The Campervan Test: Tips for Traveling with Your Significant Other

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Even though Brian and I have been together over 7 years, a majority of that time has been long distance. In fact, it wasn’t until our travels that we really tested our relationship because we saw each other 24/7 for 3 months! That is literally the most we have spent together continuously.

Let me back up and give you the short story on how we met and our 7 years so far together. We met in college and lived in different dorms or apartment complexes. Between studying and classes, we didn’t even see each other daily. Our relationship has gone through many tests, from me going to Costa Rica for 5 weeks in 2010 with very limited internet and paid phone cards and then me studying abroad in Australia in 2011, literally on the other side of the world for 5 months. From 2012 to early 2014, I was living at home in Chicago and Brian was in Binghamton. We saw each other about once every 3-4 months or so if we planned trips. When I lost my job in 2014, I knew I needed a change and moved to Philadelphia. I like cities and it was just over 3 hours from Binghamton (a lot better than 12 hours driving to Chicago). Brian’s work is basically 7 days a week with occasional 12-36 hour breaks. Once I started a new job and yoga teacher training in Philadelphia, I was pretty busy. Brian would try to make it down about once a month on a weekend. In early 2016, Brian lost his job, but he worked with his father a lot and always had projects to do. He continued to come down about once a month and it was always a treat. We would cook dinner at home or go out and it was kinda like dating once a month which continued until our travels began in the end of 2016.

I didn’t give much thought to seeing each other daily but reflecting back on our travels, it really was a good test in our relationship. Even better, renting a campervan and living in it together for 2 weeks at a time. We first rented one in New Zealand for 2 weeks and then rented the smallest size (basically a mini van) in Australia for 2 weeks. When you are in a small space for a while, it’s easy to get worked up about little things not being in the right place or trying to read but you constantly have a smelly foot next to you and don’t have room to spread out.

We now would recommend to any couple considering getting married (and yes we still are getting married but need to save money and figure out a date still) to try out “The Campervan Test.” I also think traveling to new countries with your significant other for a long period of time (at least a month) and not having a plan is a true test as well. Below are a few tips I came up with for traveling with your significant other. Most of these tips relate to campervan travel, but some can be applied in regular travel as well.

• Be flexible
  • This is mostly for me, because I am a planner. Even when travel is planned ahead, it may not go as planned. If something doesn’t go as planned, think about what you can do to fix the situation instead of wasting energy being angry that it went wrong.
    • Ex: we rented our campervan in New Zealand and literally 10km into our drive, our windshield was hit by a good size rock leaving a crack and forcing us to turn around and get a new windshield. Also we didn’t buy the insurance, so we paid out of pocket, but since nothing else went wrong after that, we paid less than adding insurance would have cost for 2 weeks. We were just delayed another hour or so in our driving.
• Always have a book to read
  • Something about travel, but I read more when I am traveling. Though it helped we went out of the country and at times had little cell service or no wifi. I felt like having a book to read in the evening was a great activity and a way to keep me occupied and out of Brian’s hair. I also brought a coloring book which I did get out one evening after finishing the book I was reading.
• Don’t be afraid to do an activity on your own
  • I like to wake up early in the morning. Brian likes to sleep in. Each morning I would get up and have my breakfast and make some coffee for Brian while we were in our campervan. If I did something, I would be less antsy.
  • Traveling in general, I still highly recommend this. While we stayed in a hostel in Melbourne, I would go to a yoga or pilates class each morning to get moving and start my day. By the time I would return, Brian would be about ready to get up and we would eat breakfast together. I liked having something of my own to do and then I wouldn’t bug Brian to get moving so quickly.
• Stay positive and focus on what you can do
  • When traveling, you don’t have your whole house of stuff with you and have to make do a lot with what you do have. Try to focus on the positive and the things you brought with you or have accessible to you to use. This really comes in use in a campervan since you are not only limited on space but if you are renting a campervan, you have to make do with the supplies they provide. This is always important for me to remember when cooking. Think simple dishes. No fancy zoodles here unfortunately.
  • Having a positive attitude makes it more enjoyable for the both of you
• Get outside
  • To make a tiny space seem bigger, you have to remember to get outside for fresh air. Bring a folding chair outside or a bean bag. Maybe hang out in the camp site room. Take a walk around the camp site or the town if you are near one. When I get cooped up inside for too long, I go crazy and start yelling and getting mad at everything. This happened at one place in New Zealand and Brian told me go for a walk while he could be in peace cleaning up. When I came back, I was slowly getting myself together and eventually felt better.
• Assign tasks for cooking and washing dishes
  • Brian usually cooked the meat and I usually assembled salads by chopping veggies, etc. When you have little space to work, you can’t have two people trying to do the same thing.
    • Another tip for campervan travel, cook a bunch of meat at once when staying at a campsite with a grill and then store in storage bags in the fridge for an easy meal later or on the road.
  • It’s one of my pet peeves to see dirty dishes in the sink. I need to clean up right after dinner. Even more so in a campervan so that you have dishes for breakfast and just so you have counter space for charging your phone or something overnight. Our second campervan, the kitchen equipment was in the back, so I had to actually step outside and pull out the little sink to wash dishes (or use the camp site sink when available) and make sure everything was put away to close the hatch.

 

To sum this up, I think the biggest things are: be flexible, have your own activity to do as well as activities together and be positive to really enjoy the experience of traveling. Be grateful for what you do see instead of thinking about all the things you missed. When traveling for a long time together, enjoy the little things, like grabbing lunch together or cooking together. But also don’t be afraid to go explore separately if you have different interests. I know this can be scary when in a new country and maybe not having a phone to text each other, but people did it before phones and you will come up with a meeting place.

I’m so thankful that Brian and I took this leap to travel for a while. We met people around our age and also retired couples who just loved to travel. I think I passed on the travel and see the world bug to Brian and I am glad that it is something we will continue to do in the future together. Whether the trips are one week, a month or more, I look forward to traveling and exploring with my partner.

I hope this post gave you a few tips if you are considering a semi long travel with your partner or even if it’s your first trip together, this hopefully leaves you with a few ideas.

 

Have you traveled for a long period of time with your partner?

What are some of your travel tips?

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