This post was written by Michael and Alexandra (Alex) Gallagher from the travel blog Couple’s Coordinates!
One of our main goals in travel blogging is to make our readers’ lives easier. Yes, we hope to always put out beautiful content that is entertaining and enjoyable to read, but more importantly, we honestly hope our advice is helpful for you.
Many of you may have traveled solo, but not as a couple. So what do you do now that you’re planning your first trip with significant other?
We’ve put together tips that are essential to those of you traveling as a couple!
Remember the Importance of Personal Time
Again, beating the dead horse here at this point, but we can’t emphasize enough how imperative alone time is.
It really doesn’t matter how much you love your significant other, how much you enjoy spending every day with him or her, or how important it is to you that you experience things together. It is absolutely imperative to make time for yourself while you’re traveling with your significant other.
Read Next: The Importance of Personal Time When Traveling as a Couple
Consult Your Partner on What They Want to Do
It’s so important to voice your opinion and make plans that work for both of you. Going through the motions reluctantly makes room for resentment and tedious arguments.
Make sacrifices and do some things you don’t want to do for the sake of your partner and know that will happen in return.
Be Patient
Patience is an ideal that most of us don’t embody in this instant gratification world in which we live. But do your best. You’re going to get frustrated at things when challenges arise and you’re going to look to challenge or blame the person closest to you.
Instead, be patient, be a team, and conquer adversity together.
Read Next: Dealing with Fights while Traveling as a Couple
Take Pictures!
You’re going to look back at your trips together and be so happy that you took the time to take cute pictures. Your kids and grandkids will appreciate you at least boring them with cool stories and pictures as opposed to pictures from your high school prom.
Read Next: How to Take Amazing Travel Photos as a Couple
Try Something New
Whether it’s parasailing, riding ATVs, tanning nude, or maybe even a cooking class, doing new things with your significant other is an awesome bonding experience. Especially when traveling, there are so many opportunities to try something new.
Avoid Tourist Traps at All Costs & Plan Dates
If you’re in Italy, buy a nice bottle of wine, some cheese, and some fresh bread and have a picnic in a park or on a bridge over a river. Avoid restaurants nearest the tourist attractions that you see filled to the brim with tourists.
Generally these places provide a less than traditional experience with crappy food and absurd prices.
Play!
There’s never a bad moment to stop and have fun with each other. Be a child and have a leaf fight or splash in the ocean. Always remember that we get old because we stop playing; not the other way around.
Shred Your Itinerary (and Maybe Your Passports)
Go with plans, but always be willing to break them. If you find a new city that you fall in love with, nothing is wrong with finding a way to live there. Home is where the heart is and when you’re with your significant other, any place you both love can easily become a new home.
Fall in Love, Over and Over Again
The romance that travel brings to life is unfathomable for those of you who haven’t yet had the pleasure of traveling with your better half.
We have fallen in love over and over again in so many ways. Standing over the Arno River in Florence and watching the sunset with a bottle of wine, chugging beer at Oktoberfest and singing German drinking songs we don’t understand, dancing in the middle of a field at EDC UK, sitting in a rose covered bubble bath during a 2.5 hour spa treatment at Four Seasons Jimbaran.
Don’t just fall in love once…fall in love over and over again.
Have FUN!
Why travel if not to have fun? Stress will arise and challenged will present themselves, but if you’re not having fun you’re doing something wrong.
In all honesty, most of our advice comes from experience. No couple is without their flaws and no couple truly knows how to love each other until they’ve gone through some bit of challenge together.
Life is tough at times, we are just so glad we get to go through it together and are overjoyed at the opportunity to share our advice from our experiences with you all.
I really enjoyed this article! My boyfriend and I are in a long distance relationship, so whenever we get to spend time with each other is when travelling. Although we want to spend as much time as possible with each other, it’s still so important that we have some personal time, otherwise we’ll just end up driving each other mad 😛
I’m hoping to do some travelling with my boyfriend in the near future. These are great tips, Alex and Michael make an adorable couple!