Roles
Passenger Princess: Not everyone can be a passenger princess and not everyone wants to be. I see this role as the cheerleader hype person who is along for the ride and will find the bright side in any situation, but let’s others lead and assume others have it all under control. If I want to not have a thought in my body and let someone lead, I choose a trip through a travel company. In small group, self-run trips, it is hard to have anyone be a true passenger princess - and honestly frustrates me. If the mental load of the trip were one giant weight - say 100lbs, the passenger princess is carrying maybe 1lb - just enough for their sunglasses and wallet. I get jealous of how they can easily just let everyone else handle the details and just show up, which says more about me than them.
Planner: Being the planner is a tough job. They do a lot of
pre-work, get excited 2-3 months ahead of the trip and then that excitement can turn into anxiety if plans do not go well or take it personally if something doesn’t work out.
I recognize that I do not enjoy being the only planner on a trip (in a perfect world, I would only peripherally be involved in planning) because this means I can never turn off my brain and just enjoy the vacation. I want it to be a group effort, so we all have buy-in on where we are going and what we are doing. So that if things go bad, bad weather or the town we are visiting for a quick afternoon is ENTIRELY CLOSED ON MONDAYS and we happened to be visiting on a Monday, that the burden of pivoting or feeling that disappointment when plans go awry is shared. I also recognize that others who I want to travel with have their own expectations of travel. I would love to be a traveler who turns off their brain and just goes with the flow. I travel with
people like that and am envious of their trust in me that I will have a plan and a backup if things don’t turn out.
Navigator/Executor: I really enjoy executing plans on the trip. The itinerary has already been built and I enjoy getting us to places at the times specified on the plan. I like maps and finding ways to beat Google maps directions and arrival time. This Spain trip was a little different from others because I lived there (20 years ago) and didn’t need much map help to get us places. It’s the country I’ve spent the most time outside of the US and the cities we visited, Madrid, Sevilla and Granada, I’ve either lived in or been to dozens of times.
Food Scout: One of my travel companions LOVES researching restaurants and choosing meals 3-4 hours before we go, they just need parameters. With our combined powers, I can provide the walking parameters for their restaurant search. I personally could not think of something worse than knowing exactly what I am going to order for dinner after breakfast, but that’s ok, I can tease them about this, just like they can tease me for pouring over maps.
Recap on Spain
A lot on my trip to Spain went well. It was beautiful, I planned some great adventures and for me it was like a homecoming of sorts. I also had a lot of big feelings during the trip when things didn’t go according to my plan - because I was the planner, navigator, food scout and all-around adult on the trip.