You could be born a gypsy with travel in your veins, yet to
travel with your spouse and to make a celebration of the event, is an acquired
skill. And it requires two people to ensure traveling together is indeed a
celebration. A couple could be happily married or in a beautiful relationship,
yet traveling together for a vacation need not really end up as pleasurable
proposition.
Travel begins with choices and choosing for both or choosing
with your spouse's interests in mind does not come easy. Having planned
holidays for many couples through my years in travel, it is rarely that I see a
couple sit together with me to systematically offer their interests and
choices. Mostly one of them takes the lead, the one who has a wish-list,
especially if there are small children involved. The worry is more about
driving distances, food for the children, sometimes there is the nanny to
account for. Destination and hotels are primary concerns here. Yet I have
encountered people planning a holiday as a celebration for a birthday or
anniversary and it is surely endearing when one spouse checking on all the
important things that would make the holiday perfect for the other !!
Traveling with my own spouse who is also in the travel business is the easiest when we
are traveling for work. With children and holiday, our agendas tend to be
different, timings slightly slack, meal times easy, no rush for
sightseeing, children allowed to do what they want to, walks and exploring the
town and country have been a priority over catching important sights, downtime
and shopping is always included. Most importantly there is the a lot of flexibility. I must admit our travels together for leisure have almost always begun with some
disagreements firstly to
decide where to go, and then one has to give in to the travel agenda for the
larger good of the family. That done it has always been full of good memories,
based on one key thought - it's a holiday for each one of us, and though we are
on a vacation together there is no hard and fast rule that one must follow the others interest.
So while I trudge off at day break to catch the early bird
and he prefers to sleep in, the girls prefer their own thing - one doodles or
sleeps while the other catches up on her movies, music and books. Except for a
few things to do together, like picnics, some walks, safaris if we were in the
jungles, we end up with a memorable family holiday feeling that each did exactly what they wanted.
P.S : I must admit a steady supply of alcohol and staying in relative luxury does indeed ease what could otherwise be explosive moments.