Tips for traveling with new friends you don’t know too well

When you travel, how do you travel? Is it with family, office colleagues, or friends? You must have surely traveled alone too, right? It may be scary, but liberating experience. Well, there is another such travel instance which will make you feel more scary and liberating – traveling with new friends.

Traveling with new friends can happen when you’ve just met a bunch of people who love to travel and hatched a trip plan together; or you set out for solo travel, but early on in it, you encountered like-minded people and are now traveling together. You just have to take care of a few things and know a few tips if you want to avoid the unique experience to go sideways.

1. Plan the specifics together: It is essential for everyone to agree with the whole trip itinerary because you guys will be from different cultures, interests, and agendas for the trip. Who will like to waste time in arguing where to go, where to not? Even if there ought to be last-minute changes, all should accept it or none. The trip will be awesome when everyone is happy about it.

2. Be equally friendly with all, but don’t depend on anyone: It is not a good habit to stick to one or two people in the group. After a certain time, you may start getting on each other’s nerves. You are also missing out on knowing other people in the group. What if others want to chat up with you or your buddy? What if your buddy wants to spend time with someone else but is unable to tell you that? So make friends with everyone; that way you also won’t be depending on a single person and won’t feel lonely if that person is not available.

3. Prepare for every possibility: Your travel group will contain people of different health levels, tolerances, and allergies. Expect someone to get a cold or flu, and if one person falls ill, most likely others may too. Hence, to stay healthy in such situations, carry a bunch of medications with you, esp. cough drops. Even if you didn’t find the need to use them, still, someone in the group will be helped by you.

4. Be considerate and careful with your words: Remember, you don’t know much about your travel buddies, so whatever you do or talk, others should not get hurt or offended by it. That means no talk of racism, age, ethnicity, religion; and if they are from a different country, no talks of anything sensitive or political from that country.

5. Avoid drama at all costs: You should aim to make this trip a happy one for you and others. If you find anything offending or hurtful, don’t take it personally and create a scene. Travel can be put a strain on some and emotions may shoot up, but you should learn to keep your cool and make your trip a memorable one in a positive way!

   It also means not opening up to anyone about all your life problems. See, they are your new friends and are here to enjoy the trip, so no one will care if you are going through a breakup or issues at the job. Don’t annoy anyone with irrelevant topics, just enjoy the trip.

6. Being inclusive: You all have become friends and its good. But some are introverts too. You may have hit it off with some in the group, but don’t forget the quiet ones, or those staying aloof. Consciously try to include everyone together and make it one big happy travel family.

7. Stay independent and trust no one: Even if they’ve become your friends, still, you don’t know all about them. That means keeping all your travel belongings with you and doing all your tasks on your own, without anyone’s help. Reveal nothing regarding your credit cards or any other such confidential information. You never know who is what and how will anyone turn out to be on the trip. Also, don’t give a chance for anyone to dominate or bully you. Look that much strict, strong, yet friendly.

Traveling with people who are not complete strangers, yet not thick friends will make the trip a memorable and exhilarating experience; as you get to learn so much about and from others besides enjoying the new place together.