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TRAVEL MATE SUCCESS
I went from being gutted that I’d been let down by a mate to meeting someone to travel with and booking a flight!
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Travel mate successes - Naomi met Gemma 
Names: Naomi Finnegan and Gemma WilliamsAge:22 and 23 Hometown:Yeovil (Naomi) and Southampton (Gemma) Gapyear.com usernames: Naomistarz and Gems147 Why did you decide to look for a travel mate on gapyear.com? Because none of my friends back home could afford to come with me and/ or did not want to go travelling. What criteria were you looking for in a travel mate? Fun, bubbly, similar interests, same outlook on life etc and similar plans to myself. How did you find each other? Via the Gapyear.com forum boards What was it about Gemma that made you think you’d get on well together? We wanted to go to the same places on our trip and we both enjoy socialising, shopping etc. We were both in the same position back home as well- e.g. we both had jobs that we were planning on resigning from and both had a car to sell before leaving, we also wanted to do the same activities- i.e. we both wanted to do a Skydive and campervan around Australia! 
Were your proposed itineraries pretty similar or did you have to change plans to suit one another?Yes, our proposed itineraries were pretty similar, however we both slightly compromised on some things. In the beginning I had included New York but Gemma had already been there so it didn’t bother me too much to skip it. What did your parents/friends think about you finding a travel mate online? My parents were actually quite understanding and are all for this sort of thing. However they did advise me to be careful as you never know what sort of person they could turn out to be! My parents eventually met Gemma’s parents and we both stayed around each others houses and had several nights out together before committing to anything! In addition to that I think my parents were relieved that I’d found someone to go with as the thought of me going it alone was even more scary for them. 
When was the first time you met Gemma in person? How did it go?We first met back in February 2006 I think. We decided to meet in Bournemouth which is pretty much halfway between Southampton and Yeovil and we both knew the area. I took my best mate along with me and Gemma brought her sister. We met in a Weatherspoons pub and had a drink and lunch together. It was really weird at first but we seemed to ‘click’ ok and everyone got along really well the whole afternoon! We talked about where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do and it was cool as we’d already got to know each other fairly well after talking online for the previous 5 months so we had things that we’d spoken about online to actually talk about in person as well! It was also really exciting finally meeting this person that I’d been talking to all this time and knowing that we could be setting off on the trip of a lifetime in the not too distant future! Any last minute wobbles before jetting off together? Other than wobbling with excitement, no! What was your RTW itinerary and how long was the trip? Did you spend the entire time together? Our RTW itinerary is UK> San Francisco> Las Vegas> Los Angeles> Cook Islands> Fiji> New Zealand> Australia and then money permitting through to South East Asia. We haven’t yet finished our trip. We left the UK on the 18th September 2006 and we’re currently still in Australia for the next year! We’ve spent every single day together for the past 6 months and it has been AMAZING!!! We plan to continue travelling together until the end of our trip, but as of yet we don’t know when we’re coming home as we haven’t booked a ticket home yet. 
What were your top five highlights of the trip?So far, mine has got to be the Cook Islands, Skydiving in NZ, Spending Xmas and New Years in Sydney, the Feejee and Kiwi Experience and hiking the Franz Josef Glacier. However as we haven’t yet finished our trip I’m sure there’ll be plenty more to come! Any major bust ups on the road? None, whatsoever! Ok there are minor things and tiny annoyances but we’re both pretty laid back and agree with each other on most things so there’s really never any reason for an argument! What was the best thing about travelling with Gemma? The company and being able to share the best time of my life with a friend! Any downsides to travelling with a travel mate? You can’t do what you want to do ALL the time, but if you find someone that is similar to you then most of the time you both want to do the same stuff as each other anyway! 
Did you find it easier to talk to other travellers on the road as you had a travel mate or did already being in a pair make things difficult?I think being in a pair actually helps talking to other travellers easier. As I’m generally a fairly quiet person I think I’d find travelling alone quite hard as I’m not one to just walk up to strangers and start chatting! But being in a pair makes this easier and also being two girls I think we are quite approachable. Would you recommend others to use the gapyear.com find a travel mate service? YES!!!!! What tips would you give others looking to find a travel mate on gapyear.com? Read through as many posts as you can on the travel mate boards and just go with your general gut feeling if you find a potential travel mate! When you finally meet up, if you get any bad vibes, then go with them and steer clear of the person. Also, it might take several tries to find your ideal travel mate. I had already met 1 person previous to Gemma which didn’t work out and also spoke with several potential travel mates over my planning time, but in the end you’ve just got to go with the person you feel you’ll get along with most and whose plans match up the most!  Click here >> for gapyear.com advice on finding a travel mate Click here >> to search for travel mates now Click here >> for around the world travel info |
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