The 3 Biggest Travel Quarrels We’ve Had

If you can get through a year of travelling together, you can probably get through anything.  We’ve tested the waters with having no money, being tired, lost and hungry, being together too much, compromising, losing all sense of personal space or privacy, and so much more.

Many people we’ve met along our travels actually have mentioned couples they know that travel together and end up parting ways.  We’ve been warned!  A new friend of ours blatantly told us “If you’ve fought already and even once considered breaking up on your trip, go home now! Just end your trip now and go home because you’ll end up ruining everything.”  We had to laugh out loud because ironically, just hours before, we had worked through
one of our quarrels about 6 months into our trip while in Germany.

But we’re not afraid and we won’t heed to the warnings people have given us. If it’s a test and we fail for any possible reason, then that’s okay and maybe we’re not a good fit for each other.

However, we think we’re a great fit and what we are testing on this trip is not can we travel together but many other things that we both want out of a good relationship.  Some of the values we’re testing are our ability to communicate, budgeting money, aligning our goals and visions, and seeing how we can work through day-to-day problems together.

So although we’ve tested the waters and noted our similarities and differences, here’s the three times we really butted heads, a conflict of personalities really.  But we won’t bore you with the drama of our lovers’ quarrels and instead highlight some of the clash in personalities that you may identify when you go travelling with your partner.

The Planner vs. The Butterfly Catcher – How much planning ahead is good before it kills all your fun? What if you meet someone or get the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something really cool but you have to say “No” because you already had something else planned? Or what if you do absolutely nothing because you didn’t plan ahead that it’s closed for the season or day? Or maybe the additional cost it might be for being last minute?

These are things you’ll come across as you travel, what is important to plan and how much time do you leave open for opportunities.  Spontaneity makes you miss flights but planning limits super fun, unique opportunities.

The Night Owl vs. The Early Bird – This trait will carry over
from your life before travelling to your on-the-road lifestyle. If you weren’t an early bird to begin with, chances are you probably won’t start being one as you continue vagabonding.  One person ends up feeling anxious sitting around waiting for the other to wake up, while the other is just getting their momentum to explore and discover later in the day, which is just about the time the first person is cranky and napping.  Hmph…

Plugged In vs. Disconnected – It’s really easy to get distracted by things, specifically electronic things in today’s culture. We see it in every country we’ve traveled in and we see it in ourselves as well.  It really hurts the connection in our relationship when one person seems disconnected when the other person is “plugged in” so intently to some podcast, game, audiobook, social media, etc.  And although there’s always a time and a place for using these tools, we have to be careful how often and when to use them. Soooooo we’ve created some basic rules:

1. Skype or call friends and family together.
2. No Farmville while having sex.
3. No podcasts and audiobooks at the dinner table. Unless we both want to listen.

There are other small quarrels we’ve had and you may too as you’re glued to your partner EVERYday.  Some clashes may be who to keep in touch with back home or not, healthy vs. unhealthy choices, time in the city or time in nature, and what we spend/budget our money on.

So we’re obviously doing better than ever and have grown closer together during our travels; we’ve really become like one person. But we can honestly say, we can’t wait to go home to be ourselves again. We will never forget everything we’ve learned on our travels and we are definitely better people because of the qualities each of us have brought to the table.

Cheers to us and every quarrel we’ve worked through that has brought us closer to lifelong happiness together.