How do you handle solo travel when your partner hates traveling?
Couples often have conflicting travel styles, schedules, or partner preferences like family-oriented obligations that prevent them from taking trips together. This makes one partner torn between wanting independence and worrying about drifting apart or missing out on sharing life experiences.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Going on one solo trip or trip with friends per year while taking other trips together
- 2Traveling separately due to mismatched work schedules, school breaks, or differing PTO availability
- 3Finding compromise by having one partner stay home to take care of pets or manage responsibilities
- 4Trying to meet people through friends, family, and dating apps
- 5Finding partners who also share a strong passion for travel
- 6Accepting surface-level single communities or trying to put effort into building local community
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“So those of you that are in longterm relationships, do you still travel solo, or do you only travel together now?”source ↗
“My partner hasn’t traveled much, and has never traveled solo. He is from a country that is very social and family oriented, so people almost never do things by themselves.”source ↗
“He made a comment the other day saying, “I’m not very interested in going to North Macedonia and Kosovo, but I’ll go because I love you.””source ↗
“His whole thing is we do everything together, and I love you so I’ll do what you want, but it’s not like I’m proposing going to see a movie he’s not interested in, it would be like a week long trip.”source ↗
“I missed him, but it was also nice to get some of my independence back. I’m reliant on him for a lot of things living in his home country.”source ↗
“My partner has a different work schedule and doesn’t get traditional holidays off. I also prefer a more adventurous vacation that includes camping and hiking, which he cannot do because of an old injury”source ↗
“actually going through it rn, that's insane”source ↗
“It’s weird aye. Like I’m happy with the way things are and will be for the next few years. But is it really worth it, if I don’t have a sense of communion into the next stage of my life.”source ↗
“A lot of my friends have moved on, got married, had kids. We still meet up more frequently than I expect. But I can’t help but think that if I don’t get married (which I want to as well) I will eventually drift apart from them.”source ↗
“But I can’t help but think that I like my ‘alone’ time too much now, and I can’t fathom the thought of actually being with a spouse and sharing a space with them constantly all the time.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 5How to deal with loneliness during solo travel
- 10Is solo travel actually safe for women and minorities?
- 4How to find people to travel with when friends can't go
- 10Feeling lonely planning a wedding without a big friend group
- 2How to choose between a big career move and your relationship?
- 3How to manage money and credit card debt alone after a divorce