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I can’t travel extensively with family members — we often have different traveling ideals, budgets and temperaments. I love my best friend to death, but I cannot imagine doing a long trip with her — we like different things, she prefers hotels to hostels, she is vegetarian, she talks too much. I love my brother, but he is 19 and in that “I want to party all the time” mode; on trips with him, I often become the party pooper.
In other words, it’s not easy to find a good travel companion, and the biggest problem is that until you travel with that person, you really don’t know how the trip will turn out. That many hours together, day and night, can often bring out sides of people you had no idea existed, which in turn could make or break any relationship.
Two of my best trips were with people I hardly knew on a personal level, but we had similar travel styles and obviously mature personalities. Just a few conversations made me want to travel with them. They were adventurous enough to be fun, and strangers enough for me not to have any expectations, and I had no fear of losing anything.
We did not share any emotional connection; what brought us together was the fact that we liked to travel on a shoe-string budget and were independent enough to do it on our own, so traveling together was companionship we were not dependent on.
Other than bus/train journeys, meals, and accomodation, we gave each other enough space to do our own things, allowing us to have the exact trip we wanted, and have someone to share it with at the end of the day.
However, it’s not easy to find people like this, I was extremely lucky. There are a few tips you can keep in mind before you decide to take a trip with someone, well summarised in this article on Vagabondish.
Traveling solo is great, but having a good travel companion is pretty darn fun too.
July 15th, 2008 at 4:23 am
Hi:
I would like to be a companion to someone who is traveling alone anywhere just for the fun of traveling. My week is very flexible. Available Monday-Friday always. Prefer to travel during the summer (before September)Could you please direct me how to make this dream happen? I am a nurse and fluent in Spanish.
September 12th, 2008 at 1:34 am
Hello.
This situatoin is incredibly common. It’s hard enough to find someone who can travel with you in the first place, but then you have to worry about tailoring your travel plans to theirs. Will they want to do what you want? Will your companion enhance your vacation or spoil it? Can they bring something to the table that will help make your vacation better than it otherwise could have been.
Because of how common this situation is, I was inspired to create a solution.
I am an experienced world traveler (age 40) who now runs a travel companion for hire service. I travel with those who desire a companion, an experienced guide, a friend, a trip planner, an activity partner, etc. I attempt to help people break free of their cultural comfort zone and really experience travel as it should be - a life changing experience, a cultural education and a chance to try everything you wanted to do but never did. We rarely regret what we’ve done, but what we have not done.
Travel has been my passion since as long as I can remember and after 8 years running a web business I decided it was time to do something I loved for a living. Hence “Travel with Gene” was born. I’ve traveled to 17 countries and most of the United States. I have experience and training in a large variety of activities from skiing to rafting to scuba and more.
I realize the idea of paying someone to travel seems a bit odd. But really it is not at all. Nobody thinks twice about hiring a guide once you arrive at different destinations. So why not take the guide with you everywhere you go? If you think you or someone you know might be interested in this idea or you are just curious about the service, please visit my website to learn more. http://www.travelwithgene.com
Cheers,
Gene Tewksbury
World Travel Guide
http://www.travelwithgene.com