Touring alone.. or with a friend ? (1 Viewer)

Do you tour alone or with a friend

  • Yes, we prefer being with company

    Votes: 7 7.2%
  • No, we prefer doing it alone

    Votes: 28 28.9%
  • We enjoy both

    Votes: 42 43.3%
  • Don't know, haven't tried touring with friend

    Votes: 20 20.6%

  • Total voters
    97

scotjimland

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Jul 25, 2007
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When touring do you like company or if like us prefer 'doing your own thing' ?

It's not being anti social, but from past experiences touring with an other has few advantages and is more hassle than going it alone .. these are my thoughts..

Pros:

a)Company when you stop or pitch up for the day.
b)Someone else to assist if you are in trouble
c) Security, one can stay on guard while the other goes out.

Cons

a) Having to consult about every move, ie, comfort stops, fueling, time or distance of a days travel, itinerary, how long you stay in one place.. etc

b)Staying together in busy towns / traffic

c) Maybe only one pitch left on a site/aire

d) Falling out and loosing an otherwise good friend


Have you done it, what were your experiences, what do you prefer ?

Edit.

For clarification, I mean with another van, not alone in your van ..
 
Last edited:
Aug 1, 2007
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We travel alone as a couple and I think on the whole we prefer it that way. Although we are not loners.

Ralph
 
Last edited:

staging lady

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We used to go away every Easter with friends when we had a caravan when all our kids were young. Then they all grew, bye bye caravan.

Now we have a Motor home, sadly none of our friends owns one. But we have been away with friends who were able to stay in a nearby cottage.

We like meeting people so would be happy to tour with a friend,::bigsmile: but are equally happy on our own.::bigsmile:
Lucille

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Gonewiththewind

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Sep 13, 2007
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What a shame I can't place a vote as all tick boxes are "we".
Yes I am a true "alone" camper. I have tried with family and truly doesn't work. so I stick to myself. The older I get the more anti social I get. I still go to some of the shows with them, but thats as much as I can cope with him (son in law).:shout:
 

haganap

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well we enjoy both really Jim.
We have done a couple of holidays (skiing and touring france) with friends or people we met through forums that became friends and we are off to Scotland with a group in a few weeks.

All we do is try and set some ground rules. ie, we know where we are heading for the night, you may follow us or choose to do your own thing but we will meet you at the pre arranged venue. This way people can do thier own thing but we stay together at night.
However with the last two tours we have done the people whom have come with us (ash + tick) have decided to stay with us. Its been really enjoyable once you can get over the worrying about the people following you, i.e do they want to stop? do they want lunch yet? do they want to go a different way? are you going fast enough or too fast? But once you get through that and realise that you have either a radio or mobile phone should there be a problem you soon learn to relax.
We try and just say its our holiday and your holiday too, so you can come and go as you please and there will be NO offence taken if you decide to do something different, do not feel you have to do as we are if you do not wish to, and we will meet somewhere later today or indeed tomorrow.

So why do we do it? are we sados that can not cope with out company? of course not, do we feel more secure with someone else? no not really. The only reason we do it is on both occaisons we thought we had something to offer others whom had not experienced what we had previously and thought they might like to be shown.
We had similar experiences with Dingray who showed us around Scotland a few years back and continues to so now. It's nice to use someone else's knowlege to get the best and give your own knowlege to others at the same time.
sorry about the lengthy reply, just thought it might help you with your findings,
Haganap:thumb:
 
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GJH

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We've never tried touring with friends as in going together from place to place but many of our trips in the past have been to destinations where we meet friends - ECWS musters, MH shows, informal meets - and that will remain the case in the future.

Graham

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GJH

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Very strange. Of the first 15 votes, nobody has chosen "Yes, we prefer being with company".

Yet the bar code represents the 0 votes and 0% of the total with a blob, rather than nothing, on the bar chart. What was it somebody said about lies and statistics? :ROFLMAO:

Graham
 

DESCO

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We would sooner be on our own, not because we don't like company, but we never know where we are going. We can often start off in one direction and if something catches our eye we will often finish up in a totally direction, and place. I think it is more with being retired, time means nothing, if you don't get there today there is always tomorrow.::bigsmile: or the next day.


Joan & Dave
 

Spacerunner

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We are going to France this year with friends It is our first time abroad and thought it would be be an asset to have France-wise friends to 'hold our hands' on this first excursion.

The plan is to decide our next day's stop the previous evening and then meet up the following day at the agreed site/aire/ passion etc.
This way we have total freedom to do our own thing during the day and company and advice during the stops.

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Road Runner

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I had a mate we used to meet at the rallies or talk on the phone when a tugging but when we started going away together feel out fast.

Mealtime was one of the main problems as we used to like eating informally and when we wanted and not at a fixed time plus enjoy our own style of food.

He drove pathetically slow and told me how to manoeuvre my caravan:Doh::helpsos::boxing:

Days out like to do our own thing as well.

So all in all I am a grumpy S O D:Doh::RollEyes:

I do however LOVE the meets and shows:thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb:
 
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400ixl

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I guess the preference for us is to be able to do our own thing as a family.

We do however like to do the occasional trip with others, mainly friends we have made locally who also have children at our daughters school. These tend to be great fun for the kids.
 

Forestboy

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We like to do both and have done.

We have no problem spending 3 months touring the states on our own, we never make many plans just go where the mood takes us with no one else to worry about. Likewise we spent a month going down through France and Spain on our own last year to meet up with friends from this forum who we then spent a month with touring Morocco and back up through Spain.

Variety is the spice of life :thumb:

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scotjimland

scotjimland

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Thanks for the replies so far .. quite a variety of answers which you would expect..

From our experiences of both we much prefer to travel alone, in fact we would reluctantly ever travel with anyone again.. not because we don't like company, we do, but it can be tiring having to consider and consult another couple every day before moving .. it invariably leads to compromise.

Ror mentioned Morocco, a tour we have done and enjoyed, but one of the aspects I didn't like was not being able to choose where and for how long at each camp or stop.. obviously that isn't possible with a conducted tour.. but it's a different kettle of fish, you know that before joining and accept the constraints imposed.

Each to their own.. for that is what motohoming is all about .. freedom to choose .. whether alone or in a group .. :thumb:

safe travels

Jim
 

Tinyk

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Having not had our first outing I can only say what i would prefer.

If the need arose, ie we were showing or helping another, or in reverse then i would be happy to travel with friends for that occasion but apart from that I would much rather arrange to meet at a location / time and travel on our own.

We love to travel at our own pace and whilst that might be a little faster than most we also like to be able to stop / deviate without having to ask others of their opinion first.

I think no matter how good friends you might be, its always awkward when you go together, either you speak up and say you dont want to do it and cause offence or you remain silent and do something you would rather not and wish you had said something, either way it causes friction. They say you never really know somone till you have lived with them and i bet thats true.

Look forward to making friends and meeting others at some of the shows though, all being well in May with the van we have the dates in the diary and plan to make a few of them this year.
 

madbluemad

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Hiya Jim

I think the summary that you have given is true for camping with the mh/rv or flying off to a holiday resort abroad. On the one hand its nice to have friends around but it can become a bit fractious when one set of people want to do one thing and somebody else something diffent. It can cause tension

We prefer to travel alone and make friends on the way. That way you can anjoy your freedom and meet new people to socialise with.
Cheers
Jim
:thumb:
 

Douglas

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We have tried doing it with others both in Boats and M/H's but we end up doing something that we don't really want to do. So now we mix and match as it were. We make loose arrangements to meet up somewhere but without firm commitments and occasionally we travel with someone if their journey coincides with ours. Other than that we are loners.

Doug...

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