5 Tips for Traveling with your Significant Other

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In honor of two years of marriage, we thought it would be fun to do a post together & you all seemed to love it. I put up a question box on Instagram stories for you all to submit some questions for us to answer. The response got me thinking so we’ll be adding in more marriage content in a new series. One topic you all seemed to want to know more about related to us was travel. Specifically, tips for traveling with your significant other or spouse. You all were very curious as to how we budget for traveling, plan trips, choose where to go, etc. I thought today it’d be fun to kick off our monthly marriage series with 5 tips for traveling with your significant other.

5 TIPS FOR TRAVELING WITH YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER

Charles & I actually moved in together for the first time when spending a summer traveling nonstop around South America. We were technically there for a work assignment my husband had in Brazil, but every weekend we were going somewhere different. We love to travel so much that we decided to get married abroad in Florence. We’ve been out of the country multiple times together over the last seven years that we’ve been together. Last year we went to Paris for our anniversary & this year we’ve already been on several trips together in the midst of buying & updating a house. Traveling is our favorite thing to do together & we have learned quite a bit over the years on all of our trips. Below are our top five tips for traveling with your significant other.

BUDGET

I know, the B-word straight outta the gate. I’m sorry, but it’s true. Setting a budget & trying to stick with it is very important when traveling in general, but especially with your significant other. A trip with your spouse is coming from both of your pockets, so you don’t want to put yourselves in any sort of bind where you end up not enjoying your trip because you’re stressed. That defeats the purpose of vacation!

One piece of advice is to pay for as much as you can up front. We like for everything (hotels, trains if applicable, activities) that can be paid for up front to be taken care of. Psychologically, studies have been done that you enjoy your trip more if it’s already paid for. We set a general budget for food & other things knowing which restaurants we have picked out to go to or about how much we may spend per meal or day. We tend to over budget & try our best to stay close to it so there aren’t any crazy surprises or we aren’t stressed later. It’s so important to set a budget & try to be as prepared as possible.

BE PREPARED

One thing I love about Charles is that he is always prepared. He loves to plan & schedule things out (he is the master of spreadsheets). He thinks ahead & plans for what we will need including what we need to pack! He planned out a fun hiking adventure for us on this trip & brought along all the essentials we’d need!

We almost always carry a backpack around during the day (& sometimes at night depending on plans) when we travel to keep my camera & a few other essentials close by. We always like to have a camera (or two), a water bottle, a phone charger, sunscreen, chapstick, & a few other essential items when we’re out & about. We like to use a unisex backpack so that we can take turns carrying it throughout the trip. We needed a new back pack before this trip, so we ordered this Ozark Trail one from Walmart before our trip along with some other hiking & everyday essentials like this water bottle & a portable solar powered phone charger (not pictured) so we would be prepared for hiking & other outdoor activities we had planned. The phone charger is amazing because it’s solar powered! No outlets needed. Ozark Trail has a ton of great outdoor gear for any occasion so that you can be just as prepared as Charles is (#goals.. really) for all of our fun outdoor adventures.

FLEXIBILITY IS KEY

As much as Charles & myself are planners, we also are able to go to the flow & make changes to our plans along the way. We love going in with a plan, but knowing that it will all be okay if it doesn’t work out. You can’t plan EVERYthing, so while we like to be prepared, flexibility is key. We have so many funny stories from plans going wrong. Charles even incorporated some of these into his toast he gave at our wedding. He said that no matter what unexpected things happened & what went wrong, it would be okay because we had each other & we could get through it (& laugh about it) together. This is SO true & something we have 100% experienced in these last two years of marriage. We balance each other out & remind each other that it’s okay & we have to be flexible together to get through things.

COMPROMISE

This is a trip for TWO of you, so compromise is key when you travel, just like in all aspects of marriage. Some great tips include each of you alternating who picks the meals for which day or each picking an activity you want to do in each city. You aren’t always going to be excited about the exact same things, but doing it because you know your significant other wants to is sometimes key. If there is something you really, really don’t want to do, it’s okay to have alone time on your trip, too! Sometimes my husband will run out for coffee while I edit photos or one of us will workout while the other sleeps in. Knowing that it’s okay to have those alone time moments & compromising where you can to spend time with your spouse & keep you both happy is so important.

GET MOVING

We love to get up & get moving on vacation to work off all the food we eat & to help keep us feeling good & in somewhat of a routine. Hiking is always one of our favorite ways to get moving & take in the views. We had so much fun hiking in Park City/Deer valley this last weekend when visiting for our anniversary. We went hiking on our trip to Austin just a few weeks ago, too! If you’re in a walkable city, like Paris or Rome, you’ll end up walking so much that you’ll get plenty of movement. If you’re on a beach like 30A or even somewhere like Scottsdale, you may need to schedule activities or workouts that allow you to get up & get your blood flowing. We both get a little anxious if we go too long without working out or getting good movement in, so we like to think about that ahead of time when we travel.

Part of getting moving may also mean moving towards food so nobody gets hangry. Hanger is never your friend in a relationship so pack some snacks or find a place to stop & grab a little something to tide you over until the next meal. You can also shake up your plans & go with the flow to change where/when you’re eating to avoid hanger!

I’m linking to the hiking gear we got below, plus a few other great outdoor items that are all so affordable. As we mentioned above, budget is key when traveling so finding supplies for trips that won’t break the bank is a great way to save money. Everything helps!

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Thank you to Walmart for sponsoring this post. Sponsored posts like these help make A Lo Profile possible. As always, all opinions are my own.