FIVE STAR RATING The ideal travel mate

Posted on 04/26/2016 | About Monaco

We were sixty people waiting for two elevators. It was dinner time so the hotel lobby was bustling. Our room was on the second floor. My travelling companion grabbed his carry-on luggage, his one suitcase and bolted up the stairs. Then he came back, scooped up my carry-on bag and luggage and bolted up the stairs. I watched with giddy admiration; eventually trudging up the stairs myself when I realized that he wasn’t come back to scoop me up and bolt up the stairs.

That’s when I started thinking about what makes a great travelling companion. 

Personally, I like to travel with a walker. Correction; I like to travel with someone who enjoys walking. Yes, I appreciate the health benefits; but walking allows spontaneous sustenance stops, very important in learning the culture of a city. 

I have an automatic association for food in the cities I have walked. When I think of Monte Carlo, I remember frog legs. Marsaxlokk (Malta) conjures an octopus salad. For Vancouver it is the giant fried oysters at Granville Market in False Creek. 

I can’t even look at a street map without my stomach growling. 

Food is a big part of my vacation; so for me the best travel companion is someone who is a bit intrepid in food choices. Someone who opts for the radish soup instead of chicken noodle. 

Vacation schedules are meant to be somewhat impulsive, so it is endearing when a travel mate doesn’t look at their watch when a beer is suggested after an arduous morning hike. I have always liked that quality in a person. 

I appreciate a travel mate who packs a book. It means we can expect a healthy dose of quiet. 

If that book packing person also brings bandages for their mate who has blisters from their deceptively uncomfortable walking shoes; no deed could be finer.

Every day, vacation or not should be filled with laughter. Sometimes a giggle can be achieved by ordering off a menu in a foreign language and sometimes someone has to try on a pair of red lederhosen. That’s just the way it is. 

The best is when thoughtfulness happens; like a travelling companion who unexpectedly hands their partner earplugs and an iPad loaded with podcasts of The Vinyl Café for a long car trip. 

But the benefit of a fine travelling companion goes beyond – to the return home. 

The mettle is in a person who deletes the unflattering vacation pictures of their partner’s head against the car window snoring with the intensity of a jackhammer. 

Yet, they let you prominently display pics of them in red lederhosen.