Will you two survive four days together?
Seven questions, both of you, about the seven things that actually go wrong on a trip with somebody you like. You get the gaps and the exact words to fix each one, before anybody books anything.
Takes two minutes. One of you answers, hands the phone over, then the other does. No email needed to see the result.
Hand the phone over
Your answers are in and they are not on this screen, so nobody is copying anybody. When the second person is holding the phone, tap the button.
Answer for yourself, not for the trip you think you should want.
You know where you disagree. The next argument is the money, and that one has a calculator. The girls trip cost splitter does the room, the rides and the dinners separately, using the real numbers from four trips.
Where these seven questions came from
- The room. Four of us in Chicago turned a $546 hotel bill into $137 each. Chicago
- Dinner. Paris came to about $50 a head for one proper meal a day. Paris
- Cars. Four Uber rides cost me $283. Four days of subway cost me $34. New York
- Pace. Ten days in Japan, five in one city, and slow counted as a plan. Japan
- Mornings. Nobody has ever won this argument at 7am.
- Splitting. The room is the line worth splitting. The dinners are not. The splitter
- Alone time. A week in DC where doing almost nothing was the point. DC
Big sis, not a travel agent. This is a conversation starter, not a verdict on your friendship.
The seven questions, and how the match works
The Trip Compatibility Check asks you both the same seven questions about the things that actually go wrong on a trip: the room, dinner, getting around, the pace, mornings, money and alone time. Matching answers are a match. One step apart is worth settling. Opposite ends is a wide gap. Your verdict depends on how many gaps you have. The answers below run from one end to the other.
- The room. One nice room split between you, or two cheaper rooms?
- Split one nice room. It gets cheaper the more of us there are.
- Depends entirely what the nice room costs.
- My own room. I need a door I can close.
- Dinner. What is a normal dinner number for you on a trip?
- Under $30 a head. I would rather spend it somewhere else.
- Around $50 a head, once a day, breakfast sorted.
- The good place, whatever the good place costs.
- Getting around. Getting across a city?
- Train, bus, walk. Always.
- Train mostly, car when we are wrecked.
- Car. I am on holiday.
- The pace. The itinerary?
- Booked out. I want a plan I can look at.
- A couple of anchors a day, gaps in between.
- Nothing booked. We will see what happens.
- Mornings. Mornings?
- Up early, out by nine.
- Out by eleven, and that is fine.
- Do not talk to me before noon.
- Splitting the money. Money at the end of it?
- Split everything evenly. Simplest.
- Split the room, everyone pays their own extras.
- Everyone pays their own, the whole way through.
- Alone time. Four days in each other’s company?
- Together the whole time. That is the point.
- A few hours apart somewhere in there.
- I need a proper afternoon on my own.
What your verdict means
No gaps: Book it. Only the money is left to settle.
One or two gaps: Compatible, with one or two things to settle. Gaps are fine when you say them out loud before you book.
Three or four gaps: Doable, if you talk first. Settle the widest gap first, one at a time.
Five to seven gaps: Separate rooms. Keep the friendship. Overlap your trips and keep your own plans.