Travelling with your best friend from UAE? 10 rules to handle flight delays, hanger and more without a fight

Can you not hammer at the keyboard so loudly?

When I first started travelling, I might not have been the best co-travelling partner, even with my closest friends. Yes, sigh—I was that person, who would wake up early to upload photos from the trip (we’re talking about a time of uploading Facebook albums)—and create a bit of a racket, while tapping away at the keyboard, because I, of course, had to give elaborate captions. My friend would wake up annoyed and I would humbly apologise.

I’ve changed, since then. But, I’m still not an easy person to be around at airports or anything flight related. And definitely not international flights, especially if the airport is far out of the city. In my head, I’ve already imagined several scenarios of traffic, trains stopping, changing, and well, being stuck. (It has happened, hence). So yes, I might zone out the moment you say something calm like, “The flight’s only in four hours—we can chill before heading out.” No. We cannot. Not if I’m with you.

But I’m grateful that over the years, either, I’ve found friends to travel with, who are almost the same about flights, and people who you can just, discuss and work things out. It’s taken several trips, of tiny squabbles, annoyances—nothing major—to figure what really makes a trip wonderful. Ironically, some trips have been better in retrospect: Two years ago, my friend and I went to visit an old fort—and I had booked the hotel, owing to the reviews. Little did we know that the hotel was falling apart, as was the fort. She could have completely blamed me for the trip, but she didn’t, instead, we just laugh about what a mess it was, down to the complicated timings of the hotel restaurants—and in all that, the food still managed to shine the brightest. 

After all, there’s truly, nothing like travelling with your best friend. 

So, as it’s the summer season, and everyone’s travelling, here’s a little help when it comes to planning a trip with your close friend. No doubt, you love your close friends very much—but if you haven’t travelled with them before, a few things need to be worked out, or understood, at least. 

Unless one of you enjoys secretly resenting the other, share the load. One books stays, the other plans activities. Bonus points if you surprise each other with a hidden gem on the itinerary.

Money talk is always awkward, but necessary. Be honest about your comfort zones so no one ends up pretending they’re cool with a $20 coffee or a five-bunk hostel. 

Even best friends need space. Build in solo moments, be it quiet coffee runs or a solo stroll. So if your friend says that they would like some time off just for a walk—-especially, if you have spent 10 days straight together, it’s fair to let them be for a bit. They’ll be back, and you can have a good meal later. 

They will forget their charger. You will leave behind sunscreen. Someone will snore. Deep breaths. Somebody might suddenly decide that they would like to walk and not take the bus. Discuss it, and try not to fight about it. 

If one of you is a spreadsheet-wielding planner and the other is a ‘let’s see where the day takes us’ spirit, meet halfway. A loose plan with spontaneous wiggle room keeps everyone sane.

It does. Hanger can kill even the purest bond. Carry snacks, share them generously, and don’t judge each other’s 3pm hot chips. 

I love my photographs. Yet, more than them sometimes, is the tickets, postcards, the bills we scribbled on, and the notebooks where we made plans. Even now, I’ve kept my 2015 journal that details an Istanbul trip—a trip that was without any network or WiFi, and we had to return to the hotel for internet. So, instead, we made the best memories. 

You may want museums, they may want markets. You may want to sleep in, they’re up with the sun. Great. Swap days. Learn from each other. That’s the whole point of travelling together.

Missed buses, wrong turns, and language mix-ups—these things are inevitable when travelling. Once, my flight and connecting flight were so badly delayed that my suitcase didn’t arrive for two extra days. I ended up borrowing clothes from my friend, which turned into a story we still joke about—though, honestly, we haven’t quite lived it down.

Here’s a friendly warning: make sure the best friend you’re travelling with can see the funny side of these unpredictable moments. Travel means spending long hours together, navigating plans, and often sharing the same small space. It’s essential that you’re travel-compatible—that you both handle stress and surprises in similar ways. Otherwise, even the smallest hiccup can turn into a big fight. So before you jet off, check in with each other’s travel styles. Wheb you can laugh through the chaos together, that’s when the real magic of the trip happens.