While solo travel undoubtedly holds its own allure, there is something to be said about the power of traveling as a couple. Truth be told, couples who travel together tend to keep that spark alive in their relationship. Here are six reasons couples should stick with it for the long haul.
It was Miami International Airport. I had just passed TSA and was making my way over to the lounge before my flight to the Riviera Maya, Mexico. It had been my first trip since being divorced, so there was a sense of freedom running aloof in my veins.
In that moment as I looked up beyond my passport, I saw a couple wearing matching sweatshirts embroidered on the back “Mr. and Mrs.” My face now blank, my heart emptied, and I wondered what the future would hold for me.
Would I ever be a couple who travels together again?
The obvious answer is yes, it can be easy to travel with anyone; but, someone who you travel well with? That is the burning question.
That being said, there are so many benefits to traveling solo. I have graciously done this for many years, learning an incredible amount about various cultures and myself.
Fast forward a few years, and I now have an amazing travel partner and husband that I am grateful to share each experience because it deepens our marriage and strengthens our relationship.
Six Reasons Couples Should Travel Together
There is so much truth in the saying: “it’s not where you go, it’s who you travel with.” Here are six reasons couples who travel together stay together.
1. Creates Shared Memories
You can experience something yourself, but to share that experience with someone else is what creates a lifelong memory. It lives beyond your own thoughts, becoming an experience and dialogue shared between you both.
If you were to name a city or airport code destination, my husband and I both will have select moments — typically within the small details — that bring an entire story vividly back into our lives that we’re smile upon.
The shared memory creates a dual perspective and amplifies the thought between you both.
2. Strengthens Communication
I’ll admit it, it’s easier to travel solo managing a schedule. Why? Because, I was the only one calling the shots. Traveling with my husband, we’re both entrepreneurs and always working wherever we go.
Therefore, managing schedules, coordinating times, client calls, meetings and work projects require respectful communication.
Business aside, balancing schedules to take advantage of the destination’s beauty and travel benefits, coordinating beach time, meals in the hotel and outside of, local excursions and being mindful of each other’s quiet time needs.
All of these bookings require stellar communication to manage and balance two schedules in a moving timeline. Pre-planning and being flexible in the moment upfront makes any travel and scheduling happen with greater ease.
3. Safety in Numbers
I’m willing to say, although I’m one tough cookie, being a woman can open me up to be viewed as an easier target for any crime or mishap. That can happen anywhere, traveling to a more remote destinations, or even walking down a busy city street.
Having a second person by my side creates a strength because it’s more difficult having two people on one, and creates a witness in case anything does happen.
This statement isn’t to invoke fear, but sharing the upside traveling with any partner or in greater numbers can create strength and safety in a couple or group setting.
4. Collective Break From Reality
While we both love discipline and routine in our household, it can get pretty boring after some time for anyone doing the same day in and day out. The reality of being back at home in our day-to-day lives can start to feel monotonous, especially for a Sagittarius and Aquarius adventuring souls!
Insert travel: that flips the switch in routine from a repeat loop into a creative opportunity to freshen things up a bit. After all, isn’t that one of the main reasons we all travel in the first place?
5. Quality Time Together
Quality time can happen anywhere, but to do it in another country, city or hotel room? That creates a lot of opportunity on another level for quality time.
With fewer distractions than we would complacently get into back at home, the opportunity to share perspectives on foods, cultures, museums, personal memories and stories of certain locations, and just laughing at the adventures along the way — that creates another level of intimacy we share and some spice to the pot.
6. Opportunity to Learn About One Another
Travel alone teaches us about ourselves, but can incrementally teach us about our partners. How does each other handle different stressors and travel conflicts? What strengths in travel management does one have over the other? How can we better work as a team utilizing those strengths?
Things I’ve learned about my husband have been unveiled in every leg of a travel adventure, from pre-packing (he’s a planner), to the airport (I have great sense of direction), to where he likes to sit on a flight (we’re both claustrophobic), the snacks we pack (healthy snackers), the kind of decor and hotel reservation hospitality we each uphold (luxury minimalism for the win).
In addition, traveling can also be an opportunity to learn how each other likes to care for one another (love languages ring a bell?) in a travel environment to take some of that love back with us home.
Couples Goals 101
While you don’t need a partner or a spouse to take away an unlimited number of benefits from traveling, having the right travel partner certainly does make all the difference.
In my own life, travel has helped my husband and I deepen our relationship as we continue to prioritize travel as one of our top expenditures and priorities in building and enhancing our relationship for the long term.
What are your thoughts? Are you one of those couples who travel together?
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