I travel occasionally with friends, but most of my trips are solo. At first, I didn't enjoy them as much. But over the years I have found that I interact more with the locals. That gives me more opportunity to learn more about the places I visit and make acquaintences along the way.

If I do travel with a friend for the first time, though, I make sure that it's a very short trip - 2 to 3 days at most - to see how compatible we are. As OP said, like minded on budget vs luxury, etc. There's nothing that spoils a trip more than being on a different page than your travel companion!