DIVIDING UP travel responsibilities

Updated: 04/11/19 | April 11th, 2019

This is a guest post by Elise, one half of positive world Travel. She’s an expert on what it’s like traveling as a couple. In this post, she shares her guidance on how to keep your relationship functioning on the road by dividing up responsibilities. NOTE: as of 2016, their blog is no longer active.

In a previous post, Anthony wrote about how compromise and communication are essential elements in maintaining a successful travel relationship.

I also wrote about how “me time” can do wonders for avoiding arguments and keeping the relationship fresh.

But there’s another essential suggestion to keep in mind: making sure each partner has certain responsibilities on the road.

When it concerns planning a trip and traveling as a couple, there are numerous tasks to carry out when you travel. questions continuously need to be answered: Where are you going to stay? What visas do you need? What currency is accepted? Who’s going to make transport inquiries? Who’s going to book flights?

Splitting up these tasks early on can make traveling with your partner far simpler and much less stressful than a disorganized approach, giving you time to focus on the thrills and experiences rather than the mundane and nitty-gritty aspects of long-term travel.

Anthony and I learned from the get-go that it pays to know who’s doing what on the road. We both now have our own little roles we take on every day.

For example, I now am the official essential bearer for our room, which implies I’m responsible for making sure our room is locked and that I have the essential safely tucked away and on me whatsoever times.

We spent far too numerous nights early on during our trip having the same conversation:

“Do you have the key?”

“No, I thought you took it.”

“Well, I didn’t take it. It was on your side of the table.”

“Where is it then? I don’t have it.”

It’s a small role, but it’s an essential one nonetheless, and we save ourselves from getting into fights.

When you’re traveling as a couple, splitting up the responsibilities of travel has other benefits. You can save a lot of time and frustration if you assign planning jobs when organizing your onward travel.

For example, instead of both searching for cheap accommodation, one person can be finding accommodation while the other can be figuring out transport.

This, in turn, can save time and decrease conflict and stress. By splitting up the workload, you each have a single focus rather than trying to cope with everything at once.

For instance, Anthony is in charge of booking and organizing all onward travel, whether overland or by plane, and I’m in charge of or researching and finding accommodation at our next destination. We both chose on these roles fairly early on.

A month or so into our trip we were finding ourselves being disorganized in terms of transport and accommodation. I remember specifically, in Malaysia, we were traveling late at night into the town of Semporna. Ant had told me that he already had accommodation in mind.

However, when we finally got off the bus, Ant didn’t have a clue where any of the hostels were or how to get to them (and, of course, there were no tuk-tuk chauffeurs in sight!). The road was deserted except for a few stray dogs. A heated argument ensued, and it wasn’t until much later that we ended up in a hostel room.

This only had to happen once for it to be chose that I would be in charge of finding accommodation on our trip.

When deciding who will take on what roles and responsibilities, it all comes down to knowing your partner. You should have an understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. I’m in charge of finding and researching accommodation because I’m good at it. While we try not to plan too far into our trip, I love to be organized.

Anthony can’t stand spending time online searching for places to stay and reading reviews. behalve ik? Ik hou ervan! Anthony trusts that I will choose a good place to stay, and he’s pleased that he doesn’t have to do it himself.

What I’m not good at are directions. nooit geweest. getting from A to B has never been a strong suit of mine.

In India a few years ago, Anthony bravely handed over the map for the day as I insisted that I was fine in directing us through small towns and villages high in the north.

Four hours later (when we ought to have reached a town by then), we were still walking slowly uphill. Anthony then asked for the map, only to announce that I had been leading us in the total opposite direction!

Tired and fed up, we hitchhiked our way back to the starting point, fuming silently in the car.

I also know that Ant is better with saving money while traveling. That is his strength. He sorts out exchange rates and conversions and knows when best to exchange our money.

Of course, when you’re out on the road, there may be times when these responsibilities change as your travels develop or things crop up, but hebben tenminste een idee van wie zal doen wat een goed begin is.

De essentieel om dit werk te maken is consistent. Hak en verander niet de hele tijd of word niet lui in wat je allebei verwacht te doen. Het klinkt misschien als terug zijn bij een oude bureaubaan, maar consistent zijn met taken – zelfs tijdens het reizen – maakt het alleen maar gemakkelijker.

Maar hoewel het splitsen van banen en het opnemen van verschillende rollen allemaal helpt om reizen gemakkelijker te maken, is er één taak die je nog steeds samen moet doen: beslissingen nemen.

Terwijl het compromitteren in het spel zal komen bij het nemen van beslissingen, neem dan niet het idee om de banen van reizen tot het uiterste op te splitsen en laat slechts één persoon alle essentiële keuzes maken tijdens uw reis.

Vergeet niet dat reizen als een paar gaat over werken als een team en samen dingen doen.

Het in evenwicht brengen van de werklast, het kennen van uw partner en consistent blijven, maakt uw reizen gemakkelijker, gelukkiger en veel meer de moeite waard.

Boek je reis: logistieke suggesties en trucs
Boek uw vlucht
Zoek een goedkope vlucht met behulp van Skyscanner. Het is mijn favoriete zoekmachine omdat het sites en luchtvaartmaatschappijen over de hele wereld zoekt, zodat je altijd weet dat geen steen ongemoeid blijft.

Boek uw accommodatie
U kunt uw hostel boeken met hostelworld. Als je ergens anders dan een hostel wilt blijven, gebruik dan Booking.com, omdat ze consequent de meest betaalbare tarieven voor gastenhuizen en hotels retourneren.

Vergeet de reisverzekering niet
Reisverzekering zal u beschermen tegen ziekte, letsel, diefstal en annuleringen. Het is uitgebreide bescherming voor het geval er iets misgaat. Ik ga nooit op reis zonder dat ik het in het verleden meerdere keren heb moeten gebruiken. Mijn favoriete bedrijven die de beste service en waarde bieden, zijn:

Safetywing (het beste voor iedereen)

Verzeker mijn reis (voor die ouder dan 70)

MedJet (voor extra evacuatiedekking)

Klaar om uw reis te boeken?
Bekijk mijn resource -pagina voor de beste bedrijven om te gebruiken wanneer u reist. Ik vermeld alle mensen die ik gebruik als ik reis. Ze zijn de beste in de klas en je kunt niet fout gaan met ze tijdens je reis.