Moscow (Russia) - Amsterdam (Netherlands) - Ransdorp (Netherlands)

Before Ryan and Abbie were eliminated for coming in last in this week's episode of The Amazing Race 21, two other teams of racers who had come to see them as friends and travel companions were shown agonizing over whether to leave them behind or "U-Turn" them back, and go on without them.

Unless racers on rival teams were developing a relationship that seemed more important than the US$1-2 million prize for winning the race around the world, that seems like a loss of perspective. The TV producers hope for romances between teams, and they have happened in other seasons of The Amazing Race. But that didn't seem to be what was going on this week.

In real-life travel, if not in a journey that all of the participants embarked on as a competition, it's common to face and to agonize over the choice of whether to stick with your travelling companion(s) if things go wrong for them -- illness, injury, lost or stolen documents, visa delays, trouble with the law -- or to go on without them. It can happen with people you left home with and intended to stay with throughout the journey, but it can also happen with people you've met along the way and feel you've made a commitment to for a portion of the trip.

Few of us would want to be left on our own to deal with any of these sorts of problems, especially in a strange (and perhaps therefore frightening-seeming) place. The difficult issue is how much the Golden Rule obligates us to give up -- whether in dollars or in the achievement of our own travel goals -- in the name of solidarity with our travelling companions.

In the race, both Las Vegas dancers James and Jaymes, and "green" lifestyle brand entrepreneurs Brent and Josh eventually decided that they would rather stay in the race themselves than stay with their friends Ryan and Abbie and risk being eliminated with them.

But what would you do if it were "only" the cost of an expensive cruise or tour at stake, or the vacation time you've been saving up for years, rather than a million dollars, and you had to choose between going on to the destination of your dreams or leaving new or old friends behind? How would you decide? And what can you do to reduce the likelihood of having to make that choice?