Travelling as a couple is honestly one of the best decisions we have ever made.
Before we met each other, we both dreamed of exploring the world but this would have been a solo travel experience and we both now agree that sharing our experiences made everything more worthwhile.
Discovering new places, and putting ourselves out of our comfort zones, gave us opportunities to bond like nothing else. We also got to know each other on a much deeper level and put our relationship to the test in a million different ways.
That being said, travelling as a couple can be challenging.
Most articles you find online will warn you of the pressures and the stress of travelling with your partner, and basically put the heebie-jeebies in you. It definitely did in us before we left!
So, if you’re considering taking a trip around the world with your other half, here are some answers to the questions you probably have swimming around in your head.
When should a couple take their first trip?
Firstly, we feel that it is important to highlight that travelling as a couple is not easy. It is not all romantic sunsets and cute beach dates.
There are a lot of stressful situations to navigate – overwhelmingly busy cities, no home comforts and trying your best to communicate with people who don’t speak a word of the language you do.
Travelling really does put your relationship to the test. But that is not to say that you need to have been with your partner for a certain number of years before taking the plunge. So, when should a couple take their first trip?
In fact, we were together for less than a year before we decided to go travelling so our relationship was still fresh.
But, as long as you are prepared for things to be difficult at times, it doesn’t matter how long you have been together and the experience will actually accelerate your relationship like nothing else.
Is travelling good for couples?
That brings us to the question – is travelling good for couples? In our opinion, yes.
As we said, taking yourself out of your comfort zone and everything that is normal will enable you to really get to know your partner as well as yourself.
Think you’re the calm and methodical person in the relationship?
You’ll only really know who is when you’re stood in the middle of a bustling train station trying to find the right train without speaking the language, all whilst surrounded by vocal street sellers, a farmyard of animals and thousands of other people.
Honestly, this sort of situation can be ‘make or break’ for a relationship.
A bit negative maybe, but realistically all relationships will go through tough times and if you can withstand a situation like that, then you honestly be able to get through anything. Trust us.
It’s also worth pointing out here that travelling will not fix a rocky relationship and is more likely to capsize it once the challenges of road life are thrown into the mix. So remember that to be in love whilst in a foreign country, you also need to be in love at home.
Is it cheaper to travel as a couple?
Yes, definitely!
If strengthening your relationship isn’t attractive enough, then you’ll be pleased to know that travelling as a couple will help you save money, particularly if you want to stay in nicer, couple-friendly accommodation and use better transport.
From our experience, we typically found the price of a cosy double room in a hostel with a private bathroom to be less than double the price of a dorm bed. Say a bunk in an 8-person dorm was £8, you’d be looking at £12 for a double room.
It also means that you avoid getting woken up at god knows what time by the party animals that you inevitably get put with.
The money-saving element often applies to tours too. Most tours are a set price and it’s pretty difficult to negotiate with people who are constantly getting haggled but when you’re buying for two, we found it much easier to get people to budge on price.
Of course, you’ll be able to half a lot of other travel costs too, like taxi rides, food, motorbike hire, couples travel insurance, etc.
We actually saw a study recently which highlighted that solo travel costs, on average, 53% more than as a pair… So yes, it is cheaper to travel as a couple!
Where is the best place to travel as a couple?
Realistically, we could write reams and reams about the best places to travel as a couple but that’s an essay for another day.
In short, travelling as a couple takes a lot of compromises but it’s really important to remember that travelling the world is an experience of a lifetime and neither of you should come home with any regrets.
The best thing that you can do is sit down and discuss your travel desires.
Before we went, we both wrote a list of our ‘top ten must-visit destinations’ and, admittedly, we were very lucky that our top three were identical and the rest of the list had lots of similarities too.
Of course, this made outlining must-see destinations and excursions pretty easy for us but we appreciate that this might not be the case for everyone.
If it’s not and there are some differences, it is important that you compromise on your route and ensure that both people are ticking off, at least, some of their travel bucket lists.
How do you plan a couple’s vacation?
This brings us to… how do you plan a couple’s vacation?
Once you’ve got your list of destinations and excursions, the next step is planning a route. Which we know can feel pretty overwhelming. If you’re backpacking as a couple, we’ve got a handy guide.
When we first started planning our adventure, neither of us had done any extensive travelling before and had absolutely no clue where to start, so we used a travel agent.
Talking to an expert was incredibly useful for us as they live and breathe travel essentially and were able to show us which route made the most made sense for where we wanted to visit.
The travel agent was also to give us a realistic figure of how much the flights would cost too, which can be a mind field when clicking around on Skyscanner.
For context, we booked through STA Travel (who have now sadly gone out of business due to Covid) but have also heard good things about both Trailfinders and Gap360.
Although we did end up booking our flights through STA Travel, you don’t technically have to continue with your chosen travel agent once you’ve got their advice.
It is worth pointing out though, that booking through a travel agent is no more expensive than booking yourself, as they typically earn commission from the hotel or airline, and it can actually save you a lot of time and stress!
We hope that this gives you some reassurance that travelling as a couple can be one hell of a ride, but it will be the best one of your life.
At the end of the day, an awe-inspiring experience is even more awe-inspiring when you’re sharing it with the person that you love most in the world.
We definitely think so.
