How To Survive Your Next Trip As A Couple
Whether you are venturing away on your first weekend trip away together or taking the plunge on a 6-month Southeast Asia adventure, our top tips for surviving your next trip together are here to help you on your journey!
Deciding to travel together as a couple can be a daunting prospect for any couple.
No matter how long or how well you know someone, travelling can reveal a new plethora of challenges and tests for your relationship.
With that being said, it is also an opportunity like no other - to discover exciting new sides to each other and create memories that will last a lifetime.
We’ve compiled a handy list of travel tips for couples so you can learn how to travel as a couple and experience the most from your couples trip.
So, let’s dive into: How to Survive your next trip as Couple
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Useful Travel Resources For Planning Your Trip As A Couple
- 🏠 Book your perfect stay with HostelWorld or Booking.com
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- 🚘 Hire a car for more comfort via Rentalcars
- ✈️ Buy cheap flight tickets and earn cashback with every purchase on WayAway
- 🎲 Buy some of the Best Travel Games For Couples to take with you on your trip
Our Top Tips for Travelling as a Couple
Are you thinking of travelling as a couple? Perhaps you’re planning your first couples trip? Then you’ll need some guidance on how to travel as a couple.
Travelling together is a completely different ball game than living together at home - travelling as a couple isn’t always as romantic as it seems on Instagram. Sometimes it can be very stressful to travel with a partner, spending 24 hours a day with each other without being able to have some time alone for a few hours.
With that being said, however, couples travel is a complete adventure and can strengthen your relationship. If you can survive being hospitalised in Bolivia together, your relationship can survive anything, right?
So, whether you’re a brand new couple, married, or experienced travellers looking to travel for some great gap year ideas for couples, our top tips for travelling as a couple will help you survive your next trip as a couple.
Ever heard the saying, couples that travel together stay together - well, it’s true… as long as you know how to travel as a couple correctly!
Where to Travel as a Couple - Decide on a Destination Together
Deciding where to travel as a couple is arguably the most crucial step for ensuring a successful couple trip. Think about it this way - if you’ve never travelled a couple before, then planning an adventurous 6-week South America Backpacking itinerary when neither of you are able to speak Spanish (or Portuguese), is perhaps a little ambitious.
Similarly, if neither of you enjoy being in the snow, then planning to experience some of the best winter activities in Lake Louise, in the heart of the Canadian Rockies, isn’t really the best plan.
We suggest that for your first trip as a couple, opting for a destination that suits both of you, isn’t too stressful, and involves a little bit of adventure without going too extreme. Visiting Krka National Park in Croatia, for example, would tick all of those boxes and make for a fantastic first trip together.
Have Patience with each other
As we previously mentioned, travelling as a couple is an entirely different ball game to living together at home - couples travel involves spending long periods of time in each other’s company and navigating stressful situations together when you’re tired.
This will inevitably lead to tensions running high, and that’s okay. It’s entirely natural for stressful situations to cause a minor conflict, but the key to successful travel as a couple is to have added patience with each other.
Missing the last bus for an hour to the airport at 5am is quite a stressful scenario, so being patient with each other is going to be really important to navigate the next moments and survive your trip as a couple.
One of our tips for road trips as a couple is to make sure you are comfortable with silence from time to time. Travelling can be exhausting at times, and when you spend so much time together, it is okay to be patient with each other and have a bit of quiet time to yourself.
Compromise is important when Travelling as a Couple
One of the most important travel tips for couples is to compromise - while this is a pretty obvious thing to say for any relationship, it becomes even more valuable when you’re spending time on the road.
There are going to be times when one of you really wants to prioritise something, whether it's a particular activity or spending that little bit extra for the nicer hotel for the night. In these scenarios, you must find compromises that work for both of you.
Perhaps with the nicer hotel, you compromise on being able to stay in a fancier place, but the other one gets to choose the location. Or with the activity, you agree to do the activity together that morning, and then the other gets to choose the agenda for the afternoon.
Being able to compromise is essential to successful couples travel!
Divide up the Travel Responsibilities
This will likely happen naturally, but it is important to share the load when it comes to the often monotonous task of booking tickets, planning routes and other logistics. Splitting up the logistical tasks like this will help you both survive your next trip as a couple.
Take the two of us, for example - Orla is a self-professed ‘every eventuality planner’ and is happy to spend hours online, scrolling through review after review, so that we end up in the hostel least likely to give us bedbugs. Ben, on the other hand, will gladly find the cheapest route from A-B, even if it involves a 30hr bus journey!
Dividing up the responsibilities will guarantee you both a less stressful experience when travelling as a couple, especially in those last-minute planning moments.
Divide travel planning responsibilities when travelling as a couple
Are you a budget-conscious travel couple?
Then you will find our tips for saving money on flights as a couple very useful!
Sign up to a Monzo or Starling account for your couples trip
We’ve all been there - you’ve just polished off a wonderful meal together, and now you’re desperately trying to remember whose turn it is to cover the bill. Why not skip out the middleman?
Banking apps like Monzo or Starling are fabulous online banking options for all travellers. By signing up for a debit card, you can access the online banking apps and even get no foreign transaction fees. Add in the ability to take out a joint account, where you can both lodge money (instead of keeping track of who owes who), and it quickly becomes a go-to option for any travelling couple.
Starling (our personal favourite) even lets you cancel your card at the touch of a button via the app in the unfortunate case of any pick-pocketing or loss when abroad. It’s one of the reasons why the Starling app made it onto our list of the apps you need to download before travelling.
Starling splits up your payments into handy categories
Monzo cards are great for travelling couples
| Tip
Banking Alternative: Another option for long-term travel together is to sign up for a free Wise account where amongst other features, you are able to securely transfer money back to your home bank account.
Know when (and when not to!) push each other’s comfort zones
This is a great tip for couples who love to travel. It can be intimidating to be pushed outside of your comfort zone, but doing it together can be the best experience of any trip.
Unless you are both whitewater rafting, death-road-cycling adrenaline junkies, the likelihood is that there are going to be times when someone calls ‘veto’.
Knowing the fine line between when and when not to push your partner's comfort zone is definitely something that comes with time and experience. Doing so, however, can result in the moment that makes your entire trip and leaves you both with a feeling of accomplishment and memories to boot.
Whether it’s taking the plunge and signing up to search for anacondas in the Bolivian jungle (see below), or ordering the local delicacy of guinea pig from a menu in Peru, learning how to travel as a couple is all about inspiring each other to try new things!
This tip really helped us out during our ski season in Canada - we really had to know when it was best to call it a day on the slopes, and when we could tell the other one needed a little bit of an extra push.
Anaconda hunting in the Bolivian Pampas
Make sure you BOTH get to do something that you’ve always dreamed of (even if the other one isn’t so fussed)
If there is something that you need to learn as a couple that travels together, it is that you are both there to support each other's travelling dreams. If you’re not too interested in doing a particular activity, but your partner has always dreamed of it, then perhaps you should support them in their dreams.
As we mentioned earlier, being able to compromise is undoubtedly one of the best tips for travelling as a couple, no matter how long you’re travelling.
Having said that, however, if there is something that you are dying to see or an activity that you have always dreamed of doing, don’t allow yourself to be compromised out of doing it. The last thing you want is to carry a grudge against your travel partner for the remainder of the trip.
After reading travel documentary guru Simon Reeve’s ‘Step by Step’, we have adopted the handy scale he established with his wife to determine how much, or how little, the other wants to do whilst travelling. Essentially, rating an activity with a 1 means “I couldn't care less”, and a 10 means “If we don’t do this, I may divorce you”. We’ve had mixed results…
Remember, even though you might not like football yourself, seeing the look on your partner’s face when they see the stadium of their dream team in front of them will soon make it all worth it!
If someone is hungry, find food…. FAST
If there is only one rule on this list that you need to follow, then it is this one. It is possibly one of the most crucial travel tips for couples. It’s a rule that we live by, regardless of whether we are travelling or not. No one will have a good time if they are hungry and tired.
Although not officially recognised in the dictionary yet, we are convinced that ‘H-anger’ is something you want to avoid when travelling as a couple.
Sometimes, it can be hard to find viable food options when travelling, especially in transit. In times like these, stashes of emergency granola bars, fruit or chocolate can lift any lack-of-food-induced anger. Keep this emergency stash close to hand, and you can thank us later.
One of our hiking tips for couples is to remember to bring snacks on the trail to avoid getting restless and impatient with each other when you’re hungry.
Even a simple sandwich can be a life-saver when travelling as a couple
Know when your partner needs a rest on your couples trip
It’s easy to get caught up in a rush when travelling as a couple. You always want to see and do everything. This can happen even more so when there are two of you, and neither wants to let the other down by suggesting a nap or a recuperation day by the pool.
So one of our most important travel tips for couples is that recognising when one of you needs to slow down can make the entire couples trip more worthwhile.
Not only knowing the signs of when each other needs a break but allowing that person to steal a nap or have a day off from sightseeing will prolong your journey and avoid burnout. If only one of you needs the rest, the other can use this time to do something for themselves and enjoy some rare time alone (another important factor when experiencing couples travel).
Thankfully for us, when working at Summer Camp, we always know the other one needs a rest because it’s exhausting.
Don’t be afraid to ask strangers to take your photo
One of the most demoralising realisations you can have when returning from the trip of a lifetime with your partner in crime is discovering that you have hundreds of beautiful photos of where and what you saw but no photos of the two of you enjoying those moments together!
Sure, we might have a few photos of each other and some dodgy selfie attempts, but we often shy away from asking strangers to capture a moment for us (despite avidly volunteering to do it for others all the time!). It’s important to always ask for photos on your couples trip!
In short, if you are willing to do it for others, let them return the favour, and you can laugh at the funny camera angles you receive later.
Travelling as a couple is such a rewarding experience, and more often than not, one of you will be able to act as the other’s personal photographer. Asking somebody else to take a photo of both of you is one of those travel tips that people often forget to mention. After all, you will want to share your memories with others once you return home.
Be open to meeting new people along the way
One of our biggest tips for surviving travel as a couple is that you should not forget to interact with as many different people as possible. After all, meeting new people from all around the world is one of the things that makes travelling such a unique experience.
You don’t have to go to that first mixer event to meet all the other hostel dwellers to find like-minded people. You already have each other for that, right?
In theory, yes, but shying away from these events or similar opportunities to meet new people from all over the world could result in you missing out on some truly special and authentic travel experiences.
The draw of staying in hostels is often geared towards solo travellers looking for a melting pot of like-minded, adventure-seeking souls, but who is to say that couples can’t equally benefit?
Spontaneously deciding (potentially after a few drinks with said fellow hostel dwellers) to abandon your plans and join the organised group trip to the local attractions can be a welcomed switch up to your usual ‘ticket for two’ mentality. Just because you’re travelling as a couple, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have memories with other people too.
One of our best tips for staying in hostels as a couple is to go and meet people, don’t be tempted to stay together and not have the chance of socialising with other travellers. At the very least, you’ll have lots of people to ask to take your photo together!
Some of the wonderful people we met while working in Lake Louise, Canada
If someone is feeling uncomfortable, do something else
If ever there was a simple travel tip for couples, then this would be it. The chances are, that if one of you is feeling uneasy about a particular situation, the other is going to follow close by.
Whether you’re getting a dodgy vibe from a hostel, or planning a shortcut through an unfavourable neighbourhood, there’s little point putting your travel partner through more distress by persuading them that “it’ll be fine!”. Unless it is completely unavoidable, try to make each other as comfortable as possible at all times.
This may seem like a fairly obvious one as travelling can bring around an entirely mixed bag of experiences from day to day (that is part of the adventure!), but telling someone that their gut feeling is wrong could hinder the entire trip.
While working a ski season in Canada, there were times when one of us would feel uncomfortable about trying a specific ski run, so we would make the decision together that neither of us would try it out until we were both feeling confident. It was a simple trick that helped us to survive as a couple while travelling in Canada.
Do something special every now and then - make time for Romantic Travel
Of course, every day spent travelling is an absolute privilege and something that should never be taken for granted. Yet, we are first-class offenders of exactly that.
We get into the routine of planning the next day's itinerary and whizzing from destination to destination without fully appreciating how lucky we both are. Making the effort to do something special together every once in a while can really remind you why you started this journey together in the first place.
Allowing time for a romantic moment or two when travelling as a couple does not have to cost a tonne of money either. It could be making the effort to get up for sunrise together and watching your new destination light up before your eyes, ready to explore every street corner the light touches. Or maybe treat yourselves to your favourite (creme-bruleé flavoured) ice cream and watch the locals go about their day.
Remember to take these special moments together every once in a while, and your travel experience will be richer without your pocket becoming poorer. Creative romantic getaways for couples can bring you closer together, and they don’t always have to be far away from home.
Couples who travel together, stay together
Our very final tip for couples travel is a memorable one - Couples who travel together, stay together. It's as simple as that!
It doesn’t really matter where to travel as a couple or even what to do while travelling as a couple; it’s all about travelling together and creating memories that are going to last a lifetime.
You will learn more about each other in a week of travelling than you ever could in a month living at home.
We hope you have found our guide for surviving your next trip as a couple useful. Handy travel tips for couples are useful so that you and your partner can continue to enjoy all of your adventures together.
If you are considering going travelling as a couple soon, then you may want to learn some useful packing tips for long-term travel - we’ve done our fair share of travelling now, so we figured we’d collate all of our packing tips, tricks and habits in one convenient place.
We are going to introduce you to some of the best packing tips for long-term travel that we have found throughout the years. We will guide through what to pack, how to pack, and how much you need to pack for long-term travel.