Vacation Personalities

My apologies for not posting "Purely Personalities" last week. My husband, Warren, invited me to accompany him on a business trip to Las Vegas. It wasn't until we settled into our hotel that we discovered how expensive daily internet service was, so I enjoyed a computer free vacation. However, I came up with the idea to share about vacation personalities; our own traveling companions as well as the different personalities we see and encounter when we hit the road. So, sit back and see if you have traveled with or encountered any of the examples I share.

Vacation Sanguine

Sanguine personalities love to spend money and have never met a souvenir they did not like. My youngest son, Eric, is a typical vacation sanguine. Two years ago when we traveled to Florida, Eric spent all of this money and traipsed back to New Mexico with some pretty unique treasures; ever heard of a "turgator"? It is an authentic turtle shell with the real head and feet of an alligator glued to it. Eric bought it from an equally sanguine person who made the freaky little guys. This shopkeeper was Eric's favorite person from our trip. They got along famously because they both shared a creative streak and a love for the unusual.

I love watching people in airports and sanguine travelers are hard to miss. On our flight home last week, a sanguine lady sat next to my husband. She was wearing a bright, high-heeled pair of sandals, black leggings, a fur accented jacket, and huge sunglasses that rested on her blond, lion-maned hair. On one of the buses that took us to the rental car center we encountered a boisterous group of people from the Bronx. They laughed and talked enthusiastically during our ride. They were clearly sanguine and were having a raucous good time!

Other sanguines you may encounter during your travels include: guides on zip-line tours, performers in amusement park shows, brightly dressed consumers in the malls weighed down with lots of shopping bags, and the talkative passenger seated next to you on the plane when you are trying to sleep or read.

Vacation Choleric

Everyone needs a choleric on their vacation. They are the ones who make all the arrangements, get people all going in the right direction, and get everyone places on time. However, for as much as they contribute to make the vacation happen, sometimes their bossy, goal-oriented nature makes their traveling companions want to lock them in a suitcase. That is because a choleric is usually not interested in taking time to stop and smell the roses or enjoy the scenery...they have places to go and things to do.

On our trip last week I was grateful for Warren who is very choleric. He travels frequently for his job and he was able to lead poor pitiful airport-challenged me through each terminal like a champ. The main thing I wanted to do in Las Vegas was see Hoover Dam and take a tour. By golly, despite our late afternoon arrival and bumper-to-bumper traffic Warren got us a space on the last tour of the day. His mission was to make sure I got to see that concrete engineering marvel and he made sure it happened!

Other choleric people you will encounter while traveling include: airplane pilots (hats off to Flight 1549 crew and Captain Chesley Sullenberger whose quick thinking and mission-minded personality saved a plane full of 155 passengers on January 15, 2009 by landing his damaged plane on the Hudson River), security officials, business men in suits carrying brief cases in elevators, and muscle men working out on the the hotel gym despite the fact they are suppose to be on vacation relaxing.

Vacation Melancholy

There aren't many melancholy people in my family, but that doesn't mean I don't encounter them on vacation. One place I notice melancholy travelers is in airports. They tend to have a quiet demeanor and are often perfect examples of "classy". In the Albuquerque Sunport Warren and I walked behind a very attractive couple. The first thing I noticed about the women was her fancy, high-heeled sandals. I can not imagine walking through and airport in anything but a pair of tennis shoes or flat, comfortable sandals (I suppose that is the phlegmatic in me.) However, when my eyes lifted from her feet and I saw the exquisite clothes this striking lady was wearing, I realized I was probably trailing a classic melancholy.

One other melancholy I encountered on our trip to Las Vegas last week was a male guide who lead the Hoover Dam tour Warren and I took. It is more common to see a sanguine personality leading a group of tourists, but although our guide appeared very knowledgeable, he did not seem very comfortable in front of a group of people. His desire for perfection caused him to memorize his presentation word for word. He knew it well and delivered it with precision, but if he missed a word, he got flustered and his rigid nature prevented him from ad-libbing. I'm sure he would have excelled in an area more melancholy friendly; a sanguine person probably would have been more comfortable in the role of tour guide.

Places where you might encounter melancholy people while on vacation include: art galleries (either in taking in beautiful pieces of art or in a managerial role), dining or working in very fine restaurants, symphonies or operas (playing an instrument or enjoying the music), and in wildlife refuges bird watching and taking notes.

Vacation Phlegmatic

I know exactly where you'll find lots of vacation phlegmatics...on the beach or sitting by a swimming pool doing nothing but basking in the sun. (That is as long as vacation choleric will make all the travel arrangements.) Any kind of quiet relaxing activity is a vacation for me and many other phlegmatics around the world. Yes, I have gone white-water rafting in Costa Rica, I've been on a zipline tour in the rain forest canopy and the mountains of Hawaii, ridden through the alligator-infested waters of the Florida Everglades, and injested my share of saltwater while snorkeling in the Pacific Ocean; that's what happens when a phlegmatic goes on vacation with a sanguine and two cholerics! I have to come home to just to recover.

I have enjoyed my adventures (most of them anyway), but my vacation visions are filled with bubble baths, spa treatments, reading on the beach, or cruising a swimming pool on a floaty thing (minus a mask and scary water creatures.) While in Las Vegas last week, I slept late every morning and even enjoyed breakfast in bed one day thanks to my mission-minded, choleric husband.

How do you recognize a phlegmatic on vacation? We tend to look lost in strange airports and try our best to avoid wearing heels anywhere when on vacation (and life in general.) We avoid early departures by train, bus, airplane, or car. However, if a later departure is not possible, a good old baseball hat on the head alleviates the need for getting up too early to wash our hair for a day of travel. Phlegmatic travelers love to read, lay by the pool, take quiet walks on the beach, and watch people. So, next time you bust someone observing you when you are on vacation, it is probably a phlegmatic traveler doing what phlegmatic personalities do best...sitting and watching.

I hope this information will help you better understand your traveling companions and the people you meet while traveling. Traveling can be stressful, but when you know a little about vacation personalities, little things that could become an issue will just fade away into the sunset. By understanding the people you travel with and those you meet, you just might enjoy your vacation a little more.

(c)2009 Shona Neff