couple has to work out what they are happiest with..

I've traveled with a grown daughter, children and grandchildren but my favorite is travel with just my wife and I. I enjoy having her with me but she likes man-made things (castles, paintings, sculpture) while I prefer landscapes. I do all the planning and try to include a mixture of things.

I have traveled with my mother a couple of times recently which works well because we have the same ideas about things to see. I have a couple of friends who are good traveling partners for me, and some other very good friends who I would never travel with. I also have no problem with solo travel. I used to have a hard time traveling with anyone until I made up my mind to try to not be easily irritated and to try to not be irritating! I also have to be able to go off on my own sometimes. I have a harder time succeeding in not being irritated or irritating when I can't get a break from my travel partner.

Has to be hubby - he keeps saying without him, I'd still be lost in Venice fr 2008 cuz I can't read a map to save my life! LOL

Definitely prefer my husband. Neither of us grew up in households where travel to Europe was a possibility so when we started traveling together we developed our travel style together. At first he wanted to keep moving way too quickly, with no stopping for a tea or wine, but once we realized we are in the fortunate position to keep on traveling he eased up and now loves to linger at a cafe or restaurant. Mostly we enjoy the same things but as the main planner (95%) I also try to add things I wouldn't consider but I know he would enjoy. I had a disastrous trip to Rome with my sister. She definitely reared her "ugly Canadian" head but luckily on the 2nd full day there she stomped off to be alone and we only met up for dinners from that point forward. (yet currently having conversations about a cruise with her family, more about bonding with the nieces and nephew than her!) In September we are on our first tour (22 day China tour) and I'm crossing my fingers we don't get a group of irritating types. Hubby will snap! Next year we have plans to go to Scotland with another couple. We have gone away for weekends with them multiple times but I do have concerns. They are wonderful people but way different from us. I've just begun the planning process and already it seems as though they want to stick together every moment of every day. We are the couple with more independent travel experience so that may be the issue. Also her husband is, how shall I put this, frugal, and we most certainly are not. We stay in reasonably budget-ish B&Bs or hotels and try to get a good price on the flights, but once on the ground we won't nickle and dime ourselves. I have a feeling there will be a lot of talk about the price of this or that.

Jessica: What a great topic! I have certainly enjoyed the many responses. I first went to Europe with a large group of classmates in college. That was fun for all its own reasons - Europe - away from home - I can have beer and wine - all the culture, etc. Since that time I have been twice with just my spouse. Another occasion was with the 13 yr old daughter and the 8 yr old son. It was a treat to see how they appreciated the experience. Our last trip was with two other couples. Not sure that I'd do that again. Despite all the planning and my protestations I became their "tour guide". I guess that was inevitable but it was exhausting. In addition, one of the other couples has numerous food phobias and allergies. It was an ordeal getting through a meal. I think our future European travels will be just my wife and I. That way, we can ALWAYS find a room, we can ALWAYS find a table in a restaurant and we know how we like to travel. Have fun.

My least favorite traveler is the "SLEEP IN" traveler. Who goes on vacation to sleep in!? I went to Athens and Iraklion with my best friend and two other friends. My best friend and I were used to travelling together and both usually were up and out the door by 9:00. Our other friends preferred to sleep in. The first day we waited for them. Never again. I almost went insane, but at my best friend's insistence, I waited. I told them that night that we would be up and out by 9am. If they weren't ready, we'd meet them later for lunch. That's what we did the rest of our trip: we met them at lunch. It was amazing what all we could complete before lunch and how we could beat the crowds at the Acropolis.

I'm surprised by the number go people who like to travel alone! That's the way I like to travel also, but so many of my much younger co-workers don't like to do this, so they aren't seeing Europe like I am!

I'm surprised by the number go people who like to travel alone! That's the way I like to travel also, but so many of my much younger co-workers don't like to do this, so they aren't seeing Europe like I am!

Okay gang, I have a good one, probably right up there with the best stories. I have been to Italy 5 times in the last 6 years, and find that traveling alone has been the most rewarding. My story: in 2009 I went to Italy, and a long time friend (she and I had been friends for over 30 years) found out that I was going and wanted to go. She had never been out of the US, so this was going to be a great adventure for her, and I was looking forward to our trip. Long story short, I had to PLAN everything right down to opening up a checking account at my CU attached to my account cause she wouldn't do ANYTHING. Would tell her to look at websites etc. to get her imput on places to go, and she would say"you are taking care of it". So, I did, and when we got there it was a nightmare, she wouldn't stay with me on the streets (raid that she would get lost), we were there for 27 days and traveled to 14 cities. I was so stressed out that I had sun poisening, bug bites, and allergies surfaced that hadn't bothered me in 20 years. One example is that one night we took baths, and she went first. When I went to take mine, I went in the bathroom, and WOW, her dirty water was still in the tub. Of course I blew up and said what is this, and she said that she couldn't get the plug out, I sympathize, but there were better ways to let me know . She made a trour group of 70 people wait for her in the 100 degree heat, as she wondered off and got lost. Nuff said! Worst trip ov my life, now I go solo, and meet friends there, best times of my life. I am traveling to Italy in two weeks again, and will meet friends that I have met in Italy, some who live in the US and some from Italy. I am looking forward to a great 19 days! Be careful of who you travel with, give it a try with a short trip nearby first! Happy Travels!

James....to paraphrase.... I have nothing to contribute so I lob insults.... How sad.

Pat(Victoria)...well said!

James,, are you capable of contributing anything useful to this thread other then insinuating that those of us who have enjoyed solo travel while married that our husbands and ourselves are inferior people in inferior relationships because we live different lives then you.. gosh you really are a small minded man,, among other things I suppose. Go make sure your wife is safely in the kitchen making your din dins now..

My first trip to Europe was about 30 years ago, with a group of people (only 13) in their 20's. A former roommate had invited me on the trip. Funny how much travel has changed since then. All I had to do in the six weeks prior to the trip was get a passport, buy my plane ticket, and pay for the tour. I don't recall even buying a book or receiving an itinerary. How did we travel before the internet?
But what sticks out in my mind was it was a 3 week 5 country marathon tour and a great deal of time was spent on the bus. There were a couple of people that were incredibly annoying. The day we spent in Florence is one of my fondest memories of the trip. Why? Because I decided I was going to spend the day by myself without anyone from the group. In fact I came accross the slides from that trip a couple weeks ago and I must have found someone to take a picture of me that day. (defintely looked 30 years younger).

When I first started traveling to Europe several years ago, my husband was my least favorite person to travel with. He was extremely nervous visiting foreign countries. He was always on edge and found the cultural differences irritating. Oh, how all of that has changed. We just got back from 3 weeks in Italy and England and now my husband is my favorite travel partner. He was easy going and light-hearted, he never got nervous or worried and he even learned some Italian before our trip and had fun speaking it. He has done a complete 180. Not to sound like a cliché, but I do feel I owe a lot of this to Rick Steves. We have been avid watches of his PBS show in the last year. RS opened my husband's eyes to the joy of traveling. If Rick can embrace Europe with a calm demeanor while having a grand time doing so-- so can my husband Troy. What a difference a little exposure and education makes.

My husband and I enjoy traveling together and now with our kids. On one of our trips, we met a fantastic couple who are avid travelers with easy going personalities and now they are our favorite travel partners! Hopefully someday we will get to travel Europe with them;)

I've traveled with family, friends and alone and had, for the most part, a great time with all. I had a terrible time once with family members so didn't invite them again. I may just have been fortunate but I am very careful about who I invite, making sure it's someone who easily adapts to change, and take into consideration likes and dislikes when making plans.

I've traveled with family, friends and alone and had, for the most part, a great time with all. I had a terrible time once with family members so didn't invite them again. I may just have been fortunate but I am very careful about who I invite, making sure it's someone who easily adapts to change, and take into consideration likes and dislikes when making plans.

One plus about traveling solo...you are more likely to meet new people since you aren't focused on a traveling partner. People are more likely to engage you when you are alone.

I hope my husband isn't going to read this, but I would have to say I like traveling with my Aunt or my daughter the best. We have very similar tastes & both roll with glitches and last minute changes on the fly well. Trips with them are pretty stress free and planning is extremely easy. My second best travel buddy is my husband. He's usually "along for the ride" to do what ever I have planned and will let me plan whatever I want(which I always include items I know he'll love) and he'll pay for it, but he has a hard time emotionally with glitches even though I always have a quick solution. This one flaw really is hard for me to deal with while working on a situation. I do like traveling with other family members and friends, but find it very hard going in the planning stages, as they won't commit to anything within my comfort time zone & I have ended up paying more for air tickets or not being able to stay at our desired hotels than if I was free to just book when I know it's right. They always feel bad about causing extra grief but don't change their ways on their own. Money has never been an issue with anyone so that's a plus. My new rule as of this year is that I tell them "x date to x date" is when I can go and I'm buying air tickets "x date" for that trip & anyone not committing at that time doesn't get to go. Plus I'm booking "x agreed hotel for x dates on x day".

The only time in my entire life (I'm 69) that I traveled alone was when I flew from St. Louis to Albuquerque to begin Peace Corps Training in 1963. (I'd have taken an airplane but they hadn't been invented yet.) In the almost-48 years that I've been married, I've gone to visit my family maybe 3-4 times without Hubs and/or a kid or two along. Otherwise, all of my travels have been with Hubs and the kids, and then 'just' Hubs, when the kids had grown and gone. (He and I get along pretty well...) If the opportunity to travel solo ever presented itself, I'd probably take a tour rather than go it alone. I'm too much of a chatterbox to be by myself.
Oh, and...you don't really know a person till you've been MARRIED to them for nearly half a century, and even then you sometimes wonder... :)

For the most part, my husband is a great travel partner. We have similar interests, are both flexible when one wants to do something the other doesn't (or we agree to split up for a few hours, no big deal), we both like food and nightlife and generally have a fabulous time together. On the other hand, we're both somewhat high strung (him more than me) and bumps in the travel road can lead to a little bickering but it passes quickly once the situation is resolved. I find that planning helps prevent mishaps and thus stress. I hate traveling with family (with my sister-in-law being the exception). If we're slightly high strung, both our families are VERY nervous, difficult travelers. I joke that I have PTSD from my in-laws' last trip here, but it's only half a joke. The idea of them visiting again induces panic. Too much responsibility foisted on us, we become responsible for their enjoyment. Luckily we've resolved to put our foot down and "let" (force) them travel independently on their next visit to see us. I've never done international travel with friends. With everyone's work schedules and general 20-something flakiness it can be pretty hard to coordinate.

@Pat (Columbus) and Pat (Victoria)...I agree with both of you what you said in your posts...it's sad that a person has to be so obnoxious.

Jessica, Sooooo true! We travelled with two other couples once, and it was bad. We cut one couple loose in Ireland. They just whined and complained. The other couple we still travel with a lot.
I have to say, my wife is my most excellent travel partner. Always open-minded, up for anything, can sleep anywhere, never complains, sings Bob Dylan songs in the shower. I'm a lucky guy. The couple that we still travel with from time to time, are great travellers, also. None of us need a lot of sleep while on holiday, we can all be ready to roll in 20 to 25 minutes in the morning, and we have 7 different languages between us. I will always remember the four of us, in the winter, sitting on the frigid marble railing, holding on to each other jackets, on the Rialto Bridge, dangling our legs over the water while drinking wine at four in the morning. Good times. And James, some pretty rough posts, man.

Oh Jessica good question. On one hand traveling with a parent or sibling is fairly easy. With close family one kinda knows what to expect. Since they are close family normally you know their likes & dislikes. So it's easy to plan around them. Traveling with friends or a new bf/gf can make or break a relationship. It's very easy to get into fight or become angry during a trip with a friend or bf/gf. Actually those relationships could end. During a past trip with friend we fought so much. Felt like during trip it was a job. Cause had to plan & do everything. Felt stressed & angry! Often my friend would complain about food or being to long at a place. Now we are no longer friends. I agree you never know someone until you travel with them. Maybe a group tour is good cause after trip most likely you wont see this person. Actually I would love to travel with my sister. I know what she likes & does not like. Plus were mostly into the same things so we would have good time.

Hubby and I travel well together and enjoy traveling together. We've had some great trips with some friends and learned wayyyy too much about other friends on other trips and knew we would never travel with them again. Traveling with family can be dicey too. What we've learned that works best for us when traveling with others is to make sure we have downtime from each other. And we make sure it's clear from the outset that we may have different interests and may want to spend a day or part of a day doing something else and we will plan to meet up again at some agreed on time and location, even if going to the same site. We try to make it clear that its not a personal thing, just an interest or activity level thing. There are a lot of factors, spending habits, travel comfort levels, interests and tastes, acitivity levels and a lot of these are hard to tell about other people until you actually are on a trip together. In one case on of our friends that we had enjoyed travelling with in the past had married and travelling with the couple was a very different experience. If two couples travel together and one pair is a late night couple and the other pair are morning people, unless they take these things in to consideration, they can make each other crazy. We'd probably try to do a shorter local trip with someone first to see how the travel styles mesh before getting too much planned for a big trip.

I enjoying traveling with my hubby. We've tried going with family on vacations (our moms on one trip, his parents on another) and with friends and its always a disaster! I think the worst was the trip with friends... we were walking around NOLA and there were a lot of things DH and I wanted to see, but we didn't want to plan the whole vacation. We had already been to Cafe du Monde and I loved sitting there and people watching, so I mentioned that I would love to go back and sit for a little while (and eat beignets, of course). My friend's husband responded with "I don't care about stupid donuts" (except what he really said wasn't so PG). When we asked what he wanted to do, his response was "I don't know". UGH!! So we split up and hubby and I had a great day... and they got pissed off because they went back to the car early (without letting us know) and were waiting on us for over an hour. Not my fault! I won't ever travel with friends again unless they are experienced travelers and know what the heck they want to do and don't have to be attached at the hip!

OK, seems like I am one of the few who travel successfully with friends. I must be easy going or my friends are easy going because I haven't had any major problems. I travel with friends who live in other parts of the country who I don't see often so it's nice to connect on a trip. It's good to have someone to share experiences with and when driving, nice to have someone to share the driving (and car rental expense). I have visited and enjoyed sights I wouldn't have chosen to visit so it's broadening in some ways. I'm lucky to have friends with similar interests but sometimes it's nice to have alone time too. I've traveled on RS tours with and without friends and I like having friendly people to meet and spend time with and also the ability to go off on my own occasionally. One problem I've encountered is roommates who snore and I'm going to think seriously about paying the single supplement on my next tour or having a separate room when traveling independently.

I've done all of the above, but am still pretty young so don't have a ton of experience behind me. I do have a great group of friends (5-7 of us usually go) who get together every year, but usually in the states for just a long weekend. It helps knowing everyone's strengths and everyone sort of learns to pick up the slack if they haven't helped plan anything yet. (one girl usually finds lodging, one gets a car, one plans the sights) One thing that's great is those online surveys- you can survey what cities people want to visit, what their budget is, ect., even anonymously so no one feels bad about their budget. I think you can have a GREAT time with friends, as long as you are all clear that you will have alone time, and everyone needs to be ok with that.

I've traveled with family members and friends on various occasions. I don't try to spend even an entire day with anybody. Usually I will say, I think it would work better if we split up and meet up again later for dinner, or at the hotel, or at the car. The only time I enjoyed spending a day with family was once in DisneyLand with two 18-yr olds. They were fun and let me be the boss. The RS tours work for me ok because we can all spend our free time apart. I really need my own room, tho. I think I'm not that easy to get along with.

Go for a 4 or 5 day trip with your friend first. I have several friends I've gone on short US trips with. There are a couple I already know would be great to go abroad with. And there is one I absolutely won't do more than 2 or 3 days with. (This is the same person who has never been to Europe, but has informed me I'm doing Europe "wrong" by not staying in American hotels and eating at McDonalds like a normal person.) I sometimes think that given her attitude, I should plan a trip with her to areas with no American hotels or a Starbucks...Korcula Island, Slovenia, Montenegro, rural Italy,...and not let her know until we arrive there are no such businesses.....Hmmmm....

We had one very bad trip when another couple traveled with us to California in 1990. For all these years I could never mention that trip without steam coming out of my husband's ears. Needless to say, we travel only as a couple since then unless it is friends we have successfully traveled with before. However, when traveling overseas, it's just the two of us. We have the same interests in just about everything so that makes it easy. I do all the advance planning, and he plans the day-to-day activities after I give him my "must see/do" list. If you plan to travel with others, we discovered that it would have been extremely helpful to have set of ground rules before we left! For example -- my husband likes wine with nice meals -- the other couple said they didn't want any, but proceeded to drink half of ours and never offered to help pay for it. Then after a few days the other husband just completely quit talking to us.
Last years we (the 2 of us) had a "do-over" trip to Ca. so my husband could finally get over his mad.