I was lucky enough to have parents I enjoyed traveling with. In fact, some of my fondest memories of my dad are from when we backpacked around India back in 2007.

But yeah, having the right travel partners makes all the difference. You need to be on the same wavelength. In fact lots of relationships don't survive long-term trips because they quickly realize they have quite different preferences and can't stand spending 24 hours together every day. Even married couples have often never spent 24 hours together every day for an extended time.

And, yeah, don't get me started on tours. Most of them are horribly rushed and just get in the way of having a local experience.