Wandering the World, Traveling Together

TRAVEL. Many people love to travel. Most people wish they could do more of it! Whether it’s a local trip to the nearest beach or lake, or a trip that requires a flight crossing state lines or country borders. There is so much information out there about how enriching travel can be to your life. Add in your soulmate – traveling with them is a dream come true! Or is it a disaster waiting to happen? Sometimes a trip together is the only way to find out! But the risk is worth the reward when it comes to traveling with your partner.

Quality time

One of the best parts of traveling with your partner is the amount of extended quality time you have together. Whether you’re in a relationship where you don’t live together. Or you do live together but lead busy lives that don’t leave you with a lot of QT for just the two of you. Traveling provides that opportunity. Assuming you sleep for eight hours a day, what will you do with the other 16 hours? There are lots of things to consider. What activities would you both like to do? Whether you plan in advance or decide on the fly, thinking about things to do TOGETHER can increases your connection and appreciation for your partner. You could do tried and true activities you know you like. Or branch out of your comfort zone and try something neither of you have done together. Experiences with your partner draw you closer, whether they make you laugh, scream, or plain ol’ smile! We’ve all been there: the phone-in-hand, head-down, thumb-scroll silence when with people we love. With social media and so much content available online, it is easy to use free time to look online at social media, articles, your favorite stores, etc. When traveling as a couple, it’s important to take note of how you’re spending this time together to truly make sure it’s quality. Is it important to you to go technology free at any point? If so, recognize and agree to a boundary before your trip. Maybe all meals together are phone-free, or maybe you don’t watch TV at all during your trip. Whatever works for you as a couple, put it in place to make sure your time together is true QUALITY time. Not time getting sucked into internet rabbit holes. Also known as YouTube kitten videos. Another piece of the quality time while you travel could include individual time, together. At any points, is it important for any of your self-care practices that you each get some alone time? If that helps you be a better partner to your significant other, then make sure you build that into your time as well. That may mean a solo walk on the beach. Or an hour-long reading session in a camping chair while your partner goes for a hike. There’s no right way to maximize your quality time together, but with those sixteen hours a day in front of you, being mindful of how you spend them will ensure the Q in QT.

Learning about your lover

An important part of a healthy relationship is constantly learning about your partner. We have a tendency to get to a point where we think we know pretty much everything about them, but the truth is, we don’t! More so than that, we shouldn’t want to think we know everything about them. How boring is it to be with someone for eight years, have 50 more to go, but already knowing every.single.thing about them? Traveling together allows you to learn more about your partner – especially when you maximize the quality time you spend together. Maybe you learn how much your partner needs air conditioning. Or the severity of their fear of heights, or that purple potatoes makes them sick. Maybe they don’t let the gas tank go below three-quarters empty before they fill it up. Or that they can’t live without their travel hair dryer on the road. We learn so many things about our partner on a regular basis. But by traveling together, you’re exposed to new things about your partner by doing things and going places you haven’t before. If you’re traveling to a place you’ve been, different conversations may come up that bring new information to light. It also creates a fun memory bank! When you can recall “I learned XYZ about you when we took that trip to the mountains three summers ago.” A critical thing you can potentially learn about your partner when you travel as a couple is how they handle adversity or adjustment. With travel, many things are unpredictable! Weather, flight schedules, car problems, train delays, etc. You may not have had many situations prior to traveling together to learn how they handle it. Maybe they sweat the small stuff more than you realized, which teaches you how you can show up in those moments and help them handle a situation. Or you see how they’re able to roll with the punches which increases your gratitude towards them. You may even see how well they treat other people in a stressful situation which makes your heart melt to the floor. It doesn’t matter what you learn, whether it’s a positive or negative behavior. Learning that about your partner is helpful to your relationship. You can anticipate those behaviors in the future and know how to be a better partner to them in similar moments. Traveling as a couple opens the potential for more learning through these situations!

Memories in the making

Perhaps the best part of traveling as a couple is the memories you build. They will last your entire relationship (and beyond). If you love traditions and go to the same places and do the same things, you will forever get to recall, “Wait, was that the trip we took four years ago? Or five years ago?” If you love adventure and try new places and activities, you will forever get to recall, “Remember when we went to Queenstown and got caught in that massive rain storm on our last day so we shop hopped until our flight?” Memories will pop up many times throughout the course of your relationship. As you think of them, or share them out loud with your partner or others, a smile will come to your face and happiness will light up your heart as you appreciate those special times of traveling together as a couple. Bonus, these memories also make great gifts for special occasions! Creating photo books or tree ornaments or calendars to decorate you/your partner’s spaces make the memories real and tangible so you can be reminded of them more often. Hello Valentine’s Day/birthday/anniversary/etc! Whether you wander where the Wi-Fi is weak or head to a city where the lights are bright. May you share the amazing gift of traveling with your partner. Remember it doesn’t matter where you’re going, but who you have beside you that matters!