3 red flags that you and your friend should not go on vacation together
Victoria M. Walker always overtips on vacation.
The travel writer is of the opinion that "tipping should be second nature," especially when staying at a hotel. Some of her friends don't feel this way, an uncomfortable truth she learned while on a trip with them.
"Some people I travel with aren't big into tipping," she says. "Their stance is that the resort is paying the workers' salary. And it's like, 'no.'"
Vacationing with friends can reveal differences in how you handle money and perceive etiquette at the most inconvenient time: when you're already at the destination.
"A bad tipper is always going to rub me the the wrong way," Walker says. "That is one of the biggest indications that I will never travel with that person again."
To avoid damaging a friendship during a vacation, it's best to have straightforward conversations about what you want to do and how much money you're willing to spend before your trip.
As you discuss, keep an eye out for the three red flags that mean you and your friend might not travel well together.
Be sure that discussions about money go deeper than the overall cost of your trip, says Elaine Glusac, author of The New York Times' Frugal Traveler column.
"Talk about how you'd like to allocate the budget across variables like dining and entertainment," she says. "If you both want to see a Broadway show, for example, and one wants premium seats and the other is OK in the back row, would you two be OK sitting apart?"
Food costs often aren't parsed out beforehand, but can cause considerable friction.
"If one wants a fancy dinner and the other wants street food, perhaps you can compromise and go your separate ways one evening, but if that is a nightly thing, it might not be the best fit for the two of you