caroline_edinburgh

My husband has been on all-male trips abroad and I bet none of them would ever ask for directions, but they wouldn't do it at home either. In the UK it's is a widespread joke that men won't ask for directions at all - even in an unfamilar part of their own town, never mind on holiday ! Isn't that a joking matter elsewhere ? I think it's a macho thing

As regards travel planning, IME men don't plan ahead

zeppole

Do any of your husband's all-male trips involve cultural sightseeing?

My husband recently met a friend in Rome and they did nothing but culturally sightsee and go to fine restaurants, and then the friend came to visit us.

Yes, people in America joke about men not asking directions -- but I've often been stopped by men asking for directions, sometimes with their wives right next to them. And at least half the travel planners posting most often on Fodor's are men, yes? People have these gender-based ideas, but I don't think they actually track.

logos999

A real man always takes his GPS system with him, containing all those POIs.
Men don't get lost anywhere, so they don't need to ask for directions. If the GPS should stop working for any reason (She forgot to buy decent new batteries!), there's always the sun which is used to navigate.

"It's 8am and the sun is over there, so our house is in that direction!"

Women are crazy thinking a man would have any problems navigating.

zeppole

Since I grew up in Southern California, I've almost always oriented myself directionally by the sun (and the moon at night). The real man I married grew up in NYC, where sun is often blocked by buildings, and never developed that trick.

So that won't work either as a gender-based theory.

logos999

There are always traitors in our midst.

Cholmondley_Warner

I'm English.

What is this "Sun" of which you speak?

logos999

In England the water always comes from the west. You don't need something called sun.

The sun can be found here: www.thesun.co.uk

persimmondeb

I hate asking for directions, and my DH loves to. He doesn't travel with other men, but doesn't socialize with them much either. He likes the company of women (platonically), and rarely hangs out with guys.

He was talking about flying to Florida for a weekend in December to visit friends and relatives, and suggested to a female friend that she tag along with him as she had never been to Florida and I can't go. He was very surprised when we told him that his relatives would likely think it very strange if he showed up with another woman. It had never occurred to him that it would look peculiar.

Cowboy1968

A REAL man needs just one look at a map, and will remember exactly which roads to take from A to B.

GPS is for wannabee men only. It became such a huge success since the wannabee man can claim that it's been developed as a military gadget.
No REAL man would follow the advice of a woman where to make the next turn. But have you ever met a guy who programmed his car's GPS to work with the male voice?? Wannabee men.. Q.E.D.

logos999

A real man doesn't need a map, that's the point.

zeppole

persimmondeb,

My father was the same way -- although not to the extreme of not understanding that it raised eyebrows how readily he platonically bonded with women not his wife. He didn't have any opportunities to travel, although he would have liked to, but he certainly wouldn't have wanted a stag party or a sports match!

Since it was your husband's relatives who were the issue, did he tell his friend not to worry and go with her anyway?

Cowboy,

Did you know that Bob Dylan is trying to get a contract to be a GPS voice? I'm not making that up.

Cholmondley,

Did you know that Norwegians thought that England was where people went when they died because they always saw it shrouded in mist?

Cholmondley_Warner

The sun can be found here: www.thesun.co.uk>>>>

You navigate by tits?

You foreigners have ways very different from our own.

StCirq

So you live in Italy (in Camogli, of all places, the "houses of wives" town), and your male friends are artists and sculptors who gang up to visit museums together. And you stay up all night posting frantically on Fodors. And the rest of us are travel conformists. Get over it.

persimmondeb

His friend is insisting that she really doesn't want to go to Florida, since it's hot there. We'll see what happens.

He's quite sure that his relatives won't be scandalized, since she's just a friend. He's never really gotten the idea that most people are suspicious of "friendship" between men and women.

Cowboy1968

C_W.. yes, those guys do navigate by tits.
And this is where they want to go to:
http://tinyurl.com/63byd

logos999

No tits to be found there anymore..

http://www.thesun.co.uk/discussions/...ow/News-2.page

"Maoam is too sexy for children". Where else do you see a picture of a lemon doing it with a martian and have people complain about it.

DavidSXM

Talking of GPS, when I am in the States and using the excellent GPS on her car, my girlfriend constantly argues with the - extremely accurate - directions given by the well informed, but disembodied, voice. Does anybody else suffer the same way ? Maybe it's just female nature to argue !

zeppole

persimmondeb,

Well, I don't get it either. But I also would avoid Florida this time of year, no matter who asked!

And no surprise, here comes the angry St Cirq, trying to make other people feel bad for talking and questioning, living up to rep as all time Old Fallopian Tubes, phallus-hating Fodor's poster, scolding me for having fun at night and with cultured men!

For the record Camogli isn't the "house of wives" town, as tourist brochures say -- and of course St Cirq mindlessly repeats it! The town is actually named by its Celtic founders for a Celtic deity named Camulo or Camolio -- but no one knows how it was spelled as far as I know.

zeppole

Cowboy,

No wonder I couldn't get there. I kept putting 'fooking' into the GPS

DavidSXM,

I argue all the time! But my GPS isn't accurate -- or maybe I should stop yelling "fook" at it.

SeaUrchin

I dated a man for years and years, he went to Europe regularly with his male friends and also alone with me and also with other couples. The men had been traveling together for years. Every year they went to the Cannes Film Fest for example, and I never went along, I couldn't go for family reasons. They would come back with stories of their escapades in Morocco and other places that had me in stitches. Their dynamics together were formidable, they were all happy good longtime male friends, drank wine, visited art venues, etc. Once two of them were asked to judge a beauty contest in the Middle East, things like that I would not have wanted to attend.

He would call me mid trip and say I have found the best place, we have to come here next year. Fun times for all.