Not everyone will turn out to be a great travel buddy

OK, so you meet someone whilst traveling and your both heading in the same direction so you decided that you’ll go together. For a few days everything is going great, but soon you discover that your new travel partner is limiting your adventure or even worse has bad habits that begin to annoy you.

There is only one thing to do, ditch them. It sounds horrible but for the sake of both of you and for the sake of your trip it’s probably best for you both to go your separate ways.

Sometimes you can avoid this problem from the start by traveling alone, see my article Should I Travel Alone? . Or by choosing the right travel partner to go with in the first place.

If you find yourself with a travel partner that you can’t get on with, how do you handle it?

What is the best way to deal with such an awkward situation?

1. The Sneaky Ninja

This was a method that someone once told me on the road and it made me laugh, but it does indeed work. It requires you (The Sneaky Ninja), to wake up extra early in the morning. It’s best practice to pack your bag the night before, but never ever make it too obvious (that could lead to a disastrous confrontation, no one wants that). Scatter a few pairs of dirty underwear around for good measure making it look like you’re there for the long haul.

Then as you wake early with your travel mate soundly asleep (probably snoring loudly like a bear in hibernation) you climb down from your bunk taking extra care not to make it squeak, tip toe across the room, grab your rucksack and head for the nearest exit. From here you’ll be catching the early morning express out of there and away from the travel mate from hell to freedom.

2. The Honest Angel

This approach is for the more honest traveler, but can become quite awkward if not executed properly. You (The Honest Angel) approach your travel mate, usually over a quiet drink or dinner and suggest that it would be better for both of you to go your separate ways. Give your reasons and hope they don’t explode with anger.

3. The Arranger

This tactic can be executed in one of two ways; the honest way or the dishonest way. At the point when you become fed up with your travel partner, suggest that you think it would be a great idea if you both spent some time apart and perhaps met up again in so many days, weeks or months time to travel together again. Now if you take the honest approach you’ll probably respond to all their emails and actually meet up with them at the specified time.

If you are one of the more dishonest ones amongst us you’ll probably ignore the emails and hope you don’t bump into them again somewhere down the line, but for now, freedom is yours.

4. The U-Turn Traveler

This has been a particular favourite of mine in the past but does require you to have time to make detours when you’re in a country. When you think it’s time to say “goodbye” to your travel mate find out where they want to go next (do make sure they are quite certain) then choose somewhere else preferably in a different direction. You can back up your decision by researching the new place that you intend visiting and then state why you find it so fascinating.

Hopefully they won’t turn around and suggest going with you, in that case try reverting to either The Sneaky Ninja, The Honest Angel or The Arranger.

In this situation if you try using “The Eager Traveler” it’s likely they’ll do anything to tag along with you for the day. On the other hand if your “U-Turn” policy goes according to plan you’re in the clear, bingo!

5. The Eager Traveler

Although it may not seem like it on the surface but this is even more sneaky than most other techniques because of the way it is executed in such a subtle way. Make sure before you meet up with your travel mate in the morning that you have arranged everything you’re (yes, just you) going to do for the day and then tell them where you’ll meet up for dinner in the evening. Usually by doing this they are left with nothing to argue against and will end up doing some planning of their own for the day.

If you continuously take this approach you could be lucky enough to find they’ll be sick of spending their time on there own and latch onto some other unsuspecting traveler.

You can meet so many different people whilst traveling and not everyone you meet will be a perfect travel partner for you. When you find yourself in this situation it is usually a case of honesty is the best policy. By being truthful you can both get on with the rest of your journey’s instead of wasting your time being fed up and frustrated.

Have you had any bad experiences with fellow travelers?

Post a message below and let us know…