Relationship test-drive

Potential for proximity

On your travels, you’re going to be with this one person all through the day, for however long the trip lasts. And whether you’re backpacking through some remote rural trail or enjoying a cup of hot chocolate in a Swiss chalet (oh how we envy you!), the trip seems a good time to evaluate just how much you enjoy each other’s company, and for how long you can bear the other’s presence. If you want to see more of the person after an emotional and physically draining trip across Central America, you’ll know you found a keeper. If you can barely stand to be with each other for the duration of the trip, however, then willingly spending the rest of your life (or even the foreseeable future) seems a bit of a stretch.

The tender touch

Your ideas of what’s romantic changes when you’re travelling. Rather than how exciting the physical intimacy between the two of you is, or how many grand gestures you make, or even how many flowers and candlelit dinners and gifts you arrange for each other (and not that travel precludes the possibility of all this) it’s the simpler things that you learn to glean tenderness, and a person’s true concern for you from. Helping you lift a heavy bag or in packing, ensuring you aren’t jostled in a crowd, letting you have the better view, keeping documents secure for the both of you, overlooking the inevitable flashes of temper or not harping on your little fixations these are all gestures that show how much your partner cares.

Trait talk

How resourceful is your partner? How does he/she resolve conflicts or respond in a crisis? What’s his/her approach to money? Walking around in a city you do not know, where (quite possibly) the language is one you do not speak, shows you pretty quick if you’ve picked a partner you can rely on in a tough situation. You gain a fair idea of what your partner is like. You get an idea of what they like and dislike from the activities they choose to engage in when you’re on holiday, whether or not they have the ability to “switch off” from work and focus on the present, and if they’re outdoorsy and active or laidback. We all try to present our best selves when wooing someone, but travelling puts you in a setting that’s different from the familiar, and any veneer you put up gets pretty hard to maintain. However, don’t pass judgment on your partner’s character out of hand, because of a stray display of frustration or frayed temper.