‘Does your holiday companion know that you’re planning on spending six days on the beach reading? I only ask because two friends had very different ideas of their holiday together: the bookworm loved it; the other hated it and they didn’t speak to each other for a year afterwards,’ one booze/book club member asked another.
‘It sounds rather like a 50 Shades conversation – you should know what you’re getting into before committing,’ I butted in.

Let’s face it, we’ll match our holiday companions with our holiday type and destination if we can. I’ve previously blogged about a typical holiday with the man (most men want sex, food and a lie-in) so a city break can be more romantic with a girlfriend who doesn’t wilt within the first few steps of leaving the hotel… And a friend who speaks the local language or even previously lived in your destination of choice is ideal.

Another unbeatable quality is a bucketload of genuine enthusiasm. I was treated to rounds of wine and food tastings at every restaurant I dined at with Monique because she’s passionate, knowledgeable and can speak several languages (I’m always impressed by an English person who surpasses my level of French, which consists of asking for directions to the town hall and saying how many brothers and sisters I have).

Trying to communicate in a foreign language can provide travel story highlights, though (who hasn’t mimicked an animal only to discover too late that the butcher/waiter was only pretending he couldn’t speak English?). And sometimes you don’t have to travel far for them… When a Scottish friend first stepped off a train in the south of England, his first impression was of a very unfriendly place: every time he asked someone for a ‘light’ for his cigarette, the person backed away. It turned out that people thought he was looking for a fight!