If you’re anything like me, you love to travel. And I hate to break it to you, but that travel bug only gets worse as you grow because you start realizing what else is out there and what you’re missing by not traveling. As you travel, you will meet thousands of people and start figuring out what you’re looking for in a partner (if you don’t have one already). As you get older, you will want someone to share the good times with.
But will traveling make or break a relationship?
Once you start traveling in a relationship, what happens to your traveling persona? Do you stop traveling, do you travel together, do you travel without your partner? Traveling can make or break that romance.
Traveling Without a Partner
Leaving your significant other home while you travel can have its pros and cons. It will test the trust in your relationship. There might be some jealousy issues. You might run the risk of one of you cheating. Or you could miss your partner so much you don’t make the most out of your trip (running to Skype every day is no way to enjoy a trip). Depending on the length of your trip, you may find that you’ve grown much more than your significant other during your time apart, especially if it lasts a year or longer. I believe that travelers are much more cultured, open-minded, and mature than non-travelers, and that can put you on two different maturity levels in a relationship.
However, traveling without your partner could be a fun way to immerse yourself in a new culture without any crutches. If you have to survive on your own in a new world, you’ll feel much more accomplished when you come out of it successfully (or even unsuccessfully, if you tried your best). You’ll have new stories to come home with, new outlooks on things, and better tips for trips together in the future. Traveling solo could really show a trusting, secure, safe relationship and bring you even closer together because of that trust. Plus, that old saying, “absence makes the heart grow fonder,” isn’t just a cliche!
Traveling as a Couple
I have to admit that I have never traveled solo solo, although I have left a significant other at home during family vacations (which, for purposes of this post, counts as traveling solo). I do tend to jump into trips with people I barely know. Within the first two months of meeting my current boyfriend of seven years, I asked him if he wanted to take a spontaneous trip to Florida with me. He said yes and I knew with our mutual love of spontaneous travel, this one was a keeper.
Fast forward through six years of typical week-long vacations to 2014, when we decided to pack up our belongings, say goodbye to our families, and booked a one-way ticket to Spain (where neither of us had ever been before) where we had gotten jobs teaching English for the school year. Keep in mind neither of us really spoke Spanish, and this decision came right after a three-month break we decided to take, so this was a pretty aggressive move on both our parts.
Traveling together in a new environment, all you have is each other. 24/7. Just each other. It really puts any relationship to the test. You have to depend on each other more than ever and really trust that the other person will always be there for you when you need help, even if there’s nothing he or she can do. You will spend most, if not all, of your time together because you have no other friends or family and don’t speak the language. Either you will mesh or clash.
Side note: our relationship strengthened so much that we never fought in the entire year we lived in Spain. It’s like our problems pre-Spain never happened. My story is a success story!
Whether you’re traveling together for a long time or a short time, you will learn everything about your partner. It’s like you now have x-ray vision and can see everything you want to know. You’ll find out deep personality characteristics when you see how your partner treats foreigners, wait staff, hotel staff, etc. You’ll learn whether your partner prefers to spend more time-saving money or having fun. If/when your plans go awry (it is inevitable), you’ll get to see how your partner reacts to unpredictable circumstances and whether he or she rolls with the punches or throws a tantrum and blames anyone nearby.
You’ll learn if you can solve problems together. You’ll learn if one of you is the problem-maker and one is the problem-solver. And you’ll discover whether you have common interests and have fun together or if you’re going to have to make a lot of compromises in this relationship. Hint: If you enjoy traveling together and doing things together, it probably bodes well for your future relationship.
Will Traveling Make or Break a Relationship? Only One Way to Find Out
If you find yourself in a relationship and questioning what will happen to your bucket list, it doesn’t mean your travel days are over. If anything, it might mean your solo travel days are over! Or it might mean you have a good reason to look forward to coming home when you do travel solo. Traveling in a relationship adds a new level of pressure, but it’s worth it. Whether you travel with or without your partner, you can grow together and fortify your relationship.
Will traveling make or break a relationship? Click To TweetTravel can cement, test, or unravel a bond. You’ll discover things about yourself that you never knew before (Pocahontas says it best: “You’ll learn things you never knew you never knew.”) Traveling in a relationship, whether with your partner or without, is really the ultimate relationship test.
How have you handled traveling in a relationship? Do you always travel with your partner? Do you like to travel without your partner? Have you met a new love abroad and need to travel to see him or her? Tell me your travel relationship stories below!
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P.S. You might also like 10 Reasons Why Traveling is a Terrible Idea and Traveling Abroad With (or Without) a Boyfriend