Why Your Best Friend Might Suck as a Travel Buddy

Think about the person you’re closest to. Does your friendship date back to childhood? Maybe you met in school, at work, or through mutual friends? Maybe over many years, meals, nights out, and days on the trail you forged a bond. There are inside jokes. You even texted on the side of the group chat. You grew so close you began referring to them as your best friend. You started thinking they might be in your wedding party.

Then you planned that big international trip.

The next thing you know, your friend is arriving at the airport 20 minutes before boarding time because “only losers show up two hours early.” Then they fumble their way through customs and ask if you remembered to visit a bank for currency exchange. Oh, you did? Nice. Now can you spot them a few hundred? They promise to Venmo. Before long, they’re waving your cash around, bartering for Moroccan rugs while you’d rather be on a boat back to Spain, or Portugal, or any place else, for that matter. This one’s going to cost you.

Travel has a way of pulling back the curtain on a person’s habits and tendencies. Just because you get along perfectly at home, doesn’t mean you greet the world in the same way when you’re out of your comfort zone. You might want to relax for a few days; they might want to go clubbing until dawn. You might want to plan your days carefully; they might surrender to the flow. You might want to visit a local market and cook meals; they might want to eat out three times a day. Contrasts can add to any relationship, but on the road they can become painful sticking points.

For the most part, there’s no wrong way to travel, but there are different ways of doing it. And while you and your bestie get along easily when you’re not making collective decisions, it might be worth asking a few travel-related questions before hitting enter on that ticket purchase. After all, once the wheels are up, it’s a lot harder to turn that plane around.