Double the Fun?

So, you’re going on vacation with another couple, and you expect to have a good time.  Well, I hope you do, but you may have already made the big mistake, taking other people along with you; unless you follow some basic rules that I am laying out here.  These rules come from experience, mine and those of other people whom I know.

First off, you don’t really know people until you live with them.   Still, know this, if your friends you’re going on vacation with are slobs in their regular life; trust me, they will be super slobs on vacation where they don’t own the carpet, the sink or the bathroom. 

And you can’t make neatness rules with slobs.  It’s like making drinking rules with a roaring drunk.  Slobs are what they are, so leave them at home and find other friends to vacation with.

Second, don’t do the old, “I’ll pay for the room, you pay for the meals and the fun.”  Since you pay for the room when you arrive, your friends will feel free to ditch you anytime the god of cheapness takes over their souls.  And believe me, this god’s altar they will worship at constantly.   

So you need to get cash from them for their half of the room up front.  If they cannot supply it, go by yourselves. 

Third, don’t expect another couple to be an extra hipbone.  If you vacation with another couple, plan perhaps to have breakfast and meet for dinner.  Then you may or may not do other things afterwards.

If they ditch you even for meals and any after-dinner activity too and go their own way; you still have your mate, and you two can do things together.  This kind of couple is not a nightmare..

On the other hand, the too clingy couple is.  Before a vacation, you may make rules for alone time for you and your mate with the other couple, but no rules will stop the clingy couple.   This is because since all clingy couples are annoying, and they still act clingy, then they are by definition thickheaded.   And they don’t care that they are ruining your vacation.  They are infuriating for a reason, so don’t expect love and understanding when you break the news to them that you and your wife always spend Saturday nights on vacation alone waiting for the sunrise.

By the way, this is why I always recommend that you get separate rooms on vacation away from another couple.  This way, if you have to bar the doors for peace and quiet, at least it’s still illegal for someone to break down your door.   Thankfully, if you go on vacation with separate rooms too from friends, if it works out, you can always upgrade to a beach house next vacation.

Keep in mind one thing also.  If children are involved on a vacation, rotten kids at home are rottener kids away from home.  They are also likely to make you out to be more rotten than them.  Too, gossipers start young, so expect the worst when you get back.

Well, have fun at the beach or in the mountains or on a cruise or whereever you’re going.  And yes, it’s plenty OK if you just to go by yourselves.