The Best Places For Couples To Travel, Ranked
Travelling as a couple is hard.
Flight delays, lost luggage, high temperatures, and bustling cities can all cause arguments between you and your other half.
Even when you’ve been together for years and years, the stress of visiting somewhere new can still cause tension.
But what about when you’ve only been with your partner for a short time?
On average, new couples go on holiday together within five months of forming a relationship, a study by travel agent Sunshine.co.uk claims.
But according to a further study by This Morning, 10% of couples break up on their first holiday together.
Yes, one in 10 couples breaks up after their first getaway.
Unsurprising perhaps then that research from Hotels.com reveals that nearly two-thirds of people believe that a couple’s first holiday is make-or-break material. Hence, choosing the right destination is really important.
So, if you’re looking to take your first trip with a special someone, you’ll be happy to know that we’ve crunched the numbers and found out the destinations where you’re least likely to break up, scoring countries around the world on a range of factors that can cause stress, arguments and a tense atmosphere.
This includes how expensive a place is, because no one likes to talk about money immediately in a new relationship, as well as the likelihood of getting an ‘upset’ stomach whilst on your first break together. Mortifying.
Check out the results below.
The Best Places For Couples To Travel, Ranked
Czech Republic
In first place is Czech Republic, which scored highly for how safe it is and the level of English proficiency, as well as also scoring in first place overall as the most efficient when it comes to traffic. Couples on their first holiday have the pick of Prague, the country’s historic capital, its second charming city, Brno, and other Bohemian cities.
Austria
Taking second place is Austria, which is a great option for those on their first holiday together. The country scored particularly high for the level of people speaking English so you’re almost guaranteed to find someone to converse with in one of its many breathtaking cities such as Salzburg, Vienna, and Linz. Or opt for a snowy break in its mountains.
Iceland
Rounding up the top three is Iceland, a country on many a person’s bucket lists. Well, turns out that Iceland is also a great destination for couples on their first holiday together. Of the top three, Iceland scored the highest for how safe it is, which means that couples don’t have to worry about being on edge. Visit the famous Blue Lagoon, geysers and waterfalls.
Interesting findings:
- Overall, Europe appears to be the best place to visit on your first couples holiday, with 9 of the top 10 countries being in the continent.
- Surprisingly, popular honeymoon locations such as Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru and Indonesia are actually some of the destinations where you’re most likely to break up with your significant other.
- Despite being home to what is probably considered two of the most ‘romantic’ destinations in the world, Venice and Rome, Italy is actually the European country that you’re most likely to break up upon returning.
- The country where you’re most likely to feel the pinch when it comes to tensions around expenses is Switzerland, which scored the lowest in the ‘Restaurant Index’ and is considered the only destination more expensive than New York City.
- Qatar is considered the safest destination to travel to, in comparison to South Africa, which is ranked as the most unsafe.
- Only 32% (31) of the 95 included in the study had 100% of the population with access to improved drinking sources, and the United States of America was not one of them.
- The most stressful country when it comes to traffic inefficiency is Ghana, which scored 443.94 in the index in comparison to the Czech Republic with 71.7.
- Of the countries where English is not an official language, the Netherlands scored the highest for English proficiency where as Saudi Arabia scored the lowest.
Methodology
Taking a list of every country in the world, we analysed these for various factors that cause people to feel stressed when travelling.
We created a ranking for each of these using data from credible sources, before adding the scores together to give one final score.
Restaurant Price Index: Money and the cost of things can often cause issues between couples, particularly if you’re in a new relationship. This is a basis of how expensive a country is likely to be, taking a comparison of prices of meals and drinks in restaurants and bars in this destination compared to New York.
Safety Index: It goes without saying that you feel stressed when you feel unsafe. This data point ranks the average level of safety in each country. Those with levels lower than 20 are considered very unsafe, for example, and levels higher than 80 as being very safe.
% Of Safe Drinking Water: There is nothing more mortifying than getting an ‘upset’ stomach in front of your new partner so this data point looks at the percentage of the population in each country with sustainable access to improved drinking water sources, cutting down the likelihood of picking up some nasty bacteria.
Traffic Inefficiency Index: High levels of traffic causing delays can be incredibly stress-inducing so this data point is an estimation of inefficiencies in the traffic of each country.
English Proficiency Score: It can be very stressful when you’re trying to converse when on holiday but no one understands you, and you don’t speak the national language either. This data point ranks the proficiency and levels of English in each country.
Those countries without a full dataset were omitted from the study.
A full dataset and source list are available on request.
