Getting ready for a long awaited vacation with your partner? Spending quality time exploring and traveling together can bring you in closer contact with the world and with each other. It can help to revive the spark that may be dimmed by the work-a-day world and constant pressures of every day involvement. But, if you don’t put some planning into your holiday, you might create more stress for yourself. Here are some tips to consider before you hit the road:
1. Make a reservation for your first night’s stay before you leave home. Spontaneity is great, but you waste time, money, and patience when you arrive at your destination to find that all the hotels in town are booked because of a convention or wedding. Play it safe. After all, when you’re grumpy because you’ve got nowhere to rest your weary head, who are you going to take it out on?
2. Discuss expenses ahead of time. Make sure you are on the same page as far as how much you want to spend on meals, tours, transportation, souvenirs, and other travel expenses. You don’t have to plan everything you’ll do and everywhere you’ll go, but you might find you have two totally different visions of your vacation. Is this your year to splurge or save? Make sure your partner knows where you stand early on.
3. Discuss your vision of the trip ahead of time. You and your partner might have different ideas on what this vacation is “about.” You might dream of lying all day on the beach drinking margaritas. Your partner might imagine days full of sight-seeing. As with expenses, make sure you know what each of you hopes to get out of this trip.
4. Pack appropriately; pack for fun. Without weighing yourself down by over-packing, make sure to have outfits that are appropriate for the different activities in which you plan to be involved. Don’t spend all your vacation shopping for clothes you could have brought from home. Also, consider that if you pack clothes you associate with fun, you’ll be encouraged to go out and do the fun things you wanted to do when you planned the trip.
5. Compromise. The golden word. It’s likely that you won’t want to do all the same things. Choose at least one place or activity each that is a “must-see” or a “must-do” and agree that, if nothing else, you go those places or do those things. You’ll both feel as if your vacation was well-spent.
6. What if you each want to do different things everyday? Go for it — if you’re both okay with that. There is no rule that says you have to be attached at the hip. But, if the purpose of the trip is to spend time together, consider that you might choose a more appropriate destination, where you will have common interests in what you want to see and do.
7. Even if you’re on a budget travel plan, if possible allow yourself one night to splurge on a romantic dinner or activity. It’s amazing what an unusual or unfamiliar food, atmosphere, or activity can do to spark a little love.
8. Buy one another gifts. If your partner sees a small something he loves but might hesitate to buy for himself, buy it on the sly and present it to him once you’re back in the hotel room. Who knows where a show of love like that might lead.
9. Be eager to “make up.” It’s inevitable that you will bicker now and then, even on vacation. In many ways, travel introduces us to pressures that we don’t usually encounter in our daily lives. Don’t waste your trip pouting over something that might be resolved with a small apology or laughter. No matter where you go, you’re paying for it. You can sit at home and be angry any time for free!
10. Find creative ways to preserve these good times. Take pictures and videotape your fun. Collect small mementos from everywhere you go. This doesn’t have to get expensive. Pick up matchbooks from your hotel, a coaster from that karaoke bar where you had fun embarrassing yourselves in front of complete strangers, the fortune from that great Chinese restaurant, a flyer that advertised the art exhibit where you spent hours wandering around. When you get home, you’ll have all the makings of a great scrapbook.
There is no foolproof way to travel, but you can avoid travel turmoil by planning ahead and making a conscious effort to have a good time. If you’re going somewhere you love with someone you love, it shouldn’t be too hard to do.
Real Travel Adventures 