Do you know what your travel love language is? In the early 1990s, the concept of five love languages—words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service, and physical touch—was popularized, supposedly to help partners, families, and parents understand each other’s needs and respond accordingly.
But travel introduces a whole other set of variables. Travel can, at times, bring out the worst in people. Long airport queues, flight delays, and lost luggage are reason enough for anyone to lose their temper. Add in travel stress, jet lag, and potentially a headache or two from late-night beers, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. So, our editors set out to establish the love languages of travel: the character types and personalities that describe most travelers, so you can better prepare for your next trip (and decide who you should—or shouldn't—hop on a plane with).
Communication is key, and part of that is figuring out what type of person suits you for travel. If you are, for example, a hyper-organized, time-vigilant traveler, then perhaps you should avoid traveling with someone who loves a spontaneous excursion. Or, if you’re an early bird, consider traveling with a culture vulture—someone to spend those precious morning hours with, to squeeze in a visit to a gallery or café that gets too busy later in the day. Below, explore which love language you abide by.
The Planner
The Planner leaves no detail overlooked.
More often than not, the Planner is the one who organized the entire trip. Think of them as the operations manager of the holiday: This is the person who curates the itineraries, makes the schedules, and books the tickets. They’re Type A through and through. They make things happen, but they can clash with certain travelers (and, more often than not, their best friend/partner/sibling has the exact opposite travel love language).
“I'm a pretty intense Type-A planner in all parts of my life, but travel is where I come into my own,” says Chloe Laws, acting audience growth manager at Conde Nast Traveller UK. “I've learned, though, from marriage to a Type-B traveler and being surrounded by many friends who want to go with the flow, not to enforce it on other people. Gently suggest, yes, perhaps even keep a personal itinerary that I pretend is spontaneous, but try and let everyone choose their own plans—it's their holiday, too. And if they end up going to a few bad restaurants because they've not done enough research, so be it."
