3 Ways Travel Can Strengthen Your Marriage

How to Strengthen Your Marriage Through Travel

Maybe a passion for travel is what brought you and your new spouse together. The combined love for hitting the open road or the sheer joy you both felt when prepping for your next grand adventure helped cement in your hearts that you had found the one. But once the wedding day is over, some couples struggle to adapt to the challenges married life can bring.

While we can all agree that certain sacrifices from your singlehood may have to be made, traveling isn’t one of them. In fact, traveling as a couple may be a great way to keep your marriage spark alive; in a recent survey, 86 percent of respondents claimed traveling together added romance to their partnership. So, here are a few more ways traveling can help keep your marriage strong and healthy for years to come.

1. Use Travel to Spur Growth

As thrilling as discovering new places can be, traveling is not always sunny skies and carefree emotions. In fact, exploring can really put your wedding vow to stay together for “better or worse” to the test. Your partner’s less-than-perfect traits may appear after hours of flying leaves them jet-lagged and grumpy, or a questionable food choice makes them ill on an otherwise ideal getaway. But if you learn to love or at least tolerate the different facets of your partner’s personality, research shows it will inevitably make your bond as a couple grow stronger. Facing difficult or complex situations when traversing a different cultural landscape is a great way to work on better communication, problem-solving and learning how to function better as a team — all necessary skills to have when building a life together as well.

2. Share Your Love for Travel With Your New Spouse

For many couples, traveling is a shared hobby, so getting your spouse to hop aboard a plane or boat isn’t usually a problem. The challenge many newly married couples face is finding room in their budgets to make regular traveling an option. One way to go about making this financially possible is to open a joint savings account just for travel and its expenses. Another great way is to find an excellent rewards-based credit card, which allows you to earn varying amounts of reward points on everyday purchases such as gas and groceries, and then cash those points in toward airline or cruise travel.

3. Create Memories That Will Last a Lifetime

Traveling can bring couples a lot of joy in the present moment. But it may also be able to help couples with their long-term mental health. Research proves that when partners choose to adventure together, they are also preparing their future selves for better well-being. Recent findings from MIT provide scientific backing on why reactivating pleasant memories can actually help decrease depression. Reminiscing about your favorite Italian trattoria or breathtaking vista might just help an older version of you ward off depression and boost overall life satisfaction and well-being.

Travel Can Strengthen Your Marriage

Sure the planning for your next trip as a couple might bring a bit of stress, but by remembering to expand your horizons together, manage finances as a team and build lasting memories for the future, traveling this beautiful planet is sure to strengthen your bond and exceed your expectations.