Before, you click past this post thinking I can’t be bothered to read some gushing account of how wonderful your husband is and how happy you are…don’t worry I won’t be too sickening. I’ve been away with many people from friends, to family and ex-boyfriends and in Mr S I’ve finally found my perfect travel companion and here’s why…
We Complement Each Other ….
I often think about our relationship and what makes us so different, and what it comes down to are our personality types.
I’m very much a Type A personality. This means I’m very highly strung, super organised and lost without my to-do list. I hate it when life moves at a slow pace, can’t stand being late for things and I often find it hard to sleep or relax.
Mr S on the other hand is a Type B. He’s more chilled, enjoys his relaxation time, doesn’t stress about being late and does not possess a to-do list.
On holiday this translates in several ways:
Activity vs Relaxation Time
When we’re away on holiday Mr S loves nothing more than his ‘sitting by the pool’ time. Even if there’s a chill in the air, he will be there with his kindle, ‘chillaxing.’ On the other hand, I like to explore…I can’t sit still for more than a couple of hours or so and even then I require the constant entertainment of a book or blog to read, downloads on iTunes or chatting to randoms! I know what you’re thinking, don’t you annoy each other? You’re bored when relaxing and Mr S is frustrated at being dragged away from the pool.
Well the answer is yes, we do annoy each other. But at the end of the day if we did everything my way we’d wear ourselves out and never fully enjoy the hotel, and return home needing another holiday. If we did it all his way we’d miss out on seeing the sights and return feeling like we hadn’t really got a true grasp of place we’ve just visited. By enjoying the destination in both of our favourite ways we achieve a balance.
Planning versus Spontaneity
For every trip that we go on, no matter how short, I make a dedicated excel spreadsheet. On this spreadsheet I have the key things to remember, dates, flight times, hotels and location. There is also a column for activities and restaurants, even Mr S’s relaxation time gets scheduled in my spreadsheet. Now some people might think that this is a bit over the top but I absolutely hate missing out, so I’ll reserve my hotel early, book the best restaurants two months in advance and organise tours with plenty of notice. Meticulous research goes into choosing where I want to stay, from guidebooks to my favourite websites and other luxury travel blogs. I really do want the very best and I think that this means very careful planning and research is necessary.
And does Mr S help with this obsessive spreadsheeting? No, of course he doesn’t… but that’s ok because I love doing it myself. Mr S completely trusts the decisions that I make and is happy to be led to the places that I want to go to. As long as I schedule in enough relaxation time for him, he’s happy.
In a previous post I explained that travel has helped me overcome my fears…for some reason I’m scared of everything whereas Mr S seems to know no fear. I’m scared of heights, insects, the ocean and as you know the list goes on…whereas Mr S will dive of the top of a boat, paraglide and had no fear of the small aircraft or elephant adventure that we had.
Finding out about new cultures…
A spirit of adventure…Neither of us are big fans of museums, we’d rather immerse ourselves in the culture, meet people and see things for ourselves.
An interest in cute fluffy animals and nature…
And of course, our mutual love of food!
So you see why Mr Silver is my ideal travel companion? Though our personalities are different, we both make sure that we get the best out of any trip and our shared interests mean that we really enjoy the activities that we plan. I’m off to Istanbul next week with my best friend and it’ll be my first trip aboard without Mr S since we met, I’m looking forward to some girlie time and it’ll interesting to ‘try out’ a different travel companion, I can’t wait to tell you all about it!
Who is your ideal travel companion? I love to know!
