March 12, 2019

"So what exactly are Americans’ biggest gripes with traveling with people?"

"The top worry is that your travel buddy may not want to do something you want to do (58 percent), while another 53 percent are worried about exactly the opposite — being pressured to do something they don’t want to do. An additional 1 in 3 (36 percent) are concerned they’d simply get on each other’s nerves."

From "Americans are traveling alone more than ever" (NY Post), which reports that 22% of Americans always travel alone and 45% say that traveling with another person holds them back.

52 comments:

mccullough said...

Make sure your friend has your back during a fight. Otherwise, you are better off traveling alone.

Fernandinande said...

"Americans are traveling alone more than ever"

Did I miss the information which supported that assertion, or are the headline and article just more clickbait fake news?

Paul Ciotti said...

Kipling was right:

White hands cling to the tightened rein,
Slipping the spur from the booted heel,
Tenderest voices cry " Turn again!"
Red lips tarnish the scabbarded steel,
High hopes faint on a warm hearth-stone--
He travels the fastest who travels alone.

Larvell said...

Yeah, those aren’t really opposites.

Henry said...

I was born under a wandrin' star
I was born under a wandrin' star
Wheels are made for rollin'
Mules are made to pack
I've never seen a sight that didn't look better looking back

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Being there is much more enjoyable if you’re sharing it with someone simpatico. But If it’s work-related getting there is less stressful if you’re traveling alone. It’s tedious to travel with people you don’t really like.

Fernandinande said...

He travels the fastest who travels alone.

It's quite the opposite, for everything from Paris-Dakar, to the Cannonball Run to airline pilots to space travel to people driving normally on a regular vacation. But Kipling was just a poet, and just as unserious as the people who wrote the NYPost article.

stevew said...

I only travel for pleasure or vacation with my wife. She has occasionally suggested a family trip, with her family not mine, that I have summarily rejected. Nothing good happens between midnight and 5am, or on a family trip.

madAsHell said...

She has occasionally suggested a family trip, with her family not mine, that I have summarily rejected.

Your mileage may vary.......I've traveled all over the world on my in-laws nickel!!

Fernandinande said...

The new survey of 2,000 Americans, conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Travelex, confirmed that Americans still fall for a lot of clickbait fake news:

Your search - site:travelex.com "OnePoll" traveling "alone" - did not match any documents.

Your search - site:onepoll.com "travelex" traveling "alone" - did not match any documents.

Meade said...

My biggest gripe is when I'm piloting and one of my passengers loses his shit and tries to slit my throat. Very distracting and dangerous for everyone.

Michael K said...

I've traveled all over the world with my kids.

I don't go for traveling alone,. Would have saved a lot of money,.

Lexington Green said...

They at not alone. They are posting to social media continuously. They are traveling with a cloud of witnesses, who are liking and commenting on an ongoing travelogue. It is a way to have the benefits of people sharing the trip without the annoyances.

Rob said...

"My wife said to me, 'For our anniversary I want to go somewhere I've never been before.' I said, 'Try the kitchen!'" - Henny Youngman

Mark said...

I've traveled alone to Florence and Rome twice. And Southern France last year. And none of that tour group stuff.

It allowed me to go at my own pace. See things I wanted to see and do things when I wanted to do them. If I went with another (and I have as well), too much of my attention is on the other person and not on the experience.

Traveling alone isn't for everyone, of course. Then again, I live alone. So I have gotten over the anxiety I first felt when I got my own place after living with other(s) for many years.

rhhardin said...

I've travelled as a kid with family (not always older family), with a gf, but mostly alone on business trips. gf got increasingly mad for no reason I could figure out. Just one of those gf things.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"Traveling Alone" -- wasnt that the movie where this kid gets on a plane
while his family is accidentally left at home during Christmas?

LordSomber said...

"Solitary travel can sometimes seem the most satisfying."

https://pungeon.blogspot.com/2016/10/ditching-downers-in-himeji.html

Paul Ciotti said...

Kipling was just a poet, and just as unserious as the people who wrote the NYPost article.

He was a Nobel Prize winning poet. People still read his stories (and his poetry) today. I don't think that will be said about most people who post here, though I enjoy the funny posters quite a bit.

Ralph L said...

My sister is the most unpunctual person I know, and after she married they were even worse together traveling by car. Then there was the dwaddling around for coffee or food. I don't think they could ever have flown anywhere, they'd have missed the plane (and my late 450+lb BIL would have crashed it).

I've long wanted to go to Italy, but not alone or with a tour group the whole time.

mockturtle said...

Traveling alone is what I do. Other than my late husband, there is no one I'd like traveling with. Even my closest friends and family get on my nerves after a few days.

Ralph L said...

I don't think that will be said about most people who post here

Althouse is saving our work for posterior.

mockturtle said...

Kipling: My all-time favorite poet. The cadence of his poems conjures up the adventure that they portray. Where the dawn comes up like thunder out of China 'cross the bay.

mockturtle said...

Althouse is saving our work for posterior.

Printing it out and using it for toilet paper?

MadisonMan said...

I travel with family. We are very comfortable going our separate ways on vacation, or not.

I don't like traveling alone, because I don't like eating alone. If you're with someone, you get to see things through their eyes. That's something worthwhile.

Seeing Red said...

one Can say I’ll pass today but if you want to do this tomorrow......

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"Then Came Bronson"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIjJB9qVORc&list=PLWixa3PxX0pjo9_qbt38EtSDzC7954Bje

gilbar said...

Meade said...
My biggest gripe is when I'm piloting and one of my passengers loses his shit and tries to slit my throat. Very distracting and dangerous for everyone.


when my time comes, i want to die peacefully, in my sleep, like my grandfather...
not Screaming, in Terror; like his passengers
RAH

Robin Goodfellow said...

Blogger rhhardin said...
gf got increasingly mad for no reason I could figure out. Just one of those gf things.


They tend to do that.

Michael K said...

I travel with family. We are very comfortable going our separate ways on vacation, or not.

When we took six teenagers to London, I got Underground passes for them, told the boys that they had to stay with the girls, and turned them loose. They ate at fast foods places while we had lovely dinners. They had a great time.

We took them to the Isle of Wight and stayed at a B&B owned by friends. The girls went out one night with a rock music promoter and stayed until 4 AM. I was worried but they saw Duran Duran before anyone heard of them. They didn't want to leave.

gilbar said...

Henry said... I was born under a wandrin' star

yeah? well, you sound like the sort of loser that talks to the trees

Fernandinande said...

He was a Nobel Prize winning poet.

Even the most wonderful people, those with faint high hopes and warm hearth-stones, can be wrong about how to travel quickly.

Bill Peschel said...

I'm looking forward to traveling with my wife. We've been together for 26 years, and while we've gotten on each other nerves at times, I can't remember a serious disagreement. We always find something to talk about. The only problem is that she tires before I do, so no backpacking in Nepal for us.

So it really matters who you're with. I can remember one European tour decades ago, in a small van, where one member would read every. freaking. sign. out loud. By Lille I was ready to brain him.

readering said...

I've generally traveled with people I have already lived with--family, college roommates, romantic partners, colleagues I had been put on long out-of-town cases with. I have only had one experience travelling on vacation with a friend I had never lived with. It didn't work out well. He tailgated as a driver. He focused excessively on where the next meal was coming from. I learned from that experience.

jimbino said...

Hard to learn a foreign language if you don't travel alone. And there's nothing better than finding your nocturnal dictionary once you get there.

Henry said...

yeah? well, you sound like the sort of loser that talks to the trees

Oh yeah? And you call the wind maria,

Maillard Reactionary said...

It all depends on who one is traveling with, and one's objectives in doing so.

For various reasons, I have usually traveled alone, and have had some of the most memorable experiences of my life thus. It is a pity that I was unable to share them with my wife, but realistically, some of them I would not have experienced at all had she been with me. That said, we have had good times together elsewhere at other times.

Simply put, she and I have different tastes with regard to traveling, and that's just that.

Paul Ciotti said...

Where the dawn comes up like thunder out of China 'cross the bay.

Eternally great line.

Also:

For the wind is in the palm trees and the temple bells they say: "Come you back you British soldier, come you back to Mandalay."

gilbar said...

Henry said... Oh yeah? And you call the wind maria,

i guess we'd better settle down, or this will end up being a bull and bear fight; and those are hard on towns!

cubanbob said...

Get the mule's attention by hitting him with a two x four: pull the college's involved tax exempt and charitable status and forbid students from taking out federal student loans to attend those colleges. The rest will be suitably encouraged towards good behavior.

LordSomber said...

It all depends on who one is traveling with, and one's objectives in doing so.

Good point.
You'd think it'd be the other way around, but I've had more headaches traveling with friends than touring with bandmates.
Level-headed bandmates (or other artistic collaborations) understand each other's idiosyncrasies, plus they understand the bigger picture is to promote the music, or whatever the group's collective creative output is, over the snits of individuals.

CaroWalk said...

Me, me, me!

Ralph L said...

My sister went to England and Scotland alone at 26. Her companion cancelled just before, but she didn't tell our parents. She made a wrong turn out of Gatwick and went to Brighton first, then drove up to the Orkneys and back. Somewhere on the way, she shared a pub hotel with Echo and the Bunnymen.

The ex-boyfriend who taught her to drive a stick before the trip died in the North Tower on 9/11.

NKP said...

If you want to know a new place and the locals, go alone. If you want to know if you want to marry her/him, spend 30 days together on a budget in strange places.

I've owned a travel agency forever. I love taking people (three couples max) to places they've never been and showing them around - then pushing them out of their envelope and hoping they make it back for dinner :-)

There is no such thing as a rainy day if you have a sunny outlook.

Yancey Ward said...

I have done both- though I have only done it alone when the travel was work related. I enjoyed both- each has its merits, but I preferred to have a companion, though my choices were more adventurous when I was alone.

Mr. Groovington said...

Being alone or with a companion depends on the circumstances. No surprise there. For me it would be wrong to have a companion crossing a desert or any large empty area, like the Outback, and wrong to be alone in a party city, like Bogotá. Sometimes it’s fun to travel for a week or month with a local girl, which I do when the chemistry is good. Companions are nearly always serendipity, never planned, with a few exceptions. After a while you get good at automatically sensing a need one way or another, and it tends to fall into place.

Mr. Groovington said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
GRW3 said...

I might travel with others but I will not be bound by their approach to travel. I get to airports with time to spare. My first international trip was with my boss and his wife and they were the kind of travelers that pushed the time limits. I hated it and never traveled with them again. We often ended up in the same place but we didn't go together.

In general, my preference is to meet up with friends at travel destinations. There we can mix and match activities.

mockturtle said...

In general, my preference is to meet up with friends at travel destinations. There we can mix and match activities.

This.

Skippy Tisdale said...

I traveled the USA in a road band for four years back in the 80's. There were seven of us. There is safety in numbers. But since then, I travel alone. It's just so much easier.

Baelzar said...

You may think you know someone. Your best friend for years, your sibling, your parents...your spouse. But you never really meet someone until you travel with them. Travel presents stresses and situations that simply do not come up in day-to-day life.

PluralThumb said...

" My biggest gripe is when I'm piloting and one of my passengers loses his shit and tries to slit my throat. Very distracting and dangerous for everyone. "

We are in the 21st Century. Many toilets for the first part. As for kosher slaughter, well, people are not food are they. Distractions are a part of life, I just deal with them.

Sorry passenger, you are not allowed to shit in my vessel.