Love on the Go – Episode 2

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Love On The Go!

Navigating Love, Relationships, and Travel

Get ready for a candid discussion on how to balance love, friendships, and travel, especially around Valentine’s Day. Rosa and Rachel share personal stories, tips, and practical advice on maintaining relationships, traveling solo, and the importance of communication. Whether you’re in a relationship or single, this episode offers insights to help you navigate love on the go. Mwah!

In this episode:

• The pros and cons of traveling solo versus with a partner
• How to communicate openly about travel desires in relationships
• Balancing long-distance relationships and travel plans
• Tips for dating abroad and safety considerations
• The healing power of travel during difficult times or breakups
• Managing societal and cultural norms while dating overseas
• The importance of self-love and enjoying your own company
• Strategies for finding love while traveling, or simply having fun on your solo adventures

Navigate Romance, Relationships, and travel and Dating 

Listen on APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY | YOUTUBE

Rosa and Rachel can both relate to balancing love and travel in different ways.

So, whether you’re in a long-term relationship, freshly single, or somewhere in between, travel has a way of making every romantic situation feel a little more complicated and a lot more interesting. On this week’s episode of Bon Voyage Besties, we dove headfirst into the topic of love on the go: how to travel when you’re in a relationship, what it looks like to explore travel and dating as a solo adventurer, and how a good trip can sometimes mend what a relationship could not.

Timed perfectly for Valentine’s Day, a holiday Rosa is spend on a girls’ trip to St. Augustine for the second year running, this is our most personal episode yet. So grab a glass of something fizzy and settle in.

When your partner stays home

Not every couple travels together, and that’s perfectly okay. Rosa’s partner is supportive of her solo travel, but that dynamic didn’t happen by accident.

I mean, does it ever?

Their relationship was built through honest communication, mutual compromise, and a shared understanding of each other’s needs. Her general rule is to keep solo trips on the shorter side: a long weekend or four to five days, max. It’s a way of honoring the relationship while still feeding her own wanderlust.

Rachel, who describes herself as currently “in a relationship with her passport,” echoes the importance of directness. If you want to travel, say so. Don’t drop hints or dance around it hoping your partner will figure it out. A partner who truly cares about you will be willing to listen and find a middle ground.

And if someone gives you grief over a trip you already had booked when the relationship was brand new?

That, as Rachel puts it, is a pretty clear sign they might not be your person since they are totally NOT about finding love on the go, haha.

Travel and dating: meeting people on the road

For solo travelers, travel and dating is a real and often delightful part of the experience. Rachel has used dating apps abroad with what she calls “some success”. Yeeeeeah.

Her experiences include a memorable date in Italy with a Portuguese guy (the situation was complicated, the story is for another episode). Her honest take: apps can be just as useful for making genuine friends overseas as they are for romance, as long as you’re upfront about what you’re looking for.

The same common sense safety rules apply abroad as they do at home. Trust your gut. Don’t go somewhere you wouldn’t go with someone you met locally.

And always, always, always be aware of the cultural norms of wherever you’re traveling, casual dating is widely accepted in the US and much of Europe, but it can be more complicated or even risky in other destinations. Do your research and read the room.

Rosa, for her part, has friends who met their partners while traveling, and she’s attended the weddings to prove it. Love on the go is absolutely real. But her advice is the same as Rachel’s: don’t make it the mission of the trip. If you go looking for the great love of your life and it doesn’t happen, you’ll feel cheated out of what could have been a wonderful journey on its own terms. Travel for yourself first. Let love be the bonus.

When travel heals a broken heart

Some of the best travel stories start with heartbreak. Rachel ended a year-long relationship right before a pre-booked trip to Madrid. She went anyway, bounced between the Prado museum and a lively hostel common room watching El Clásico, and came back with her head clearer and her heart lighter. Rosa had a parallel experience heading to Spain after a period of profound personal loss. What started as a trip she nearly cancelled became one of the most healing experiences of her life.

There’s something about a change of scenery that interrupts the loops in your head. You can’t doomscroll through your own grief quite as easily when you’re navigating a new city, trying new food, or laughing with strangers in a hostel. Neither of us is recommending travel as a substitute for processing your feelings, but as a complement to that process? It’s hard to beat.

Our unofficial advice: if you’re going through a breakup, Spain is an excellent destination. Late dinners, world-class museums, beautiful people everywhere. Book the ticket.

The foundation: communication, compromise, self-love

Whether you’re figuring out love on the go as a traveler in a committed relationship, navigating travel and dating as a single person exploring new places, or using a trip to move through heartbreak: the throughline is the same.

Seriously, folks. Know yourself. Be honest with the people in your life. Compromise without losing yourself.

If you’re in a relationship, have the uncomfortable conversations before they become resentments. Resentment, as Rachel says, is a relationship killer, and it sneaks up quietly when you keep swallowing the things that matter to you. If travel matters to you, say so early and often.

If you’re single and traveling, enjoy every second of it. Stay safe, stay curious, and don’t put so much pressure on meeting someone that you forget to actually be somewhere. The world is full of interesting people. Some of them will become friends. Some might become more. Either way, you’ll have the stories.

And if all else fails? Go to Spain.

Listen on APPLE PODCASTS | SPOTIFY | YOUTUBE

Happy Valentine’s Day from Bon Voyage Besties. Find us on Instagram at @BonVoyageBesties.