Travel Advice for the Tired, Frustrated Travel Companion

When traveling with friends or family, you will get on each others nerves, so here is some
travel advice on how to manage emotions when they're running high. 

This is travel advice that my mom and I learned the hard way, but it's one of my favorite memories with her. We were in Paris, and after several days of running around we were pretty tired. That morning we were heading to the Musee d'Orsay (a museum I strongly recommend), and we were for some reason (I can't remember now) arguing. When we got to the museum, we both wanted space away from each other, so we split up. We both didn't think the museum was that large compared to the Louvre, but there are multiple levels and we soon lost each other. I searched high and low for her in the museum, but I couldn't find her. We also had tickets for an activity that afternoon, and neither of us wanted to miss that. So I had to decide whether to stay at the museum and keep looking for her, or head back to the hotel where the tour starts, and hope that she heads there too.

I decided to head back to the hotel, but then I had to figure out how to get back. Thankfully, I had paid attention on our way to the museum, so I easily found where we had made turns, but we had also taken the Paris metro system, and I didn't have a clue as to which line I needed to take to get to my final destination. This was before moving to NYC where I would become a pro at reading metro maps. So I stood around and waited until I saw a person that I deemed trustworthy, and I asked him for directions. He led me to the train I needed to take. I finally got back to the hotel room, and lo and behold my mom was waiting for me. She was so worried about me, and she was hoping that I would head back to the hotel as well. We laughed over the morning events and we were back in each other's good graces again. However, we always planned where we would rendezvous if that happened again, which is another good tidbit of travel advice. 

The moral of the story is you will get mad or frustrated with your travel companions; it's only natural when you're around each other 24/7. However, be patient with each other and give your friend or family member the benefit of the doubt. Don't be quick to get frustrated or get upset over everything. And when you do get mad, then talk about what's going on with your travel buddy. However, do it in a place where you won't stomp off and then get lost. That's travel advice my mom and I learned and don't wish to repeat.

Lost with Nowhere to Go

We were lost in Paris with no clue where our hotel was or even what its name was. 

My mom and I had arrived in Paris that morning, and we were so excited to be in France that we immediately took off from our hotel minutes after checking into our room. We wanted to see the Eiffel Tower. It was so amazing to see the site in person after years of looking at it in pictures. However, we were so caught up by our excitement that we hadn't paid attention to our surroundings.

When we were ready to head back to the hotel, it was then we realized that we didn't know the name of our hotel, its address, or what area of the city it was located. Within a couple of minutes we soon realized the gravity of the situation because we didn't have access to our phones and we knew no one in the city. After much hard pondering, I realized we had our hotel key cards which might have the information we needed, and I was correct. We then called a cab, handed the driver this card, and for the rest of the trip we always knew where our hotel was located.

This was taken before we realized we were lost

So the moral of the story is to always carry a piece of paper (or your hotel key card) with the name of your hotel and the address written down on it. It's fine if you can remember the information and say it back verbally, but having it written down will be really useful if you don't speak the native language. I have taken several years of French, but my accent and pronunciation is very poor to a native French speaker, and I could accidentally say the wrong address. Having this information will let you explore freely, but you'll never get lost.