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Vacations are the one thing we look forward to as a busy family with young kids. We've always taken our family vacations by ourselves, sometimes bringing our parents who do a good job mixing in. Well on one particular occasion we invited our best friends, also with 2 young kids (whom we spend a good bit of time with) to spend a weekend with us at the beach. We all really looked forward to it but from the moment we all arrived there was intense stress on their part from dealing with cranky toddlers and not having both sets of their parents to "help" which they rely on excessively at home. Everything from restaurants to attractions was a stress pill for them and my friend would try and rush everyone through everything to "get through it". They tend to eat meals earlier than we do and I think this bothered them despite meeting in the middle. They ended up leaving a day early due to the baby getting a cold and by that point my wife and I were actually relieved. We had a long conversation on the ride home as we were both shocked at how incompatible we were with each other. I mean, I get the stresses of having little ones (who did well with each other BTW) but there was so much frustration and tension on their parts. Our preferred travel style is one of relaxation and an easy going pace so this really rubbed us raw.
Later I learned that my friend's parents told him before the trip "Now son......we won't be there....this will NOT be fun for you. This will be WORK." Hearing that made me extremely angry. It was almost like a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts. Nonetheless we gave them a pass for the baby getting sick and ended up going to an amusement park with them a few months later. Same thing happened... he was a bundle of nerves and tried to zip everyone from here to there often barking orders to the toddlers. That was it. No more day trips.... No more vacations with them. It sucks because his wife always tries to get "buy in" for future vacation destinations and we politely nod but never truly consider it. I just wish there was some way to tell them that we don't want to vacation with them again.
anyone else have couples, good friends, or family members like this? what was your experience?
We will never vacation with a couple friend of ours again. The wife insisted on running (training for a marathon so understandable) and threw a fit if anyone did anything other than wait for her to finish and shower. This included getting breakfast. She would run until 10 and spend an hour in the shower. We like to seize the day. We waited the first day, went to eat the second and by the third said we would meet up with them at lunch which ticked her off. She was a peach to be around after that. Never again.
Don't travel people with kids (even if you have kids too). I don't start to understand why families travel together. It will always be full of unpleasant moments.
Limit your company to 2, who you know have agreable and flexible personalities and don't have weird habits.
I travelled with someone who asked me to take an excessive number of photos of him. At every spot he needs 5 photos. He checks afterwards and if he doesn't like it, he wants me to take again. I take photos too, but just hate to waste more time on photos than enjoying the place.
He also wants to sleep until 11 every day which I flatly refused by saying if that is the case I would just leave first and we meet somewhere for lunch. He eventually gave in.
Oh, he also ALWAYS want to eat at chinese restaurants wherever we go, even in southern Italy. I mean, for every single meal. Who does that?
He is a nice person, but just not the type to travel with.
I have a couple of friends that I like hanging out with, but I have learned recently that I would rather not travel with them again because our travel styles aren't compatible.
One friend, I can't share a room with because she likes to have the lights and TV on to go to sleep. I'm a vampire, total darkness and silence. She also will spread her stuff around and then still can't find items. She will spend a lot of time looking for misplaced stuff and it happens consistently without fail. She's good otherwise when we're out and about, but she can also be cheap. She puts herself on a very tight budget, so she won't tip or look towards me to make up the difference in splitting costs, when she should be paying more. Since I've only traveled in a larger group with her, it wasn't bad in terms of money, but very presumptuous, and a red flag for if we had ever traveled together on our own. She's a picky eater, too, when I am all for however the local food tastes. In Dubai, I was so happy that she found a sea bass at the hotel restaurant that she could eat. It was crazy. She has no allergies. She is just a picky eater. In New Orleans, she ate bread and salad and only wanted the shrimp if it was grilled, no butter!
My other friend must. have. wine. Specifically Chardonnay. She will drink it any time of the day. She hates going anywhere when it is not on the menu. There are very few substitutes that she will take, but eventually she will get very irritable if she has gone a long time without the Chardonnay. She also likes to play the latest music in the room while getting dressed. That would be fine, but I'm not a Drake, mumble music, pop music fan. She is slow to get going in the mornings and will have tour guides waiting because she's not done drinking her coffee or preparing herself for the day. We were 30 minutes late one day and 45 minutes another. I finally told her to cut that mess out. And she always, always, always has to go the bathroom "one last time" before finally leaving. And if it's a free day, she will not be ready to go anywhere until almost noon and by the time we get one thing done, she's ready to eat lunch and have a glass of Chardonnay killing yet another hour. Oh, and let's not forget pictures! She must have every pose, especially the ones that I do first. Again, she will hold up moving forward in a tour because she has to get all of her pics in for Facebook, Instragram, and wherever else she posts them. I'm okay with a lot of pics - I like taking them, too - but she will get mad over the one shot she DIDN'T get to take. I'm married; she's not. She hates it when the local men will speak (flirt in her mind) with me and not her. She will immediately have something negative to say about guy. Half the time, they are just having a conversation, not flirting. I'm nothing special. I just have no problem talking to men with no thoughts of anything sexual whatsoever. We were in Cuba together with another friend that served as a buffer since they roomed together (I had my own room), but the lateness was still an issue because the other friend was the same way.
I've found that I really like solo travel, and after jumping the solo international travel hurdle recently, I don't have to travel with anyone else (other than my spouse and son) ever again.
We traveled with a good friend and her sister, who turned out to be a real PITA (the sister, not the friend). She took forever primping herself in front of the mirror to get ready and made people wait, and wait, and wait, for her. I can't stand people like this! I get that you want to look your best when going out, but have some consideration for other people's time too, sheesh! Towards the end of our vacation, my husband and I would just leave on our own without her. I didn't care anymore if I appeared unfriendly since I've reached my tolerance limit at that point.
It is rare to get more than 2 people to agree on anything let alone what to do on a vacation.
It sure can get frustrating just trying to figure out lunch never mind where and when.
My wife and I like road trips and the last one we were on we brought her brother and his son with us who were visiting from Ireland and we had a grand time showing them parts of Maine and New Hampshire. We once took a niece and my wifes sister on a similar get away and the sister was a major complainer when she wasn't stuck to her phone.
She didn't like the places we stayed, the places we dined at and pretty much was critical of our routine.
In short she was a snob and voiced her displeasure.
Oh well we won't be inviting her again. Live and learn and make the best of it I say.
We have a piece of lake front property. One 3-day holiday weekend, we invited a couple of friends of mine out for the long weekend.
Because of one of the friend's work schedules, they were supposed to arrive on the Friday, around 7PM. (Let me mention that I had invited them MONTHS before the actual holiday, so the friend could ask for the day off.)
Our property is in a gated community, plus they didn't know directions, so since we were expecting them around 7, I texted them around 7, and told them we were waiting at the gate for them. A few minutes later, one of them texts me back that they hadn't even left the house yet. I was very aggravated, but held my cool, and texted her back that just come out the next day. It's a 2 hour trip...didn't feel like waiting up for her.
SOOOOO...the NEXT day, a Saturday (and we leave to go home on Sunday) they didn't get their until 3:30 in the afternoon. They drove an old car that didn't want to go uphill, so they parked, and transferred everything to our vehicles.
They were supposed to bring dinner for that night, so they brought a pork roast, to cook at our place. We have electricity...but not an oven or anything like that. So the porkroast was cooked in foil over the fire. It burned.
The next morning, they slept in. We had to hint more than a couple of times, that it was time for us to go. So we got a late start leaving. Of course, we had to transfer all their stuff back to their car as well.
When it was all said and done, and we were back home, I told my husband..."Yeah...I'm not inviting them again."
Vacations are the one thing we look forward to as a busy family with young kids. We've always taken our family vacations by ourselves, sometimes bringing our parents who do a good job mixing in. Well on one particular occasion we invited our best friends, also with 2 young kids (whom we spend a good bit of time with) to spend a weekend with us at the beach. We all really looked forward to it but from the moment we all arrived there was intense stress on their part from dealing with cranky toddlers and not having both sets of their parents to "help" which they rely on excessively at home. Everything from restaurants to attractions was a stress pill for them and my friend would try and rush everyone through everything to "get through it". They tend to eat meals earlier than we do and I think this bothered them despite meeting in the middle. They ended up leaving a day early due to the baby getting a cold and by that point my wife and I were actually relieved. We had a long conversation on the ride home as we were both shocked at how incompatible we were with each other. I mean, I get the stresses of having little ones (who did well with each other BTW) but there was so much frustration and tension on their parts. Our preferred travel style is one of relaxation and an easy going pace so this really rubbed us raw.
Later I learned that my friend's parents told him before the trip "Now son......we won't be there....this will NOT be fun for you. This will be WORK." Hearing that made me extremely angry. It was almost like a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts. Nonetheless we gave them a pass for the baby getting sick and ended up going to an amusement park with them a few months later. Same thing happened... he was a bundle of nerves and tried to zip everyone from here to there often barking orders to the toddlers. That was it. No more day trips.... No more vacations with them. It sucks because his wife always tries to get "buy in" for future vacation destinations and we politely nod but never truly consider it. I just wish there was some way to tell them that we don't want to vacation with them again.
anyone else have couples, good friends, or family members like this? what was your experience?
He was a bundle of nerves because from what it sounds like he never has to actually parent his own toddlers. All the grandparents do it for them so they don't know how to actually enjoy their kids and not view it as work.
Vacations are about getting from it all, friends and relatives are part of " it all."
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