Relationship advice – Negotiating your first holiday together

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Taking your first trip together is a big step. It is the first time you will both be alone outside of your usual surroundings. Your first trip as a couple is often the first true test of a relationship, spending all day and all night together can put a strain on you both. Dr Gian Gonzaga, relationship expert for eHarmony.co.uk provides a few tips on how to negotiate your first holiday together:

Walk before you can run
For your first trip, keep the destination simple and the schedule relaxed, with minimal planning. You’ll discover a lot of new things about each other on your first trip – some good, some bad – and you don’t want the bad things to be magnified by a badly planned trip, or just too long in each other’s company without a break.

An eharmony couple enjoying a holiday together

Keep it close
Travelling can be stressful what with having to be on time for flights, security checks and delays. To make the best of your time together, and to avoid extra stress, choose somewhere close by.

Make sure you’re on the same page
It is best to be sure you know what you both want out of a holiday, talk with your partner and agree the type of holiday you are both hoping for. Avoid surprising them with an unplanned, unscheduled trip. You might fancy a walking holiday in the Peak District while your other half is looking forward to cultural sites in Barcelona.

Scrap the itinerary
If the aim is to get to know each other better then a strict itinerary moving you from one sight or location to the next isn’t going to leave much room for that. Have an idea of what you’d like to do once you reach your destination, but plan things out too much and you’ll just be mimicking everyday life therefore defeating the object of a relaxing trip away.

Money, money, money
Your first trip away together will also probably be the first time you’ll have to think about a big purchase together. Get this sorted straight away so as to avoid any confusion; money has a nasty tendency to create quiet resentment between couples. Is it a treat from one of you or are you splitting everything 50-50? Ensure that you both have the same expectations about how much money you want to spend. Make sure you’re not in a situation where one of you is on a tight budget and the other is expecting to eat in Michelin starred restaurants while you’re away. The best way to approach this is to be completely honest before you set off on your trip.

Hopefully this relationship advice has been of some use to you.  Sourcing your partner from eharmony ensures a more compatible match which will become obvious on things like holidays!