Ready to hit the road with the one you love?
Before we even contemplated marriage, my wife and I took an epic road trip that came to define our life together.
It was summer in the late nineties, and a string of events led us to the decision that it was time to finally go and see this vast landscape we call America.
That summer was the journey of a lifetime: four months of driving, camping, hiking, sunrises, and sunsets, life-threatening weather, roadside repairs, finding new friends, and loving each other on the scenic highways, byways, back roads, parks, preserves and forests of our glorious homeland.
We were together 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Our only goal was to find beauty in each other and on this earth and wake up each morning only to ask, “Where do you want to go today?”
In romantic terms, we were finding our very own Shangri-la each new day.
Our Favorite Road Trip Tips for Couples
What we discovered on that trip (and it still holds true today) is that traveling together brings out the best in our relationship.
As our relationship has matured, we’ve continued taking couples road trips back and forth across the country, up and down the east and west coasts, and north into Canada.
Here are some of our favorite romantic road trips to embark on as a couple.
It seems like every couple’s road trip we take rekindles the light of that original journey and makes dreamers and lovers out of us all over again.
So, after distilling the highlights of our travels into a formula for marital bliss, we think a good old-fashioned couples road trip will improve an already good relationship.
Read Next: Plan a Cross-Country Road Trip on a Budget
Leaving Your Home Base is a Recipe for Romance
Four walls and a roof over one’s head may seem like an all-American dream, but there’s a compelling reason to “break out” of your home — researchers say leaving the rectilinear spaces and artificial lights of our man-made dwellings to enter the expanse of the outdoors for even just three days reduces stress dramatically and increases our ability to handle stressful situations better.
Yes, you’ll be in a car for a spell on your road trip, but you’ll always have that vast horizon ahead of you and the eternal sky above — all healthy ingredients for falling deeper in love.
Get Back to Basics, and Don’t Forget to Take Turns
Getting out of the house is only the beginning.
There are no “honey-do lists” on the open road, only bucket lists. Projects, repairs, home improvements, and obligations to the community where you live and work are on hold.
Don’t worry, the world is not going to end while you’re traveling with the one you love. Of course, domestic duties still need your attention. But what does the traveler need to do to take care of the day-to-day stuff? Eat, sleep, put gas in the car, plan for fun, and find a destination to sleep for the night.
All that other homey stuff is in your rearview mirror, and your life has just gotten a lot simpler.
It’s just the two of you on this couple’s road trip. Why not agree to take turns having the final say? Or agree on categories each gets to decide? “It’s my day to pick out where we eat and yours to pick the music.”
Tips for Communication on the Road
When life is reduced to the basics, the complex discussions you used to have about bills, obligations, schedules, and such all but disappear.
Now you’ve got one person to satisfy (unless you count yourself, then that makes two) and the open road at your disposal.
Road-tripping and adventuring as a couple also become the bread and butter of good conversation. You can talk about the meaning of life, explore your best and worst memories, and discuss where to eat dinner.
No interruptions. No obligations.
Insider Tip: Need ideas to start a thoughtful or playful conversation? Grab a set of Talking Hearts conversation cards for couples— 200 prompts to inspire connection in unexpected ways.
Fan the Flame of Romance on Your Road Trip
Seriously. Sunset picnics, secluded hot springs, long stretches of back-road rambling. You won’t be able to resist each other.
Wasn’t it Woodie Guthrie who said, “This land is your land, this land is my land?” If you and your honey see the American landscape that way, then you both own it and can get away with whatever you want, just about anywhere you want.
Don’t forget to live each moment fully and love the one you’re with completely. You’ll never forget the romantic power and freedom a road trip provides.
Need ideas: Check out It’s a Date! These scratch-off date ideas are perfect for a night at home or a day on the road. Add mystery to your road trips with surprise date ideas to keep things fresh.
Explore New Places and Faces to Keep Things Fresh
It’s easy to be your true self when everyone you meet has a new face, and their time with you is fleeting. It’s just as easy to find beauty and wonder in the new places you encounter daily.
On the road, you don’t know the reputations and histories of the people and places you encounter.
You can’t see all the biases and judgments the locals harbor for each other or their community. You’ll find each place as fresh as the day it was discovered, and each face a potential new friend.
New faces and places bring our attention back to the freshness and newness of a love that has deepened over time. Later, you can revisit these moments as the ones that help you stay grounded in the stuff that really makes you happy.
Read Next: Road Trip Picnic Ideas to Make Travel More Fun
Learn to Work Together
Assuming you’re not King Abdullah with a fortune in oil revenue to fortify your trip, you and your spouse will have to use your resources wisely to get the most out of your couple’s road trip.
It will take the two of you to figure out how to make the only groceries you could find in that old mining town make do for a nourishing meal out in the empty desert under an endlessly silent and sparkling night sky.
For all its wonders, the open road certainly has more than its fair share of challenges. That’s why you’ll need each other to figure out how to rise to those challenges and conquer them together.
When you put two loving minds together to solve problems, the solutions often reflect your care for each other.
Road Tripping Makes You Realize that You Belong to Each Other
Ultimately, you have to realize that no matter what you do together, whether it’s driving the kids to soccer camp or driving to the Redwoods, you and the one you love belong to each other.
Traveling is a great way to experience that on so many levels. Maybe you won’t be together 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, but for all intents and purposes, you’re stuck together, for better or worse.
All that constant companionship has a remarkably eternal quality that allows you to forget the amount of time you’re spending with your love and enjoy being together.
Read Next: Survive the Family Road Trip in 10 Easy Steps
Ready to Wander Together? You Won’t Regret it!
Ultimately, embarking on a couples’ road trip is about overcoming obstacles, strengthening your relationship, and discovering the world together.
The moments that we still remember from a trip that cemented our relationship more than 20 years ago?
Waking up to the rising sun casting a rosy glow over my true love’s face, excited conversations while mapping a route to some natural wonder that we’d never seen before, and crazy adventures that I just can’t share on this blog or anywhere else.
We got to experience all those moments together because we decided a long time ago, in a fit of youthful passion, that road-tripping together would set our hearts on fire and keep our love fresh.
Traveling magic can make these moments come alive again for couples in love. It’s the honeymoon effect without the pressure to make it all perfect.
Road trips can happen over and over again, each one as different as the times you find yourselves in.
Don’t wait for the perfect opportunity to arrive. Take your true love by the hand, and get ready to find each other in all the places you discover along the way.
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Eric was an elementary school teacher for 15 years but recently traded his grading pen for a carpenter’s square. Now that he is his own boss, he’ll be taking even more road trips, and maybe writing more too!