Sometimes, having your own adventures can lead you straight to the person you’ll start your longest adventure with. That’s Amy and Nathan’s story. The two world-wandering souls behind Two Drifters met on the road and haven’t stopped traveling together since. We’re lucky to have their high flying stories and grounded advice here on this week’s This Seat’s Taken, and we hope you have as much fun getting to know them as we did!
What’s your story?
We love our story! 🙂 We met in a hostel in Scotland in 2011. We were on separate adventures and happened to stay in the same hostel dorm room in Edinburgh. We had a romantic couple of days flirting and enjoying Scotland, and well, the rest is history. As we met traveling, it made sense for us to continue doing the thing we love so much. We quickly realized that travel could be even better with a partner. Now, we don’t travel full time, but we absolutely love sharing the amazing moments of travel together. Having such transformative travel experiences is incredible not just for our scrapbook, but for our marriage.
Do you have the same travel style or different travel styles? How does this impact your adventures together?
We have pretty similar travel styles. The day must start with a nice piping hot latte in a chill coffee shop. After that, it’s onto museums, historical sites, taking fun hikes, and much more. It’s so easy since we always are interested in most of the same things. If we have diverging interests, we’ll take an afternoon apart to do what we want.
What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned from traveling as partners? What makes your partnership work on the road?
It’s vital to keep your expectations reasonable when traveling together. Sometimes life is just life and travel is just travel. As a married couple, there can be pressure to have every day feel like a romantic whirlwind or a honeymoon. That’s unrealistic. Keeping our expectations more level helps us to actually have a far better trip—-AND it ends up being more romantic.
What’s the best part about traveling as partners? And the biggest challenge?
The biggest challenge of traveling together is managing the inevitable stressors of travel. Delayed flights. Food poisoning. Getting lost. These will tax couples at the best of times. But you get through it together, and later you laugh about it!
The best part of traveling together is just the making of the memories. I can’t think of a better way to build a story and a life together than to experience new things side-by-side. You can do that far from home or right in your own backyard, but travel definitely opens your mind and brings you places (literally and figuratively) you never thought you’d go!
Based on your experience, what’s the best advice you have for couples who have just scheduled their first trip together?
Have patience. If you’ve never traveled together, there’s a lot to learn. There will be tense moments. It’s not going to be perfect. Listen to one another, try to be mindful of each other’s needs, and be selfless whenever possible.
Any additional thoughts or words of wisdom?
Every couple can make time to travel! You don’t have to be traveling full time or even going out of the country to have amazing adventures. If you need some inspiration, check out our couples travel bucket list. There are items large and small on this list. As you go, you’ll be growing your relationship together, we guarantee it!
Don’t forget to save the wisdom!
Beautiful Seneca Lake horseback riding with Painted Bar Stables
