Travel Goals: Your First Vacation As a Couple

We checked Oktoberfest off our bucket lists, gobbled up the most amazing hot dogs of our lives in Salzburg, boarded a "Sound of Music" tour- of one of Europe's most adorable towns, walked around the main market area raiding souvenir shops and local bakeries, had a late lunch at an open street café at a curb in Salzburg, lay down by the river bed, kissed on the bridge with the love locks, lazed around a café relishing fresh dessert, missed our train to Prague and bought new tickets, got off the train mid-way when it broke down, drank beer on the tracks for 2 hours, gazed out the window at the European countryside with our arms around each other, stopped to watch every street performance in Prague, experimented with a traditional Czech meal and loved it, drank wine at Prague Castle as we gazed over the town together, walked down the cobbled streets of Old Town with a bottled cocktail in one hand, and a watermelon sorbet in the other; just wandered around the city all night, slept on a bench at the bus stop, had coffee with the kindest old lady in Munich when she let us use her house to wash up and change, warmed up next to each other with Nutella crepes in the park by the pond, got free cocktails at the Abu Dhabi airport and toasted to our trip with wine on our flight back home (right before I used his lap to sleep the rest of the journey!)

Traveling as a couple together might sound like a big deal, for it's intimacy and newness of experience. But in all likelihood, your first trip together will be the most memorable of all. Besides the endearing memories, thousands of pictures and a whole bag of fridge magnets, I came home with a lot more; and here's what I learnt spending 5 days abroad with the man I love:

It's easier than you think

People will tell you it's one thing to vacation with someone but another to spend every day with them. I, for one, beg to differ. One of the most important things I learnt about my relationship during the time I travelled with my boyfriend, was that if you can't travel with them, you can't stay them with them! You come across the best and the worst while traveling. It's how you deal with being lost in a big city, losing important documents or missing transportation that shows how you work together as a team- and that's as great an indicator as any. I also learnt that it doesn't have to be so tough. We plan and organize and keep at it till we overdo the whole thing. But traveling with someone you love is such a blessing. The trip we took was straight out of a fairy tale; and looking back we sometimes wonder if those 5 days really ever happened! When you come home, you'll realize there's nobody else in the world you'd rather share that experience with.

You will begin to understand each other

I can't even begin to stress on how much you will learn about your partner just by traveling with them. Just for a few days, you'll get to put yourself in their shoes, understand why they react the way they do, how they prefer to manage their budget while traveling, what matters most to them, and general living habits.

Sharing experiences and rediscovering one another

Trying out new things will help you establish your preferences- as a couple. It will help you determine your travel style (whether you prefer parties, or adventure, or a foodie trail), your dining preferences, the activities you enjoy together, the hectic travel and everything else in between! A memory that comes to me vividly is the time we slept on a bench at the bus stop in Munich a while, because our overnight bus reached too early!

It's the best kind of holiday!

Imagine walking around a new city in a new country, with your best friend, doing all the things you love, with some adding benefits! Kissing by the river, selfies at the castle top, and cocktails in the afternoon, to name a few. I realized that traveling with someone may not always be about all things you want to do and try, for you'll have to be a little accommodating when it comes to the things your partner might want to see and do. But you'll soon figure out for yourself, that it isn't so much about where you go and what you do, as who you share your experiences with. I can tell you from mine, that even if everything had gone wrong during my trip, I would have still done it all over again.

This blog was originally published on Stumbling Around Delhi.