Being a loner has not stopped me from going places for vacations. This year I won’t be able to go too far since most of my savings went into a car purchase, but I plan to spend at least one weekend in NYC. Since I’ve been fully “grown”, I’ve had adventures in San Francisco and Austin. I’d like to go to the Grand Canyon one day.
I have gone places with other people before, and it’s not so bad. But I do like the freedom of traveling alone and doing everything I want to do, without having to consider another person’s preferences, wake-up time, and fatigue.
I’ll typically go away either with my best friend or my brother. I wouldn’t want to go anywhere with my parents as they’d be fighting the whole time. Sometimes I’ll go away by myself but visit a relative or friend.
I much prefer traveling solo. My theory is that for every extra person you bring on a trip, you “lose” 10% of the trip because of mismatched budgets, ideas of what’s “fun,” etc. My fundamental travel philosophy is “I want to have lots of crazy stories to tell my grandkids,” and i find those things are more likely when I travel alone, probably because traveling solo is a great way to meet local people.
I don’t really consider traveling with family to be “vacation.” The emphasis there is on quality time spent with the family, and the setting is there to facilitate that.
My family - as in my SO. Thankfully we are pretty well-matched. Sure, sometimes I’d like to go somewhere alone, but he’s an excellent planner and after a couple of walks around a city, can mostly find his way around - two very good traits to have.
My SO’s parents keep hinting that we go on vacation with them. Um, no. I like going to their house, and going on day trips with them, but I can’t imagine spending more than a couple of days with them.
I used to hate traveling with my parents. My mom was definitely difficult. She hated a change in routine.
The one time I went on vacation with my aunts I wanted to push them off one of the Rocky mountains. I almost did, too.
I travel with my wife. I guess that counts as “family”, but it’s pretty close to “alone” too.
I voted both. The last few years my wife and I have been beach house guests for 7 - 9 days on the beach in Florida. Since I’m the ‘one that moved away’, if I want to see my family I have to use vacation to go back home to see my siblings. Usually every year at Thanksgiving, and sometimes in the summer too. For the first time in a long time, we’re actually going to meet at a state park instead of me going to my home town this summer.
So why aren’t people allowed to vacation with their girlfriend/boyfriend? That doesn’t fit either category.