I do most of my traveling with friends. But most of my friends are women. And though we’ve had a couple of trips with mixed genders, I mostly travel with other girls. But now I’m on a road trip with two guy friends. And it’s quite a different experience than traveling with women.
Guys pack a lot lighter
I’m one of the lightest packers in my group of friends. Most girls want options and overpack all sorts of things they don’t get around to wearing. Traveling with two guys and their slender backpacks, I’m the one that overpacked. Which is a shame, because then I can’t borrow my girlfriends’ cute boots.
Guys help you with your bags
When you’re traveling in a group of girls, it’s every woman for herself. You better pack smart cause you’ll be hauling your own bags up six flights of stairs. But traveling with guys is pretty nice, because they’ll take your bag up and down stairs for you.
Guys keep your trip harassment-free
A handful of drunk girls are a lightning rod for male attention. Now that I’m in Estonia, I’m reminded of the group of Estonian dudes we met in Greece that spent all night pretending to be gay as a pretense to dance more provocatively with us. And that’s probably the least intrusive form of male attention my friends and I have ever experienced. But when you’re surrounded by guys, other men leave you alone. It’s pretty fantastic.
Girls take a lot longer to get ready
I don’t have particularly high-maintenance friends, but put five girls in a room together in Paris and you’ll spend 4 hours in a vortex of make up, hair styling, and trap music. Guys get ready in no time. Even if they woke up 15 minutes ago, they’re showered, dressed and ready to go.
Guys don’t care how they look in selfies
Men don’t play that game of taking 30 versions of a photo until your chin looks just right. They’ll take three successive photos and say “I don’t know what it looks like, the sun was in my eyes.” And it looks lopsided and everyone is looking in the wrong direction. Girls, on the other hand, love to take advantage of good photo ops, and will put effort to make each other look good in pictures.
Guys are surprisingly less messy
Since girls pack more, every hotel room instantly becomes a giant mess of bags, clothes, shoes, and general crap. And I don’t know what is wrong with us as a gender, but women are unable to shower without turning the entire bathroom into a pool. And surprisingly, traveling with two guys and even sharing one bathroom is totally effortless. It’s like they’re not even there.
Guys eat an insane amount of food
This entire trip I’ve felt like I’m in an eating contest. Because these guys swallow up a huge plate of food in 7 minutes. And they’re ready to eat again in an hour. Who gets home from a hearty steak dinner and makes eggs and bacon at the Airbnb? Definitely no girls I’ve ever traveled with!
Girls are more talkative
This may also be a byproduct of the fact that I’m traveling with two Czech guys. But my girlfriends and I are always talking on trips – when were headed somewhere, when were resting in the hotel room, when we’re walking around. But guys appreciate some time to think and reflect or write postcards or research what we can do the following day without talking every second.
Guys are more adventurous
If girls see a “Do not enter” sign somewhere, they will turn around and do something else. For guys, warnings are more like suggestions. On a day of hiking at Lahemaa National Park in Estonia, we came across a closed trail sign that we intended to hike. But they shrugged it off, and we went anyway through bogs full of downed trees and unfinished walkways over the bog.
Girls gossip about their relationships… and so do guys
One of the biggest myths about men is that they don’t like to talk about other people or get too personal. But no matter what your gender is, a vacation is the perfect time to sit around and gossip about your significant others, your exes, and all the crazy bitches in between. So in this case, traveling with guys is not all that different from traveling with girls.
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