shape
carat
color
clarity

Travel with Friends--Tips, Stories, Warnings

Haven

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
Feb 15, 2007
Messages
13,166
Do you travel with friends?

DH and I take one big trip every summer. Last summer we went to Ireland (THEBESTTRIPEVER!) with my sister and her fiance. I really enjoyed traveling with them, and as I'm starting to plan this summer's trip, I'm thinking about asking some friends if they're interesting in traveling with us.

Here's my concern: It was pretty easy traveling with my sister and her fiance because we are all so close that we can basically say whatever we feel and it won't cause any problems. We have some very close friends, but it's not the same with them, of course.

We've already considered which of our friends are likely to make the most compatible travel buddies. And after traveling with my sister and her FI, I really want to do that again. I love DH, of course, but it was so much fun traveling with another couple.

We don't know where we're going yet. I may have a speaking gig in Belgium; if so we'll go there and visit Beglium & The Netherlands. If that doesn't pan out, we might do Germany or Austria or Switzerland, or a combination. Either way, we're thinking about renting bicycles and cycling for half the trip, and then traveling by train or rental car the rest of the trip. (10 days excluding getting there and back is our sweet spot, so we typically travel for only 12 days total. I know it's not a lot, but we get itchy to come home to our furbabies on Day 10 of every trip.)

Oh, and we don't do organized tours. Ever. So we wouldn't be with a larger group or anything.

SO, if you travel with friends, and especially if you take long trips out of the country with other couples, do you have any advice for me? Do you have any horror stories to share? What about really wonderful trips you've taken with other couples? What made the trip work or fail?

And, if anyone has any thoughts on Belgium, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, or Austria--do share! I've been to Amsterdam, but that's it of all those locations. My family is from west Berlin, and I would really love to visit my homeland of Germany, but I'm open to any of these places for this summer.

Thanks so much!
 
We like to take our longer trips by ourselves because, well, it is our chance to reconnect, and travelling and exploring new places (or revisiting favorite places) is one of our very favorite things to do together as a couple.

But in the past DH and I have taken some wonderful shorter trips with some close friends with whom we can speak openly and honestly, and who shared our approach to travelling and had a similar travel budget and realistic expectations.

We have also taken some shorter trips with relatives and other friends - these turned out to be seriously un-fun and really a waste of time and money - later we figured out these were the type of people who travelled because it was expected but really wanted the same experiences they would have had they stayed in their home town. But they had talked the talk about being excited about traveling and looking forward to seeing new places and people.

If we were to plan a trip with others, we'd want to make sure they were interested in many of the same kinds of things (museums, churches, history, architecture, local cuisine, local language) and had a similar rhythm (we generally alternate a big day of "doing" and then the next day would be slower-paced, local, maybe sleep in or find a matinee movie with English subtitles or picnic in the park) and would be okay with splitting up sometimes for an afternoon or a day. And it would be important that they be cognizant with the fact that international travel can have delays and detours and setbacks, and often getting lost is part of the experience unless you are fluent in the local language. We view travel as an unpredictable adventure and some of our favorite local spots have been discovered while wandering around trying to get somewhere else.

Your trip sounds exciting - best of luck in finding compatible travel companions!
 
My tip is stick with traveling with family! :cheeky: I've been on one international trip with friends (a couple) and it was...challenging, to say the least. Honestly I didn't want to travel with them to begin with but my sister and husband talked me into it. Don't worry-I made sure to tell them I told them so! :halo:

For starters, the couple had never traveled out of the country before so there was quite a bit of handholding. They also had different expectations (how often to do activities, which activities, etc.), different budget (lower, which meant we had to accommodate them and stay in places that were a lot less nice than what I wanted to stay in, and one of them was truly crappy), and to top it all off, they had weird uncomfortable fights with each other! We weren't that close to them so it was a VERY uncomfortable situation.

I'd definitely go on a short trip with friends (I just went on a beach trip with my 5 BFFs this summer and that was great) but I don't think I'll ever go on a big trip like that again with anyone but my husband and my twin sister.
 
I have a rule that I don't travel with friends internationally (and for good reason). But if I were to travel with friends I:

- wouldn't travel with an international travel newbie
- would travel with someone who is culturally sensitive (or at least think everything should be done the American way)
- is fine being by herself and doing her own thing
- low maintenance and doesn't spend hours getting ready
- not tight with money
- complementary to your travel style (i.e., if you're the planner, they will go with the flow or vice versa)


I'm sure there's more, but that's what I can think of right now.
 
Thank you, ladies! I really appreciate your insight.

I'm going to come back tomorrow and post more specific responses, but I have one initial reaction:
- What does it say that the friends we tagged as "possible travel buddies" are all foreign? Not one of them was born in the US. I didn't realize that until I read your responses just now.

I've been writing my novel ALL DAY, so my eyes are fried. I just wanted to pop in to say "THANK YOU!" for responding. I look forward to reading more tips and stories.
 
My only tip through personal experience is to make sure the other party has similar spending habits to yourself.

I went to Europe 5 years ago with a girl i went to school with. I was single, she was single and we both wanted to go on a holiday so we thought why not? Well, it turns out that there is a little more to take in to consideration other than relationship status. :cheeky:

She didn't want to spend any of the money that she had and it really affected the trip. All I could think was that we had travelled half way around the world and I wasn't going to get to experience half of it because she didn't want to part with her spending money (but didn't mind when i parted with mine to pay for her). I guess it really annoyed me because she had twice as much money as i did and came home with 90% of it.

Also travelling with someone who had never left their own country before can be very tiring but it seems that you don't have to worry about that one.
 
Haven, I don't really have any advice about travelling with others, as my only international trips have been with family and with a school trip, so we were pretty regimented, and my only trips with others have either been through school, or spring break-type vacations that didn't require much thought.

I would, however, like to enthusiastically endorse a trip to Germany! I went there in December 2000 (wow, ten years ago!) as part of a school exchange and did not want to leave! We went to Munich for four days and then to Muenster for a week and stayed with host families there. While a lot of my wonderful memories have to do with my host family, there was also so much to see and do in Germany that I can not WAIT to go back with my SO at some point and show him around, as well as explore new places. I believe most of Germany is pretty bicycle-friendly, but the south is super hilly (especially in Bavaria)...I believe the North/Northwest are a bit flatter.
 
Could you do parts with and parts without others? Like meet up in Berlin and overlap for a few days and then travel to Switzerland together for a few days... Some tips I've learned from student travel (oh and check out that particular company for some really good itineraries, not restaurants :rodent: but "must climb mountains" and highlight lists) is to make space in your togetherness. I too love traveling with friends, but not being joined at the hip is crucial and that is part of everyone being on the same page.
 
The last time I traveled extensively with friends was when I was studying abroad in college, and spent about three weeks in Europe with two friends who were also studying nearby. It was a comedy of errors because one friend got pickpocketed in the second city we stopped in, and the other had her ATM card eaten by the machine in the next city, so I ended up being the only one with money for the remainder of the trip. They had to have their parents wire money to my account for me to withdraw and give to them. In retrospect, we could have handled that part better than we did, but my big tip here is to make sure that EVERYONE brings at least two forms of payment and keeps them in separate places!

The other thing that really got on my nerves during that trip was, oddly enough, my friends' eating habits. I had honestly NEVER noticed it before, but they both were noisy eaters and chewed with their mouths open...this is one of my biggest pet peeves and I was going nuts by the end of the trip. I think it was mostly from the prolonged proximity -- when we just had dinner together in the loud and crowded dining hall back at our college, I never really noticed, but I certainly did when it was every meal, every day for three weeks, in decent restaurants. Tip here: be forewarned that you might start to notice each others' flaws and bad habits if you spend a lot of time together. So make sure you like your friends enough that you can refrain from strangling them if it gets really bad!
 
I've travelled with friends a few times and it's been largely ok, but as Octavia pointed out, you're up close and personal with habits that didn't seem so bad in the departure lounge...

The only thing that really drove me nuts was the person who always wanted food like he'd get at home, never wanted to try local restaurants or even eat out much. The phrase "why don't we make a sandwich and just eat it in the car" began to grate on my frayed nerves like nails on a chalkboard or tinfoil on a metal filling. Oh, and we were in the car because we were being transported from guide book site A to guidebook site B, at roughly the speed of an evacuation from a burning building. The countryside in that part of the world was probably really nice, but I didn't get to look for long.

Yeah, just make sure your holiday habits and preferences are broadly similar.

Oh, and never rent any river-going craft or other floating vessel with someone who can't swim. Oh, or a horse drawn caravan with someone allergic to horses.
 
Austria gets my love vote, right in the heart of europe and so impressive! Other than Salzburg, Vienna & Innsbruck you could easily cross the border to Germany, Italy or Switzerland :love:

Choosing which friends are key because you have to compromise often, totally fine if the trip is short :errrr:
When you decide to split a ticket it never works; some people can eat huge amounts of food [and drink] hoping for a 50/50 split. Others get annoyed by one picking up a tab :confused:
To avoid any misunderstandings when traveling with friends is to Talk ahead and be Flexible. 
DH and I have gone away with another couple once and twice as a group [5 couples]. We are still very close friends with the later couples but not as close to the former; wife got mad at us for not telling her we were going for a hike next morning [at 6 AM] when she always woke up at 10 :shock: She also complained about her bed [and many other things] the whole time.

With Family--Easy to escape more, be spontaneous, adventurous and say what you want. It can be Less expensive due to sharing transportation, group tickets, car rentals [and gas], lodging, group tours and food. As family, we have no problem testing food at local markets, street stalls, etc. even for fine dining...Mother and I always share food [not same plate/fork] ;))
As long as you make sure you plan for some time alone as a couple during your vacation with company, it can be a great bonding experience.
 
Ninna|1294016444|2812702 said:
Austria gets my love vote, right in the heart of europe and so impressive! Other than Salzburg, Vienna & Innsbruck you could easily cross the border to Germany, Italy or Switzerland :love:

.

Another vote for Austria here! Oh I loved Austria. :love: We went to all the places above also and the scenery is breathtaking.
 
Chalk up another vote for Austria! It is a beautiful country and has such a rich and interesting history.

When I have traveled with friends, I have had the best experiences with the people who are most like me. I have friends I adore who have very different personalities, but I have found it to be most pleasant when I am traveling with friends who have similar attitudes toward money, priorities for spending, interests, desires to learn, activity levels, and preferences as far as going out/staying in/a little of both. (That last sentence wasn't all that artfully composed, but I wanted to keep it concise.)
 
DH and I travel with four friends (two couples) every summer. We have all been good friends for years (the boys all went to school together) and it's worked out very well. We tend to go to France most years as my parents have a house there. What is handy for us is that the lads like going out and cycling, doing activities etc and myself and the girls like lying out on the hammocks and trying all the different wines. DH gets bored easily lying about and while I love doing activities and sightseeing I love lying back and relaxing on this holiday. We hire two cars between the six of us and so if some people want to go off for the day they can.
 
I travelled with a bunch of single girls when I was single.

Dear god, never again.

They took at least 2 hours to put their make up on in the morning.

I stick to FI and me, but will consider other couples IF we can go off and do our own thing when it gets too much.

Definitely need to travel with people on a similar budget or it can get v awkward.
 
I've been to the Bahamas with friends twice (the same basic group, with some additions the second time) and I've also done a long weekend trip to Long Island with some of the same people.

Overall, I love traveling with friends. I think it's especially a great option for a trip like the Bahamas where we rent a huge house (much nicer than any couple could afford on their own) and just hang out all week. We buy food, cook, go fishing, swimming, etc. It's easy to split up and do things in smaller groups, but we all come back together in the evenings. During the previous trip we got annoyed with each other a bit, but 95% of the time everybody got along beautifully. And with such a large group, if you couldn't stand one person for the evening, you could just hang out with someone else until you weren't annoyed anymore.

I'm not sure I would want to take a trip to Europe with friends - at least not more than one couple. There are so many things to do in cities, especially in Europe, that I can see us all splitting up by couples to do our own things - one couple might be really into museums, and the other couples might want to visit historic castles, etc. For a trip like that, I guess I don't see the point of going with a large group the way we do in the Bahamas. Plus, it's very difficult to move a large group from one place to another (we've switched houses mid-trip before) so I would want a vacation where we stay in one spot, like a rental house, and do things from there. When DH and I go to Europe, we visit probably 4 different places in less than 2 weeks, so a group would make that difficult. One other couple would be doable, but it would have to be one we get along with very very well and I can only think of one other couple that would work (for reference, we went to the Bahamas and Long Island with 4 other couples, so we do have a lot of travel friends, but only one pair I could see taking to Europe).

Those are my experiences and preferences - hope that helps! I would definitely start small with a long weekend trip to a lake house or something and see if you can get along with your intended couples for more than a day or two.

eta: I'm pretty tolerant about traveling with people after spending 4 years of work traveling - I can go almost anywhere with anyone for a few days, but a long trip to Europe is a different story.
 
Okay, now I'm starting to think that maybe we don't want to travel with anyone. :cheeky:

I was thinking we'd like to travel with one other couple, and I *really* appreciate everyone taking the time to post your advice and experiences. I like the idea of going on a shorter trip with someone before we go to Europe, or of spending only part of our time abroad with another couple. (We're actually planning on doing the latter in the summer of 2012--my mom wants to go to Italy, so I'm going to spend one week with her, then she'll go home, and then DH is going to come and I'll spend one week with him. They get along just fine here at home, but I do not want to travel with my mom and my husband together, it would not be good.)

I'm going to think on this some more before we bring up the idea to any friends. I loved traveling with my sister and her FI, and even though we did run into some annoyances on the trip, overall I think traveling with them added a lot to our experience. However, they're family, so I can see how it would be much easier to travel with family than friends.

I did chaperone a student trip to Greece with five of my friends in '08, and I did *really* well with my good friend who happened to be my roomie for the trip. We were perfect travel buddies, actually, and we didn't have one fight or tiff or anything. And we managed to get 42 high school students there and back. The four of us have talked about hypothetical trips together in the past, but they go to Greece every summer so I don't know if they'd like to go anywhere else. Their families live there, so that's their family time. Hmmm, maybe I can convince them.

I'm really excited to hear that people have had good experiences in Germany and Austria. I'll post a thread asking for destination insight once we figure out where we're going. (I wish this conference would let me know if I'll be speaking or not, I want to start planning! I'm already lurking on the Fodor's forums, but the fact that I can't nail down a destination yet is really cramping my style.)

Thanks, everyone. You've given me a lot to think about, and made me take what is probably a very necessary pause to figure out if this is really something I want to do.
 
I want to throw out my recommendation for Germany and Austria! I haven't been to Austria in 12 years, but I remember Vienna and Salzburg being two of my favorite places we visited in Europe. I've been to Germany a few times in the last couple years and loved every minute of it. Can I throw out Prague too? Sooooo cheap to visit, but really beautiful and spectacular - just a short train ride from eastern Germany or Austria.
 
DO NOT TALK ABOUT THEM AMONGST YOURSELVES. Until you are back home, of course :wink2:
If you find that you are becoming annoyed with them, don't go back to your hotel room at night and have a rant fest. It will make you more annoyed with them, and it will come through in your demeanor.
 
Good point Prana :wink2:

Haven, great, I'm in Belgium. Let me know if you want any info nearer the time. It would be with pleasure.
:appl:
 
I haven't done this but I did listen to my mother (who was almost in tears) when she got back from Hawaii with her husband plus her SIL (DH's sister) & BIL (SIL's DH). They usually get along great, spend time together, etc.

Yeah....

SIL had a fit if anyone even suggested doing anything other than as a group. One of them got sunburned on the 2nd day there so none of the others were allowed to go to the beach the rest of the trip.
SIL has a much higher budget for spending money so they mostly went to more upscale stores/shops where my mom couldn't afford anything. The one time they stopped somewhere that was in my mom's budget to shop at, the SIL rolled her eyes and made it clear it was an awful inconvenience.


Spending money (and habits!) should be similar -- no fun if you're skipping stuff you want to do for the other person's budget or having to tag along unable to afford to do anything .

splitting up for couple time --- okay to do separate stuff OR to be connected at the hip.... both couples HAVE to agree though (BEFORE going!)
 
We travel with friends every year...and here are my best (hard learned) tips for making sure YOU have a good time...

1. You ARE NOT the cruise director and you're not responsible for everyone having fun. Everyone goes on trips with different budgets and different ideas of what makes for a good time. Don't try to conform anyone and don't try to conform yourself to anyone else. Traveling together doesn't mean you have to be glued to each other...if you want to go see something, even if no one else does, GO! Let them know in advance that you're considering XYZ and offer the opportunity to join in if they feel like it--if they don't want to, so be it. But don't scale your experience back in any way.

2. Make plans ahead of time. A few years ago, when we first started group traveling, we kind of did the fly by the seat of your pants thing...it was a disaster. We spent so much time trying to decide what to do we lost time that could have been spent doing things. I learned a lot from that. Now I send "get excited" packages to my friends a few months before we go...I include brochures and pamphlets about local things to do and see...this gets them thinking about they may want to do and also gives us a platform to start talking about how we want to spend our time. This sort of piggybacks my first suggestion, which is, you can decide what you're going to do alone and what might be a group activity. This is also a really great way of showing, not just telling, people what they can expect to spend.

That's it.

I love traveling with friends. But I go in knowing that this is still my vacation, and I'm going to create my own good time, which takes the guilt and pressure off.
 
We travelled to London, Bruges, and Amsterdam w/ another couple back in Oct. We pretty much planned out our itinerary, they planned out theirs, and we got together whenever it suited all of us. Luckily we wanted to see a lot of the same things, and our budget/travelling style were similar, so it turned out great! We also planned on splitting off and doing our own things, so we wouldn't be spending every waking moment together... because after 11 days, i'm sure we would have killed each other. :)

Let's just say... we now know a lot of things about them that we never thought we'd know. haha...
 
Italiahaircolor|1294094780|2813501 said:
We travel with friends every year...and here are my best (hard learned) tips for making sure YOU have a good time...

1. You ARE NOT the cruise director and you're not responsible for everyone having fun. Everyone goes on trips with different budgets and different ideas of what makes for a good time. Don't try to conform anyone and don't try to conform yourself to anyone else. Traveling together doesn't mean you have to be glued to each other...if you want to go see something, even if no one else does, GO! Let them know in advance that you're considering XYZ and offer the opportunity to join in if they feel like it--if they don't want to, so be it. But don't scale your experience back in any way.

2. Make plans ahead of time.


Haven -- I haven't traveled with friends so I hesitated to post here, but my husband and I have traveled with my sister, ex-brother in law (they were married at the time), and my parents. Yes, it's family, so it might be somewhat different, but I could still relate to some of the experiences mentioned here, especially Italia's.

We went to Key West 2 years ago, and we all did our own research and then came up with a list of what we wanted to see and do. Some things were on other's lists but not everything was. That was fine -- we just broke up into smaller groups when we felt like it. My husband, my sister, and her husband went kayaking, and my mom and I went shopping and then hung out at the beach one day. It was perfect! All of us did exactly what we wanted, and we all got something out of our outings.

There were days on our trip that we didn't really have any plans. Those few days were spent hanging out at our condo, laying (lying?) by the pool, reading, etc. Most days though, we did have plans. That seemed to work well for us all. We knew ahead of time what we wanted to experience in KW, and we made plans to make those things happen. I don't think there was anyone who felt like they still wanted to do XYZ by the time we left. Making plans ahead of time helped.

I would love to travel with friends, but it's never happened. Maybe someday!
 
Haven, I've traveled with a larger group of friends once - albeit, it was only to an all-inclusive resort in Mexico, so thankfully we didn't encounter too many problems. For the more independent trips (New Zealand, Costa Rica), my now ex and I traveled alone. There were quite a few reasons why.

So first, for the Mexico trip with friends, or with any trip, I inevitably become the planner. The one who researches where to go, places to stay, where to eat, what to do, etc. On one hand, this is great since I have so much more leeway and I can make sure I can nix anything or anyplace I really hate. On the other hand, this is SO MUCH pressure, especially with a larger group - I was so terrified that people were going to hate the trip, or the place I picked to stay, etc. Overall, everyone loved it and the resort and it was fine, but it was honestly too much pressure to travel with disparate personalities. It worked for an all-inclusive, but I didn't think it would work for a longer, independent trip.

Second, my ex and I consciously chose not to invite anyone else along on our other two big trips to NZ and CR. We wanted to spend the full two weeks of our break there, we wanted to visit a lot of different places and constantly be on the move, and that's what we ended up doing. We didn't want to have to cater to anyone else's wants or things to do, and ultimately, I think we made the right decision.

Honestly, I don't think many of our friends could have kept up with us on our NZ trip. We were constantly on the move - I don't think we stayed more than 2 days in one place. In turn though, we visited a LOT of amazing places, had incredible experiences, and did pretty much everything we wanted to do. My ex and I have similar travel styles - we're very active, we like a mix of adventure, relaxing (on a beach for instance) and culture. Also, NZ was super expensive and I don't think many of our friends would have been down with the cost ($1500 just for tickets!). And we traveled everywhere via rental car so that's a lot of time to be spent in close quarters with friends....

Same with Costa Rica. We were just always busy, on the move, we had specific ideas about what we wanted to do and where, and we got to do that.

I think it's just easier to travel without friends, unless you are super close to them and KNOW you can not only endure an extended amount of time in each other's presence, but that you have similar travel styles and goals.
 
Jennifer W|1294011354|2812639 said:
I've travelled with friends a few times and it's been largely ok, but as Octavia pointed out, you're up close and personal with habits that didn't seem so bad in the departure lounge...

The only thing that really drove me nuts was the person who always wanted food like he'd get at home, never wanted to try local restaurants or even eat out much. The phrase "why don't we make a sandwich and just eat it in the car" began to grate on my frayed nerves like nails on a chalkboard or tinfoil on a metal filling. Oh, and we were in the car because we were being transported from guide book site A to guidebook site B, at roughly the speed of an evacuation from a burning building. The countryside in that part of the world was probably really nice, but I didn't get to look for long.

Yeah, just make sure your holiday habits and preferences are broadly similar.

Oh, and never rent any river-going craft or other floating vessel with someone who can't swim. Oh, or a horse drawn caravan with someone allergic to horses.

Aggh that would drive me nuts. Actually, when I studied abroad in Madrid, my three girlfriends and I spent a weekend in Barcelona. One girl and I were super close and we also had similar tastes in what we wanted to do, and especially where we wanted to eat - we were both foodies and loved wine. The other two girls didn't care at all what they ate and just wanted to go to bars and hook up with boys :knockout: It was much more fun when we split up into pairs and my friend K and I were just on our own.
 
we traveled once with friends and it was a bust. I told them from the beginning that they were under no obligation to hang with us all day long. We decided to spend the first day of the cruise in port and get some lunch. It took us over an hour to search for a restaurant in Old San Juan PR just because the other couple complained the prices were too high. They were so cheap that I couldn't take it...so we just told them don't worry it's on us (I had to eat..I was starving from being in airports all day long).

The rest of the cruise they kept to themselves for shore excursions. We'd invite them to come along but they complained the excursions we picked were too expensive (mind you they were very well off)...so we'd meet up at the pool or dinner.

After that trip we decided that we travel better alone ;))
 
Prana|1294087237|2813370 said:
DO NOT TALK ABOUT THEM AMONGST YOURSELVES. Until you are back home, of course :wink2:
If you find that you are becoming annoyed with them, don't go back to your hotel room at night and have a rant fest. It will make you more annoyed with them, and it will come through in your demeanor.


And they will be able to hear you through the walls of any European hotel.

I've been thinking about this thread since I've traveled with friends a ton, but it just boils down to "be on the same page." Everyone has different comfort levels with how much should be planned, how much wine, how much shopping, hiking, types of hotel/hostel/pensione, wake up times, morning rituals, etc. (this is assuming that Haven is not friends with folks out to get drunk/randomly hook up or other behavior not really compatible with her travel goals.) Anyway, there is no way to be totally in synch, but to agree to meet up for lunch with late risers at the fruit market in central Munich, or at the Xmass market in Prague if someone wants to skip the Jewish quarter. And yes, you must take the train to Prague. YOU MUST. Ahem, how many days? Maybe fly into Frankfort (cheapest flights from your location since Lufthansa has partners) but get the heck out to go to Berlin (min 2 nights), then Prague (min 2 nights) is an easy train, then Munich (min 1 night), then Lucerne, maybe stop in Innsbruk on the way? Belgium is cool too. Oh, Frankfort does have a nice Jewish museum, but it really is the Newark of Germany (not to insult anyone there) more a hub than a top destination. I donno, just some thoughts here while daydreaming....

I have gotten a ton out of traveling with people who are pretty different in tastes than I am...like the museum of pornography in Amsterdam, I'd have NEVER picked that, but it was a really interesting history of photography, and my friend who wanted to see that got up at the crack of dawn to beat the lines to the Anne Frank House to go with me, so we were even, and both glad that the others had insisted. I once made several friends get up at 4am to climb Mt. Sinai and they were split on if it was worth their time to greet the sun in that ancient spot with thousands of pilgrims. Some people "get it" and others want whatever is "comfortable" or "normal" to them and trying to change their minds is like speaking at them in a different language. I have found that everyone gets burnt out at some point and needs some comfort food and then it will all be OK.
 
Prana|1294087237|2813370 said:
DO NOT TALK ABOUT THEM AMONGST YOURSELVES. Until you are back home, of course :wink2:
If you find that you are becoming annoyed with them, don't go back to your hotel room at night and have a rant fest. It will make you more annoyed with them, and it will come through in your demeanor.
That's a really good point, Prana.
 
If you do Germany, Austria, and Prague I should throw out Dresden since it's right there. DH and I went there (for work) and it was awesome. The historical section is very small since most was bombed (what's there is mostly rebuilt) so it's easy to see in a day or so and very worth it. We stayed for a few days and liked it, but I don't think there's generally as much to see there as other cities.
 
GET 3 FREE HCA RESULTS JOIN THE FORUM. ASK FOR HELP
Top