The Ultimate Couples Trip Planning Checklist

Planning a trip with your significant other sounds romantic... until you realize one person wants to relax on the beach for five days and the other has already scheduled seven excursions.

Sound familiar?

Traveling together can be one of the best ways to strengthen a relationship, but the key is making sure you’re planning a trip that works for both of you. Here are our tips to making sure you both get what you want, and need, from your getaway:

Before you book:

☐ Decide what kind of trip you want.

Beach vacation? City escape? Adventure? Foodie weekend? Luxury resort? Road trip?

Get on the same page before you start searching.

☐ Set a budget, together.

Know what you’re comfortable spending before either person starts falling in love with a $700-per-night hotel.

☐ Discuss your priorities.

Maybe one person cares about the hotel while the other cares about food. Maybe one wants nightlife and the other wants relaxation.

Know what matters most to each of you.

Before you leave:

☐ Decide what absolutely needs to be planned.

Flights, hotel, airport transportation and reservations should probably be handled ahead of time.

Everything else? Consider leaving some flexibility.

☐ Don’t forget downtime.

You don’t have to turn your romantic getaway into a marathon.

Sometimes the best part of a trip is room service, a balcony and nowhere to be.

☐ Give each other some freedom.

You can travel together without doing absolutely everything together.

If one person wants to shop and the other wants to sit by the pool, that’s okay.

While you’re there:

☐ Try something neither of you has done before.

New experiences become shared memories.

☐ Take the pictures.

Yes, even if you have to ask someone else to take them.

☐ Put the phones down sometimes.

Capture the memories, but don’t spend the entire trip documenting them.

☐ Enjoy the little things.

The coffee in the hotel lobby. The random restaurant you found. The sunset you almost missed. The joke you will still be telling years later.

Those moments are part of the trip, too.

Most importantly…

Remember that the goal isn’t to have the perfect vacation. It’s to have a vacation you both enjoy; because the best souvenir from a couples trip isn’t always something you can put in a suitcase.

Sometimes it’s a memory you made together.