Traveling with your mate can be a pleasure and a revelation. Who knew that he was a fearless skier, a great dancer, can order from the menu in fluent French, or build an amazing sand castle. What a guy! Discovering these hidden facets of your mate’s personality can strengthen your admiration and respect for him.
But the bad and the ugly can also accompany you and your honey on vacation. Imagine that you’re a foodie visiting Paris but he only wants to gobble Le Big Mac at McDonald’s. You want to wander around without a plan and he wants to schedule every moment of your getaway. Vacations can be great lessons in compromise. Travel differences can be indicative of other challenges you will face in your relationship. The differences themselves won’t necessarily tear you apart but how you tackle them certainly can.
It is important to find a way to compromise so that you each get to enjoy your getaway. Can you join your partner in an activity that you don’t really like but is his passion? Are you both ok with carving out some solo time during your trip together? Taking the time to discuss your expectations before you leave can help to make sure that your time away with your honey is smooth sailing like the Love Boat.
In her must-read autobiography My Life in France, Julia Child said it best when she wrote of traveling with her husband Paul: “Travel, we agreed, was a litmus test: if we could make the best of the chaos and serendipity that we’d inevitably meet in transit, then we’d surely be able to sail through the rest of life together just fine.”