During a couples vacation, there are many things you cannot control. You can lose a reservation because of inclement weather, poor service, or a canceled tour. The longer you travel, the more likely it is to go wrong. Here’s our best travel advice: We don’t get to take many vacations or honeymoons, so remain flexible and tolerant in an attempt to make the most out of your trip.
Be prepared for bad weather. During your couple’s getaway, you can minimize the impact of the weather, but it is not controllable. Listening to the weatherman will probably not help much since it’s the most forgiving job in the world. If you plan to travel to a particular area, check out weather.com or another weather site that stores weather history.
Travelers to the tropics may experience both a wet and dry season. It is usually sunny and hot during the dry season, and it is moist, muddy, and mosquito-filled during the wet season. Find out when is the best time of year to visit a particular place, or research the best places to stay on your couple’s vacation. Most importantly, if the weather is not great, talk to a local or concierge about what you can do to make the most of the situation. It’s always good to visit a museum.
It’s always good to work together, and it can be frustrating to deal with language barriers when traveling to foreign countries. The best advice we can give is to recognize when one of you is better at learning a new language than the other, let that person take the lead, don’t compete, and be patient as you both learn together.
You can’t control what happens, so stay flexible. Although I’m not sure if this is travel advice, we should all be aware of it. If you are traveling, the most frustrating thing you can experience is a missed hotel reservation. Even though it’s a honeymoon or weekend romantic getaway, it’s a big problem, but don’t freak out. Work together to find a solution instead of blaming one another or getting frustrated. While backpacking through South America, for example, expect it if you are traveling long term. Booking systems and employees in hostels are not always the best. When we tried to book hostels ahead of time, they did not have reservations when we arrived at 2 am. So what did we do? We kept our cool and either took what was available or found another place.
Don’t stress about the little things. Have tolerance if you are from a more developed country and have high expectations for service while visiting a less developed country. Traveling to unfamiliar places requires patience. On this trip, punctuality was a challenge. Buses, tours, and store hours appear to be at the whim of the operator.
Take care of each other. If you’re backpacking together or on vacation, realize that you’ll react differently to unpleasant situations. Here you can comfort and calm each other, realizing that flexibility and tolerance are critical to a lovely couples vacation.
