My husband — a brooding New Yorker, polite and tolerant of much — broke on the seventh day of our family vacation.

“She doesn’t stop talking,” he said.

The “she“ is my mother — a bubbly Midwesterner — who can hold court in a room of strangers with the deftness of a small-town politician at a church picnic. Awkward silences don’t stand a chance — even in a jam-packed elevator.

But some people like silence. They thrive on it, said John Hackston, head of thought leadership at The Myers-Briggs Company.

That’s one of many areas that can pose problems for travel companions on opposite ends of the introversion-extroversion spectrum, he said. Be it spouses, best friends or acquaintances, travelers enduring long stretches of time together often struggle to find a middle ground.

More than a decade of introversion advocacy — jumpstarted by the publication of Susan Cain’s “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” — has helped many introverts accept and publicly champion what makes them tick.

But the same level of reflection hasn’t happened with extroverts, said Hackston.

“There’s been less of an emphasis on extroverts understanding of selves,” said Hackston, because “Western society, in particular, tends to see extroversion as the right way to do things.”

As a result, many remain in the dark as to how they can affect those around them.  

When it comes to vacations, personality-based problems can start at the planning stage, said Hackston.

Since extroverts tend to get energy from the outside world, many are attracted to certain types of vacations, like cruises or traveling with friends to an island with vibrant nightlife, he said.  

The problem, said Hackston, is that extroverts often assume others think and feel as they do. This can manifest in everything from too much small talk at breakfast to packing too many plans — and too little downtime — into a vacation schedule.

“They might want to keep on going and keep on partying when other people don’t want to,” he said, which in turn can lead to introverts feeling that they should join.

The result is a “spiral of dysfunction,” he said.

Misplaced assumptions can also cause extroverts to miss social cues, such as hints dropped by a not-so-chatty airplane seatmate.

Conversely, extroverts also are known to misread introverts’ slower response times as either lack of interest in a conversation, or an invitation to talk more.

“You talk to introverts, you get this pause. They have to go inside and think about what the answer is before it comes out again,” said Hackston. “Whereas extroverts, it tends to come straight back.”

Failing to realize this, extroverts often continue talking, repeating their questions and speaking louder to move the conversation forward, without knowing that introverts never had a chance to respond, he said.

Some cultures are perceived as being more outgoing, which can further complicate interactions while traveling, said Hackston.

“In the United States, there’s generally the assumption that if you talk to somebody, they’re going to talk back. That’s not the case in all cultures. It’s not really the case in the United Kingdom … it’s even less the case in cultures like, perhaps, Japan.”

Though he cautioned against stereotypes, he noted that southern Italians are viewed as being more extroverted, while Northern Europeans, especially some Scandinavian countries, are thought to be more introverted.

Travelers may have difficulty differentiating personality traits among foreigners, but “Finns would recognize Finnish extroverts,” he said, even if “to you, they’ll all look like introverts.”

Hackston recommends that travelers and their families take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment to understand each other better.   

“It opens people’s eyes to the fact that — this is always a really stupid thing to say, but it’s true — people are different and are coming from a different place,” he said.

“It’s that recognition that if your spouse, or partner, or your family members are looking to do … things a different way you are, they’re not doing it to annoy you,” he said. “They’re doing it because that’s genuinely where they are coming from.”

The Myers-Brigg Type Indicator also examines other aspects of people’s personalities. For example, the “judging” and “perceiving” framework evaluates how organized people prefer to be, said Hackston.

A “judging” extrovert will prefer a day full of organized plans, while a “perceiving” extrovert will want an action-packed day that happens spontaneously — a difference which can lead to big disagreements on holiday, he said.

“So it’s not just extroverts compared to introverts. Sometimes it’s extroverts together,” he said.

Travelers like these could learn to structure future trips with set plans punctuated by gaps of free time.

“It starts with realizing who you are, realizing who they are, and working out a way you can work together,” he said.

Family travel blogger Emma Morrell said she’s managed to avoid many of the personality pitfalls that spoil others’ trips by being careful about who she travels with.

“You do have to know yourself, and the people that you’re traveling with,” she said.

“I have some very good friends who I love dearly, but we would never go away with,” she said. “Just because you’re good friends, it doesn’t mean that you’ll be good travelers.”

Extreme temperatures are driving travelers to seek cooler destinations. And there’s a term for the trend: “coolcations.”

Heat waves — which are increasing in frequency, duration and intensity, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — are affecting where people are choosing to vacation, especially during the hot summer months.

“Often, when we think of vacation, beaches and tropical escapes come to mind,” a spokesperson for Expedia told CNBC Travel. “Coolcations however, are all about opting for destinations where the temperatures are more moderate, where you’re packing a light sweater instead of a sun hat.”  

From January to June 2024, flight searches increased 705% to Lapland, Finland, according to Expedia. The online travel agency said flight searches are also up to Canada, specifically Banff (65%) and Lake Louise (55%), its data showed.

The home rental website Vrbo reported that cooler places emerged among the top 40 most booked destinations this summer, a list which included Breckenridge, Colorado; White Mountains, New Hampshire; and Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania.

Californian Stephanie Greitzer said she planned a family trip to Whistler this summer.

“We live in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles where we experience extreme heat for most of the summer, reaching highs well above 100,” she said. “We want to be comfortable when we are traveling to experience all a city has to offer and take a break from the extreme heat at home.”  

European cities, such as Rome and Madrid, top the list of popular summer destinations. But rising temperatures in southern Europe are hitting the summer travel season hard.  

This summer, Italian officials placed 12 cities under heat warnings, as temperatures hit triple digits in some areas.

“For the summer as a whole, June through August, temperatures averaged 3-8 degrees F above historical averages in southern Italy,” Jason Nicholls, lead international forecaster for the weather website AccuWeather, wrote in an email to CNBC. “There were several rounds of heat across Italy and into the Balkans later in July into August.” 

As a result, northern Europe is seeing an uptick in tourism.

“Northern Europe as a whole has really surged in the last two years,” says Delphine Combes, a product executive at the travel agency Scott Dunn. “Norway has emerged as a top five destination for us in Europe, which is up eight spots from 2022.”

She said Scott Dunn is adding more options for summer trips to Finland, Sweden and Switzerland to accommodate increased demand.

“These are destinations where we only offered winter and festive products until recently,” said Combes.

According to Visit Finland, foreign visitors made more than 4.8 million trips to the Nordic country in the last 12 months. The number of registered foreign overnights from January to June 2024 was 9% higher year on year, with the largest number of visitors coming from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Sweden, the United States and the Netherlands, it said.

Combes had a suggestion for American travelers who are looking for cooler vacations.

“Be open-minded to traveling to places where Americans are not the primary tourists,” she said. “Unlike the Mediterranean, many coolcation spots are not packed with Americans. It creates an interesting atmosphere that allows perhaps a more cultural experience.”

Combes also suggests booking early. “There are fewer quality hotels in a lot of the cooler, less visited destinations. Growing demand is starting to outpace hotel inventory, so pricing will either be sky-high or there will be no availability if you wait until the last minute.”

Sara Steele-Rogers and her husband, who currently live on the Caribbean island of Anguilla, booked a trip to Estonia in September to beat the heat.

“It’s always hot in the Caribbean, so cooler weather destinations are more appealing than they ever were to get our taste of fall,” says Steele-Rogers. “Little things like being able to walk distances without sweating through my clothes are things you don’t miss until they’re gone.”