For many of us our memories of a holiday are dominated by how well we got along with the people we meet on our travels. Whether we are on a group tour, travelling solo or as one half of a heavenly pairing, we will often encounter others during our travels who will become long term friends. The chances are, we will also meet those people who, at best, provide material for our holiday horror stories for years to come, and at worst can seriously affect how much we enjoy our trip. So what makes a nightmare travel companion?
By far and away, the worst scenario to be stuck with an undesirable travel buddy is in a group tour. Like it on not, you have to travel with the same motley bunch for the length of the tour. We don’t often travel on organised tours, and one of the reasons I’m reluctant to do so is that the company we keep for the trip is pre-determined, and is out of my control. We travelled through South America in the mid 1990s with a British group where one woman developed a hysterical form of hypochondria, made worse by the fact that she wouldn’t go near a non-English speaking pharmacist as she was convinced that the locals would poison her given half a chance. The looks of despair on our poor group leader’s face were a picture. By the end of the trip I reckon we would have all paid to take her to a poison-wielding pharmacist.
Attention seeking, a sense of drama and a compulsion of inviduals to talk about themselves incessantly; that probably sums up the worst of our travel companions during our group trips. In a group you cannot govern your companions, however obnoxious they are (although I have heard of stories where companies have removed passengers from a tour when the rest of the group refused to continue if the offending party was not evicted).
Travelling solo is the opposite. One of the great advantages of travelling alone is that you can choose your company (sometimes it chooses you) and you can stay with them for as much or as little time as the situation suits you. I remember when inter-railing making many friends and joining them for a few days and then parting when our planned routes deviated. Occasionally I left a fellow traveller for my own sanity or even safety (and no doubt others did the same with me). In one instance after hanging out in northern Finland with a young Moroccan lad who tried to hit on every girl in the small town we were in, I figured it was only a matter of time before the local lads gave him a proper sending off. Rather than continue with plans that he was making for our next destination, I left him sleeping in the hostel dorm and snuck onto an early morning train south. I hope he left the town in one piece.
Clearly we won’t want to keep travelling with someone who is a total bore to us, but similarly when travelling solo it’s wise to get away from those who, like my friend in Finland, are heading for trouble and are likely to drag you into the scene. Safety first is the message here.
Travelling with your significant other should, to all intents and purposes, give you the same freedoms as travelling alone. You might be more likely to meet couples than singles, but you are able to choose whether you travel, eat and drink together with others according to how well you get along, or indeed how sociable you’re feeling. We have made many great friends (solos and couples) over the years during our travels, and have excused ourselves from dinners and travel plans to avoid spending time with those who either of us found boring/ irritating/ offensive. I’m sure others have made their excuses from our company too, and that’s fine. We’re all different and have our own tastes.
Meeting people on our travels does create many memories. As writing this post has shown me, those we can’t wait to get away from may in fact provide the best material for our travel tales, even long after the nice folks we meet are forgotten.
One of the most cited reasons to travel is to meet other people. It would be a little sad if we grouped up with like-minded folk all the time, don’t you think? Obviously there are limits to this theory; I don’t seek out trouble. And I would certainly advise a degree of caution and a measure of distance be applied. But bring on the characters and roll out the rogues, just leave us enough space to explore alone, or with people of our choosing.
My worst travel companion: A top bunk drunk, and all the late night shenanigans that he provided.
Aside from the occasional trek, I’d rather avoid organized tours. I had the misfortune of being part of a month-long tour on my first trip to Europe. I was 10 and I still remember the horror, vividly. Drama is bound to occur when you confine a random group of people together for an extended amount of time. I bet it would make a good TV show.
On the other hand, traveling alone is the best deal ever because you’re never really alone but the trick is that you get to pick your travel mates (even if they pick you, you could always sneak out the back door). I have to say that so far I’ve been extremely lucky. The most nightmarish travel companion I’ve met has been extremely annoying at worst and luckily I didn’t meet them while traveling but I did imagine the pain it must be to travel with them.
my worst travel companion – someone who had broken up with her boyfriend. Our travels were full of phone conversations (more like yelling) and topping up of phone credits .. etc.. it was very nerve wrecking. 1st and last
Thanks for the great comments (and some more illustrations of nightmare company!) R, I’m glad you didn’t mention a couple of annoying Brits you met on a trekking trip in Laos
Like you say Mark, the characters and rogues we meet stay in the memory for ever, and we do seem to grow fonder of them once we’ve left them far behind.
Your phone girl sounds like a real nightmare Ciki – would have been tempting to ditch the phone somewhere when she wasn’t looking
Ha! I think I might’ve been able to put up with you guys for a couple of more days in Muang Ngoi.
(No Key Lime pies there but the place was certainly amazing.)
I was shocked at the number of women traveling solo through Central America. It’s been really great to meet so many, they are so friendly and open to other travelers. Just today I told a girl I was headed to the market and she said ‘oh great I’ll join you’ we had a great time together and at the end of the day we were no longer strangers.
Group camping trips can be the same scenario. We usually choose the people we camp with, but sometimes we bring in new blood and invite others to come. These new people usually turn out fine, but we have had some really annoying ones too.
Sometimes the worst kind of travel companion is one that you’re really looking forward to spending time with! My friend upped and left me two days into a 10 day trip from Paris to Nice, saying she was home-sick. Aside from being disappointed that we missed out on the exciting journey together, (it was both our first times abroad without parents) I couldn’t help but feel insecure about whether it was my fault. She had previously managed to go 3 weeks in Kenya without getting home-sick that same summer! :S