Be Careful Who You Holiday With

You’ve worked hard all year, you’ve saved up, and right now the Christmas-New Year holiday break looms like the Promised Land. You’ve told your friends about your holiday plans and suddenly they chime in saying that “That sounds great, maybe we’ll join you”. Nothing wrong with that, you think. Only, think again!

We’ve been talking to people around town about holidays and have heard a couple of horror stories. One man described how his boss heard about his European pilgrimage walk and asked if he and his wife could come along too. The man agreed, but almost as soon as they had landed in Europe he noticed that his travelling companions were having relationship problems.

Instead of being a pilgrimage of spiritual enlightenment, the El Camino de Santiago became a site of constant argument, tension, and ill-will. Shortly after his return to Australia he found a new job: the insight into his boss’s private life became too much.

A lady said she and her family have a caravan and were going on a trip to Adelaide for Christmas a few years back. Her brother, who lived in Sydney, heard about the trip and asked if he, his wife and teenagers could join them. Nothing wrong with this, she thought, especially because her brother also had a caravan. However, what she didn’t know was that one of the teenagers was defiant and troubled and would disappear from campsites overnight, necessitating police involvement. Instead of being the relaxing holiday she envisioned, it became forever known as “The Holiday from Hell”.

The lesson, said both the man and the lady, was to find out more about your travelling companions before agreeing to holiday with them. And if in doubt, they said, don’t do it.

• Topics:

• Christmas
• Holidays
• Living and Lifestyle