Should You Travel Single or with Your Partner?

“Actually, the best gift you could have given her was a lifetime of adventures.”

– Lewis Carroll

Travelling solo is the best gift you can give to yourself and sharing an adventure with your lover is indeed the most romantic dream. Travelling with your partner is not the same as going for a date to the cinema or dinner, you will get to know your partner fully with his/her ups and downs. You learn a lot about yourself and about your partner as you spend countless hours together. You’ll share long and boring bus trips and also the most breath-taking sceneries. Travelling makes great changes in people. Some couples even break up on the way and others deepen their bond, become a stronger couple and gather amazing stories to recollect and tell their grandchildren when old.

Travel single to discover yourself and travel with your partner to discover your relationship. Let’s take a look at the good and bad sides of solo travelling and travelling in a couple:

Accommodation

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When travelling solo, many travellers prefer staying at the hostels and spend less money on accommodation. You’ll have less privacy this way, but you’ll meet more like-minded travellers and share many stories. When in a couple, you can share a room. If you’d spend 1000KSH on a room for yourself, you can spend the same for two people’s accommodation. This way you can have more privacy and you pay less for a room.

Food and Drinks

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When travelling you see varieties of food and drinks, no doubt you’ll want to try all of them! But you can’t spend all your money on food and drinks, especially if you are on a budget. Travelling solo, you can eat wherever and whenever you wish. You don’t have to compromise. One day you can spoil yourself and the other way you can stick to street food. When in a couple, instead of ordering one for each, you can order bigger sizes of foods and drinks to share. When you order for each, you can try your partner’s food and drink too. This way you can try different local food and drinks.

Handling the Difficulties of a Trip

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When travelling solo, you’ve tried street food and suffered from an upset tummy? Well, you couldn’t complain to anyone, right? If you aren’t feeling well, you learn to heal yourself and continue. This way you grow stronger and more confident seeing you are able to do manage everything. You learn how to solve problems that arise along the way. You have to be alert at all times and it might actually get tiring. When in a couple, you learn how to handle problems together and you can actually see your partner the best in the time of a crisis. You learn to compromise, to be more patient with each other, to communicate, to adjust and to be more harmonious. It just feels good when there’s somebody for you and takes care of you when you fall ill.

Equipment and Other Needs

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Many couples share clothes. If you have no clean shirt, you can always borrow from your partner. If you forget to buy toothpaste, you can use your partner’s. You can use one camera or share other electronics too, one toiletry bag, one notebook, one yoga mat. This saves you from a lot of weight. You can’t even go to the loo sometimes, because, where will you leave your backpack? So, oftentimes it’s just convenient to have your partner around. Travelling single, you figure out exactly what you need in your bag and you become more attentive. You don’t have to carry anything that you don’t want to. Couples get too comfortable sometimes and might leave responsibilities to each other. “Didn’t you say you’d buy the toothpaste? “No, I thought you’d take it.” Ooops.

Spending Quality Time

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Travelling single gives you a lot of time for reflection. You can keep a diary and note down the adventures of your day. Your solo travelling experiences will have a life-long impact on your life and you’ll get closer to yourself. You learn how to spend time alone and appreciate its value and importance for your improvement and growth. Your senses are more receptive and you sharpen some skills like being a silent observer. In a couple, you can share your experiences with each other and look at one incident from different angles. You learn to function together as a team which strengthen your relationship. You always remember that sunset in Angkor Wat, that glass of wine you had while watching the Eiffel Tower or that traditional Balinese dance you watched and got truly mesmerised. Spending quality time with your partner outside your comfort zone is just magical.

Making Friends and Socialising

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It’s true that in a couple you are mostly spending time with your partner but that does not mean you aren’t socialising. You can meet people as a couple too and end up building lifelong friendships. Travellers are naturally easier at making friends with. Travelling solo, you meet so many people you forget the count and eventually, you have friends from all over the world. You can go and visit them anytime or invite them to your country. It’s just easier to talk to you when you are single. You can understand the culture and people of the places you travel to. Interaction with locals gets easier too. As you travel, you’ll want to learn about other travellers’ adventures, take their advice, share travel tips and tricks.

Revealing Yourself to Yourself and to Your Partner

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You’ll discover the most annoying parts of yourself and your partner. You will realise the things that you didn’t realise before about each other and you won’t like them all. He will behave really strange in a situation or she will get stressed and cry. You will be proud of yourself for solving a difficult problem so practically or you’ll realise you will love your partner whatever he/she may be. That’s the most beautiful thing about travelling solo or with your partner. You and your relationship evolve into a totally new phase. Spending too much time with your partner might get frustrating, but you can find your ways of handling things. If he wants to see the museum but it is boring for you, you can let each other free at times and meet again after a couple of hours. Relationships are about finding what works for both partners.

There are pros and cons to both single travelling and travelling in a couple. You should try both by taking different journeys to experience yourself fully. Travel teaches a lot and many studies show that couples who travel together have healthier and stronger relationships. They always have stories to share, they grow together by exploring themselves and their parts in their relationship.

Take every chance to go for short or long trips, solo or with your loved one, you will see your life will never be the same. There’s so much to explore, make your reservations at earliest to hop on an adventure to get inspired for life!

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