Benefits of Traveling Together as a Couple: The Research

Resort pages and travel blogs tend to promise that a trip will bring you closer and that couples who vacation together stay together. Somewhere between that promise and your own memory of a genuinely good week away sits the real question: what are the benefits of traveling together as a couple, once you set aside what is being sold.

Here is the direct answer. Peer reviewed research does find real benefits, and they are narrower than the marketing. Couples who share novel, interesting or mildly challenging experiences on a trip report more passion, satisfaction and closeness afterward, and short lab experiments suggest novelty done together can itself cause a small lift, through a mechanism called self expansion. What the research does not find is that travel protects a relationship over the long run. The happiness lift from a holiday tends to fade soon after ordinary life resumes, none of the studies here tracked breakups or divorce, and the whole literature rests on a small number of studies. For agreeing on the trip itself, see how to plan a vacation as a couple; this piece stays with whether the trip is worth it.

What travel industry surveys claim

Search this topic and many of the top results are not studies. They are resort pages, travel blogs and press releases, often built around a survey commissioned by a company that sells trips. The researchers behind one of the better studies in this area put the gap in a single line at the top of their paper: “Despite limited empirical support, vacations are marketed as beneficial for romantic partners” (Coffey et al., 2024).

A commissioned survey is a report, not evidence of cause. Before trusting a headline figure, it helps to check four things: who paid for it and whether they sell the product; who answered, a random sample or customers and subscribers who already chose to travel; whether there was a comparison group of couples who stayed home; and whether anything was measured before the trip or only afterward. A press release rarely answers any of them.

None of that makes a survey number false. A company funding research on its own product has the kind of conflict of interest a journal would ask authors to disclose, and a sample that could afford the trip has already selected itself. The most a resort’s survey can show is that people who just got back from a nice trip say nice things about their partner when a company they just paid asks them to.

Peer reviewed research asks a narrower question more carefully and finds something real, just smaller than the promise. The Travel Together hub collects the wider set of guides on trips as a couple.

The peer reviewed benefits of traveling together as a couple

The academic literature on the benefits of traveling together as a couple is thinner than you might expect, but it is not empty, and its findings point in a consistent direction.

Shahvali, Kerstetter and Townsend (2021) analyzed data from 112 couples (224 individuals) across the United States, drawing on the Core and Balance Model of Family Leisure Functioning, a framework for how shared leisure relates to cohesion (closeness) and flexibility (the ability to adapt as a unit). Couples who reported more shared experiences during their vacations, such as communicating well, showing affection or trying new things together, also reported higher flexibility and cohesion at home after the trip, and that held regardless of how many vacations they took. This is an association, not proof that the vacations caused the difference.

Coffey, Shahvali, Kerstetter and Aron (2024) built directly on self expansion. In their first study of 238 partners, more self expanding vacation experiences, meaning novel, interesting or challenging ones, predicted higher romantic passion and relationship satisfaction after the trip, but only for people who traveled with their partner, not for those who vacationed apart. In a second study of 102 couples who traveled together, more self expanding experiences predicted more physical intimacy afterward. The pattern is specific: it is not travel as such that tracks with passion, it is the kind of experience the trip held.

Durko and Petrick (2013) reviewed existing research on the benefits of travel for working adults, couples and families. Their abstract says the studies they reviewed showed travel as a way to improve communication within a relationship, strengthen family bonds, increase well being, and reduce the possibility of divorce. A review summarizes what earlier work reported, and a claim does not get stronger by being summarized; none of the studies cited on this page followed couples to see who stayed together.

The same pair later published a paper titled “Travel as Relationship Therapy” (Durko & Petrick, 2016). It applied the investment model, a framework researchers use to explain why people stay committed, and found that satisfaction with vacations added to the model’s explanation of couples’ commitment. The abstract closes by suggesting tourism suppliers could use the results to promote travel as a way to strengthen relationships, a reminder of who this field often writes for. The title borrows a clinical metaphor this page does not use: a good trip is not therapy, and the finding is a correlation between vacation satisfaction and commitment.

Why novelty works: the self expansion model

The mechanism behind most of these findings has a name. The self expansion model, developed by psychologists Arthur Aron and Elaine Aron, holds that people are drawn to relationships that expand their sense of self: new perspectives, skills and experiences. Early in a relationship, nearly everything is new. Later, familiar routines offer less new material, and boredom can creep in without anything being wrong.

Aron, Norman, Aron, McKenna and Heyman (2000) tested this in five studies. A newspaper questionnaire and a door to door survey found that people who reported more shared exciting activities with their partner also reported more satisfaction, and relationship boredom helped explain the link. Then, in three lab experiments, couples spent seven minutes on either a novel and arousing task together or a more mundane one. In all three, relationship quality rose more from before to after the novel task, and a comparison with couples who did no activity at all showed the effect came from the novel task. Observers rating videotaped conversations saw the same shift. The authors linked the results to the familiar dip in relationship quality after the honeymoon period.

Cortes, Britton, Holmes and Scholer (2020) complicate the story usefully. They asked why novel shared activities help: through growth, the fun and excitement self expansion describes, or through felt security, the sense that you can rely on and trust your partner. In a first study, people recalling a novel activity with their partner described both. In a second, couples did either a novel or a control task, and both growth and security helped explain the rise in satisfaction. When the two were tested side by side, felt security was the stronger path. A trip may help partly because doing something unfamiliar side by side, and having it go fine, shows you that your partner is someone you can count on.

Either way, the trigger is something new, done together, with a bit of challenge in it. A flight is one way to get that, not the only one.

Why the glow fades, and how to keep some of it

Nawijn, Marchand, Veenhoven and Vingerhoets (2010) studied 1,530 people in the Netherlands, 974 of whom answered questions about their happiness before and after a holiday trip. Vacationers were happier than non vacationers before leaving, possibly because they were looking forward to the trip. After returning, there was generally no difference between the two groups. Only a very relaxed trip lifted happiness further after return. This measured individual happiness, not closeness between partners.

De Bloom, Kompier, Geurts, de Weerth, Taris and Sonnentag (2009) pooled seven studies in a meta analysis, a study that combines the results of earlier ones. Vacation had a small positive effect on health and well being, grouped as exhaustion, health complaints and life satisfaction, and a fade out effect of similar size soon after people went back to work. The authors also noted that what people actually did on vacation had hardly been studied. This is about recovery from work, not couples.

None of this means the trip was wasted, only that the lift has a short shelf life. No study here tested ways to stretch it, so treat what follows as ideas drawn from the mechanism, not findings. Retell the trip to each other in detail, not only to friends. Take the part that felt new and exciting and plan a smaller version of it at home within a few weeks. And since the Nawijn data linked a lift after return only to very relaxed trips, a trip packed edge to edge may cost the rest it needs; building in downtime, including some alone time on vacation if one of you recharges that way, is part of the plan.

You do not need a flight for the effect

If self expansion and felt security are doing the work, the flight was never the necessary ingredient. A day trip somewhere neither of you has been, a class in something neither of you knows how to do, or an evening built around an activity you have never tried as a couple offers a smaller version of what the vacation studies measured. The novel task in the Aron experiments lasted seven minutes, a reminder that the dose in those studies was small.

When you run short of ideas, the Date Night Generator suggests three matched to your mood, budget, energy and time. Pairing novelty with a standing habit helps it happen; the guide to daily connection rituals covers how small, repeated moments of attention do a version of this work on an ordinary Tuesday.

When a real trip is on the horizon, splitting travel costs with your partner fairly is worth settling before you book rather than mid trip. Some couples find a trip easier to protect when it has a visible target, which is one reason the shared goals inside Twogle cover money, health and trips side by side.

What the research does not show about the benefits of traveling together as a couple

The couple studies are small: 112 couples in one, 238 partners and 102 couples in another. The larger samples, such as the 1,530 people in the Nawijn study, measured individual happiness, not relationships. None of the abstracts reviewed for this piece report results for same gender or nonbinary couples separately, so evidence for LGBTQ+ couples is thin, and the findings may not generalize to every kind of partnership.

Almost everything relies on self report, people rating their own happiness and closeness, often shortly after a positive experience, which is exactly when ratings tend to run warm. The vacation studies are correlational: couples who have more novel experiences on a trip may already differ from couples who do not. The lab experiments show causation, but over minutes, with a task, not over months with a trip.

None of the studies cited here measured whether traveling couples broke up or divorced less often than couples who stayed home. That claim shows up often in marketing copy, and nothing on this page supports it. What the research supports is a real, short term lift in passion, closeness or functioning linked to novel shared experience, not a promise about your relationship’s future.

What to try this week

Pick one thing neither of you has done before, with a small amount of challenge in it, and put it on the calendar for this week rather than someday. A new trail, an unfamiliar cuisine, a class that makes you both mildly bad at something for an hour: all of it counts, because the studies point to newness and togetherness, not the price tag. Afterward, spend five minutes retelling it to each other, what surprised you and what you noticed about the other person, rather than letting it become a photo neither of you opens again.

If the next real trip is what you are after, start with planning a vacation as a couple with different styles, since agreeing on why you are going tends to settle a lot of the where. And if trips keep turning into the same argument, the piece on fighting on vacation looks at why; when conflict keeps escalating at home and away, a couples therapist is the gold standard.

A good trip is not proof of anything about your future together, but it is one more chance to do something new side by side, and the research suggests those chances are worth taking on purpose.

Read deeper

• How to plan a vacation as a couple with different styles
• Fighting on vacation with your partner, and why it happens
• Alone time on vacation with your partner
• How to split travel costs with your partner fairly
• Daily connection rituals for couples
• Why modern relationships carry too much weight
• Lisbon for couples: viewpoints, pace and Porto too
• Prague for couples: what to do and when
• Iceland for couples: planning a trip that suits you both
• Italy for couples: choosing the region that suits you both

Sources

• Aron, A., Norman, C. C., Aron, E. N., McKenna, C., & Heyman, R. E. (2000). Couples’ shared participation in novel and arousing activities and experienced relationship quality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(2), 273–284. DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.78.2.273
• Coffey, J. K., Shahvali, M., Kerstetter, D., & Aron, A. (2024). Couples vacations and romantic passion and intimacy. Annals of Tourism Research Empirical Insights, 5(1), 100121. DOI: 10.1016/j.annale.2024.100121
• Cortes, K., Britton, E., Holmes, J. G., & Scholer, A. A. (2020). Our adventures make me feel secure: Novel activities boost relationship satisfaction through felt security. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 89, 103992. DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2020.103992
• de Bloom, J., Kompier, M., Geurts, S., de Weerth, C., Taris, T., & Sonnentag, S. (2009). Do we recover from vacation? Meta-analysis of vacation effects on health and well-being. Journal of Occupational Health, 51(1), 13–25. DOI: 10.1539/joh.k8004
• Durko, A. M., & Petrick, J. F. (2013). Family and relationship benefits of travel experiences: A literature review. Journal of Travel Research, 52(6), 720–730. DOI: 10.1177/0047287513496478
• Durko, A. M., & Petrick, J. F. (2016). Travel as relationship therapy: Examining the effect of vacation satisfaction applied to the investment model. Journal of Travel Research, 55(7), 904–918. DOI: 10.1177/0047287515592970
• Nawijn, J., Marchand, M. A., Veenhoven, R., & Vingerhoets, A. J. (2010). Vacationers happier, but most not happier after a holiday. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 5(1), 35–47. DOI: 10.1007/s11482-009-9091-9
• Shahvali, M., Kerstetter, D. L., & Townsend, J. N. (2021). The contribution of vacationing together to couple functioning. Journal of Travel Research, 60(1), 133–148. DOI: 10.1177/0047287519892340