What is your travel personality?
Suppose you are looking for a travel companion and a friend or acquaintance expresses an interest in taking a trip with you. Do you set a travel date and start packing your bags? Not if you value your sanity and your friendship.
Take some time to determine your travel personality. Travel personality refers to personal habits and preferred travel activities. For example, you could be a(n):
- Early riser or night owl
- Talkative or quiet
- Big spender or budget conscious
- Fast food devotee or local restaurant explorer
- Independent or interdependent
- Driver or passenger
- Social drinker who enjoys a glass of wine with dinner or a person who never drinks alcoholic beverages
Knowing your travel personality gives you a good start in getting to know how you and the potential travel companion get along. Start the conversation over a beverage or a meal. If the first conversation goes well, take a low risk overnight or day trip together to sample how your might interact while traveling. Do a debrief after the trial trip – what went well, what did not go well.
One final bit of advice is to trust your instincts. If you get a sense that traveling with this person might reduce or eliminate your enjoyment of the trip, say no.
(Originally published in 2008)