I’ve been EXTREMELY lucky in my life to have traveled as much as I have in the last 11 years, and when I talk about it, the thing that people usually find the most interesting is the fact that most of my travel has been with my mum by my side. Now I just want to clarify, I’m a 26 year old working professional with their own inner city apartment and I do have friends. I have not lived with my mum since I was 15. BUT! She is still 100% my favourite person to travel with.

So, in honor of Mother’s Day, I’ve listed the top ten reasons why I’d rather take my mum on a holiday then ANY of my crazy friends!

1. My mum is almost as interested in travel as I am, and thanks to her taking me on some crazy holidays when I was younger, she inspired my love of travel. Not only is she interested in travel though, she’s motivated to travel and that’s a big thing for me. We all have those friends in our life that say things like “We should go to France! How cool would it be?!” but when push comes to shove – they’re all talk and don’t have the guts to follow through. I’ve had plenty of those people in my life. And the same people have then attempted to make fun of me when they find out I’m holidaying with my mum in my 20’s. I’ll DEFINITELY cry over their laughter while I’m sipping the free vodka on my next international flight while my mum and I plan what we’re going to do when we land ….

 

2. My mum has done plenty of travel on her own. She went on quite a few trips when she was young, and by herself too. I’m currently trying to compete with her on the number of countries, but she’s winning (her tally sits at 22 countries while mine is only 17). The big important thing about her having travelled though is she understands it’s not all glitz and glamour. She gets that we may have to sleep on an airport floor or shower with shoes on. She knows that (in words she would NEVER use) sometimes you have to ball on a budget. I’ve seen a lot of people take their first international trip and have such high expectations of it that they ruin it for themselves before they’ve even landed. I love that I don’t have to worry about that if I’m travelling with my mum.

3.   SHE KNOWS ME! Big surprise, huh? I’m fairly certain mothers are meant to know their daughters, but she REALLY knows me. I have the tendency to be a big ball of emotions and craziness sometimes, but my mum can recognize my moods better than others. She knows when to leave me alone or when to force me out of the hotel room. Friends can’t always do that. There’s always that politeness with friends, but that goes out the window if I travel with my mum. I get to 100% be myself which makes for a better trip.

 

4. I have the tendency to go a little OCD with trip planning. Yep, I’m that person. But because my mum is more of a go-with-the flow person (in large part because she’s usually crazy busy with her job) this works well for her. She simply tells me what she wants to see, and I do the research and make us a plan and don’t have to once worry about potentially be called a freak for my printouts.

 

5. We have similar interests, more so as I’ve gotten older. Give us both a good museum or a quiet pub any day. Don’t get me wrong, when I was younger, she definitely indulged me with dumb tourist-type activities (*cough* The Real OC Bus Tour *cough*) but nowadays, it’s a different story. Having the same interests too means we don’t miss seeing things because we’re worried the other person will be bored (I’ve found that to be a big issue when travelling with friends).

 

6. She gets the need for a ‘nothing day’. Yes, you are in another country, and yes you should be adventurous and go exploring. But honestly, there are days when you just need to sleep in till 11am and watch pointless TV, even if it’s not in English. I try to keep those days to a bare minimum, but I’m a big believer that if you don’t have them, you’ll burn yourself out and ruin your trip.

 

7. This is the one reason that we potentially have some conflict over but I’m still going to put it in here. She understands that there’s sometimes a need for a shopping spree and to spoil yourself. I’m going to give an example of when we hit up Ulta in Massachusettes. There were just so many amazing reasonably priced products there that we cannot get in Australia. So, we went a little crazy. The reason for the ‘potential conflict’ here is that she tends to spoil herself a little more often than I do! That may have something to do with my jealousy of our different financial situations but whatever (healthy jealousy though, I promise!).

 

8. When you travel, sometimes you just need a drink at the end of the day, and not only does my mum not judge me for this – she’s usually sitting at the bar right next to me. But only for one drink though, any more and I may have to carry her back to the hotel (sorry for calling your bad drinking skills out mum!).

9. My mums super adventurous with her food and I love that. There is nothing worse than going to a foreign country with someone who only wants to eat what they eat at home. It is beyond me how someone could not want to try new crazy food!

 

10. The final reason is something my brothers are going to wholeheartedly agree with: my mother and I are both travel snobs. While some of the above reasons contain things about us balling on a budget and slumming it, there comes a point in every trip we’ve ever done where we want some luxury. We want a nice glass of wine. We want to get our nails done. I’m not apologizing for that ever, by the way.

 I’m going to finish this off by saying HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to my mum 😊 and to all other mothers, and to the dads and grandparents and friends that step up to be mums as well. 

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