Travel Farther, Love Better: Stronger Relationships Through Travel

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Love. Love. Love. We’re all about it. It’s what the world needs now, what makes the world go round, all you need, etc. etc. And ultimately, we believe that travel improves relationships.

But we aren’t cavalier about love. Not at all.

We don’t believe love is just something that happens to you. An overwhelming feeling or mystical force you have no control over. Some aspects of being “in love” are like this, yes, but real, honest, salt-of-the-earth love is what we’re after. And that is not solely an emotion or a state of bliss. It is hard work, unselfishness, putting your partner’s needs above your own, and sometimes even sacrifice and pain. Love is not always grand, but the effort you put in to building a strong and lasting relationship yields AMAZING, undeniable results. That kind of authentic love? Well, that’s the best thing there is.

There are many ways to go about building and growing a relationship. One of the most life-altering, we’ve found, is traveling with your significant other. We asked a few other traveling couples to give us their take on how travel has made their relationships stronger. We’ve been blown away by their responses about how travel has shaped and transformed their love. Read on to be inspired and encouraged to travel farther and love better.

Julie & Drew : Drive on the Left 

I’ve heard that those who travel well together, stay together. Why is that? Shouldn’t traveling just be about going somewhere on holiday, relaxing and forgetting about the stresses of home? While that’s what hotels and airlines would like us to believe, in reality, travel is stressful.

Traveling together, we often see the worst of each other, as cruel as that may sound. Anger, frustration or just plain fatigue – it can add up. While the mundane routine at home can mask issues, traveling reveals all, both good and bad. And that is important for the strength of our relationship.

We have now made it through over eight years of marriage and many adventures on the road. We have learned more about each other and how to more effectively communicate than we ever would have by staying at home. All thanks to travel.

Paul & Carole – Paul and Carole Love to Travel 

Travel has made us stronger in many ways, the more we travel the more we instinctively know if we are in the right place. Seeing humour in diversity when things don’t go to plan or are out of your our control, has tested us and our relationship has developed into one where we know each other so well and have complete trust. We love a good party but are never afraid of our own company and cherish the time together that traveling allows. One of our strengths from travelling extensively is the ability to laugh at each other, and we often do! We have been together just over 20 years and hope we have at least another 20 years of travelling ahead of us!

Chris & Heather – A Brit and a Southerner

Heather and I have been together since 2008 and our travels really started in 2010 when we took our first trip back to England to meet my family. This was Heather’s first time to fly and since then, we have never looked back! 16 countries and 46 US states later, we have pretty much figured out that we love traveling the world together!

To travel the world with your best friend, your soul mate and your wife is undoubtedly the most rewarding aspect of exploring. We are able to share our amazing experiences around the world and create lifelong memories that will remain with us. Our travel philosophies may be different in terms of what we enjoy exploring but one thing that we have in common is that we both love to experience everything. A typical travel experience for us would involve exploring landmarks we each individually have a passion for, along with a myriad of attractions that we both love together.

Another benefit of traveling together is that it helps us appreciate each other more. Away from the day-to-day living at home, we work together when we are traveling and certainly bring the best out of each other. Whether it’s organizing our daily itinerary or preparing our essential packing list, we each have our strengths that we take advantage of.

Sonal & Sandro – Drifter Planet

I’m from India and my husband Sandro is from Germany. We met each other in Koh Tao and our love story began from there.  We traveled to a few places together and got to discover each other’s personalities better. San is a little laid-back as compared to me, whereas living in a metropolitan city has made me fast paced. Our relationship became stronger when we learnt to adapt to each other’s pace.  I discovered the importance of taking things slow and enjoying each moment to the fullest. He matched my pace on a few days when I wanted to fit many things in a single day (poor San). We have been in a few difficult situations together and have come out of them with a stronger bond each time – such as the time where we decided to climb on Railay’s limestone rocks to reach a lagoon but the heavy rainfall made everything dangerously slippery or the time where a discriminatory hostel owner let him in based on his nationality but not me and we spent the entire night outside in someone’s car.

Amanda & Daniel – Our World Canvas

When on the road, you have more choices available to you than average, and these choices can really affect the comfort and tone of your trip. You don’t want to travel halfway around the world, and realize that your partner is not enjoying the trip the way you are, so – as a traveling couple – you have to make your decisions together. This process is where we’ve grown most as a team, and where we’ve learned most about each other. It’s also where we’ve noticed how much we’ve changed: having inherited Amanda’s daredevil tendencies, Daniel just booked an Edgewalk at CN Tower for us – something he never would have done 5 years ago. And when we met, Amanda was fine with eating burgers or chicken nuggets every day – now, thanks to Daniel’s influence, she’s constantly searching for her new favorite ethnic foods.

When you commit to making your travel decisions as a team, you learn so much about what your partner truly cherishes in this life. And before you know it, you’re cherishing the exact same things.

Nick & Dariece – Goats on the Road

A good healthy relationship is made up of these components: trust, compromise, and fun!  Anyone who has traveled with their significant other can attest to that.  When you are in a foreign place, you have to be able to compromise on the things that you want to do, because there are so many things to do and let’s face it, some things are more interesting to you than it would be to your partner.  Then there are the times when you don’t know where you are at, and the other person has a good idea, you must trust that they will lead you to where you need to be.  And you must always have fun with whatever you are doing.  All of our travels together have been amazing, mostly because of our trust, compromise, and having fun together. Now, this is the base of our healthy marriage, whether at home or on the road.