Tips on Picking Your Travel Companions

Remember that old saying, "Familiarity breeds contempt." When it comes to traveling, it's very true. Nerves can run short with the people you're traveling with because you're cloistered together for long hours in cars, planes, or hotel rooms. Personalities, habits, and ideas clash and conflict arises, making your vacation a little less than desirable and your friendships strained.

So how do you avoid all that? Pick your travel companions very carefully. "The more the merrier" might seem like a good idea at one point, but it doesn't always work out that way. Here are some tips on picking your travel companions.

Make sure you love them even when you don't always like them.
Don't travel with people you can hold grudges against, unless you want to end your relationship with them. You don't always have to like people, but there are some people you will love forever. Family, for example, is a good example. Family vacations are notorious disasters because tempers easily explode, but family members always go home together with problems forgiven and forgotten. The same can be said about some friendships. Travel with those people.

Travel with flexible acquaintances.
If you're traveling with people you don't necessarily love, make sure they are flexible with the travel plans. Make sure they can go with the flow, handle unscheduled stops, and know how to wing it. When you travel with flexible people, they wouldn't mind if you go off and do your own thing sometimes. This keeps your options open and your sanity intact when you need a break from your travel companions.

Unless you love them like family, don't travel with people trying to escape their problems.
It will catch up with them, and you'll be right in the middle of it. Sulking, whining, and complaining travel companions bring down the entire mood of the group. You wouldn't want to handle their problems on your down time. That's unnecessary stress you don't need.

Unless you've got kids of your own, don't travel with another family.
Few are the people who can handle other people's kids 24/7. A family's travel dynamics is different from that of childless people. You might think you'd make a cool aunt or uncle or mom/dad's friend, but children need constant care and teenagers need constant high alert. It's not your job to take care of them, and you are under no obligation to do so if you travel with a family. But you'll get roped into doing just that, at one point or another, either out of the parents' desperation or your guilt.

Keep the dynamics the same.
If you're traveling with your family, go ahead and travel with another family with children around the same ages as your children. If you're single, travel with other singles. If you're traveling with your significant other, travel with other couples. Keep your traveling group the same gender. Or travel with people the same age as you. When you keep the traveling group's dynamics the same, you lessen the chance of awkwardness and tension. You won't have to worry about being a third wheel, going to age inappropriate places, or having a curfew.

Even when you're careful with picking your travel companions, you might find that when people find out about your travel plans, some will want to come too and might even try to invite themselves. So here are some tips to help you stop unwanted travel companions from tagging along.

Keep your travel plans a secret as long as possible.
Your business is your business. If people ask what your plans are for a certain weekend, you can say you're busy. If they ask why you took some time off work, you can say you've got things to attend to. Or you don't have to say anything at all. Except for your employers (and possibly family members or significant others), you owe nobody an explanation.

Set a cap on the maximum number of people you'll travel with.
Before announcing your travel plans, determine how many people you'd like to travel with and stick with that limit. It's easier to say no to extra travelers if space is limited. It's also easier to say no to unwanted travel companions. You're under no obligation to give anyone a full detail of who's going with you. "I'm sorry, but you can't come. Our space is limited," is enough of an explanation.

Finalize who your travel companions are before announcing your travel plans. If at all possible, before you tweet or update your Facebook status about your travel plans, make sure you know who you're traveling with. This way, you can ward off tag-a-longs.

Learn how to say no. Sometimes you just have to say no to unwanted travel companions. It can be hard to do, and there's a lot of ways to say it, but sometimes it's the only way to keep your travel plans intact.

Enjoy your trip to the max by making sure that your travel companions don't ruin it for you. Remember how much you've invested in your travel plans. Think about the consequences, develop a steel spine, and be selective. Bon voyage!