30-year-old travel lover refuses third vacation with friend after two five-day trips sharing rooms, eating €15 meals, and skipping museums to fit her budget: ‘I don’t want to travel like this anymore'

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Celeste Mello • Writer and Editor
Jul 18, 2026 5:45 PM EDT

Being good friends doesn't also mean being good travel buddies. For a 30-year-old woman, two five-day trips with her friend were enough to notice they were not compatible for traveling together. 

Two people can be good friends but enjoy vacations differently. But realizing you're not compatible during a trip together can be hard to take. For a woman in today's story, researching destinations, exploring museums, and discovering local dishes are key to having a good time while on vacation. Instead, her friend focuses more on keeping expenses low, which affects the activities they can do together as tourists in a new city.

To accommodate her friend's budget, the traveler accepted shared rooms and bathrooms, even when she clearly preferred staying in a private space. Apparently, she could handle that. It wasn't that important among her vacation priorities. But then she agreed to eat at restaurants with limited menus when she actually likes discovering a wide variety of local dishes and would rather spend more money on food. Even after sacrificing those things, her friend still talked about how expensive everything was and how financially drained she felt. Well, neither of them was actually enjoying the trip at this point.   

The worst thing is that now her friend is planning a new trip to travel together, but the traveler needs to kindly decline the third trip and explain to her that their priorities don't match. Travelling should be an enjoyable experience. Otherwise, why would you travel if it's not to have a good time? It's an activity that people often work, save, and plan carefully to enjoy. So, she can still value her friend while explaining her decision respectfully and choosing a more compatible companion for future adventures.

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  • Two female friends exploring a city with a camera and a map during an international vacation.
    via Unsplash+ (Vitaly Gariev)

    Two female friends exploring a city with a camera and a map during an international vacation.

    People depicted are models.

  • AITA, because I dont want to travel anymore with my friend?

    Over the past year I (30F) and my friend (31F), have been on two trips together, each lasting five days. On both trips, I was the one who lowered my standards for the sake of our friendship. I accepted lower-quality
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  • accommodation (sharing a room and bathroom, and later staying in a studio apartment even though I would have much preferred having my own room). I agreed to
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  • eat at restaurants with limited menus where meals were around €15, and we mostly went to bars with the cheapest alcol because I wanted to accommodate her and her budget.
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  • Two women traveling together discuss directions while looking at a paper map in a European city.
    via Unsplash+ (Vitaly Gariev)

    Two women traveling together discuss directions while looking at a paper map in a European city.

    Actresses portray the situation.

  • After all of that, I constantly had to listen to her saying how much money she had spent, how financially drained she was, how everything was expensive, how she had no money left, and so on.
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  • It makes me feel bad for two reasons. First, because I didn't prioritize my own comfort even though I could have afforded to and should have. Second, because I feel like she's
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  • making me feel guilty about money, even though I never pressured her to spend beyond her means.
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  • Two neatly made beds inside a bright hotel room prepared for travelers sharing accommodation.
    via Unsplash+ (Tran Vinh)

    Two neatly made beds inside a bright hotel room prepared for travelers sharing accommodation.

    This is a recreated scene.

  • I also suggested that if there were things we wanted to do separately, we could split up for an hour or two each day so we could each enjoy the activities that interested us. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option for her.
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  • She's already planning a third trip together, but I don't want to travel like this anymore. Tried to tell her indirectly that Im not traveling anymore, she just laugh because she knows I live and work for travel.
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  • I absolutely love culture, history, architecture, museums, and food. When I travel somewhere new, I really immerse myself in the destination. I spend weeks researching it
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  • beforehand, and that preparation makes the whole experience even more meaningful. I usually visit one or two museums or attractions every day when I travel. On our last two trips, I visited only one museum in total.
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  • Woman viewing colorful artwork inside a modern museum gallery during a cultural vacation.
    via Unsplash+ (Ahmet Kurt)

    Woman viewing colorful artwork inside a modern museum gallery during a cultural vacation.

    The image is illustrative.

  • I also love cooking, so I really enjoy exploring different restaurants and trying as many dishes as possible. Some of the meals I
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  • discover while traveling end up becoming part of my regular cooking repertoire at home. AITA for not wanting to travel with her anymore?
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  • CharrAnn nta, you can be compatible as friends without being compatible as travel partners
    via CharrAnn
  • cloudy postcard71 Seriously this is such an important distinction some of my absolute favorite people in the world are the ones I would never ever want to be trapped in an airport or hotel room with
    via cloudy_postcard71
  • hypergraphia NTA, but you could become one if you handle this badly. There's nothing wrong with being incompatible travelling partners, just be kind when you share the news.
    via hypergraphia
  • Katerh NTA. She's not going to take it well because it's obvious she needs you to subsidize her cost. So if you won't go, she can't go.
    via Katerh
  • Educational-Bug-5215 NTA. Solo travel sounds like it's right up your alley. If telling her indirectly didn't work, then best to do it directly-tell her you both have different travel styles, and that's okay, they just don't work together.
    via Educational-Bug-5215

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vacation planning friendship aita friends traveling together reddit story travel budget Travel restaurants travel buddies museum
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