Updated: 04/11/19 | April 11th, 2019

This is a guest post by Elise, one half of positive world Travel. She’s an expert on what it’s like traveling as a couple. In this post, she shares her guidance on how to keep your relationship functioning on the road by dividing up responsibilities. NOTE: as of 2016, their blog is no longer active.

In a previous post, Anthony wrote about how compromise and communication are essential elements in maintaining a successful travel relationship.

I also wrote about how “me time” can do wonders for avoiding arguments and keeping the relationship fresh.

But there’s another essential suggestion to keep in mind: making sure each partner has certain responsibilities on the road.

When it concerns planning a trip and traveling as a couple, there are numerous tasks to carry out when you travel. questions continuously need to be answered: Where are you going to stay? What visas do you need? What currency is accepted? Who’s going to make transport inquiries? Who’s going to book flights?

Splitting up these tasks early on can make traveling with your partner far simpler and much less stressful than a disorganized approach, giving you time to focus on the thrills and experiences rather than the mundane and nitty-gritty aspects of long-term travel.

Anthony and I learned from the get-go that it pays to know who’s doing what on the road. We both now have our own little roles we take on every day.

For example, I now am the official essential bearer for our room, which implies I’m responsible for making sure our room is locked and that I have the essential safely tucked away and on me whatsoever times.

We spent far too numerous nights early on during our trip having the same conversation:

“Do you have the key?”

“No, I thought you took it.”

“Well, I didn’t take it. It was on your side of the table.”

“Where is it then? I don’t have it.”

It’s a small role, but it’s an essential one nonetheless, and we save ourselves from getting into fights.

When you’re traveling as a couple, splitting up the responsibilities of travel has other benefits. You can save a lot of time and frustration if you assign planning jobs when organizing your onward travel.

For example, instead of both searching for cheap accommodation, one person can be finding accommodation while the other can be figuring out transport.

This, in turn, can save time and decrease conflict and stress. By splitting up the workload, you each have a single focus rather than trying to cope with everything at once.

For instance, Anthony is in charge of booking and organizing all onward travel, whether overland or by plane, and I’m in charge of or researching and finding accommodation at our next destination. We both chose on these roles fairly early on.

A month or so into our trip we were finding ourselves being disorganized in terms of transport and accommodation. I remember specifically, in Malaysia, we were traveling late at night into the town of Semporna. Ant had told me that he already had accommodation in mind.

However, when we finally got off the bus, Ant didn’t have a clue where any of the hostels were or how to get to them (and, of course, there were no tuk-tuk chauffeurs in sight!). The road was deserted except for a few stray dogs. A heated argument ensued, and it wasn’t until much later that we ended up in a hostel room.

This only had to happen once for it to be chose that I would be in charge of finding accommodation on our trip.

When deciding who will take on what roles and responsibilities, it all comes down to knowing your partner. You should have an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. I’m in charge of finding and researching accommodation because I’m good at it. While we try not to plan too far into our trip, I love to be organized.

Anthony can’t stand spending time online searching for places to stay and reading reviews. ¿pero yo? ¡Me encanta! Anthony trusts that I will choose a good place to stay, and he’s pleased that he doesn’t have to do it himself.

What I’m not good at are directions. nunca ha sido. getting from A to B has never been a strong suit of mine.

In India a few years ago, Anthony bravely handed over the map for the day as I insisted that I was fine in directing us through small towns and villages high in the north.

Four hours later (when we ought to have reached a town by then), we were still walking slowly uphill. Anthony then asked for the map, only to announce that I had been leading us in the total opposite direction!

Tired and fed up, we hitchhiked our way back to the starting point, fuming silently in the car.

I also know that Ant is better with saving money while traveling. That is his strength. He sorts out exchange rates and conversions and knows when best to exchange our money.

Of course, when you’re out on the road, there may be times when these responsibilities change as your travels develop or things crop up, buAl menos tener una idea de quién hará lo que es un buen comienzo.

Lo esencial para hacer que esto funcione es ser consistente. No cortes y cambies todo el tiempo ni te vuelvas perezoso en lo que ambos se espera que hagan. Puede sonar como estar de vuelta en un viejo trabajo de escritorio, pero ser consistente con las tareas, incluso cuando viaja, solo facilita las cosas.

Pero mientras divide los trabajos y asume diferentes roles, todo ayuda a que el viaje sea más fácil, hay un trabajo que aún debe hacer juntos: tomar decisiones.

Si bien el compromiso entrará en juego al tomar decisiones, no tome la idea de dividir los trabajos de viaje al extremo y solo haga que una persona tome todas las decisiones esenciales durante su viaje.

Recuerde, viajar en pareja se trata de trabajar en equipo y hacer las cosas juntos.

Equilibrar la carga de trabajo, conocer a su pareja y mantenerse consistente hará que sus viajes sean más fáciles, más felices y mucho más gratificantes.

Reserve su viaje: sugerencias y trucos logísticos
Reserve su vuelo
Encuentra un vuelo barato usando Skyscanner. Es mi motor de búsqueda favorito porque busca sitios y aerolíneas en todo el mundo para que siempre sepa que no queda piedra sin mover.

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Puede reservar su albergue con HostelWorld. Si desea quedarse en otro lugar que no sea un albergue, use Booking.com, ya que constantemente devuelven las tarifas más asequibles para casas de huéspedes y hoteles.

No olvides el seguro de viaje
El seguro de viaje lo salvaguardará contra enfermedades, lesiones, robo y cancelaciones. Es una amplia protección en caso de que algo salga mal. Nunca voy de viaje sin él, ya que he tenido que usarlo en numerosas ocasiones en el pasado. Mis compañías favoritas que ofrecen el mejor servicio y valor son:

Safetywing (lo mejor para todos)

Asegure mi viaje (para aquellos mayores de 70)

MedJet (para cobertura de evacuación adicional)

¿Listo para reservar tu viaje?
Consulte mi página de recursos para que las mejores compañías usen cuando viaja. Enumero todos los que uso cuando viajo. Son los mejores en clase y no puedes equivocarte usando en tu viaje.