How to Travel As A Couple Stress-Free

Travelling as a couple can be extremely stressful. Depending on the type of trip you are embarking on, spending all day every day with just one person can be tiring. Of course, you love the person you’re travelling with (otherwise why are you jetting off with them?) but even the strongest of relationships can best tested during a vacation.

I’m lucky to have found someone in life who loves to travel as much as I do. For us travelling as a couple is really fun. We love spending nights on the couch drinking our favourite wine planning or next adventure. I truly thing we have planned out more trips and itineraries than we’ve actually taken. We will some day though.

While there’s nothing better than being able to share epic memories with the person you love, we can cut the bullshit, things can get tough. When you travel with friends, there’s still a part of you (hopefully) that wants to be polite and avoid confrontation. When you travel as a couple you know you can get into big fights and they’ll still love you at the end of it (again, hopefully). There are ways to avoid these big blow outs in situations that are stressful already. I’ve put together a list of things we do to help make our trips as amazing as possible, hopefully they help you as well!

Plan as a couple

There is bound to be one person in your relationship that is a better planner than the other, it’s inevitable. However, sitting down and planning out the big things together will ensure you are both getting what you want out of a vacation. Ben and I for example often take turns picking a destination. While, flight prices and air time are taken into account, at the end of the day it’s usually one of us making that final decision.

Once a destination is picked we spend time going through the top things we definitely want to see and do at the destination. We plan out everything from how we will spend our days to how much money we should budget. All of these are decisions we make together. Luckily we have a pretty similar mindset so there are rarely arguments about budgets or daily plans.

The thing that probably works the best for us is that I’m a high level planner and Ben loves the details. Once I’ve picked our flight, our mode of transportation and our accommodations I all but hand the reigns over to Ben who takes care of the rest. He loves putting daily itineraries together and looking up exactly where we are going on what day. He’s actually the one who planned our entire Iceland itinerary.

Being apart of the plans from the beginning is important. It allows both parties to feel as if they are contributing to the trip from the beginning.

Compromise

Of course, when it comes to planning there is a level of compromise that needs to be considered on both ends. Being more of the budget-conscious one, I’m usually concerned with how much Ben’s next great travel idea is going to cost. Often times the compromise is spending a bit more on one thing (like diving in Silfra) and being more budget conscious on others (like staying in Airbnb so we can cook meals).

I have learned in my old age (many thanks to Ben) that sometimes you need to give more than you normally would. It can actually turn out better than you think it will. When we were in Iceland I really did not want to walk 8km in the pouring rain just to see an abandoned plane. I put a bit more of a fuss than I probably needed to but I was tired and wet and cold. Eventually I sucked it up because it was either trek it out with Ben or stay in the car for two hours missing out on something. I’m glad I went. While the walk to and from the plane was absolutely miserable, being able to see the abandoned plane was so cool! Plus it made for some amazing photos.

Have a budget in mind

This also goes along with having a plan but you need to make a budget for your trip. Because Ben and I live together it’s much easier for us to work out our budgets because we share finances. Even still, before we travel we always have the conversation of what we can afford. We work out what financial obligations we have for the upcoming months and work it out from there.

While we do go on vacation more frequently than many of our friends, we always make sure that we can afford it. In my youth (and by that I mean like 6 years ago) I travelled while being in debt and I can promise you I never want to experience that again. The stress of it all and not being able to do certain things you would have loved to do was a terrible experience. While we may not always have every last dollar saved up before we book the vacation, we know what money will be coming in and base our vacation budgets on that.

Give yourself alone time

Trust me when I say there are going to be times when you just need to be left alone. Spending all day every day with someone, even if it’s your best friend in the whole world, can be taxing. You need even just 30 minutes to yourself every day, it’s human nature.

Find ways for you to get your alone time. What works for us generally is when I go for runs while on vacation. Not only am I getting my exercise for the day, I’m getting my alone time (and of course Ben is getting his as well). It’s the perfect meditation time. Plus, I get to explore a little bit more of the city that I’m in when I go for a run. This is probably the only time I’ll say, I’m glad Ben doesn’t love running when we travel.

Don’t forget the romance

Okay duh. You’re on vacation just the two of you, and no matter where it is that you’re travelling as a couple there are ways to make it romantic. Walking around all day, tired, generally hungry and definitely sweaty isn’t the pinnacle of romance. You need to dress up a bit and splurge on a nice dinner or two once in a while. One of my favourite memories is when Ben and I enjoyed a delicious meal at a cafe in Paris after a long stressful day of walking around and dealing with our nightmare Airbnb. We let the day go, got dressed up and enjoyed a delicious meal with great wine and people watched for hours.

No matter what romance looks like for you as a couple, make sure it happens I promise you won’t regret it. Creating lasting memories together is what traveling is all about isn’t it? Well, that and experiencing new cultures, seeing new things, meeting new people and eating new foods.

How do you make succeed in travelling as a couple?