It’s a new year! New resolutions, new to-do lists, and twelve whole months full of open calendar just begging to be filled.
Being back in the motherland means I have many more people to visit, and old friends who could be new options for travel buddies. This could be a real blast… or it could end in near fisticuffs when we find out that we are completely, utterly unsuited for bus-hopping and sightseeing together.
Enter, stage left, the Travel Buddy Survey.
Travel brings out the best and the worst in us. I’ve heard you know a marriage will last if you can deal with each other when sick with the flu, but I’d argue that a better metric is how your relationship holds up to a few missed buses, protester and police run-ins, or nasty skin infections while trapped overseas. Even supposedly easy trips can turn patchy when you realize your dinner dreams revolve around free tapas and a friend you thought you were well matched with only eats in Zagat-rated restaurants.
From now on, I’ll be filling out the travel buddy survey and asking my friends to do the same. Not so we can decide not to travel together, but so we can better plan our trip, and have an easier time on the ground. If it paves the gravel road that leads to the kind of amazing, lifelong friendships I’ve cemented in the past, it will be worth the awkwardness of asking.