Why I Pick Travel With Friends Versus Travel With Family

To be honest, I was a bit torn about writing this story. You see, I am a sucker for family vacations because they are a joy of their own. But, if I had to pick between travelling with my friends or my family, I’d pick the former. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family to death. However, there’s just something about packing your bags and heading out with a bunch of my favourite friends, that is just never there with your family. This Student Cycled 3218 Km In 48 Days To Reunite With His Family In Greece

Flashback to 2015, and the four of us (three of my best friends and yours truly), planned our very first trip to Lonavala, Maharashtra. It’s just a couple of hours from the city and back then, to a bunch of 25-somethings, it seemed like a pretty BIG deal. Reason being, the three of us had been friends for a while now, but we had never traveled together before. Top 10 Stunning Destinations Around The World To Travel With Friends

I was apprehensive. I have an OCD for cleanliness and other than my family, no one’s really seen the tidy freak in me. I was worried about finding unclean toilets and a messy bed while I shared a room with one of my best friends. (What if things changed between us because we weren’t particularly the best of roommates?)

When you’re with your family, you’re pretty eased out about how a travel plan could work out. Simply because they live with you every single day. All you’re doing is packing a few clothes and heading to a different place to live in. And that’s not really a heavy wave of change to deal with. This Chennai Family Has Been Using Legos To Bond And Spread Awareness About Coronavirus.

But on that first trip to Lonavala, this is what I found out: it’s even better to live with your friends, despite the worry of smelly farts in the middle of the night. Why? Because there’s room to learn each other. You find out what ticks them and what pisses them off.  You learn to adjust to their snoring (if any) and they learn to never tell you ghost stories before bed (you might just not let go of their hand throughout the night).

When I began travelling with my friends, I had no frigging idea how tight we’d become. You see, when I vacationed with family, it was always the same kind of routine. We’d do the same things, eat the usual hotel food and probably see a popular tourist site or two. But with my best friends, it was different. We’d wake up in the morning and go back to bed only to wake up at noon. There’d be a shuffle for who’d get to poop first (basis the urgency) and then, we’d simply decide to head out and eat local delicacies the place had to offer. 6 Social Distance Friendly No Touch Greetings Used Across The World

There was room for the new, there was spontaneity, there was a willingness to simply allow new experiences to come in shake up those not-so-fun itineraries. There were no fixed “plans”. We’d maneuver around whatever perked up our imagination. A trek planned by the resort we were staying in? Check. Trying out a new dhaaba for their jalebi rabdi? Check. Having sheesha under the stars? Check.

When you vacation with your folks, there’s an underlying hesitancy to everything you do. You want to respect everyone’s idea of a holiday, to begin with. Then there’s this exclusion of wanting to say super crass things, because (duh) apne Indian parents ke sanskaar ko chot pahunchegi. No matter how chill your folks are, at the end of the day, there’s always a certain decorum you’d like to maintain.

Travelling with friends has no layer of pretense. You can be all of your dirty, crass, mawaali self and not be judged for what comes forth. Oh, also the booze. Sure, a lot of parents are cool with their kids having a drink or two. But to get completely sloshed and dance on Govinda songs, well, that’s a complete ‘friends-only’ space. I Went On My First International Trip To Europe With My Friends & It Was AMAZING!

With your BFFs, there’s a certain ease that you settle into. Travel becomes a binding factor in your connection with each other. And that there is the reason why I’d pick travelling with my friends over travelling with my folks.

Maybe I’ll still be torn between picking one over the other, but when it comes to vacationing with your family, there’s already a built up spirit of familiarity. With your friends, travel gives you a chance to craft a foundation for everlasting friendship, though you can’t really see it until you’ve come back home with a bag full of used clothes and dusty memories.