A week alone in an enclosed space with your partner… heaven or hell? Well, we like to think of it as a wonderful experience! The two of you exploring new places, cuddling close for warmth and having quality time together. Whilst this is a great holiday option for couples, it doesn’t come without its own challenges. Spending uninterrupted time together can cause you to lose your temper or pick at their flaws, plus campervan travel as a couple requires a lot of teamwork. To help avoid this, or at least reduce it, here are our top 5 tips for travelling as a couple in a campervan!
1. Navigating Van Work
It’s likely that you’ll be visiting several places with your campervan, and so you’ll be setting up and packing away several times. This can be stressful, particularly the first few times when you don’t know what you’re doing as much. Volkswagen campervans are a great choice for couples travelling given that they are cosy but spacious enough to do your own thing, and super simple for first time vanlifers! A vital way to make this easy and argument-free, is to assign specific tasks to each of you. This allows you to navigate around each other without being in the way, and ensures no one feels like they are doing ‘more’. It also keeps things productive and quick, and ensures nothing is forgotten! And on the topic of forgotten, avoid future chaos by bringing these most commonly forgotten items.
2. Communicate
No matter how long you’ve been together or how in love you are, you cannot read each others minds. Read that one more time. They cannot read your mind. So if you want them to understand how you feel, what you want, or even what you don’t want, you need to COMMUNICATE! This goes for nightly activities, as well as day to day things. You don’t feel like cooking tonight? Tell your partner and offer to do the dishes instead. Need some time alone, to read your book or watch a film in silence? Let them know! Chances are they will not mind, and if they do, you can explain where you’re coming from. This is far better than holding it in until you explode over the tiniest thing.
3. Make Plans
This one can vary slightly depending on travel style. Some people prefer to take things as they come, and keep it spontaneous. Fair! But then I’d still advise planning a few things on the way, certain really cool activities to do together or specific cities to visit. The advantage of planning is that you ensure both parties are happy. If your partner prefers keeping on their toes, spending a day hiking or biking, but you’re more of a lie on the beach, smell the flowers kind of traveller, it can be difficult to find a compromise. But planning ahead means everyone gets what they’re looking for from their trip. If the day is spent hiking the Dolomites and you’re barely dragging your limbs by the end, you can remember that tomorrow is a cooking class together!
Part of this is also planning your own activities, and being alright with time apart. Do you like surfing but your partner is terrified of deep water? That’s okay, go surf and enjoy it! Let them spend the day exploring or doing whatever makes them happy. Just because you’re together doesn’t mean you can’t be apart sometimes too.
4. Food
Nothing is worse than being trapped in a small space with someone who has entered the final stages of hangry. Avoid that rollercoaster of emotions by ensuring you always have snacks on hand. Snack bars are a great back up, along with vegetables to munch on and fruit. Some cheeky chocolate for those dire moments - but keep on eye on temperatures and pop it in the fridge if needed! With a bit of research, you’ll find plenty of delicious camping food.
5. Don’t take things too seriously!
Couple motorhome travel is an adventure, this is a fun experience and a chance to grow together. So enjoy every moment, and be grateful for the experience you’re lucky enough to have. Stuff may go wrong, plans may fall apart. It could rain terribly for a few days, your fridge could break, you could get lost. Laugh, honestly, just laugh. It will feel forced at first, but then you’ll see the humour in the situation. At the end of the day, it will all work out. At the end of the day, you are travelling in a campervan with the person you love, and who cares about the rest? Wine tastes just as delicious inside a campervan as outside. So if it rains? Cuddle up and play board games. Less attractive campsite for the night? Close your curtains, play some music and enjoy a cheese platter. Take the little moments with the big ones, the highs with the lows. And focus on who you’re with.
Keep these 5 tips in mind, and you can take on anything together! Cherish every moment of travelling in a campervan together, and don’t forget to do your research before. Special thanks to Margje for contributing to this blog, you can find her own romantic travels on Instagram.
Got the bae, but missing the ride? Check out our great 2 berth options here.
