travel love stories

The Best Inspiring Travel Love Stories to Read in 2024

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Romance on the road can be one of the biggest travel life lessons we can experience when travelling to new destinations and chasing our travel drams,

Our romantic travel love stories can become a big part of our adventures and linger for years in our memories.

I still fondly remember the guys I met on my travels and the fleeting travel romances forged in destinations worldwide.

Brief flings, hookups, dating disasters and full-blown relationships impact our adventures and lives. A little romance can often be one of the best outcomes of travel.

Inspiring Travel Love Stories

When we are in the zen of travel, our emotions are heightened. Sunsets seem dreamier, food tastes fresher, and possibilities seem endless.

With your feelings dialled way up, it can become easy to convince yourself that a scruffy German called Wolfgang, with a mere $12 to his name, is “the one”.

High on cheap cocktails and moonlit walks on the beach is a surefire way to get swept up in the moment and make starry-eyed plans to “meet in Paris ”.

Romance stories from the road

The problem with travel romances is that when you actually meet up away from the beaches, the mountains, or the frenetic energy of a busy city, there’s a danger it can all seem a bit beige.

Keeping an exciting connection alive once the holiday ends can be challenging for couples, especially if a big distance is involved. Sustaining a post-holiday romance or moving on from one is one of the most emotive lessons you can learn from travel.

We talk more about travel life lessons on my travel podcast Travel Goals , subscribe now and download all the latest episodes.

So, do travel romances ever really work out? Here’s a collection of inspiring travel love stories from travel bloggers. These tales include times when they found long-lasting travel romance on the road and also stories of heartache and disappointment.

Tinder travel romance

My story starts in Christchurch, New Zealand, four years ago. While backpacking, I turned to Tinder not to seek romance but to gather some tips for places to explore in the area and, quite frankly, beat the monotony of my own company.

After I matched with Kazimir, we immediately hit it off, and the next day, he suggested taking me on a walk around Christchurch. What better way to get the scoop on a new city than with the help of a local?!

That day was notable for three reasons: Firstly, it was Valentine’s Day! A fitting occasion to meet someone special.

Secondly, a 5.7 earthquake struck the city that morning, so I was keen to escape the shaky old hostel. Lastly, of course, it’s the day I’ll treasure as the day we first met.

We talked, walked, and explored some gorgeous spots of a city I now love. I felt so at ease with this handsome man, and we arranged to meet a handful more times.

Long-distance relationship

A month or so later, I left New Zealand to continue my travels, and I didn’t think we’d see each other again. But yet, our connection only got stronger.

Later that year, he came to stay in the UK with me. When we were reunited, I knew we had something worth trying. We endured a long distance realtionship for three years before we finally moved to Australia together.

I’ll never forget that bizarre start to our relationship. Because of that dramatic earthquake to trigger our meeting, I like to say he rocked my world! Contribution by Suzy Stories .

We met on a dating app

This is a story that was actually rejected by BBC travel for their ‘chance encounters series’. It was the first day of my round-the-world trip. A trip meant to last six months has now stretched past the six-year mark and is still climbing. 

I was jet-lagged, having just flown from the States to the South Islands of Thailand, a trip that took more than 30 hours.

Exhausted but unable to sleep, I was chatting with a couple of different guys on dating apps with 0 intention of meeting that night. In fact, I was already in bed happily watching ‘Breaking Bad’. 

One guy stood out—cute, Eastern European, and very my type. He asked if we could meet for a beer, and I said maybe tomorrow.

He said that night was his only available night as he was travelling with a friend, and they had plans. It wasn’t meant to be, I told myself as I directed my attention back to Breaking Bad. 

Swiping right

But, as I sat there, I thought- isn’t this why I left home on this big adventure- to meet new people and explore new places? And now, some good-looking guy is asking me out for drinks, and I’m begging off to stay in my hotel and watch Netflix. How lame.  I asked him where we could meet.

We met for drinks and then bought more beers to take back to my room., staying up all night talking.

We debated religion and politics, played our favourite music for the other one, and eventually chatted until sunrise. We took our beers to the beach to watch the sun rise as others did yoga and went for their morning runs. 

Romance in Bangkok

After that night, I assumed I would never see him again, but we stayed in contact and actually met up a couple of weeks later, this time in Bangkok. And then again, and then again.

Him being a flight attendant and me being a traveller, our romance played out all over the world. In more than 2 years of dating, we visited nearly 20 countries together.

We went hiking to see the ‘death corpse flower’ in Malaysia, scuba diving off Indonesian islands, and hurling tomatoes at the La Tomatina festival in Spain. He even came home with me one year for Christmas. 

Sadly, the romance didn’t work out after two and a half years, but the friendship remains to this day. Contribution by Foodie Flashpacker .

Los Angeles love story

I had a friend in high school I’d talk to throughout the years after we graduated from college and started our lives. Oddly, we’d reconnect randomly throughout the years and lose touch for some reason.

In 2011, I moved from Columbus, OH, to Los Angeles, CA, to get a fresh start. In 2016, she messaged me and asked how I was doing, and we started talking more and more every day.

After two months, she came to visit me for my birthday, and we had a lot of fun. We explored the city, hung out with friends, walked the beach, and started developing feelings for one another.

A month later, she visited me again, and we just clicked. Within a month and a half, she had packed up her life in Ohio and moved to San Diego with me.

Travelling full-time as a family

We got married in December 2017, had a baby in November 2018, and now travel the world full-time as a family .

It is unbelievable how we reconnected 11 years after our first meeting when we were 16 years old in high school.

It just shows you that love can show up when you least expect it. Contribution by It’s a Family Thing .

Quitting work to travel around Europe

When my work contract ended, Julie decided to travel around Europe with me for two months to escape her stressful tech job.

We bought flights, a six-week Eurail pass, and a four-week Britrail pass; everything else we booked as we went along. So much fun!

I have wonderful memories of bartering various country currencies (pre-Euro) for enough German Marks to buy another Hofbrauhaus beer, picnic meals on balconies overlooking the Florence Duomo and French Alps, and so much more.

Road trip romance

In fact, we had so much fun that when the trip was over, we decided to keep travelling.

A friend worked in a foam factory and custom-cut a six-inch-thick piece of foam to fit in the back of our SUV.

We spent the next 14 months road-tripping the US and Canada, camping most nights inside the snuggly confines of our temporary wheely home. 

Such experiences can make or break relationships, and we decided to stay together and get married.

We just celebrated our 25th anniversary and travel is still an essential part of our life together. Submission by  McCool Travel  and  Fun in Fairfax VA .

Love on a tour bus

My fiancé (Daniel) and I met about seven years ago while travelling in Europe. Honestly, it didn’t start nearly as romantic as most would assume. We were young, 21 years old, and on a Contiki bus tour.

For those of you who don’t know, these organized bus tours take you to many amazing places, but they focus on partying quite a lot.

What started out as a fun travel fling, though, eventually turned into something a lot more. After the Europe trip ended, Daniel and I kept in contact somewhat online.

A year later, I moved from Canada to Australia on a Working Holiday Visa. Daniel, who is Australian, and I reconnected and started a real relationship. And well, the rest is history!

Backpacking as a couple

We lived in Australia for a couple of years together before packing our bags and heading to South America.

We have been backpacking as a couple for the last four years and currently work full-time on our travel blog business together. We are currently in the process of planning our wedding, which will be held in Fiji next year! Contribution by Destinationless travel .

We met on Instagram

I met my partner while he was working in my home town, London. He is Dutch and was in London making a video for the drone company DJI.

We had been speaking via Instagram DM for a while about my drone obsession, as I wanted some tips on which one to buy.

We met at the station near my house. I had just finished a night shift as a nurse, so I have no idea how he stuck around after seeing me after a 13-hour night shift.

I ended up being his tour guide around London for four days, and he kept postponing his flight home as we wanted to spend more time together!

Quitting our jobs to travel

Following this, I had already booked a trip to Amsterdam, where we met again and had our first date. Soon after, he drove to London and whisked me off on a road trip around Dorset.

A few months later, we had both quit our part-time jobs to travel full-time! Now, we run a travel blog and videography company. We spent a while living in Bali and have travelled to over 20 countries in the last year alone. Contribution by Solar Powered Blonde .

Romance on the Taipei MRT

I moved to  Taipei  in 2008 as an English teacher, planning to stay there for one year at most. Having recently ended a sour relationship in my home country, I went most of the year without dating.

That all changed one day when I was riding the MRT to work. Listening to music on headphones and tapping my foot, I was approached by a local woman the same age as me, but nearly a foot shorter.

She asked me a few of the usual questions, but unlike most such conversations, she wasn’t looking to practice English. She was nervous but clearly interested.

We swapped numbers

I got off at my stop, and so did she. As we parted ways, she grabbed my hand and wrote her number on it (in those days, we still exchanged numbers). I decided to ignore the unspoken rule of waiting a day and call her 10 minutes later.

We met the following night for a drink, shared a taxi home, and had a kiss to remember outside her door (that is, until we were interrupted by my future father-in-law, who pulled up beside us on a scooter and pretended he hadn’t seen a thing).

Little did he know that the foreigner before him would be living in his home a few years later or that he was to become a proud grandfather of two! Contribution by  Spiritual Travels . 

Falling in love while studying abroad

I never planned for this to happen. I studied abroad in San Diego (I am originally from Germany), and I was supposed to return home after three years in the US. Well, fate had other plans. One day, he showed up in my class.

A new guy that I had never seen before at my school, which was unusual because, with only 150 students at the university and me working at the front desk, I knew everyone. So, of course, I had to investigate. 

We started talking during our break and ended up in the same group project, so we chatted frequently and became fast friends and study partners.

I was about to finish my MBA and then do a 1-year work exchange in San Diego before returning to Germany, so I was not looking for a serious relationship.

Moving fast

Well, that plan didn’t work out too well. After being friends for a few months, we started dating and things went really fast after that.

I moved in with him a few weeks later, and we got married less than 1.5 years after we met. We just celebrated our 10th anniversary, and we’re as happy as ever! Contribution by San Diego Explorer.

Travel Love story in the Philippines

I met my husband seven years ago while travelling in Southeast Asia. We were both travelling solo and, due to unplanned circumstances, ended up in San Fernando, a small place in the Philippines. Neither of us was planning on being there.

We stayed in the same dormitory at a small surf hostel. In fact, we were bed neighbours. Soon after meeting, we realized we loved the same things: surfing, diving, hiking, and other outdoor activities.

We decided to continue travelling together. After two months of exploring the Philippines together, I had to go back home. My husband decided to continue travelling and went to India.

Meeting up in Nepal

Two months later, we met in Nepal and went on our first multi-day trek to Everest Base Camp. Since then, we’ve been travelling together for six years.

Somewhere during our Latin America hitchhiking adventure, we started a travel blog for fun.

Now it’s our full-time job. 3 years ago we got married. We still travel full time visiting our home countries Russia and South Africa every year. Submission by Stingy Nomads .

South Korean travel romance

I met my husband in 2014 while solo travelling through South Korea. I had just finished university and had a graduate job waiting for me starting two months later. I took the opportunity to travel to Asia for two months before starting work.

My whole trip included one month in China, two weeks in Korea, and three weeks in Japan. It was one of the best trips of my life, and I had so much fun discovering Asia. 

Connecting through Airbnb

In South Korea, I tried to stay in Airbnbs and do Couchsurfing, as I read that it was quite safe for a woman to stay with local families there.

I met my husband when staying in his Airbnb in Gyeongju. As he had time off work those days, he showed me around the city.

We had such a great time together, and it immediately clicked. I never expected to see him again after leaving, but he came to visit me in the UK five months later.

Since then, we have been inseparable and now live together in Seoul. I absolutely love living in Korea and writing a Korea Blog . I wouldn’t have done it any other way. Contribution by Be Marie Korea .

Couchsurfing love story

During my semester break some years ago, I decided to travel through southern Europe with a good friend.

Since we also visited the beautiful city of  Barcelona on a budget and wanted to get to know a few locals, we decided to use the Couchsurfing platform to stay home with locals.

Little did I know I would get to know my future husband during my short time in the Catalan capital. I also would have never thought that I would fall in love with the guy who hosted us in his flat.

Barcelona romance

The chemistry between us was just right from the start. Only ten days after I left Barcelona in the direction of Paris, our host from Barcelona, Eduardo, came to visit me in the city I used to study in Germany.

We spent a few days together and even went on a weekend break by bus to Amsterdam. This little trip should become just the first of many trips we would take together.

I moved to Barcelona to be with Eduardo only a few months later. Since then, we have started working location-independently, travelled together to more than 20 countries, and even got married a couple of months ago. Contribution by Vicki Viaja .

When travel romance doesn’t work out

I wasn’t expecting to meet anyone special while I was travelling.  I had planned the trip for months and wanted to get out alone and enjoy my freedom. 

But then I met him Backpacking in Peru. He was a tour guide who was sweet, funny, and kind. He really seemed like a nice guy, which should have rang alarm bells for me straight away. My taste in men hasn’t always been the best! 

However, we hit it off and spent the weekend together. I told him that I’d been cheated on before and that all I wanted was honesty. I didn’t think that was too much to ask. 

I wasn’t stupid; I didn’t think it would last. I continued my travels for a week, and he took a tour group to a different part of Peru. Then, we met up again in Lima .  

It was wonderful when we were together. I felt a strong connection to him, and when he told me he loved me, I didn’t hesitate to say it back. 

We met in Peru

We’d spend a week together, and then, thanks to his job as a tour guide, he would leave Lima for a couple of weeks at a time. We’d meet up again when he came back. I’d go travelling in the meantime and explore more of Peru. 

Then things started to change.  I couldn’t turn that down because I had the chance to go to Venezuela.  I didn’t forget that this trip was for me, but leaving him was hard. 

I knew that if I left, things wouldn’t be the same. We kept in touch, texting as often as we could, but gradually, contact became less and less, and when I really needed to talk to him, he didn’t have his phone.

He had a girlfriend the whole time

When I returned to Peru a month later, I didn’t really expect anything to happen between us, but he said he was desperate to see me. 

We got together again, and he invited me to Bolivia with him.  However, I quickly realised he was spending much time on his phone.  It turned out that he had a girlfriend, he’d been with her the whole time. And she was pregnant. 

I was heartbroken.  I felt so stupid, somehow believing we had something special when I knew better. 

He was the one who pushed for us to see each other again, the one who said I love you.  The one who had lied since the moment I met him. Love on the road can be fun, but it can be painful, too. Contribution by Tales of a Backpacker .

A Couchsurfing romance

One of the most important experiences when it comes to travel is meeting the locals. I’m always looking to get to know the traditions and costumes.

I love spending mornings people-watching in a café or making new friends in a bar.

This is why I use Couchsurfing as much as possible. For those who don’t know of it, Couchsurfing is an app where you can find a couch to crash on, [and to offer your own], for travellers looking to stay with locals.

Little did I know that this app would allow me to make friends in many different countries and introduce me to the love of my life.

Croatia love story

After a quick visit to  Croatia  5 years ago, I stayed in touch with the guy who let me use his couch for the night.

I was backpacking around Europe then, so a month after we met, we decided it was time to meet again. True to travellers’ style, we set a date in Slovenia, halfway between us.

The rest is history. After a few years of long-distance, I moved to Croatia. More than two happy years later, I can say that travel romance is wonderful. Contribution by Experiencing the Globe .

A Rome Travel love story

My husband and I first met in the Roman Forum in 2001, when he was a tourist backpacking around Europe, and I was a tour guide.

He immediately fell in love with the city (it would take another year before he fell in love with me) and decided to stay and become a tour guide.

So we became colleagues, and then we became good friends and we bonded over our mutual passion for travel and desire to see the world.

We travelled the world together

When he told me he planned a three-month overland trip through the Middle East from Cairo to Istanbul, I presumptuously invited myself along.

I wanted to see that part of the world, too, but I was nervous about going there myself, so tagging along with him seemed like a great idea. Though we were not yet a couple when we started planning the trip, we were by the time we set out on the road.

For the next few years, we spent about half our time working in Rome to save money while exploring the city and  dining in its amazing restaurants .

We spent the other half of our time travelling the world in the off-season. Six years after we met, we returned to Rome to get married. Contribution by The Nomadic Vegan .

We eloped to Vegas

A 22-year-old UCLA senior meet a 25-year-old party-loving San Diego surfer in a Mexican bar and sparks fly. It sounds like a movie, but it was a life-changing Spring Break trip.

The bar was Carlos O’Breins, and he was wearing an unfortunate blue striped tank top with a day-glow pink lining. After spending hours chatting on the beach, he told me he was going to marry me.

We returned to California, LA, and San Diego, respectively. We visited each other but quickly became inseparable and decided to elope to Las Vegas. It had been six weeks since we met, and the tank top had been discarded! 

We’ve been married for 30 years, have two kids in their 20s, and have travelled to all 50 states and 40+ countries.

Almost empty nesters, we embarked on a travel challenge to visit 50 new countries in our 50s, and we have detailed it all on our blog, The Evolista.

Spending time together, being with our family, and sharing fun travel adventures are our dreams come true. Bon voyage! Contribution by The Evolista .

Hostel travel romance

In late 2015 I was living in a hostel in  Dunsborough , Western Australia when I met my girlfriend, Roxy.

I had flights and accommodation booked to go to New Zealand, but a week before I was supposed to leave, I cancelled my plans to stay and see how things with Roxy would work out.

It was easily the best decision I have ever made, and we spent the next four years travelling full-time throughout Australia, Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America.

We met in a hostel

Over the last four and a half years, we have spent nearly every second of every day together, which seems crazy but has always felt pretty easy.

Roxy is the planner, and I am happy to go along with whatever off-the-beaten-path adventure she creates, which makes it work.

I am originally from Ireland, while she is Canadian, and we have recently settled in Vancouver, Canada.

We are adjusting to a more settled lifestyle but have grand plans to travel the world once again soon. Contribution by The Coastal Campaign .

Thailand travel romance

Many people are probably sceptical of travel romances and wonder if they can work. But the thing is, they can, and they do! I travelled solo in Thailand when I met a handsome guy on an island.

We instantly hit it off and talked well into the night. We made plans to meet up the next day for dinner, but after that, we were inseparable for four days.

Our time together ended when I had to fly home, but I had hardly made it to Bangkok when he called me on Facetime. And just like that, our romance continued.

Making A long-distance Realtionship work

I’m American, and he’s Dutch. We never discussed how difficult it would be to pursue a relationship or how many obstacles would be in our way.

We kept talking because we enjoyed hearing from each other. We planned to visit each other because we wanted to see each other.

We had a long-distance relationship, visiting each other whenever and wherever possible, and were engaged in less than a year. Now we’re married and living in the US! Contribution by Jetset Jansen .

A sunset date in California

I was about to graduate from college and had my whole life ahead of me. I didn’t have time to meet a guy—or so I thought!

In the winter of 2014, I found myself in a small college beach town on the central California coast, visiting a friend. While there, I met a dorky guy who asked me on a date to see the sunset along the beach.

Relocating to California

Sunsets and beaches are my favourite things in the world, but I wasn’t sure about getting in a car with some guy I barely knew. Luckily, the friend I was visiting encouraged me to go on the date, and I’m so glad she did!

That first sunset date lasted over five hours and became a day trip to San Francisco. We found a lighthouse that’s only open two days a week for three hours each day, open on the day we were there. It was kismet.

As I fell in love with the city, I fell in love with him. A few months later, a day after my college graduation, I relocated to the California coast. It’s been almost six years, and I’ve loved every single one. Contribution by Sea salt and fog .

Left home to travel the world

When I was 19, I quit my job and left home to travel the world. My first stop was sunny Costa Blanca in Spain. Romance had its own plans, though, as I met my husband about an hour after arriving.

Some 30 years later, when our daughters left home, we travelled the world together. Juan and I bought a one-way ticket to Nepal and trekked the Himalayas and journeyed for two months overland through India.

We enjoyed living in a rural village in Thailand and celebrating New Year’s Eve with the monks.

I took a slow boat down the Mekong in Laos, rushed through Vietnam on a 15-day visa, and chilled for four weeks in a beach cabin in the Philippines.

Digital nomad Romance

The ultimate digital nomad life, moving on where and when the fancy took us, sleeping in overnight buses and trains.

We’d stop for a few days in places we felt at home, where I would write my travel articles and where Juan would go cycling and chat with the locals.

And then he wanted to come home, so we didn’t get to the faraway lands of Australia and New Zealand.

That’s what being a couple is really about respecting each other’s dreams and agreeing on limits. I found a cheap flight home via Singapore, Greece and Bulgaria, so I am not complaining.

He cleverly tempted me back for a while with promises of the Amazons, our South America adventure, but that’s another story, another chapter in our lives that we embarked on together.

inspiring love stories

Travel romance can be a transformative experience, as seen in this travel love story collection.

Sometimes, things work out when we fall in love on the road; other times, it can lead to heartbreak.

No matter how it pans out, you can learn from each romantic encounter on the road.

Have you ever had a travel romance? Did it work out? Let me know in the comments below.

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Portia has spent years traversing the globe and having many misadventures. She now works as a freelance travel journalist, editor of Pip and the City and hosts the Travel Goals Podcast. She specialises in adventure travel, destination guides and city breaks. Her work has appeared in The Times, National Geographic and Lonely Planet. She can normally be found hiking, swimming outdoors in icy waters, or drinking coffee in bougie cafes.

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We met at a Hostel in Bruges, 10 years later we are still married

In 2002, after finishing college on opposite ends of the Earth (Florida and Australia), fate threw us together at a Hostel in Bruges during our solo travels. I was assigned the top bunk, and a cute curly haired brunette had been sleeping in the bottom bunk.

A few of us went out for drinks that night, as people do in hostels, and Bell and I just clicked.

We both happened to be traveling to Amsterdam , so we briefly met up again there. Then, we also organized to meet in Rome before going our separate ways to opposite ends of the Earth. But we stayed friends, and two years later we finally planned to reunite again in Thailand .

After booking our plane tickets and the days ticked down, we couldn’t imagine saying goodbye again, so I was able to organize a working holiday visa to move to Melbourne, Australia, to live with her.

We reunited in Thailand after being apart for 2 and ½ years, and 2 weeks later I set foot in Australia for the first time, to live and work random jobs for a year. 8 months later we got married at the Melbourne courthouse, and a few months after that we relocated to Florida for a few years.

When a PhD position came up for Bell in Amsterdam, we moved there for 3 and ½ years. After, we moved to Dublin for 2 and ½ years, now we have spent the last year and a half living in Boston.

We’ve returned to Bruges twice, including this year 2015 for our 10 year wedding anniversary, and have even had dinner and drinks at our hostel’s restaurant and bar.

A couple of months ago, Bell got a Belgian stamp tattoo on her upper back with the date we met on it, January 31 st , 2002.

We fell in love at Marken Gjestehus in Bergen

Well, we met at a hostel in Lisbon . We had a good connection and exchanged Facebook accounts.

Not very much, I kind of put her name on Facebook looking for her, sent the friend request, and she accepted me (does that make me a stalker?)

We kept in touch, talking on Facebook, until I decided to go to Norway for traveling…and to see her.

I was not expecting anything, since I’m a Brazilian guy that lives in Lisbon, and she is a Norwegian living in Bergen.

But then I booked the Marken Gjestehus Hostel and went there with an open heart. If we didn’t connect for real, well, at least I would be visiting an amazing pretty city in Norway, would stay in the best hostel of Norway and would be an amazing experience anyway.

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But, thanks Thor, our connection was real. We went for a walk in the mountains, she got me those super good Norwegian cakes ( Sommerbolle , I think) and our date was perfect, so perfect that after that I changed my booking for a double room instead of a bunk bed. We had an amazing time in the hostel.

The double room has a window with an amazing view to the mountains with those Bergen colorful houses. It was, actually, one of the most romantic moments of my life. And there, in that double room in the hostel, with that breathtaking view, we fell in Love, I guess….sounds cheesy but, cheesy is real sometimes.

After that, we kept traveling to see each other for months until she moved in with me in Lisbon to work in the Norwegian embassy in Lisbon.

Now she has to go back to Norway to study, and we will keep these far distance thing. It is not optimal, but at least it makes us travel more.

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I met my Fiancé thanks to Vikings and Bus Hostel Reykjavik

In July 2014 I traveled by myself to Iceland. I arrived at the Bus Hostel Reykjavik in the evening, and the following day I walked around Reykjavik to do some sightseeing. On the back of the map I got from the hostel, there was an ad for a museum about vikings. I decided to go there, and by the end of the tour you had the option of dressing up as a viking. I of course wanted to do this, and I also wanted a photograph of myself in said costume.

So I walked up to a random guy and asked him if he could take a photo of me. He instead suggested we take a photo together. And so we did.

Turns out, he was also a solo traveler staying at the Bus Hostel.

We ended up spending the week together, and now, a year later, we are engaged!

Read: 3 top hostels in Reykjavik here  and best hostels in Iceland with itinerary.

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These 10 real-life travel love stories will move you to tears

We love a good travel love story so in honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re rounding up some of the greatest Trafalgar love stories we’ve heard. From tear-jerking proposals and surprise weddings to romantic honeymoons and magical anniversaries, these are 10 of the most moving real-life travel love stories. 

1. Craig and Graham’s romantic proposal and surprise wedding on tour

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Trafalgar (@trafalgartravel)

Lovebirds Craig and Graham got engaged in Paris while on tour with Trafalgar. After sharing their story with us, they won a place on our Trafalgar Unlocked Awards trip to the Balkans. 

“I proposed to my partner of six years on a romantic sunset cruise under the Eiffel Tower and the many bridges of the Seine. Our Travel Director, Kevin Marshall, helped to make the moment extra special, by telling the other tour guests about my secret plan and arranging for some Moet to celebrate. It was the most magical moment of our lives, to share the engagement surrounded by the wonderful new friends we had made on the tour and to hear their cheers of happiness. We will all be reunited again when they attend our wedding next year.” – Craig

Craig and Graham then decided at the last minute to get married while touring Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina on the Balkan Delight trip! 

“It was so easy to pull this wedding off, but it definitely wouldn’t have been possible if we hadn’t done it on a tour like Trafalgar. We let our Travel Director know our plans in the morning and they were overjoyed and supportive of the idea. Trafalgar were incredible at helping to coordinate all of the wedding arrangements. With less than 12 hours notice they had curated an absolute dream setting for our nuptials… which is an extraordinary effort and we still can’t believe they achieved it. The best part about getting married on tour, was sharing the moment with our fellow tour companions, as it created such a positive trip highlight for everyone. Watching on, their faces beaming with big smiles, we felt enveloped by an atmosphere of happiness, warmth and inclusion.” – Craig

Read more about Craig and Graham’s incredible Paris proposal and surprise wedding on Trafalgar tours

2. Nichole’s dream proposal at the Cliffs of Moher

“I had two two dreams come true during our Irish Highlights tour; seeing the Cliffs of Moher and getting engaged to the love of my life! My now fiancé faced his fear of heights to propose to me at a place I’ve been dreaming of visiting for as long as I can remember. Our Travel Director, Jill, continued to make the rest of the trip special by informing the hotels so we were welcomed with a special surprise in every room! We had such an amazing time celebrating with our tour group! This was my 3rd trip to Trafalgar and while I was a loyal Trafalgar traveler before, this trip cemented that and also made a new one; my future husband!”  – Nichole R

We think you’ll also like: 15 beautiful places to propose around the world

3. Valerie got engaged in Italy on tour

“My boyfriend proposed to me on this amazing trip – Wonders of Italy ! Our amazing guide Marina helped him coordinate date and times. We would not have felt nearly as special had it not been for Trafalgar!”  – Valerie G

We think you’ll also like: “I just wanted to ask Tina and not mess it up!” – how this Trafalgar proposal video hit thousands of views

4. Robert and his husband celebrate their wedding anniversary with Trafalgar

“I had gone on a Trafalgar trip in the late 1980s with a high school group. The trip was so memorable that when it came time to book my husband’s and my annual vacation, I suggested Trafalgar. Neither of us were disappointed. We met so many people on the European Traveler trip. Jason and I were celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary. Everyone on the trip celebrated with us. 

They say “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Check out the landscape picture of Rome. Our Tour Director, Brendan, took us to this “hidden gem”. The picture is worth 3200 YEARS of history. A building in the far left was built 1200 BC and a building in the far right was built in the late 1900s AD. If we had planned this trip ourselves, we would never have seen the amazing hidden gems that experience Tour Directors facilitate. As a result of that experience, we are anticipating our 5th trip with Trafalgar since that trip in 2015. Truly amazing experiences, truly amazing people, truly amazing tours.”  – Robert P

We think you’ll also like: 9 perfect places to celebrate a wedding anniversary

5. Morgan and Jared’s magical proposal in Venice

“On our 3rd or 4th day of the European Whirl tour, we were in Venice and Jared had requested a private gondola for us. He had secretly set this up with our tour guide Patrick, and the next thing I know he proposes! It was absolutely magical and a moment I will never forget!”  – Morgan M

6. Rob and Melinda celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary in Norway

“Melinda and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary with a return to Norway on the Best of Norway tour. This view from above Bergen perfectly captures the beauty of the country, the excellence of Trafalgar’s tour destinations, and our love for each other.”  – Rob T

7. Kenna’s engagement and honeymoon with Trafalgar

“My boyfriend and I went on the Great Italian Cities trip in 2017 and he proposed! This photo is at Trevi Fountain, and you can see the love! We got married the following year in 2018 and took another Trafalgar trip for our honeymoon – Best of Greece in 2018. This year is our 5 year anniversary and we’d love to jet-set with Trafalgar again!”  – Kenna M

We think you’ll also like: 11 popular proposal destinations across the world

8. Emily’s life-changing proposal and a baby news on tour in Europe

“Trafalgar holds a very special place in our hearts and was an absolute life changing trip!! In 2017 on our Great European trip with Trafalgar, my (then) partner proposed to me on the Pont Des Arts Love Lock Bridge with the Notre Dame Cathedral as the backdrop after dinner on a river cruise! A truly magical, romantic Paris moment! Of course I said yes! By the end of our 4 week trip in Vienna we found out we were also pregnant with our first child! What a whirlwind! Six years later we are still happily married with two beautiful girls and have never forgotten the life changing places we visited on our Trafalgar trip and the even more special moments we were lucky enough to have there!”  – Emily M

9. Diane’s unexpected proposal in Verona

“Totally unexpected, but he proposed under Juliet’s Balcony in Verona on our Wonders of Italy tour.”  – Diane S

10. Arthur’s perfect engagement in Canada

The best part about our Iconic Rockies & Western Canada trip – aside from the most spectacular scenery and incredible friendships made – I was able to propose to the woman I love. The whole group kept my secret and made sure my girlfriend was at the right place at the right time.”  – Arthur D

Do you have a beautiful travel love story? Let us know in the comments below!

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Detours with locals. Travel tips you can trust.

19 stories of strangers who found love while traveling

[ Our By The Way Concierge column answers your travel dilemmas. Submit your question here. ]

“An inner voice said, ‘Go to Seattle!’”

“You should move to Europe with me.”

[ The completely correct guide to traveling with a significant other ]

“Gay was absolutely not okay in my little corner of the world.”

[ 7 Valentine’s Day gift ideas for the travel lover in your life ]

“We ended up going out for coffee, one thing led to another, and I was flying to Beirut every other week.”

[ You asked: Can we go to Europe for our honeymoon this summer? ]

“Ed bought me another ticket just to stay for four more hours.”

“we made it back to the hostel at 4 a.m., and she had a 7 a.m. flight.”.

“We met with luggage in hand and couldn’t deny the sparks that were flying.”

“we eventually got around to the one question every backpacker in 'love’ hates to ask: how long are you here for”, “a flight attendant asked me to come up to first class and handed me an envelope.”.

“A life full of travel and adventure remains core to who we are.”

“cake catastrophe what we danced ’til almost 1 a.m.”.

“We stayed in touch; I nicknamed her Cowgirl and she called me Stranger.”

“Two years later, he came to D.C. with a box of love letters in tow.”

“Our first date was a hike to a glacier, and the rest was history.”

“I didn’t know anyone when I moved to Bangkok, so I used the Couchsurfing app to meet people.”

“I don’t know if it was love or the excitement of finding someone else who loved to see the world, but I have not had this sense of excitement since.”

“We met on a mega yacht in the middle of the ocean called ‘The World.’”

“For a while I was too shy to dance.”

“we exchanged numbers when we landed. a little over a year later, we got engaged in barbados.”, we noticed you’re blocking ads.

Travel love stories – Every love story is special but ours is my favorite

Travel Wisdom

Last Updated on: Sep 6, 2023  

Every love story is special, but ours is my favourite

This is what I firmly believe in. But this is not about our love story, this is about travel and love stories. I totally understand that there are perks of travelling solo. But there are a few of our tribe who loves travelling together with their partners, enjoying the life on the road. This blog is all about travel love stories.

These days it is difficult to find someone who has the same interest as you. So if you can actually find someone who is as crazy as you to live a life on the road and accept you as you are, there is nothing like it.

For my part, I was always the wild and crazy girl who would do things that she was told not to do. I always loved to wander around and climb mountains. And I was sure that I would probably not get someone in this life who would understand my zeal to explore the unknown, to be on the road and be attracted to all the oddities of life that others run away from. Until one day, Agni came barging right into my class and later into my life. We were like chalk and cheese. We still are. Yet love found us.

For most in the list, travel brought them together. But it was not so in our case. Agni was not so fond of travelling, but he too had the same enthusiasm to explore the unknown and do all that others might not want to venture into. While we discovered the adventures of life together, we also discovered the joys of travelling together. And today we travel together with wonder and abandon.

Love and travel bind us together. And I am sure all the couples who travel together!

Here is a list of … such couples who have shared their travel love stories. And yes, every love story is special, but ours is my favourite!

Travel Love Stories

The Averett family from Bring The Kids

I was getting onto a chairlift at Snowbird ski resort when my future husband literally skied into my life.  After both being impressed with how the other one skied, we started dating and soon got engaged on the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro .  Fast forward almost 14 years and we’ve now got 5 new travel buddies ranging in age from 2 to 12.  We’ve lived on 3 different continents and have taken our kids to almost 40 countries.  Travel with kids is COMPLETELY different than our days of travelling solo or as a couple, but it’s an experience that we’d never trade.  When you travel with kids you get to see a new and unique side of other cultures.

In Thailand, our baby was kissed and hugged by more people than I could count, in Saudi Arabia my boys learned new soccer moves from the locals, and when we visited Turkey our daughter got to be the assistant chef for the night at the restaurant we were visiting.

Patrycja Ryniak from Keeping it Curious

We started to talk just like any regular young couple does nowadays: on Tinder. But we already knew one another beforehand because we worked at the same video game company. So, our first date went as well as it could have for two shy birds such as us. But one thing we found out during our date: our passion for travel. He lived in Spain, Czech Republic, Ireland, Australia and me in Canada, England, and France. We loved to travel, couldn’t see a life without it, and often swapped so many little anecdotes. 2 years, moving in, and 2 cats later, we are still as travel-crazy (and in love) than ever before. We recently went on a trip to Asia for over 5 weeks and we travelled to Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Japan. We are always looking for the off-the-beaten-path trips to do although my boyfriend does enjoy the touristy side of things as well. What I love about us travelling together is how well we complement one another and bring up ideas to do on our trip. We are both environmentally conscious. We hope to continue exploring different continents together, specifically the South Americas and Africa.  When we are at home, we often contemplate where we will travel next and our fridge is littered with magnets we found from our various trips. For us, life is too short not to meet the locals. We can’t wait to see where we will travel to next.

Sophie & Adam from Travels of Sophie and We Own the Moment

Prior to meeting, both Adam and I had been travelling for several years as solo backpackers.  We both loved the liberation that comes with travelling solo and were honestly reluctant to give it up at first.

Adam is from Oregon in the US and I am from London in the UK… and we met in Melbourne, Australia.  Our meeting was a serendipitous one at a busy bar on a Monday night in Melbourne (perks of being a backpacker – partying on a Monday night!).  However, it wasn’t until 6 months later in Cairns, Australia, that we met back up and started dating.  Since then we’ve travelled together to over 10 countries in 4 continents.

Transitioning to travelling as a couple had its bumps, to begin with, like any new relationship.  But as we are both photographers, our interests while travelling are so similar that we rarely have to compromise.  Both of us are night owls – we’ll happily stay up all night photographing the stars and chatting away.  However, if we’re waking up to shoot sunrise, we’ll barely say a word to each other!

I think the most romantic place we’ve visited together is Iceland.  While it might not be the first place that comes to mind when you think of romance, there’s something truly magical about being with someone you love while watching the northern lights dance above you.  Plus, if you visit in winter, it gets pretty cold, so it’s nice to have someone to snuggle up to!

Ruby & Peter from A Journey We Love

My husband and I met in 2013 in Jacksonville, Florida. I came in October 2013 for work, and he moved to the city in 2009. We met at work and were on the same team. On our first date, he then realized how much I loved to travel, as we went to a bookstore and I was giddy looking at all the travel books and pointing out countries I have been to.

He was not keen on travelling by himself, so he mostly traveled to visit his brother, who was living in Los Angeles, at the time, or Spain and Slovakia, where his other relatives were living in. He was not spontaneous, but I was, and he got caught up with my travel bug. Pretty soon, he and I were looking for airline and deals to anywhere and everywhere: we didn’t really care much where we’re going as long as we haven’t been there before. It was an adventure, and something new, which was what counts.

Travel is a big part of our relationship. He dove into the travel bug with me pretty quickly: we went on a weekend trip to Charleston on our first month together, and he committed to flying to New Orleans for his birthday even if we’re only together for 3 months. He even went as crazy as booking a trip with me to Brazil to see the World Cup in 2014 eight months after we started dating! That takes some commitment! We have lied low for now since I’m expecting a baby and can’t travel anymore, but that has been our life from 2013 until early 2019.

I have a tendency to get too wound up and stressed during travels, and he tends to be the more relaxed one. It works out between us. Not many quirks between us, except that I need to get a souvenir from every single destination we’ve been in!

Our most romantic place to visit is definitely Bratislava, Slovakia – that’s where my husband was from and it was where he proposed (in a ruined castle near the Austrian border).

Michael & Brent from Brent and Michael Are Going Places

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the Captain intoned over the PA system, “we’re diverting to Boston for an emergency landing.”

These aren’t words you want to hear flying over the Atlantic from America to Europe. The burning smell inside the airplane cabin wasn’t helping either.

But that’s exactly what happened to my husband, Brent, and myself earlier this year. Even worse, we weren’t seated together.

As the next thirty minutes dragged by, the flight attendants rushing around with oxygen masks and fire extinguishers, my mind raced with different thoughts, including how we’d wound up on this flight.

Two years earlier, unhappy in our lives and careers, Brent and I decided to reinvent ourselves as digital nomads. Since we’re both writers, we could work anywhere in the world. So we sold our house in Seattle and set off to see the world.

And now our plane might be about to crash.

I looked across the cabin, desperate to tell Brent different things. Some of them were a little silly, like the fact that he needed to have his shoes on in case we evacuated, or that the odds of surviving a plane crash are actually higher than most people know.

But mostly I wanted to tell him I loved him.

We obviously landed safely, if heavily perspired. And even now, we both agree: nothing is certain in life, and if we ever die, we’d rather have it happen doing what we love than being unhappy back in America.

Hanna & Boyan from Solar Powered Blonde

I met my partner in London last year when he was there for a videography job. We had a mutual friend on Instagram, also someone I had never met before. Through this person, I had followed him and we had been following each other for a while. He never shows his face as he only posts drone photos and I had never shown my face on Instagram either. When he messaged me asking for recommendations on where to stay in London, I said worst case scenario there is always my floor! He did indeed end up sleeping on my floor. A moment of madness, letting a total stranger stay at my house has resulted in full time travel together since! Since last year we have visited over 15 countries together already. We both quit our jobs to focus on moving forward with videography and what is now our blog. We are both travel obsessed and love living out of our suitcases. I have a rock obsession and Boyan loves to drone boats. This got us into some trouble in Mykonos, as one of the boats he was taking a photo of clearly had some famous people on it! We love that we both share the same passion for photography and documenting our travels. But I think Boyan hates my enthusiasm in the morning. I used to be a nurse so have no body clock, he is definitely not a morning person! The most romantic place for me was watching the sunrise while standing above the clouds in Madeira. I just asked Boyan and he said Bali!

Luke & Roxy from The Coastal Campaign

In November 2015 my girlfriend and I met while backpacking in Western Australia, in the coastal town of Dunsborough . I was supposed to move to New Zealand a few weeks later, but after meeting Roxy, decided to stay in Australia for another year. We have been travelling the world full time for the last 4 years and have had the most incredible adventures. Before meeting we had travelled solo for a couple of years so it was essential for us both to keep travelling. Luckily we wanted to keep exploring the world together. Roxy is the organiser and trip planner and has discovered some amazing off the beaten path destinations for us to visit, while I am just happy to go with the flow. Our personalities, while very different, allow us to be an amazing travel couple that (almost) never fights.

Our favourite thing to do while backpacking is to rent scooters and embark upon epic road trips in lesser known destinations. Riding through Flores in Indonesia and completing the Ha Giang Loop in Vietnam are amongst our favourite adventures. The most amazing place we have visited together was the Maldives. I would recommend it as the ultimate romantic getaway for couples and we even managed to spend a week there on a budget.

I couldn’t imagine travelling for this long with anybody else and count myself lucky to have such an incredible partner in crime.

Jade & Kev from Two Tall Travellers

As unromantic as it sounds, we met in a pub through a friend!

Long term travel was never on the agenda but soon we realised that working and living in the UK wasn’t for us. In 2015 we packed our bags and left for the bright lights of Beijing . It was a big decision, but one that we have never regretted!

Since then, we have travelled to over nine countries together, including a year living and working in Australia.

We have decided that we aren’t ready to settle down in the UK so travelling is really important to us! Our plan is to work abroad for as long as we can in order to fund our travels.

When we’re on a trip, we have different ways of approaching things but we always manage to balance each other out!

I (Jade) am much more organised in the planning process. I’ll trawl through Instagram, binge travel YouTube videos and read all of the reviews!

Kev on the other hand could easily turn up to a destination without even booking accommodation. We’re very different in that respect but it works because sometimes it’s good to plan ahead and sometimes it’s good to be more open to unplanned adventures!

The most romantic place that we have ever visited has got to be Koh Ta Kiev – a remote Cambodian island with limited electricity and no WiFi. In the evenings, we enjoyed sunset cocktails in a hidden treehouse listening to the peaceful ocean.

We would love to visit the Maldives – can you get any more romantic than that?!

Jessica & Ron from Unearth the Voyage

Ron and I met at a bar where we both went to university. At the time I was completing my last year of school and he has already graduated. I had always dreamed of travelling and the night I met Ron I told him I really wanted a travel buddy to explore the world with. Ron wasn’t fascinated with travelling like I was but on our first big trip, we were both smitten. Travel plays a huge part in our love story. After dating for a year, we decided together to sell all of our things and take a job teaching English in South Korea. Ron had never travelled outside of the USA and I had only travelled overseas once. We fell more in love with each other while teaching together in South Korea and learned so much about each other through that experience. After leaving South Korea and while we were backpacking Southeast Asia is when our love really became apparent. Of course, backpacking was amazing, but it was also hard moving to a new city every other day and not having a home base, but we leaned on each other and it definitely took our love for each other to not get into lots of fights and have a bad time. We backpacked Southeast Asia 5 years ago and now we are getting married in 3 days! I would say we won the travel couple lottery!!

PS: They are quite happily married now on the date of publishing of the post!!

Ed & Jennifer from Coleman Concierge

Our love story is simple, modern, and digital. We met on an online dating site. I razzed Ed for his tagline “The Most Adventurous Nerd You’ll Ever Meet,” and it was on. He was adventurous but also very nerdy. Nerd was not usually my go, but there was nothing not to like. We each were a little unsure of each other until we went  backpacking at Havasu Falls , that’s where the magic happened.

He was strong and competent, but very patient too. I was never a fast hiker, but this time was even worse. I was one year out from having my left knee replaced and a year past due for my right knee replacement. Between the titanium and complete lack of cartilage, not to mention the 30lb pack on my back, I wasn’t setting any speed records on the downhill.

Ed hiked right beside me carrying his much heavier pack as the day got hotter and hotter. I’m sure he could have already been swimming in the waterfall by the time our sweaty selves got into camp, but he stayed right there with a smile on his face. On the way up, I showed him my mettle (no pun intended). I climbed 2000′ up out of the canyon an hour faster than I did on the downhill. He realized that, even if downhills aren’t my thing, I can still hang. That’s why Havasu Falls will always be our special place.

Betsy & Pete from PassingThru.com

We met in an online chatroom in 1999. I had done some internet dating previously, but had decided to give it up entirely. I really liked him because he was funny and could spell, so I finally gave in and consented to meet him for lunch. We had a lot in common, dated for six years and got married in 2006.

We both love to travel and early on in our marriage, we decided to build a location independent business . The goal was two-fold: prepare for an unconventional retirement and incorporate more travel in our lives.

Our travel quirks are that we don’t really care about the “must-see” locations or “must-do” activities. We’ve been to close to 50 countries, but have yet to visit Italy, for example. And we’d much rather while away an afternoon at a sidewalk cafe than spend it in a museum. I’d say we love that the other is always up for an unusual adventure. We hate each other’s idea of when it’s appropriate to arrive at the airport. He likes to be way too early, and he’d say I like to push being late.

The most romantic place we’ve visited is Fiji. After having lived on Kauai, we think Fiji has just the amount of exotic to take “island paradise” to a new level! Now in our sixties, and after traveling the world full time for four years, we’ve repatriated to the United States and are planning our post-nomadic lifestyle.

Bret & Mary from Green Global Travel

When Mary and I first met at a Christmas party back in 2008, we had no idea we’d wind up living, working, and travelling together 24/7/365 for the better part of the next 10 years. But after our first big trip together, during which we spent a week on an incredibly romantic road trip around Hawaii’s Big Island, we realized our mutual love of travel and adventure made us a perfect match. We quickly discovered how our differences made us complement each other well: I was more adventurous and tended to fly by the seat of my pants (which made sense, as I’d spent the last 5 years studying and performing improv comedy), while she was more reserved, more organized, more practical. I also learned that she had major FOMO (fear of missing out) as well as a stubborn streak: Rather than cajole her into doing crazy things, I realized if I just let my naturally exuberant enthusiasm show, she’d do it just so she wouldn’t feel left out on the adventure! In the 9 years since we launched our responsible travel blog, Green Global Travel, we’ve travelled to dozens of romantic places around the world, from Tahiti and the Philippines to fairytale castles in Ireland and the Czech Republic. But if we had to pick our favourites, hers would be the Greek Islands and mine would be our first safari in Tanzania. But the truth is that, even as we approach 11 years together, we still find romance together no matter where we are.

Ollie and Candi from Ollie and the Captain

If you’re looking for Ollie, you’ll find him shredding epic waves on his surfboard. If you’re looking for Candi, she’ll be close behind, bopping in the water pretending to know how to surf. The best part about this scenario is that we’re together, and it is repeated in multiple countries across the world!

Together, we make up Ollie and the Captain, a pair of passionate travel bloggers that met in the corporate office space and ignited a flame in one another to take our skills and careers abroad.  For the past year, our life has been on the road, documenting our digital nomad, surfing and travel adventures as we go.

Despite Candi being called the Captain, Ollie often takes charge of logistics – including mixing a blend of languages in an attempt to communicate with locals. Leaving Candi with the navigating could find you kilometers from where you are meant to be. Instead, her name is dubbed from her school days when she was convinced she was a pirate. It’s no wonder that some of our favourite spots are coastal!

Our love for one another allows us to find romance in every city. From watching the sun dip beyond the water on the black sands of Canggu (Bali) to grooving in the streets of Rio, indulging in new experiences has brought us closer together, allowing us to fall in love all over again. Often we find ourselves erupting in laughter when we think of what our lives could have been stuck behind a desk ( becoming a digital nomad was the best choice we ever made – after loving one another).

Frank & Vera of FrankAboutCroatia.com

We have met 18 years ago, on a cruise ship, where we both worked. I sometimes joke that a cabin with a porthole was all he needed to seduce me. Since then we have travelled to over 30 countries together, and we lived in two. Our new project is to travel around Spain for three months in our camper .

On our travels, Frank is always ready to take it easy and have a coffee, and I am always rushing to visit the next place. These things we love and hate about each other at the same time. I like that he reminds me to slow down and enjoy the moment, and he likes that I make him experience things he otherwise wouldn’t do on his own. At the same time, he drives me crazy with his slowness, and I drive him crazy with always running after the next experience.

Although Frank was a navigation officer, he can’t find his way around in any town we visit. He always seems lost and heading in a wrong direction.

We visited many romantic places on our travels, but we keep especially fond memories of Dubrovnik . Dubrovnik is a beautiful medieval town and a must-visit place in Croatia. We are lucky enough to have family living there, so we could explore it at various times of a year, not only in summer when it gets overcrowded.

Katherine & Hali from Tara Lets Anywhere

My boyfriend and I met during a  voluntourism trip in a then-unknown island community in the Philippines. I was tasked with handing out goods to children, while he was there as our events photographer. We dated after this and started the blog soon after. I’m mainly the one who writes, while he’s the boyfriend behind-the-scenes. That saying, we look at the blog as — not just a project — but our baby.

Travel is one of the common things we both love doing, so it’s definitely an activity that bonds us — whether in tagging each other in interesting travel posts in IG, planning an itinerary, or actually enjoying a trip together.

I tend to make impromptu decisions, while he prefers everything planned out beforehand. It drives us both crazy sometimes. e love that we have the same preferences in travelling. We like nature or off-beaten locations and we don’t mind doing rough backpacking. During our past voluntourism trips, we had to trek to the mountains to reach communities or walk on chest-high water between islands to reach the school. We also have a lot of experiences going on rough boat rides and pitching camps on remote islands.

I hate that when we’re facing a difficulty on the road, I have to be the one who makes decisions. On his part, he has to contend that I don’t like adventurous activities (e.g., cliff jumping, canyoneering, etc).

We both agree that the most romantic place we visited is Siargao (Philippines). We slept on an island and during the sunset, the sky was a gorgeous canvas of oranges and pinks.

Inma & Jose from A World to Travel

Long before we launched A World to Travel, Jose and I met while we were still in our mid-20s. For that one, I was already in love with traveling alone once in a while, but without a doubt getting together was the trigger to start traveling more as a couple.

In the beginning, we had to adjust and learn to live together, making decisions that were satisfactory for both parties. He leads a more ‘orderly’ life than me, and I quickly knew that things, like eating at the right time and having good accommodation, were essential for his well-being.

Some of the destinations we have enjoyed together (although, each and every one of the trips we have taken has been special) are Morocco (because we were quite young and it was an adventure) and Indonesia (for the wonder that is the country). Both exotic if you live in the West, and highly recommended to enjoy with your significant other if you ask us.

Fast forward 12 years and we’re still going strong. If you are curious, here’s what a year in the life of a travel blogging couple like us looks like.

Sue & Reggie from Travel for Life Now

It all started with a request for a phone number. We were at an LGBT weekend camp in the Berkshires and had just met. The answer was no, but an email address was offered instead.  Then, a dinner invitation. Again no, but maybe a movie with a bunch of friends. From this beginning has come 21 years of adventures in 50+ countries.

Our first year together, we went on 4 trips and discovered our love of travelling. In Paris over Valentine’s weekend, we had an outdoor picnic with wine and Brie in the gardens at Versailles. Did we mention that it was February?

In words of Reggie

Sue comes up with more farfetched ideas like sleeping in the snow hotel or jumping into the ocean in Antarctica. She is Curious George and she will wander off anywhere. This drives me crazy.

In words of Sue

Reggie is a planner and once created an hour by hour spreadsheet for our first trip to Asia. Curious George has a hard time following schedules. Reggie finds all of the travel deals and hacks, like the time we flew first class to London for close to nothing. We wouldn’t get anywhere without her.

We’ve had so many wonderful trips travelling as a lesbian couple that it’s hard to pick our favourite and most romantic. Essaouira in Morocco was lovely. In Africa, we did a walking safari and had drinks in the bush while watching the sunset. The balloon ride over the Serengeti at sunrise was breathtaking. One of our most magical evenings was spent watching a dance performance in Angkor Wat at night. Mainly locals and a few tourists. This was long before the crowds discovered Siem Reap.

We are looking forward to continuing our travels for (at least) for the next 21 years.

Oksana & Max from Drink Tea & Travel

Max and I met in 2008, back when we were both studying at University in Canada. We dated briefly but went our separate ways shortly after graduation. Max moved to Australia to pursue a Masters degree and Oksana stayed in Toronto, working a regular 9-5. We stayed in touch, but it wasn’t until 2012 that our paths crossed again, when our passion for travel brought us together in sunny Australia. We rekindled our relationship and took many trips around Australia, Southeast Asia and beyond while still working a typical 9-5.

We always dreamed of a life of travel, so in 2014, we started our blog, DrinkTeaTravel.com as a way to share our passion for travel with others. A hobby quickly turned into more and by in 2015, we decided to take a leap, quit our jobs and try to make it as full-time travellers and bloggers.

After many years of full-time travel, we have finally learned to appreciate each other’s weird quirks, like Oksana’s desire to eat 6 meals a day or Max’s need to find the absolute best deal on every flight, every hotel and every tour. We find that our personalities are quite complementary, which makes it fairly easy to travel and work together 24/7. Together, we have visited over 50 countries and shared many incredible experiences.

One of our favourite destinations and one of the most romantic places in the world is Tanzania. We absolutely love the country, the people, and the wildlife there. The eco-lodges in Tanzania are some of the most romantic places we have ever stayed in and the experience is one we recommend to every couple.

Jeremy & Kate from Our Escape Clause

More than 12 years ago, we met and fell in love as high school students who had never left the USA–but travelling together was always part of our dreams.

The day after our wedding in 2013, we set off on our first-ever international trip: a week at a resort in the Bahamas.

We were immediately hooked on the joys of travelling, from trying new foods to exploring new cultures to the challenges and quirkiness of taking taxis abroad, and before the year was out, we had booked a trip to Paris, too.

When in Paris , our love of travelling escalated dramatically, the trip blurring into a delightful kaleidoscope of memories that include crepes and cathedrals and catacombs.

While we visited with the intention of it being our only trip to Europe for at least a couple of years, by our third wedding anniversary, we were celebrating in Seville, Spain–a month or so into our life of full-time travel.

Now, we’ve been traveling full-time for more than 3 years, visiting around 45 countries, living for a month or more at a time in some of our favorite cities (Rome, Florence, Istanbul, Boston, Cape Town–just to name a few), and learning more about ourselves and the world around us every single day.

Travel has become synonymous with love to us–it’s something that we do together, and has been woven so intricately into our love story it’s truly difficult to imagine our story without it.

Sarah & Nigel from A Social Nomad

My husband Nigel and I met on Christmas Day in the ski resort of Courmayeur, Italy.   Skiing holidays in Europe and North America formed a big part of our travel together and it was Big White Mountain in British Colombia, Canada where we eloped to in order to get married.  I say eloped, but it was a surprise for Nigel that I arrange in secret.  We married at the top of the ski lift and then proceeded down the worst ski run of my life.  My legs never shook like that before or after!

Nearly 6 years ago we decided that after talking about long term travel for over 10 years that we’d either get on and do it or shut up.  So we packed two 40 litre backpacks and set off.  We’ve spent wedding anniversaries on delightfully empty hot spring beaches in New Zealand, in airports in India and plan to be mid-Atlantic on a boat this year, our 20 th anniversary.

We complement each other when we travel – mostly – we have our own styles of research and it works for us.  I’m still ready for the bus/plane/train 30 minutes before I need to be, agitated that we might be late, he’s always heading for a last-minute toilet break 2 minutes after we need to leave.

We have visited some stunning places – we’ve stood at Everest Base Camp, hiked the Great Wall of China, tasted Sake in Japan , marvelled at Uluru and stood at Iguazu Falls together, but no matter how spectacular the place, it would mean so much less if he wasn’t there to share it with.

Jen & Ryan from Passions and Places

We’ve been travelling full-time for about three years now, married just a little longer than that, and together for about ten years. Even though we didn’t start dating until after college, we actually met in high school and had been friends for years before we got together.

Early in our relationship, we had to do long-distance while Jen was serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Rwanda. Ryan came to visit twice, and Rwanda was the first country he visited outside the U.S. and Canada.

We’re fortunate that travelling together has usually come pretty easily for us. We have similar travel styles, and we’re both always willing to step up when the other person needs a break. But there are some things we don’t see eye-to-eye on. For example, Jen says: Ryan’s backpack seems to explode every time we arrive at a new place! But Ryan says: Jen is insistent on documenting every expense in an elaborate spreadsheet, always asking me, “How much did that cost?”

We both agree that the most romantic place we’ve been is Zanzibar, which we visited together while Jen was in the Peace Corps. It’s a really special island with a unique blend of cultures and so much to do. The beaches there must have just about the softest, whitest sand and the clearest, bluest water in the world. More than any other place we’ve visited, it’s the one we always dream of returning to.

Lyn & Steve from A Hole in my Shoe

Our love story began later in life, having met online and married at 50. We first travelled for our honeymoon in 2010, cruise throughout Southeast Asia and immediately knew we wanted to travel more. We were determined that despite working fulltime and  living in Perth , the most isolated city in the world nothing was going to deter us from fulfilling our passion for travel.

I can’t think of anything better than travelling with someone who loves you, quirks and all. We may not be perfect, but we are perfect for each other. I am the dreamer, planner and storyteller, he is the technical advisor and carrier of the bags. If I’m stressed, he calms me, if I’m sad, he cheers me and if I’m lost, he finds me.

We know each other really well and it is nice to know that I have Steve’s total trust to plan where and what we’ll do, and he will plan how to get there.

We agree the most romantic place we’ve been is in Budapest, at Fisherman’s Bastion. It was a freezing cold day with breathtaking scenery, and we ended the day with hot chocolate to warm us up.

The place I recommend for travel would be Japan, Kyoto to be specific. Allow yourself several days to absorb yourself in the peaceful atmosphere, the history, traditions and culture. There is some spectacular architecture too. From the futuristic Kyoto train station with its modern design of glass and steel to the traditional Higashi-Hongan-ji temple, one of the largest wooden structures in the world. This is a city of contrasts, numerous temples, impeccable gardens and UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Madhurima & Sayantan from Orange Wayfarer

Sayantan and I first “virtually” met on Facebook, while discussing a rather political movie. I was in the first year of MBA. Sayantan was fresh out of college and had joined a bank. If I recall it correctly, it was the vague end of Diwali, 2014. We were busy travelling in our individual capacity for the next couple of months, meaning only one or two weekends were left in Bangalore before 2014 ended!

Our Kolkata roots had inspired us to find a “ Prem Korar Jayga ”, (shady translation: a lover’s den?) in Bangalore which was an unending search. The city had the swanky malls and highrises, freshly brewed beers and rooftop dining but no Victoria Memorial if you know what I mean!

Desperate, we decided to run away from Bangalore and meet in Pondicherry!

Turned out, Pondicherry was awaiting us with all her bright yellow-hued walls and serene waves of Bay of Bengal. It was Pondicherry where we first walked for miles, hand in hand, often without a clue of where the road would take us. I laughed my heart out as Sayantan kept cracking those lame jokes. Sayantan almost fell asleep as I was talking about sweet nothings. We tasted culinary delights from the roadside joints to the French cafes. We shied away from the busy queues, picked up Rabindranath’s book from second-hand book stores, and amidst all these, our love blossomed.

It is almost 5 years since the trip to Pondicherry and together we have been to 10 other countries. Yet, that winter weekend in Pondicherry remains vividly beaming in my memory! And, we have gone back a countless number of times to let Pondicherry cast her spell on us!

Agni & Amrita from Tale of 2 Backpackers

“When I will be quite able, I will propose you, hope you will not say ‘no’ to me at that time” , these were his words. Which girl who is hopelessly romantic can say “No” to someone who is as earnest and lovable as him? So I very diplomatically and meekly replied, “I will not say ‘no’ to you, but please remember what you said.”

And so it all started in 2006 when we were in college together. Since then we were together for most of the time and finally got married in 2011. After college, we both had to live in different cities for making a career. During this time, we used to visit each other and travel a lot. Infact, I once ran away from my house to meet him. Finally, we decided enough was enough. We took the reins in our hand and decided to stay together for the rest of our lives, even if it meant to sacrifice a part of our career growth.

I was more outdoorsy kind while Agni was just the opposite. But somehow I managed to convince Agni to venture into the unknown and unchartered territories. Now we both enjoy our experiences and adventure on the road. Love and travel bind us together. While we are in love with each other, we both are totally, madly in love with the road, the adventure and uncertainties of travel.

While Agni is the more laidback traveller who prefers to experience things as it comes, I am more of the fussy planner. The best part is we complement each other in our ways of travel. While I am fond of sunshine and everything bright, Agni loves the snow and ice. Thus we seem to get the best of all. We understand each other and our preferences. We have strikingly different personalities and the fact that we are so different appeals to us the most. We complement each other in ways that help us to travel and work together.

To us, Darjeeling is the most romantic place that we have visited. There is such a romantic nostalgia about the place that we travel to Darjeeling on every anniversary! Quirky or not, it is for you to decide! While we would love you to visit Darjeeling and its surroundings, we would also recommend you to visit Northeast India. After Darjeeling, it is our next place to go whenever we are happy or sad. In fact we do not need any reason to travel to these places!

So that was a few love stories of a few travel couples. Each story inspires us to be better and more understanding of each other. Well, travelling together is not very easy. One has to tolerate the other’s quirks and eccentricities. Things get tough especially when there is some mishap on road or things does not go according to plans. However, facing these problems on the road together is a different joy.

Did you like these stories of love and travel? Do you have some interesting stories to share? Do let us know in comments below. If you want your story to be included here, contact us .

Agni Amrita

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43 comments.

All stories are romantic and lovely. It was very nice to read this. My wife and I went to Goa a few years ago, rented a villa there and had a good time together. This article reminds me of that time.

Thank you so much! I am sure you had a lovely time there.

This is such a well curated list Amrita. Really enjoyed reading all the amazing love stories. What makes it better, is all are of fellow travel content creators, which is why could relate to a lot of them, specially the last two.

Thank you Arnav!

Great post!! All the stories were completely incredible and it is so intriguing to see that many older couples are keen on traveling too. Traveling solo has it own adventures but I can never travel without my girlfriend, as many people say any situation gets better when you are with your loved ones.

Truly said Daniel. Travelling together is a great deal of fun.

I love to read travel stories and that too if it is related to travel then this post becomes super exciting to me. Wow so many romantic couples met in beautiful locations of this world and see how travel bonds people together. I loved the story of The Averett family from Bring The Kids as it must be so exciting to meet your husband in ski lift and that too by luck. Also they are passing there traveling genes to their cute children of 2 to 12 years old.

Thank you Yukti!

This is such a different post to the ones i normally stumbleupon and thanks for taking the time of getting all this together for a great read. I do get the freedom of solo travel and you are not debating with anyone on what to do or not but for me it’s more about the joy of sharing with my loved ones and have travelled as a family always. Some great stories here and shows how you can enjoy the world as a couple or a family. Like you said it’s not easy to find your perfect travel partner but Agni did turn out to be the perfect one even though you were like chalk and cheese. Great read keep travelling.

Thank you Amar for the kind words. It is great to read stories like these.

This post reflects my story. I met my husband when I traveled solo in Vietnam and now, we have been together for 10 years and have traveled more than 5 destinations a year and we are both now living as an ex-pat. Thank you for sharing this love story about couples who traveled with their soulmates on this special valentine’s day.

Thank you Kristina. This is one of my favourite posts.

I enjoyed reading this post. Very timely since we’re celebrating Valentine’s Day too.

I totally agree that travel can bind us together. My husband and I see to it that we get to travel as often as we could as it is the perfect way to bond and great beautiful memories.

I also loved the story of Sophie and Adam. 🙂

Thank you Clarice!

Great to read about bloggers and their amazing stories. Its good to know about something about the bloggers from behind the scenes. I follow all the bloggers also and they are all fantastic on what they do, bringing the world to those who can’t get out there. Great blog post. 🙂

Thank you Danik!

Great list!! So great to read about people who love traveling with their significant others. so inspirational to know that some people get together regardless of their differences and bought together by their passion.

Thank you Daniel!

Wow. Enjoyed reading the stories. Love the fact that no matter how different the two individuals are they are bound by the love of travel. It reminded me of me and my husband. We love the the way we connect while planning and executing our holidays.

Thank you Pooja!

This gives me hope that I can find someone to travel the world with too! I love all these stories and especially reading about all the unique ways the couples met. I’m glad you included a variety of stories and couples into this post.

Thank you Elizabeth. I am sure you will find someone if you want! 🙂

What a great idea for an article. So many great stories here. It’s very nice to hear how travel can bring people together in our day and age where the world sometimes seems to be drifting apart. This was a lovely morning read with my coffee!

Thank you Paul. Glad that you liked the article.

Such sweet love stories! It was fun to see the different ways people fell in love and enjoyed traveling together. I especially enjoyed the story of the couple who met on the ski lift at Snowbird~

Thank you Laura! I am sure the Averett family will be glad to know that their story is your favourite!

So many great love stories! One thing all these couples has in common is the love for traveling! And mine is not different! I meet my Swiss husband in Finland and that was 17 years ago. We are like day and night and fight quite regularly. But I belive that we have stucked up with each other for so long is our love to travel. Our first long term travel together was in South east asia for 6 month, after that was round the world for 15 month. And yes, I got pregnant in Belize and found out about it in Mexico. We decided to return home. But guess what, it has been over 16 month we are traveling the world with our now 4 years old daughter! Now, we have another kind of love travel story…the love for our child and her love for traveling!

Wow! That’s a lovely story. I am so glad that your daughter loves travelling. This surely will be another love story!

It looks that there is our story, as well. We are two crazy guys living on the road, as you describe in your post. I especially love the story of Ed& Jennifer, because of their Havasu Falls adventure. This place is magic, and I completely understand why it happened there. And knowing how hard is the hike, I admire Ed for carrying heavy backpack. Other stories are nice as well, but this one is my favorite!

Thank you! I am sure Ed & Jennifer will be happy to know that. 🙂

Wow for the last two , I could connect almost practically as I have heard and seen the couple . Yes, I agree , every love story has its own unique flavour to it. Its a lovely post which kept me hooked through out while reading and visualising all the lovely couples connecting through travels.

Thank you Debjani!

What a great idea for a post! I’m normally a cynic when it comes to romance, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post. It was interesting to read about all the different ways the couples met. Studying abroad, backpacking, high school sweethearts, and so much more! It really is quite cool to learn about how different people meet and then start travelling the world together. Travel really does unite us!

Thank you Etica. Yes I totally agree that travel unites us!

I can’t imagine travelling without my hubby. It has added so many shared experiences to our memories. Things to smile, cry or laugh over. So glad that Agni developed a love to travelling. People often are concerned about travelling with kids. So great to include examples where family travel has really created amazing family experience. I understand the couples that say they enjoy the time not travelling to plan their next travel adventure together. And the stories show that romantic spots are definitely unique to couples. And so great to hear about how the couples challenged each other to try new things. Glad to hear that looking at other people’s love stories has inspired you to be more understanding of each other’s quirks and eccentricities.

Although I travel solo quite often, but I absolutely enjoy travelling with Agni and I always prefer travelling together. So yes, I can totally understand your feelings here.

What a great idea for a post. Loved reading everyone’s different stories!

Thank you so much!

Thanks for writing all these great stories, they were really fun to read. 🙂

I loved reading all of these amazing love stories! A great post!

Thank you so much Hanna. Thanks for contributing.

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When it’s one of those moments when I have a trip coming up but I just can’t wait for it to arrive – I love to pick up one of the best travel romance books to give my wanderlust an extra kick. Whether you’re craving that wanderlust, a new place, a person, or just a new perspective of life with travel in it, you will love these 10 books.

So, buckle up, wanderluster and romantic, let’s go on an adventure! – Of course, To make your life easier, I’ve included direct links to Amazon and Goodreads, so you can either add it to your cart, designate it to read, or purchase it. 🙂

Best Books to Read While Traveling – Best Travel Romance Books Edition

There is nothing quite like an excellent book to transport you to another time and place, regardless of whether you are an avid traveler or a homebody. But what if you’re on the road and searching for a compelling read to enhance your trip? These stories combine the excitement of exploration with the heady joy of love, making them the ideal companions for your next journey, wherever it may take you.

The best part is that these stories aren’t just about summer flings or star-crossed romances in exotic locales (though rest assured, you’ll find plenty of that, too). They are about the physical and emotional journeys we undertake in the pursuit of connection and self-discovery.

These books will make your heart race and inspire your wanderlust – guaranteed.

Looking for something specific? Head over to it!

# 1 Eat, Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

After a difficult breakup, Gilbert travels the world in search of herself, stopping for spaghetti in Italy, spiritual guidance in India, and an unexpected romance in Bali. This book is a classic for all the right reasons: sometimes you have to be lost before you can find your way home to yourself.

This book is an excellent testament for the life-changing potential of travel and the strength it can instill in you – especially if you’re interested in solo travel. It’s a moving and eye-opening story about appreciating the wonder of the unplanned and abandoning your assumptions about how your life should go.

Find this bestselling book on:

#2 Under the Tuscan Sun, by Frances Mayes

More than just a love story, it’s taking you to Italy, a renovation diary and a mouthwatering culinary journal all in one. It will not only inspire you for love and wanderlust, but also to the beauty of spontaneity and taking a transformative journey: like purchasing a villa in the Tuscan countryside.

Immerse yourself into a transformative journey that you didn’t plan for in your life and reflect on your own life.  

Discover yourself in the simple things again, such as vibrant local markets or homemade mouthwatering pasta. The lush Italian landscapes described in the book will make your heart yearn for travel, while at the same woven you seamlessly into a love story. 

Die-hard romantic? Travel enthusiast? Food lover? This book will check all your boxes.

Find it on:

#3 The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Even if there were a plan for romantic relationships, most of us wouldn’t stick to it. During his journey to understand why romantic love can’t be represented with algorithms, genetics professor Don Tillman falls in love and writes a novel about it. 

Usually, when you think of passionate couples in romance novels, you picture them in faraway places like Bali or Italy, but in this book, you’ll meet a man who goes about finding his soul mate in an unexpected way: by creating the perfect partner survey . Once he does find her, he learns that she is everything he (n)ever dreamed of: unpredictable, fiery, and willing to travel the world to track down her biological father ( makes sense, right? ).

This book will combine travel, humor, romance, and showcase transformation in all the different ways you wouldn’t expect.

Skip the scrolling and add your fave to your cart here!

#4 out of africa by isak dinesen .

A mesmerizing memoir that will transport you into the wild, untamed heart of Kenya with cinematic landscapes and adventures. Engage in a passionate affair with Africa’s wild places and discover a deeper appreciation for Mother Nature.

This book will stand out through the vivid depiction of the Kenyan wilderness and Blixen’s deep respect and understanding of it. The story of Blixen and Finch’s love will make your heart race with excitement and warm you up inside. So, what’s better than learning more about what it means to love a person, a place, and a new way of life?

Get captivated by poetic prose and make you yearn for the African sun on your face and the thrill of love in your heart.

#5 The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

If you’ve ever dreamed of 1920s Paris, then you’re in for a gin-soaked, jazz-filled ride with a love story of Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley. A beautiful blend of love, betrayal, and the lure of the City of Lights. It’s based on a real-life love story in an intoxicating place filled with exhilarating freedom, artistic revolution, and sweeping romance. 

The author’s description of Parisian life during the Jazz Age will transport your heart to the city’s intellectual and artistic movements and is so much more than the love story: it’s a love letter to Paris. 

Get captivated by the enchanting charm, the vivacious culture, and the transformative influence among the dazzling highs and heart-wrenching lows of love and loss.

This book will inspire a different sense of wanderlust and just a deep appreciation of complex love – that you may just be yearning for.

Need some real-life inspiration? Check out my recent trip to Antigua, Guatemala!

If you’re planning a romantic trip, these romantic things to do in Key West might give you some ideas.

First time traveler and don’t know where to go? Check this handy guide out!

#6 Chasing the Monsoon by Alexander Frater

Let me start out with, picture this: traveling the subcontinent and capturing the monsoon rains while stumbling into a spellbinding and breathtaking love story. Sounds about right, right? Well, in this novel you can experience the magic of a captivating travelogue and love story as you’re wandering through India chasing awe-inspiring natural phenomenons. 

Anticipate rich descriptions of how the author makes the monsoons into a living force that enchants, revitalizes, and romances the country and its people. His writing evokes a strong sense of longing to see the world and a desire to feel the sensation and smell of rain on your skin and the aroma of freshly soaked soil – or literally just crave that warm summer rain on your skin outside.

Discover new places, cultures, and experiences while falling in love with them in this novel.

#7 Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

How about a love affair on the Italian coast? This love story spans across landscapes and decades. Starting in 1962 in Pasquale Tursi, a man falls in love with an American actress that’s trying to flee the chaos of Hollywood, right into his arms. However, true love persists across oceans, through a span of 50 years that keeps rekindling over decades, showcasing that true love is in fact a marathon and not a sprint. 

Be mesmerized by the exploration of love, dreams, and second chances that withstand time. Just like a trip, life in all its messy glory is a grand adventure of twists and turns, beautiful ruins and restored hopes. 

#8 French Lessons by Ellen Sussman

Three Americans, three French tutors, and one day in Paris equals the perfect recipe for heart-wrenching romance. In the city of love, these people learn more than just the language in this single day of unexpected romances that can blossom when we step out of our comfort zones. 

This book is about more than simply love; it’s also about finding one’s identity in the face of a new culture and a new place. It will make you long for walks along charming alleys and make you reflect on your history and your future. 

You may just find love in the most unexpected place too. 

#9 Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

You’ve heard of discovering love when you least expect it, but what if it comes at a time of pure chaos while traveling? This semi-autobiographical play is set in Mumbai and depicts resilience, revealing beauty, chaos, and contradictions, as well as how love can heal almost anything. 

Deeply moved by its raw and heartfelt portrayal of life and love, will make you not want to put it down but book the next flight to Bombay. 

This book will be your favorite because it explores the human spirit and its capacity for love, resilience, and redemption while demonstrating the transformational power of travel, love, and second chances. 

Down for an adventure that intertwines romance and travel, while taking you into the labyrinth of Bombay’s streets and the human heart?

Pick your favorite here and add it to your cart now!

#10 the japanese lover by isabel allende.

This transcending love story spans continents, from Poland to San Francisco, from WWII to the twenty-first century. This book delves into a profound and enduring love that defies time, cultural boundaries, and personal catastrophes. 

Follow a secret romance between a girl fleeing the war and the son of the family’s Japanese gardener. You’ll follow the couple as they prove the enduring power of love that transcends societal norms, distances, and the passage of time. Prepare to explore your identity, displacements, and the deep connections you establish with people, all while testing your self-awareness. 

This novel is about a story that will not only pique your wanderlust but will also touch your heart with its timeless romance. 

Books about Travel and Finding Yourself

Travel and self-discovery are two components that are tightly linked in literature. Books on travel and self-discovery provide a beautiful combination of both themes, allowing you to embark on a voyage of geographical exploration and internal introspection at the same time.

What Makes Travel Books So Powerful?

For starters, they offer immersive experiences that provide a window into other cultures, landscapes, and peoples from around the world. You can go to different places without even leaving your couch, making it an easy escape. 

Second, it’s much more than just the physical travel. They dive into the characters’ transforming journeys – their self-discovery, personal growth, and the profound insights they receive about life and themselves along the way. These works speak to us on a deeper level, often echoing our own search for meaning and identity.

Third, they capture the essence of travel – the sense of freedom, the delight of finding new places, and the transforming experiences that mold and define us – beautifully. The journeys of the characters remind us of our own capacity for change and progress.

After all, it’s a never-ending search for love, connection, and comprehension. These experiences inspire, stir, and leave a lasting impression, whether it’s finding love in a faraway nation, pursuing the monsoon throughout India, or discovering oneself in the seductive streets of Paris.

Last Few Thoughts 

Ultimately, these books allow us to discover new horizons while also exploring undiscovered territory within ourselves. They encourage us to enjoy life’s journey with all of its twists and turns, reminding us that every trip, no matter how long or short, leads to self-discovery.

Looking for travel necessities? Check here if you have everything you need!

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Anna is a traveler, blogger, and entrepreneur who can’t keep herself still. She’s always on the move, whether working hard on a new passion project or exploring a new city as a part-time digital nomad. Dare to keep up? Check out The Tatted Nomad for everything digital nomad, social media marketing, mental health, and travel (and to see her latest addition, Novah, her service dog and travel companion). As a psychotherapist (to be) she also offers insights about your mental health related questions – anything you see that isn’t covered but you have questions about? Let her know!

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Ohh fun! Great list of books. I want to check out the Rosie Project.

These sound like good books to read if you want to escape reality. I liked Eat.Pray.Love.

Oh yes!! I love Eat.Pray.Love! It’s a classic!! Have you read any of the other ones yet?

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All the Feels: Traveler Love Stories

When you travel, you’re guaranteed to fall in love—with cities, gelato flavors, traditions, new friends, or even “the one." We followed three different travel love stories from six of our awesome travelers who experienced relationship milestones on EF Ultimate Break trips. Like travel, love knows no bounds, and it’s freaking awesome. Read on to hear how travel impacted the lives of these adventurous duos.

True love x Trevi

Aaron & Olivia

They say that all roads lead to Rome—but in Aaron and Olivia’s case, they also led to an epic proposal.

When we found out that Aaron was going to pop the question to Olivia on an EF Ultimate Break trip, we OBVIOUSLY had to be there to document it irl. As they wound their way through Rome with their group and took in all the sights, Olivia had no idea what Aaron had planned for their visit to the famous Trevi Fountain. After tossing their coins over their shoulders into the water, Aaron got down on one knee and—surprise!—Olivia said yes, of course. One gorgeous ring and a bottle of bubbly later, these two were officially betrothed. Now THAT’s amore.

From jet skis to "marry me" — his and hers edition

Jacklin & Deonte

Deonte and I met on a group travel trip to Greece with EF Ultimate Break! We both went on the trip without knowing anyone. It was an 11-day trip to Greece starting in Athens and then island hopping to Santorini, Mykonos, and Paros. We introduced ourselves on the first night at the welcome cocktail hour and we were inseparable from then on! We explored ancient Athens, enjoyed a sunset cruise and postcard views of Santorini, spent majority of our time in Paros on a boat or in the clear water, and partied at beach bars, rode jet skis, and enjoyed late night walks on the beach in Mykonos. We had the best time getting to know each other and enjoying beautiful Greece! We had just met but it felt like we had known each other forever! We were sitting at the local bar by our hotel in Mykonos talking with the bartender when she asked how long we had been a together, we couldn’t help but laugh as we explained to her we met a week ago and she couldn’t believe it. The chemistry was there from day one. I mean, we were experiencing a beautiful country all while falling in love with each other—what a romantic fairytale!

Leaving Greece was like a scene from a movie. We were at his gate because his flight left before mine. When they started to board his flight we shared the longest hug. Even with the hustle and bustle of an airport and a boarding flight, the world stood still. We kissed and then we parted ways. I remember walking to my gate thinking, “Did that really just happen?!” We lived in different states eight hours apart but that did not matter. We started FaceTiming and texting all the time. We did long distance for nine months, seeing each other every few weeks. On a whim, I took a leap of faith and moved to Baltimore! Then we bought a house and now we are getting married! I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with my soulmate!

From landing in Athens together and having drinks on the rooftop at the bar, I can speak for both of us when we asked ourselves, “Am I experiencing Greece right now?” An experience we could never forget. The moment I ate the chili pepper from a drink, thinking I could fathom the heat, I knew I was a goner but Jacklin was right there to save me with some milk from behind the bar. Sounds stupid, but your boy did not know what she was doing with some chilled milk. But before that situation, it did not take long for us to click. We could talk about anything. If you were just meeting us you would’ve thought we were dating for days, months, years. We talked on the rooftop, we laid out on the cabana while I pretended to read, and we danced the night away and enjoyed our time together in a beautiful country. When the nights were ending, we would have deep conversations on the beach, toes in the sand, and stayed up until four-in-the-morning. I did not want to leave. Nothing else mattered besides her. She was the one.

Before we left the last hotel, I gave her a gift, a necklace to remember me by. I told her, “I will see you soon.” At the airport, we were together the entire time. As soon as it was time for us to split and go our separate ways, we hugged and shared a kiss until she had to go on her flight. As I was walking away, I turned around. As she was walking away, she looked right back at me. I wanted to relive those moments in Greece with her. But to me, it was until next time. So, as we both land in our hometowns, we would text, Snapchat, Facetime, anything that we could think of to stay in contact with each other. We made it work. Then, my soon-to-be-wife jumped for us and moved to Baltimore with me. I have never felt so blessed, thankful, or loved to have met someone so special and remarkable. This kind soul and beautiful person is the best thing that has ever happened to me!

The world's most epic first date

David & Caroline

28 girls all fighting over 1 guy. No, this isn’t an episode of “The Bachelor,” but the start of David and Caroline’s love story. As two strangers on an EF Ultimate Break trip, they met during their group’s first breakfast in Greece. Even with 27 other girls on the trip, when Caroline walked into the room, David only had eyes for her. David and Caroline spent the next 35 days together, traveling through Italy, France, Germany, and Spain on the longest and most adventurous first date anyone’s had in the history of dating. In just over a month, they experienced more together than most couples do in a year.

After arriving back in the U.S., they kept their European romance going—even though they lived in different states—until Caroline transferred to New York City to be with David a couple years later. David and Caroline got married in June 2018 (with their Tour Director, Tyson, and a few of their fellow EF travelers in attendance).

Put a ring on it in Paris

Ashley & Sheryl

Ahh, Paris. Full of cheese, snails, and a really famous tower. It’s also the poster child for all things love and romance, so it’s no surprise two of our travelers were feelin’ the love in this magical city. This is Sheryl and Ashley’s story.

It all started when Ashley surprised her longtime partner Sheryl with a trip to Amsterdam, Paris and London. As much as the duo enjoyed wandering the canals of Amsterdam and sightseeing in London, Paris was by far the highlight of their trip (and the start of their next big adventure).

After just a few days, Sheryl knew Paris was the place she wanted to propose to her best friend. “After ordering champagne for everyone at dinner and requesting the French musician to perform one of our favorite love songs, I stood up in front of all our new friends and proposed to Ashley. And she said YES!”

The pair continued on to London with their group, where Ashley decided Sheryl also deserved a special proposal. She spent their final day in London running around in the rain, searching for the perfect ring, which she gave to Sheryl at their farewell dinner. Spoiler: she said yes, too!

“Traveling has been a very big part of our relationship," says Sheryl. "We always hear or read in articles that couples should explore different places together, and that’s true. Ashley and I got engaged while traveling to begin with. And every time we travel, I get to know her more and more.”

From welcome drinks to wedding reception

Nick & Jenny

You never know what’ll happen on night one of your tour. For some of us, welcome mixers mean delicious apps and scoping out which of our fellow travelers we can trust with our Acropolis photo op. For others, they mean finding the person you’re going to spend your life with. Both important.

Nick, who was traveling with his sister, met solo traveler Jenny in Athens at the welcome drink on the first night of their Ultimate Europe tour back in 2010.

“We had a blast on the trip and remained close friends after, before ultimately deciding to date,” says Jenny. “We have since gone on many more adventures together, and recently got married. Thanks for the introduction to my future husband!"

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Women’s Solo Travel Adventures: Love on the Road

by Amanda Burgess | Jul 15, 2020

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Last updated on November 30th, 2023

Featured image: The solo adventuress knows love can find you in  even the most remote places / Photo credit:  Photo by Farsai Chaikulngamdee on Unsplash

Life Lessons Learned from Travel

Travel opens our hearts and minds to possibilities. We become our best and brightest selves on the road. We’re more willing to take calculated risks. Seize moments. Say hello. Be ourselves. Share ourselves.

It’s little wonder, then, that love and romance often wind their way into our travel adventures as possibilities. We asked you to tell us about the times you’ve met that someone special while travelling. What you told us made us sigh. Made us smile. Nod knowingly. Shake our heads wistfully.

Read on for a smattering of travel love stories sure to take you on a journey of the heart and soul. And couldn’t we all use a little of that right now?

Sometimes, love finds us when we’re not looking for it

Travel writer Kylie T. embarked on a solo fam trip to the Solomon Islands, feeling completely lost following a nasty breakup and custody battle. There, she met her partner, J – who is from Vanuatu but was working in the Solomon Islands.

Fresh off a recent heartbreak and legal battle, J came into Kylie’s life on a trip to the Solomon Islands and he has been an anchor in a stormy sea. / Photo provided by Kylie T.

“My first impression was he had nice eyes and seemed sweet, but as I was in a space where I was completely done with relationships, I didn’t think anything beyond that,” she recalls. “However, he proved himself to be strong, funny, interesting and compassionate on the trip so my ice heart melted a little. Staying up late talking about our lives, I realized how much I had let my nasty custody battle dictate my life and how lost I had become. He encouraged and inspired me to do those things for myself I had been putting off and take control of my own life again. At the end of the trip, he asked for my number – and despite me thinking nothing would ever happen, I gave it to him.”

While there wasn’t much romance on that trip, the pair had spent a lot of time together. The connection was obvious to everyone – except a resistant Kylie. After she returned home, she took time to heal and invest in herself, taking the dance classes she’d always wanted to and joining a gym. She found the confidence to face her ex and the custody battle with grace. And won full custody of her daughters.

All the while, J kept in constant contact. She made several trips back to the Solomon Islands and the pair spent more time getting to know one another. They travelled together. Fell in love. And began thinking about blending families.

“When you travel you need to be able to communicate well to ensure things go smoothly. Being used to things changing constantly, the need to communicate, living in unusual environments and different cultures ensured we both understood each other better than others might.”

From evacuating from the bushfires in Jervis Bay, to travelling to Vanuatu after close relatives passed away, to getting hit by Cyclone Harold in the Solomon Islands, and then locked down there as the pandemic intensified globally, the couple have weathered many storms this year alone. Their secret? Strong communication, knowing one another’s strengths and weaknesses (and planning around each), and a traveller’s mindset.

When interludes with flight staff briefly give a traveller wings

In 1986, Lois R was travelling alone when she encountered a Danish air steward in the first week of a six-week trip in Thailand. They met at the bar of the guesthouse she was staying at.

“He was with a co-worker and they were both really friendly and funny. He was very courteous and interest in my life and why I was travelling alone,” she recalls. “We all went out for a meal and then to a club. It was a really pleasant evening.”

Lois didn’t seem him again until several months later when he had a layover in Seattle. But as is sometimes the way with a travel romance redux, it wasn’t quite the same. The pair took a drive to the mountains, shared a nice dinner and then an awkward evening.

Sometimes a travel connection is better kept as a memory / Photo by Emma Dau on Unsplash

“Seattle felt different. I think we were in different places and frames of mind than in Thailand. I could see he was happy to have a romantic interlude but not build on that. Maybe he had a ‘girl in every airport.’”

“Seattle felt different, but again we spent time with his co-workers and they were all a jovial group. I think we were in different places and frames of mind than in Thailand. I was flattered – maybe too easily flattered – and developed an expectation or desire for something more,” she says. “After Seattle, I could see he was happy to have a romantic interlude but not build on that. Maybe he had a ‘girl in every airport.’”

They communicated by letter for another year after that, and then it slowly drifted away. But the lesson about expectations remained.

Where the promise of travel romance fizzles, lifelong friendships spring

In 2012, Sandy B. ventured out on her first solo trip to Europe. After being on her own for almost 20 years raising three daughters, Sandy knew she needed a change or she’d end up wallowing in loneliness. Her love for gardening led her to watch a TV series called Around the World in 80 Gardens, and an acquaintance returned from Europe about the same time, with photos of all the places she’d visited.

“It was like a buried part of me suddenly came to life. I hadn’t thought about going to Europe before, and now I had this overwhelming desire to go.”

“It was like a buried part of me suddenly came to life. I hadn’t thought about going to Europe before, and now I had this overwhelming desire to go,” she says. “I found an on-line site called TravBuddy, which sadly shut down a few years back. That site was a wealth of information and their awesome members encouraged me to travel alone and stay in hostels.”

She sold her house, put everything in storage – and at the age of 59 – headed out for five months of solo travel. Through TravBuddy, she’d met Steve from London, England, and they spent a year chatting before her trip. “He offered to guide me around London and answer any other questions I had about Europe. We emailed and talked on the phone before I agreed to meet him in Paris,” she says.

Sandy, seen here with Steve in front of the Eiffel Tower, has made a lifelong friend and travelling companion. 

Once Sandy arrived in Europe, Steve proved as good as his word, showing her around Paris and London. He joined her again for a few days while she visited Venice, Athens and the Rhine. He was interested in a relationship.

“Even if he lived closer in distance, I wouldn’t have wanted a long-term committed relationship,” she says. “Steve is a wonderful man and we have lots of fun travelling together. He visited me in Canada twice, knows my family, and we are currently planning a trip to celebrate his 50th birthday.”

The biggest takeaway from her adventures was a desire to overcome her fear of flying, which she did with anxiety management. And her budget-friendly method of travelling netted her two dear friends.

“For me, riding trains and sleeping in hostels is all about the people you meet. There are definitely other advantages, but it’s the people that keep me coming back to hostels. I have met so many unique and wonderful individuals that I wouldn’t have connected with otherwise,” she says. “The stories and adventures that some people have lived and are still living is amazing. Travelling on trains, buses and staying in hostels is true reality, not a YouTube or TV show version of it.”

Holiday romance sizzles, but sometimes long-distance love fizzles to friendship

In 1985, Ann G. travelled to Zambia with an organization similar to the US Peace Corp that sends Canadians interested in development issues to do volunteer work in a variety of countries. It was a solo mission – she was being sent to Zambia to work as a journalist on a newspaper.

Towards the end of her seven-month stay in Zambia, she met fellow solo traveller Paul from Belfast, Ireland on safari. “He was really interesting. Very intelligent. I was fascinated that he came from Belfast. I’d heard all the news about ‘The Troubles’ there, but now I got to hear the perspective of someone from there,” she muses. “I loved his sense of adventure. He was well travelled and here he was, living in Zambia (he was an engineer and was working in that capacity when I met him). He was quietly witty. We were extremely compatible. He made me laugh.”

Love on safari isn’t just for travelling humans… / Photo by Jamenpercy on Adobe Stock

Ann enjoyed having a companion with whom she could discuss the amazing wildlife they saw and process their African experiences together. The pair shared conversations that went on for hours. After returning to their lives, Ann visited him in Ireland.

“Paul was a great host who taught me a lot about the history of Northern Ireland. He and I toured the entire circumference of the island, a trip I will never forget. He also visited me in Canada a couple of times, and we travelled to Europe and elsewhere together. In between meeting up, we wrote each other almost daily. Letters – there was no email!” she says.

The pair explored the idea of one moving to the other’s country, but in the end decided it was too complicated and would demand too much compromise on the part of the person moving. It would have meant sacrificing careers, and Ann was in the early stages of hers.

“I loved his sense of adventure. He was well travelled and here he was, living in Zambia. He was quietly witty. We were extremely compatible. He made me laugh.”

Still, she says, the experience taught her “the sheer exhilaration of travelling with someone you really enjoy being with – someone open to the adventures, good and bad, of travelling, especially to a less-developed country where things can be unpredictable. It certainly taught me about the qualities that are most important to me in a partner. He had so many of them!”

She still receives a Christmas card from Paul and his wife every year.

So many of our JourneyWoman have encountered love on the road, and no matter how that love showed up or what it evolved into, the one common thread to each of these tales is no regrets. You put yourselves out there. Some of you met your future partner. Others cherished friends and travel companions. Still, others learned some valuable lessons in self-love. You’re a brave bunch, and from our hearts to yours, thank you for sharing your stories.

Has love – in any of its many forms – wound its way to you on your travels?

if so, we’d love to chat with you! Email Editor Amanda ( [email protected] ) to share your story.

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Amanda Burgess

Amanda Burgess is a Toronto-based writer and creative strategist whose bags are always packed for her next adventure. She is a Certified Cancer Journey Coach who creates a safe space for cancer patients and caregivers to design their dream lives – while living with cancer, and on the other side of it. Amanda freelanced for JourneyWoman until December 2021.

We always strive to use real photos from our own adventures, provided by the guest writer or from our personal travels. However, in some cases, due to photo quality, we must use stock photography. If you have any questions about the photography please let us know. Disclaimer: We are so happy that you are checking out this page right now! We only recommend things that are suggested by our community, or through our own experience, that we believe will be helpful and practical for you. Some of our pages contain links, which means we’re part of an affiliate program for the product being mentioned. Should you decide to purchase a product using a link from on our site, JourneyWoman may earn a small commission from the retailer, which helps us maintain our beautiful website. JourneyWoman is an Amazon Associate and earns from qualifying purchases. Thank you! We want to hear what you think about this article, and we welcome any updates or changes to improve it. You can comment below, or send an email to us at [email protected] .

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10 Love Stories From My Travels

Adventurous Kate contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, I will earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks!

Many years ago, I purchased The Lonely Planet Guide to Experimental Travel , a guide to strange, new, and offbeat ways of exploring while traveling. (The book is now out of print; you can buy used copies here .) These are new and different ways to not only explore a destination, but to see your hometown in a new way.

Some of the methods?

Erotourism. A couple travels to a new city and spends a day trying to find each other without any communication.

12 travel. Take the #12 bus, get off at the 12th stop, cross 12 streets and pause in front of #12. And just see what you see.

Bar travel. Order a drink at a bar, chat with the bartender, and have him or her decide which bar to go to next and what drink to order.

And then there was my favorite: Ariadne’s Thread.

For this idea, you give someone a list of ten or so places within a city you’ve spent a lot of time in and ten or so stories — only you don’t tell them which place matches each story. The explorer visits each of the places, tries to figure out which story matches where, and ends up wondering about the person’s life.

It’s a puzzle, but one that might be more satisfying unsolved.

I’ve always wanted to create an Ariadne’s Thread trip for a traveler. They’re obviously best when confined to one city, when a person can wander around all day, but this one I’m going to do for all over the world.

Here are 10 memorable mini love stories from my travels and the 10 locations where they took place.  Some are sweet. Some are sad. One is awful. At least one of the stories predates the blog. But the destinations are completely random. You’ll need to figure them out!

We said goodbye over the course of several hours.  Both of us were on multi-leg trips that day: train, plane, bus, subway, tram, what have you. At first I was the one who was wreaked with despair, digging my fingers into your clothes, finding new ways to hold you as you comforted me in our final hours together. Then as we turned to say goodbye, I smiled.

In that moment, your face fell apart. You knew at that point that I was ready to move on with my life. This could never last. We weren’t going to see each other again. You clung to me as desperately as I clung to you earlier, your hands in my hair, kissing my face.

And my heart broke. But it was an externalized heartbreak now. I had grieved the relationship on the journey there. Now all the sadness I felt was for you.

“You’ll be okay,” I whispered.

I turned and walked away, turning back once to wave. You were still there, waiting, like you didn’t know where to go next. It destroyed me. But not enough for me to turn around a second time.

There have only been two times in my life that I was as instantly attracted to someone as you. It literally took a glance of half a second and I was gone, flying above the rooftops. So bizarre. You weren’t my type — not remotely — and it’s not like I was even available, anyway.

That moment changed everything. I was happy with my life before you swept in like a tornado. We became instant friends and spent a lot of time together, some of it alone — something that I now realize was a mistake when faced with so much temptation.

The crazy thing was that I had zero desire to actually date you. You were interesting and a lot of fun, but you would have driven me up a wall. But had I had the opportunity to be alone with you on top of a mountain, in the middle of a forest, my forehead pressed to yours, I would have bubbled over with happiness.

During our time together, I obsessed over every detail about you, every nuance in your facial expressions, every word you said. I would have dived off a cliff if it meant I would land in your arms. One day I even slept on your shoulder, the discomfort balanced out by the radiating heat that grew inside me.

Nothing happened between us, and I will always be grateful for that.

I told no one about you. Instead, I kept my memories of you hidden inside me, a ball of energy wrapped up for safekeeping, my secret indulgence. Sometimes I’d be on a bus or train and turn on Jessie J’s “Domino,” and every memory would come flooding back.

Looking back, I wonder if you knew. If you figured it out, you’re a better person than me.

You walked me home, and I thought it was just to be polite. Of course I wanted to kiss you. There were a million reasons why that wouldn’t be a good idea, and I’d been trying to talk myself out of it for days, but as soon as you decided to kiss me, everything flew out the window.

It was too much. The heat, the humidity, the alcohol. My hair hung in sweat-dampened ringlets; my mascara was smeared.

“I…really? I didn’t think you…” I shook my head.

“I bought you a rose!” you exclaimed.

I laughed. Buying me a rose did seem a bit obvious in retrospect. Then I felt off-balance.

“Hold on,” I gasped. “I need to sit down.” I grabbed a bench as the dizzy spell hit, then flew out of me. I breathed. That was the first and only time I came close to fainting from a first kiss.

We had been arguing — you versus me and my friend. You said transgender people shouldn’t be referred to by their preferred gender unless they had gone through gender confirmation surgery. My friend and I vehemently disagreed. And over the next ten minutes or so, we explained why your argument was wrong.

You were used to arguing with me alone. You were used to me getting tired and acquiescing. This was the first time you didn’t have the upper hand.

I extricated myself and went to the bathroom. As I opened the door, you were waiting for me. I smiled, ready to make peace and change the subject.

“You’re a cunt,” you hissed. “You don’t know anything.”

You had never called me that before.

My face burning, tears behind my eyes, I ran to our table and said goodbye to my friend, too embarrassed to tell her the truth, leaving you two to share a giant dessert intended for the three of us. I went back home, searched in vain for friends I trusted enough to confide in, and softly chanted to myself, “When people show you who they are, believe them. When people show you who they are, believe them.”

Was this it? Would this be the end of us? This should be the end of us .

But we had so many travel plans together. So many favors I had called in — I couldn’t go back on them now without looking like a flake. So much time I had invested in our relationship. But how was I supposed to travel with you now?

I don’t know why R. Kelly’s “Bump & Grind” came on your phone — either it happened by chance, as you inferred, or you planned it that way, which I wouldn’t have minded. Either way, you said, “Middle school dance?” and I giggled, putting my hands on your shoulders as you put yours on my waist. Somehow we ended up slow dancing, the city gray in the early morning light.

Yes. That was your move. And it was a very effective one. You moved in for the kiss as we swayed to 90s R&B, the only two people in the world.

“Don’t get too attached to me,” you said.

“This is nothing,” I replied as I tipped my head upward to keep the imminent tear from falling. “I cry at everything. I can’t not feel everything. My heart’s on the outside.”

“I just want to make sure you know…this isn’t going to be forever.”

“Trust me,” I reassured him. “You have nothing to worry about. I have no expectations. This is just a few days together. Let’s just enjoy the time we have.”

“But you can come visit me,” you added. “You can stay with me. Even if you have a boyfriend by then, he can come, too. I’d just like to see you. As a friend.”

“That’s so kind of you,” I whispered, laughing as another tear dropped. “This isn’t sadness. I’m okay! This is what I do. I cry. I’m being a person.”

You wipe the tear away, your fingers lingering on my cheek.

“And likewise,” I added. “You’re welcome in New York anytime. Once I move there.”

There’s a much bigger chance that I’ll end up in his neck of the woods than vice versa , I thought. The chance of us ever seeing each other again would be entirely up to me. And I don’t know if I could make that happen.

I didn’t know your name. You didn’t know mine.  We’d both had a bit to drink. It was late, I wanted to work online, and this was the only time that the internet worked half-decently. We talked about books, I rambled on about my latest read on the life of Jesus Christ, and, perhaps to shut me up, you grabbed my face and kissed me.

We paused, looking at each other. Nope.

I went back to my laptop. You went back to your phone.

“Now, Kate, have you got a boyfriend?”

“Nope, no boyfriend.”

“Have you got a man waiting for you back in Boston?”

“No, I don’t have a man waiting for me back in Boston,” I replied with a laugh, my voice matching your lilts and drops. “He’d be waiting a long time.”

“Why, I find it hard to believe that a cool girl like you could be single.”

If it had been anyone else speaking, I would have rolled my eyes — but with you, it was perfect. Not even cheesy. Just sweet. And delightful. And wrapped up in your lovely accent.

It was also quite dark, the easier for me to conceal the huge grin that covered my face. Yes. This probably meant that you liked me.

It was your charm that initially won me over. But it was your goodness that I came to love the most.

We said goodbye with a hug, your bicycle between us. You were sunshine in every way possible. What were the odds that years after spending just one night together in Asia, we could meet again in your hometown, bearing slightly deeper creases around our eyes, and feel every flutter, every thudding heartbeat, just the same as when we were backpackers?

I was in a lot of pain when I met you the second time. The day before arriving in your country, I had discovered my partner’s secret double life and knew I had no choice but to leave him — but I was afraid of his reaction and didn’t want to tip him off until I could safely move my belongings and myself away from him. Until then, I had to keep up the charade.

I was a mess. And somehow you were perfect. Kind. Generous. Attentive. Understanding. I nearly cried at the novelty of being with a sweet man who cared about me and made me feel happy.

After that hug, I wanted to kiss you more than anything. But I was still technically in a relationship, and I refused to do anything but maintain the moral high ground until the relationship was officially over. So instead we broke the hug and I took your hand.

One second passed.

Two seconds passed.

Three seconds passed.

Three seconds of holding your hand as we smiled at each other — that definitely crossed the line into we-know-this-is-more-than-friendship territory.

Oh GOD, my heart was racing and I wanted to kiss you so much. But that was all there would be. A hug and a brief handhold. And then our time together was over.

Nearly two years later, we finally talked about it.

“I didn’t kiss you because I wanted to be better than him,” I told you.

“You always were,” you replied.

I should have kissed you.

“Is he gay or straight?” my friends and I wondered all night. Over the past few days, you seemed to show zero interest in anyone, male or female. Few mentions of your home life. No mentions of a girlfriend, past or present. You were equally friendly with each of us.

But there was one thing — you looked at me when you laughed.

Thank you, Reddit, for all the life hacks you’ve taught me. In a thread on body language, I learned that when people laugh, they instinctively look at the person with whom they have the strongest connection. And in moments of laughter, your eyes always found mine.

The night concluded and our group headed up to bed. In a long line of friends, the two of us brought up the rear.

“Hey Kate?”

I turned around. “Yeah?”

“Can you make sure I’m up at 7:30? I just don’t want to miss the bus.”

“Yeah. Of course.”

“Okay. Goodnight.”

And then you leaned forward and kissed me, right there on the stairs. I was floored.

Several minutes later I climbed the stairs and rejoined my friends, hands raised in triumph. “He’s straight!”

So, where did these stories take place?

On the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.

In a guesthouse in Lanquín, Guatemala.

In front of a guesthouse off Khao San Road in Bangkok.

On a balcony in Palermo Soho in Buenos Aires.

Outside a hostel in Santorini.

In Munich’s train station.

In the stairway of a coffeeshop in Seoul.

In a hotel courtyard in Helsinki.

On a boat docked off Tobacco Caye in Belize.

Walking through the streets of Hoi An, Vietnam.

The photos above are from those destinations (excluding the two love locks images), all in random order.

There is, however, a bit of logic that will allow you to unravel the puzzle. Was I traveling with a group in Helsinki? Would anywhere have served a giant dessert on a tiny island like Tobacco Caye? Would the internet have been that bad in Seoul?

Where do you think these stories took place?

Some of these are easy to figure out. Others, not so much.

I won’t be revealing them, and I won’t be confirming or denying any guesses in the comments. It’s better to leave you wondering.

(But I know some of you guys are crafty detectives, so I’ll say this: if you manage to guess all 10 stories correctly, I’ll let you know privately via email.)

Which of these stories is your favorite? Where do you think it took place?

5 Inspirational Travel Love Stories

My 5 Favorite Travel Love Stories:

Two drifters.

A photo posted by Amy & Nathan: Two Drifters (@twodriftersxo) on May 10, 2016 at 12:21pm PDT

From Amy: “You know when you watch a great new TV show or discover a fascinating fact? The first thing you want to do is find someone to share it with. Traveling as a couple is like doing that a million times and in countless little ways. We love seeing and appreciating the same gorgeous sights. We love delving into the history of a region, or sampling the local cuisine and talking about how delicious it is. Sharing all these experiences together—both the good and even the bad—make traveling as a couple so meaningful.” Two Drifter’s Must Read Posts:

• Our Travel Themed Wedding in Asheville, North Carolina
• 25 Reasons to Fall in Love with Couples Travel
• Who Told you You Can’t Travel?

Our Travel Passport

A photo posted by Ryan & Samantha (@ourtravelpassport) on Mar 17, 2016 at 1:08pm PDT

• 5 Tips for Saving Money for Travel
• Best Day Ever
• Life Without Sugar- My Story

“The best things in life are the people you love ,  the places you ‘ ve seen , and the memories you’ve made along the way.”

Two Bad Tourists

A photo posted by TwoBadTourists (@twobadtourists) on May 28, 2016 at 6:36am PDT

• The Top 10 Gay Travel Events in 2016
• Want to Study Spanish? Here’s Why Spain is Our Top Pick
• 7 Awesome (& Mostly Gay) Reasons to Visit Iceland

“What we all want in life is to travel, fall in love and be happy.”

Don’t forget to move.

A photo posted by Christine & Jules (@dontforget2move) on Jan 22, 2016 at 10:48am PST

• Tips for Traveling as a Couple- How Not to Kill Each Other
• The Beauty of Traveling Without a Plan
• How to Travel Responsibily and Why You Should Care

WanderluStyle

You may remember Maryrose and Reid of Wanderlustyle from their quick introduction in my April Meet the Sponsors post , but I loved their story so much that here they are again! These two are high school sweethearts who just recently got engaged and are based in the Pacific paradise of Hawaii. On their blog they reveal how to experience the Hawaiian islands like a local and also showcase their adventurous travels around other parts of their world. Their pictures on  Instagram and videos on their  Youtube Channel  are seriously wanderlust inducing .

A photo posted by WanderluStyle ✈️? Travel Blog (@wanderlustyleblog) on Jul 29, 2015 at 2:43pm PDT

A photo posted by WanderluStyle ✈️? Travel Blog (@wanderlustyleblog) on Oct 28, 2015 at 10:05am PDT

• Parasailing in Hawaii
• Which Hawaiian Island to Visit
• 10 Foods you Must Try in Hawaii

Bonus Couple:

Jay alvarrez & alexis ren.

Welcome to Wanderful Wednesdays!

Consider yourself a wanderer?! Well then, this Blog Hop is for you! Meet your hosts : Lauren of Lauren on Location , Van of Snow in Tromso , Isabel of The Sunny Side of This and Marcella of What a Wonderful World . Here on Wanderful Wednesday we hope to promote an open and supportive community for like-minded bloggers- expats, travelers and all kinds of wanderers ! The linkup will take place every Wednesday at 8AM GMT . Wanderful Wednesday Guidelines:

• Link up a wanderful travel related post below! One per blogger per week please!
• Spread the LOVE! Blog Hops are all about hopping around & getting to know others within the community! At the very least please try to comment on one other post before you go!
• Let’s get Social! Really liked a post you read? Don’t be shy! Share your favorites on Social Media! You can use the hashtag: #wanderfulwednesday

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30 comments

Ahh – these stories have been a lovely way to start my day 🙂 I travelled solo for a long time, which was the best experience and gave me so much more confidence. When I returned, I met my love who has become the best travel partner and adventure buddy. Don’t think I could have met such a great person without the fantastic solo experience first though 🙂

It’s so important to learn how to travel and live on our own before committing to someone else! It helps though when you find someone who makes the best travel partner! Happy that you found that and I wish you all the happiness in the world traveling together 😀

I love it! What a great idea for a post! And now I want to go to Hawaii :D..

Wanderlustyle always makes me want to go to Hawaii … hahah 😀

Aww, what a pick me up <3 I won't deny it, these stories captivated me so much. Thanks for sharing Lauren! This was perfect for a #WanderfulWednesday

Thanks Isabel! You have quite the travel love story yourself! Love following along with your lovely travels! 😀

Inspired, but also a bit jealous now! What adorable couples.

Ugh so jealous … haha! Gives me hope though 😀

All of their stories are so amazing! People always say that once you get married you settle down and your adventure stops, but I love that all of these couples prove that wrong!

They all definitely have other plans in mind 😀

Thanks for sharing these awesome stories! I definitely have some blog hopping to do after reading your post. 🙂

Thanks Mandy!!

Awe I just love a good love story about a couple who loves to travel!

Me too! Your story with the Viking is quite incredible! Not just anyone would move across the world for love! 😀

I’m always so impressed with couples who travel extensively together! It’s definitely not the easiest thing to do, but it is probably so awesome to be able to share those amazing experiences with your significant other, and be able to look back and know you made memories all over the globe. now i’m getting sappy!!! lol

Ahaha right! If you can get through a lengthy trip with your partner, you know it’s meant to be!! 😀

I always like finding new bloggers to follow, and as I do most of my travelling with my husband I’m hoping for some inspiration for my next great trip. Aren’t all those Instagram pictures just adorable? Shame my husband and I aren’t nearly as photogenic! Ha!

Aren’t their pictures drool-worthy! It’s almost a little too much! Hahah and please! You guys are adorable together! 😀

I love this, such a fun post! You always think of the most creative post ideas!! 🙂 I love couples who travel and take the sweetest photos, nothing like a bit of love to brighten up Instagram! Thanks for showing me some new blogs too!

Thanks Marcella .. You and Carlos are pretty sweet yourselves! 😀

lovely post!

Thanks Tanja!

What a great idea! My boyfriend and I are totally an international love story (we met at a ball in Germany…I’m obviously American and he’s German). I love reading stories like this!

What a sweet story Jordan!! I’ve been loving following along with you two! International love stories are the best! 😀

So sweet!! Love that you included Jay Alvarrez and Alexis Ren…although sometimes when I see them pop up on my Instagram, I can’t help but feel like I want to throw my phone down in a jealous rage hahah they’re literally too perfect!

Ugh aren’t they just the worst/best! I don’t know what to think … all I know is I can’t stop following hahah! 😀

So many blogs I’ve never heard about! Definitely need to go and check them out right now!

THey’re good for a sappy romantic fix 😛

Awh, so much cute! Great way to meet some new bloggers 🙂

[…] will be challenging. But , you can make one of the most of the time you have together. travel to find love By booking time along with your partner, you can make time for the other person. You can also […]

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19 Inspiring Travel Experience Stories About Life-Changing Trips

Love inspiring travel experience stories ?

Then you’re in the right place!

Grab a snack and your favorite beverage and get ready to settle in, as you’re about to read some truly inspiring travel stories about life-changing trips.

In this roundup, some of my favorite bloggers share their best travel stories.

You’ll hear about travelers embarking on sacred pilgrimages, growing after a first solo female travel trip, deeply connecting with locals on the road, and getting out of their comfort zones in ways that completely alter the course of their life.

And if you’re looking for a unique travel experience, you’ll likely find it in the short stories about travel below.

Table of Contents

Free Travel Resources

But first…

Make sure to grab free access to my #BeyondTheGuidebook Travel Resource Library:

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Woohoo! You’re officially a member of the Jessie on a Journey community. 

Make sure to also connect with me  on Instagram ,  on YouTube , and  on Facebook  to start traveling #BeyondTheGuidebook.

I regularly share about solo female travel, New York City, lesser-known destinations, unique experiences, active adventures, and how to turn your passion for exploring the world into a profitable business through travel blogging.

Click here to head back to the travel blog .

There is so much included!

Plus, I’m constantly adding new resources, guides, and personality quizzes to help you travel beyond the guidebook!

On that note, let’s dive into the inspiring travel stories .

1. Travel Experience Stories In South America

My travel story takes place in South America, back when I used to travel solo for months at a time.

I was in my mid-20s, and even though I’d backpacked Europe, Southeast Asia, and China and had studied abroad in Australia, the mix of intense excitement and nerves I had leading up to my South America backpacking trip was different.

And despite family and friends warning me that South America wasn’t a place for a solo female traveler , it ended up being my best trip ever.

There are so many interesting short travel stories and unforgettable travel experiences woven into this trip, like:

• Getting invited to have dinner with my Brazilian plane seatmate and her grandma
• Having a group of complete strangers on Couchsurfing take me out for dinner and dancing on my birthday in Mendoza
• Attending a small house party in Argentina and learning about the tradition of mate
• Getting stuck on a broken-down bus and having an impromptu language exchange with an elderly woman in Peru
• Having a love interest back home break up with me via text, and then experiencing the kindness of strangers as a woman in my hostel who I barely knew treated me to ice cream to cheer me up
• Having a romance with a hostel mate in Ecuador and then traveling through the country together
• Living in a giant treehouse with a group of strangers during a solo trip in Brazil and spending our days exploring hiking trails and swimming and our nights drinking and exchanging stories about traveling
• Taking a 4×4 from Chile to Bolivia across the Siloli Desert to see otherwordly sites like rainbow lagoons and train graveyards in the middle of nowhere
• Experiencing some of the world’s most incredible natural wonders, like Iguazu Falls, Torres del Paine, the Amazon River, Uyuni Salt Flats, and Perito Moreno Glacier

At times the trip was also challenging, from dealing with long bus rides and car sickness to flipping over my bicycle handlebars in Peru and getting my body (and ego) badly bruised.

But, I was okay.

In fact, I was more than okay, as the trip showed me how independent I could be and what I was truly capable of. It also showed me the beauty of immersing yourself in cultures different than your own and connecting with locals who want to share them with you.

Years later, when people ask what my best travel experience has been this is the trip that comes to mind.

-Jessie from Jessie on a Journey

2. Traveling With An Open Mind

Many people think of travel as an experience and rightly so. Sometimes, however, you cannot choose the places you travel to.

This happened to me in 2019.

My husband found himself posted in Brunei for work.

Three months pregnant meant that I had a choice:

Either stay with him in Brunei for three months before returning back to India or remain in India, alone.

I chose the former. Not because of my love for the country but because I wanted to be close to him.

Brunei had never held any appeal to me. Whatever research that I pulled off the Internet showed me nothing other than one beautiful mosque.

The flights in and out of the country were expensive so traveling frequently out was not an option either.

I was engulfed by a sense of being trapped in a remote place.

Needless to say, I reached Brunei in a pretty foul mood. I think one of the things that struck me the most even in the midst of that bad mood was the large swaths of greenery that surrounded us.

Mind you, we were not staying in the big city but as far away on the outskirts as you could imagine. I’m not a city girl by any stretch and the greenery eventually soothed my nerves.

It took a week, but I soon found myself interacting with people around me. Fellow expats and locals all went out of their way to make me feel comfortable.

The more comfortable I felt, the more we explored. We trekked (yes, while pregnant!), we joined the board game community, and we enjoyed the local cuisine.

Three months later when it was time to leave, I found myself reluctant to say goodbye to the warmth of the country I had called home for a short while.

I think that my time in Brunei taught me a valuable lesson:

Don’t judge a place by what others say or a lack of information.

Sure, you may not always like what you see, but there will always be something that you will like. You just need to look hard enough to find it!

-Penny from GlobeTrove

3. From Half-Day Hiker To Walking Holiday Enthusiast

I’ve always enjoyed walking but never in a million years did I imagine I’d end up walking over 200 kilometers (~124 miles) in 10 days, become a fan of walking holidays, and end up developing self-guided hiking routes in Portugal with a local tour operator as part of my business.

The shift from being someone who was content with an easy three-hour walk to an experienced multi-day hiker began with a brief taste of the Portuguese Camino de Santiago, an ancient pilgrim trail through Portugal to Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in Spain.

Back in 2013 I did a guided one-day hike along one of the most beautiful stretches of the Camino, north of Ponte de Lima. It’s also one of the most challenging sections so it was hard work, but the views from the top of Labruja Mountain made the climb worthwhile.

My guides were so enthusiastic about the thrill of arriving at Santiago de Compostela Cathedral after the challenges of day after day on the Camino that I began to think I might want to give it a go, despite not being religious.

Fast forward a few years and I set off from Barcelos with a friend of mine to follow the Portuguese Camino de Santiago.

Apart from suffering from chronic back pain, I thought I was quite fit but nothing had prepared me for how utterly exhausted I would feel at the end of each walking day.

This was truly a slow travel experience, as we were averaging about 20 kilometers (~12 miles) per day and by the time we reached our hotel, I would barely have enough energy to get cleaned up and find food before collapsing. I had envisioned plenty of sightseeing but that ended up being minimal.

Quickly, I realized the moral of this unique travel experience:

The Camino was all about making the most of the journey rather than the destination.

For me, that was quite a shift in thinking as I am usually all about getting to where I want to be as soon as possible so that I can start exploring. It was, perhaps, also my first step on the path towards mindfulness.

I will never forget the sense of achievement and progress at the end of each walking day, and the relief and pride I felt when we finally made it to Santiago de Compostela.

We met people who had walked the Camino several times and I can totally understand how it can become addictive. 

-Julie from Julie Dawn Fox in Portugal

4. A Story About Traveling & Its Ripple Effect

Tucked away in far eastern Indonesia is a tiny archipelago of islands called the Banda Islands.

Apart from world-class snorkeling and some crumbling colonial buildings, the Banda Islands are mostly forgotten and would be described as a backwater by all accounts.

However, the Banda Islands are possibly the main reason that I am who I am today. 

Well, the Bandas are the original Spice Islands.

Nutmeg used to grow on this tiny group of islands alone and nowhere else. The Dutch colonized Indonesia and promptly became the owners of islands where money grew on trees.

The only problem was that Indonesia was so far away that they needed a halfway stop to and from Indonesia.

That’s where my travel experience story comes in.

The same Dutch East India Company that traded in spice set up a halfway station at the foot of Table Mountain to break up their long journey. As a result, my Dutch ancestors arrived in the southernmost point in Africa , and generations later we are still there.

When I visited the Banda Islands, it dawned on me how something happening on the other side of the world can ripple out and affect people on the other side of the planet.

And I’m not the only one!

The spice trade was so important to the Dutch that they even traded a tiny island in the Banda archipelago for a much bigger island…Manhattan.

Yes. That Manhattan.

Before visiting the Banda Islands I never really knew about this part of my history.

Along with the spice that the ships carried back to Amsterdam, it also carried slaves. These slaves, more often than not, ended up in Cape Town.

Just like my European ancestors, they too became a part of Africa and added another shade to our beautiful Rainbow Nation.

It was in the Banda Islands that I realized how much of my culture, food, stories and even words in my mother tongue, Afrikaans, actually originated in Indonesia.

Because of these tiny islands, I am a true mix of Europe, Africa, and Asia. While I always thought I knew how all things in life are somehow connected, I didn’t really grasp it until my visit to Indonesia.

This could have been a resort travel experience story, as I went to Indonesia to swim and snorkel and relax on the world’s best beaches. And while I did get to do that, I also learned a lot about who I am as a person, my people, and my country…on another continent. 

My visit to the Bandas has sparked a fascination with Indonesia, which I have visited seven times since. I’m already planning another trip to this spectacular country!

-De Wet from Museum of Wander

5. Awakening My Spirit In A Costa Rican Cloud Forest

In February 2017, I was just coming out of a decade of mysterious chronic illness that had shrunk my world.

And one of the things that finally helped me to resurface during the previous year was an online Qi Gong course I stumbled upon: 

Flowing Zen .

To the casual observer, Qi Gong looks a lot like its better-known cousin, Tai Chi — the ancient art of moving meditation — but it’s actually energy medicine for healing.

In fact, it’s commonly used in Chinese hospitals.

My daily practice that year made such a difference for me that I dangled a reward for myself:

If I stuck with it all year, then I’d head to Sifu Anthony’s annual retreat in a cloud forest in Costa Rica the following February.

And I did! It was my first trip out of the country for more than a decade.

Just like that, I booked a solo trip — something I hadn’t done since I was an exchange student to Europe 30 years earlier — to San Jose where I met up with a dozen strangers and Sifu Anthony, our Qi Gong master.

We boarded a tiny bus and rode up, up, up around carsick-inducing curvy mountain roads into a magical cloud forest jungle where we finally arrived at The Blue Mountain (“La Montana Azul”) for a weeklong Qi Gong retreat. 

There were no Internet or distractions here — just delicious organic vegetarian meals made with love and shared with the community under a gorgeous open-air palapa.

There were also colorful tropical birds singing in the jungle, as well as the largest arachnid I’ve ever seen in my gorgeous (but also roofless) room for a little extra adventure.

I’d felt a little energy movement during my year of online practice, but during that week on The Blue Mountain, my body began to really buzz with Qi — life force energy — as I Lifted the Sky, stood in Wuji Stance, and practiced Shooting Arrows.

I felt electrified and joyful. 

And that was when everything changed for me.

At home, I had a successful career as a freelance writer, but I decided during my week in the cloud forest that I wanted more from life.

I wanted to explore the beauty, diversity, nature, and culture in every corner of the world.

And I wanted to share this intoxicating joyful feeling of life-giving freedom and adventure with anyone who wanted to come along for the ride.

Shortly after that, at age 53, I launched my travel blog.

Dreams really do come true. They are just waiting for you to claim them.

-Chris from Explore Now or Never

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6. From Rome With Love

This wasn’t the way I wanted to see Rome. 

Sure, I was happy to spend Christmas in Rome and stand in awe of the city’s many iconic attractions. But, life wasn’t meant to turn out like this.

I was supposed to go to Rome with my mom back in 2012; however, life had different plans, because a week before our trip, I got a double kidney infection. A condition that required a week of hospitalization.

Although I was annoyed I had missed my trip, it wasn’t the end of the world since I was fine and everything seemed okay…until my mom developed a cough.

A cough that later became a heartbreaking diagnosis of stage four ovarian cancer. 

My mom spent the final months of her life in chemo, desperately trying to fight a horrific disease so that she wouldn’t let her family down.

And she didn’t.

Instead, she showed us how to never give up on life, even if it was a losing battle. 

So, when she eventually passed away, I booked a trip to Rome. 

Sure, it wasn’t the trip I had hoped for. But, I knew that as her daughter, it was my job to live enough for the both of us. 

And that’s exactly what I did.

Was I an anxious, sad, angry mess of a person?

Absolutely. I was still getting used to a world that my mother wasn’t a part of. 

And honestly, you never get used to that world. You just deal with it because you don’t really have a choice.

But I also knew that I wanted my mom to live on through me and that I didn’t want to live a life where the haunting phrases “should of,” “could of,” and “would have” swirled through my head and ate away at my happiness.

So, I went. I packed a boatload of tissues, sobbed my heart out, and attended Christmas mass at the Vatican. 

I also threw a coin in the Trevi Fountain, walked through the Colosseum, chowed down on gelato, and spent two weeks doing all the things my mom and I had wanted to do. 

And that’s when it hit me. I had never gone to Rome alone because my mom had always been there with me. Maybe she wasn’t physically there, but I thought of her and felt her presence every minute of every day. 

Her presence also reminded me that life isn’t about the things we buy or the money that we have.

It’s about making memories with the people we love; people that never really leave us since they are constantly influencing our lives in countless ways.

And after my trip to Rome, I finally knew that my mom would always be there because she had forever changed my life in the best possible way. 

-Kelly from Girl with the Passport

7. Studying In Finland

One of my major life-turning points happened during my exchange studies in Finland.

Until then, I was studying at a university in Prague, had a part-time job at a renowned management-consulting firm, and thought I was on the right path in life.

At the University of Economics where I studied it was notoriously difficult to get on an Erasmus exchange trip abroad since the demand was huge. Everyone wanted to go!

Regardless, I decided to sign up early for my last semester, just to see what the process was like to be better prepared for applying again in a year.

I did make it through all the three rounds and surprisingly got a spot at a University in Turku, Finland! I was ecstatic. The success brought its own challenges, but once you set your eyes on the goal, nothing can stop you.

And I had the time of my life in Finland.

I met the most amazing people, traveled a ton, partied a lot, and bonded with friends from all over the world.

Given I was one of the few people there who really needed to pass all her courses and additionally write her thesis, I managed to run on an impossible sleep schedule of four hours per night. But I made it!

My studies in Finland opened up my horizons, too.

The summer after, I wrapped up my life in Prague and went on to study in Germany and China . The whole time I traveled as much as possible, often going on solo adventures. It was only a matter of time when I’d start my own travel blog.

My Finland adventure led me to a life of freedom made up of remote work, travel blogging , and plenty of traveling. I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. And it gave me one of my favorite true adventure stories that I can now share with others.

-Veronika from Travel Geekery

8. How Cuba Changed My Life

One of my favorite inspiring stories about travel takes place in Cuba.

I visited Cuba in February 2013 and it changed my life — and I like to think it did so for the better.

Interestingly, I expected a completely different country and was compelled to write about it when I got back home.

But let me tell you more.

I read copious amounts of blogs and travel diaries to prepare myself for the trip to Cuba so I thought I’d go in with a fairly good idea of what to expect. Each and every post I read spoke of marvelous landscapes, pristine beaches, crumbling but charming cities, and welcoming locals.

All of it was true, in my experience — except for the locals.

I didn’t find them so welcoming. At least, not genuinely so. They only seemed to welcome me as far as they could get something in exchange: money, clothes, pens, soap, you name it. 

Each and every day in Cuba was a challenge to avoid the scams, to avoid being ripped off, to fight off each and every attempt of people trying to take advantage of me. I usually managed, but it was exhausting and it left a sour taste in my mouth.

Once I got back home I felt the urge to write about my experience — not for other sites or papers as I’d often do. This time I was afraid I’d be censored.

So I opened my own blog. With zero tech knowledge, zero understanding of online content creation and SEO, I started writing and telling people what they should really expect during a trip to Cuba.

I’d put up the occasional post, but continued with my usual job.

At the end of the year, my contract as a researcher in international human rights law at the local university ended, and I decided to stop pursuing that career for a while.

I packed my bags and left for a long-term trip to Central and South America . I started writing on the blog more consistently and learning, and eventually took my blog full-time , turning it into a career.

As of today, I have never looked back and have no regrets.

The one thing I’ll do, as soon as I can, is travel to Cuba to say thank you — because it changed my life in a way nothing else has ever done. 

-Claudia from Strictly Sardinia

9. A Short Travel Story About Finding Inner Peace In Patagonia

Life in London is hard.

Life in London as a gay single brown refugee is harder.

Juggling between work, my passion for traveling, and the prejudices that I dealt with on a daily basis eventually took their toll on me and I reached a breaking point.

The fact that I couldn’t return home to see my family and being away for them for almost nine years was enough to hammer in the final nail in the coffin.

I almost had a nervous breakdown and in that moment of desperation, which I knew would define the rest of my life, I took a month off and headed to Patagonia.

It was probably the best decision I’ve ever made in my life. The 36 hours it took me to get to El Chalten from London were tiring but Patagonia blew me away.

On my first day there I did a 28-kilometer (17-mile) hike which included a steep mountain climb. It was incredible how moving through the forest helped me clear my mind. And as I stood in front of Laguna de Los Tres, the rain and clouds gave way to sunshine and a rainbow.

I felt at peace.

The countless hikes, great food, and the warmth of locals in Chile and Argentina helped me get back in my skin and find the peace I was missing in my heart.

Nature is indeed the best medicine when it comes to stress relief and I won’t be coy about hugging trees to speed up the process (it did).

Patagonia was life-changing for me.

The beauty of nature struck me at each point and every time I thought it wasn’t possible to beat the view, the next one did just that.

I came back a changed, resilient, and most importantly, a happy person.

-Ucman from BrownBoyTravels

10. Looking Inwards & Making Connections With Strangers

It was decades before I traveled solo for the first time in my life.

This trip — a six-day escape to Colorado — was the first trip that was not for business or family reasons but just to travel and discover.

As I prepared for it, I had a strange feeling of excitement and nerves at the same time. I had all sorts of thoughts and doubts:

Would it be fun?

Would I be bored?

Would I stay in bed all day or would I bounce with excitement to do the next thing?

I wasn’t sure. Little did I know that it was going to be a memorable journey of self-discovery. 

As a good wife and mom, for me travel is always about the family; always thinking of who would enjoy what. It’s about family time and bonding. It’s about creating memories and travel stories together. It’s all so wonderful.

But on a solo trip who would I connect with? What would I say?

Well, I found that I got to do anything I wanted!

Usually when I travel with my family, if I feel like going on a drive that’s not on the itinerary or getting a snack no one else is interested in, we simply don’t do that.

So it was weird to just go do it. Really, that’s a thing?

As for making connections, it was so easy to meet locals while traveling and also to connect with other travelers. Honestly, I had conversations everywhere — on planes, while hiking, in restaurants, in the hotel lobby.

It was quite an eye-opening experience to meet a mom of 18 kids and hundreds of foster kids, a cookie baker, a professional photographer, a family of Fourteener hikers, and an internationally ranked marathon runner.

The inspiring stories I discovered were amazing and nothing like my wonderful safe life at home. 

In terms of travel safety , I got to go rock climbing, solo hiking, driving up a Fourteener, eating alone.

And it was all fine. Actually, it felt surprisingly normal.

It was was just me, my SUV, and my backpack for a week. Most of all, it was a breath of fresh air that I didn’t know existed. 

It’s wonderful to be back home and know that possibilities are endless and there is so much more out there to explore and be wowed by!

-Jyoti from Story At Every Corner

11. A Solo Hike To Find Connection

I have traveled solo many times, but I admit I was a bit uneasy booking my trip to Colombia . In part, due to the country’s dark past. But also because I desperately wanted to do the Cocora Valley hike, and if I’m honest, I was terrified.

This hike is located in the Coffee Triangle, an area recognized for its beauty as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It features both rainforest and a stunning green valley speckled with cartoonishly-tall wax palms rising 200 feet or more.

It’s incredibly beautiful.

It’s also a long hike and quite challenging — it generally takes between six and eight hours and there is a steep area with over 3,000 feet of elevation within a quarter of a mile.

I wasn’t in hiking shape, so I was a little concerned. But, worst of all for me were the seven dodgy-looking suspension bridges. 

I’m terrified of heights.

And, I’d be going alone.

I decided to go anyway and I met an incredible woman on the bus to Salento, the town near Cocora. She was also traveling solo and we agreed to hike together.

The town is a backpacker enclave and we met up with a small group of people all traveling solo. As the days passed, our group got larger and it was such a magical experience.

As much as I love city travel, this small town won my heart.

My new friend and I set off on the hike and met two other women who were nervous to do the hike. We all went together.

When we got to the first suspension bridge, I paused. I was embarrassed to admit my fear, but the bridge swayed widely and there was nowhere to hold onto.

When they realized how out of my comfort zone I was and how scared I felt, everything changed. Instead of me dealing with it alone, they were all there to encourage me.

One crossed the bridge to encourage me from the other side and they stayed off of it to limit the sway. Crazy enough, I not only crossed the seven suspension bridges, but I also crossed one an extra time when we went the wrong way on the trail.

I did it! 

I was prepared to be blown away by Cocora Valley’s beauty, but what I wasn’t expecting was what a life-changing travel experience my time there would be.

 -Sam from My Flying Leap

12. How A Pet Sitting Travel Experience Led To A Passionate Career

We wanted to go to the Caribbean but didn’t know much about the islands or how we were going to afford it.

By chance, a friend of ours in Australia mentioned “pet sitting” and that it is something you can do all over the world.

We quickly created an account on a pet sitting website and began searching for options. There were only a couple of sits available in that part of the world, but we tried our luck, sent a request, and to our surprise landed a three-month gig in a beautiful house in the US Virgin Islands — with an infinity pool overlooking the British Virgin Islands.

A month into our sit, we had explored the destination pretty well and so had a lot of time on our hands. We managed to secure another sit in Grenada, so our year was going to be taken up with Caribbean pet sits.

Inspired by a Canadian couple that had previously stayed at our Grenada housesit, we decided to start our own travel blog. We began by writing about The Virgin Islands, highlighting the beautiful beaches and funky bars.

But for every photo of a beautiful beach there were 10 photos of trash.     

It was hard to ignore the plastic pollution issue, especially on such pristine and remote beaches.  So, we began to share photos of the trash we saw and how much we could pick up on our daily dog walks.

The more we looked into plastic pollution, the more we realized the severity of the global plastic pandemic. From that point, we used our platform to create awareness and highlight ways to say no to plastic and travel plastic-free .

We changed our daily routines, our way of living, and even our diets to accommodate more organic foods and little to no plastic packaging.

It’s been over three years now and we continue to do what we can. This journey has led us to some amazing places, working with great conscious brands and even organizing a country-wide beach clean-up campaign in Grenada.

Our aim now is to keep on going.

We love connecting with like-minded people and love the shift over the last few years that brands have made towards creating more sustainable products and services.

It’s been an amazing few years that was sparked by a conversation about pet sitting. Who would have guessed?

-Aaron & Vivien from The Dharma Trails

13. Learning To Slow Down The Hard Way

On Christmas of 2017, I was born again.

We like to spend our Christmas holidays somewhere warm abroad, and that year we chose Uganda.

Nature, wildlife, and sunny days were a blessing when it was so cold and dark in Europe. Life was beautiful, and we had a rental car and a busy schedule ahead to explore the country.

This is where this short travel story turns into one of my more scary travel experiences :

At Murchinson Falls National Park, we had a car accident.

I lost control of the car, and it rolled over, destroying windows, chassis, and engine.

But we were alive! My right arm was severely injured, but we managed to walk to our lodge, not far inside the park.

In the lodge, I was happy to learn that there was a pretty decent American hospital in Masindi that was just a one-hour drive from the lodge. Moreover, one of the lodge’s guests was a nurse who cleaned the wound while we were waiting for the taxi from/to Masindi.

The hospital took care of us, and after a couple of injections and stitches, I was ready to head to our new hotel in Masindi; however, my wound required daily dressing and more injections, so we were asked to stay in town for a few days.   

Masindi is the kind of place where you may want to stop to buy some food or water, but that’s it.

The town’s highlights were the market and our daily visit to the hospital, so we ended up looking for the small things, chatting with the medical staff, the hotel staff, the people in the market, and learning more about their customs.

We learned to slow down the hard way.

When we were allowed to leave, we took a road trip south through the country to see something else. We did not care about our travel bucket list anymore — we were alive, and we wanted to enjoy Uganda’s unique nature and its people. 

In the end, our Uganda trip was not about the places that we saw, but the people that we met. It was travel for experience vs sightseeing.

I hope to revisit Uganda one day, with a stop at Masindi for some food, water, and maybe something else.

-Elisa from World in Paris

14. A Cycling Trip To Remember

During the summer of 2019, I cycled solo from London to Istanbul. This huge bicycle tour took me 89 days and through 11 countries.

As you might expect, it was a challenging yet incredible journey, which saw me pedal along some of Europe’s greatest rivers, pass through some of its best cities, and witness some of its most beautiful scenery.

It’s becoming more and more important for us to think about the impact that travel can have on our environment. This was the inspiration for my bicycle tour; I wanted to find more responsible ways to explore the world and avoid flights where possible.

I discovered that bicycle touring is one of the most eco-friendly ways to travel, as using nothing but a bicycle and your own pedal power you can carry everything you need while covering surprising distances each day.

The simplicity of life and the sheer amount of time I spent cycling alone gave me a lot of time to just think . This really helped me to come to terms with some personal problems rooted in my past and, as a result, I arrived solo in Istanbul with newly found confidence, independence, and liberation. 

Cycling across the entire European continent may seem like an impossibly daunting task, but I assure you, it will make you feel like a new person, just like it did for me.

-Lauren from The Planet Edit

15. How The Caribbean Shaped Me Into A Fully Sustainable Traveler

One of my first international trips as an adult was traveling around the Caribbean .

I checked into my hotel in Jamaica and asked for a recommendation for a local place to eat. The receptionist told me that under no circumstances should I should go into the town because it was really dangerous, but that — to my luck — the hotel’s restaurant offered wonderful Caribbean food.

I pondered my options:

Did I really want to spend all my time on the beach without getting to know a single local?

I was a very inexperienced traveler and very young, but there was only one answer to my question:

Absolutely not. I was not going to be visiting a new place and staying hostage in a hotel chain. So out I went.

The poverty hit me in the face. After only seeing fancy resorts, the reality was hard to swallow.

A few locals approached me and were super curious as to what I was doing there alone, since most tourists didn’t go there.

I told them I was interested in meeting them and experiencing their culture. And just like that, I was embraced.

We met more people, had some food, and then we danced the night away. They had so little, yet they wanted to share it with me. They wanted to make me feel welcome.

And they undeniably did.

The next morning all I could think about was how all the money most tourists spend goes to big corporations. The locals have to be thankful if they get a job that pays minimum wage, while foreign businesses earn millions.

I have always been environmentally conscious, but this trip made it clear that sustainability goes well beyond nature and wildlife.

It’s also about communities.

From then on I always look for locally owned accommodation, eateries, guides, and souvenirs.

Sustainability, with everything it entails, became a motto for me and changed the very essence of the way I travel.

-Coni from  Experiencing the Globe

16. Lessons From My Students In Peru

One of the most life-changing trips I’ve ever been on was a volunteering experience in the stunning city of Cuzco in Peru.

I spent a month there teaching English and Italian to a group of local adults. And even though my time there was short, the travel experience was so humbling that it changed my outlook on life.

My lessons took the form of active conversations, which essentially turned into a massive multilingual cultural exchange between me and my students. Hearing my students talk about their lives — and realizing just how different they were from mine — made me look at my own life with a fresh new perspective.

One person spoke about the three years he spent living in a jungle with his dad, where they fed off of animals they hunted in order to survive.

Another student told me about her ultimate dream of mastering English so that she could become a tour guide and have a more stable future.

For me, these stories were a reminder of just how small I am in this world and how much we can get consumed by the small bubbles we live in. 

Most of all, my students showed a passion and appreciation for life that I’d never witnessed before.

This is true for the locals I met in Cuzco in general. The quality of life in Cuzco is very modest; hot water is scarce and you learn to live with little.

But the locals there do way more than just that — they spontaneously parade the streets with trumpets and drums just because they’re feeling happy, and their energy for the simple things in life is incredibly contagious.

It was impossible to not feel inspired in Cuzco because my students always had the biggest smiles on their faces, and the locals showed me again and again that simply being alive is a blessing.

I went to Peru to teach, but ended up learning more from my students and the locals there than they did from me.

Ever since I got back from that trip, I made it a goal to slow down and not take the simple things in life for granted.

Every time I get upset about something, I think about the Peruvians in Cuzco parading their streets in song and pure joy, and I tell myself to stop complaining.

-Jiayi from  The Diary of a Nomad

17. Braving Travel With Chronic Pain

Santiago de Compostela is a beautiful city with a prominent cathedral positioned centrally within the city.

While the historical cathedral attracts numerous visitors, even more well-known is the route to Santiago de Compostela, Camino de Santiago –- the world-famous pilgrimage route that has a plethora of trailheads and ends in Santiago. 

Home to locals, students, English teachers, and those on a spiritual pilgrimage, personal conquest, or a great outdoor hiking excursion, Santiago is a magical city.

My introduction to Santiago de Compostela doesn’t begin on the pilgrimage route, yet ends with a spiritual awakening analogous with those other unique pilgrimage stories.

It was my first solo trip abroad teaching English in Spain, a country that’s always been on my travel bucket list. A small town outside of Santiago was selected as the school I’d be teaching at for the year.

Unknowingly, this teach abroad program chose the perfect city for me to live in. 

A year prior, I suffered a traumatic brain injury that left me unable to function normally and complete average tasks. Migraines, headaches, and dizziness became my body’s normal temperament, a hidden disability invisible to the naked eye. 

Braving travel with chronic pain was the first lesson I learned during the trip.

The vast green outdoors and fresh dew from the morning rain enlivened me daily and reminded me about the importance of slowing down so I could enjoy traveling with my hidden disability. 

I also learned to stop often for daily tea breaks and to embrace the long lunch hour,  siestas , with good food, company, and a nap to rest.

Meeting locals , indulging in local food, and learning Spanish allowed me to connect deeply with the beautiful culture of Santiago. After all, my dream was to travel to Spain, and I more than accomplished that dream.

Difficult or not, I learned to own my dream and I was more than surprised with the results.

Who knew that a year after my injury I’d be traveling the world with chronic pain, and for that, I’m eternally grateful.

-Ciara from Wellness Travel Diaries

18. A Blessing In Disguise

2020 has been a wild year for all of us and foreign students in China are no exception. As soon as the malevolent virus began to make its rounds in China, our university sent us home for “two weeks.”

However, within a short time, countries began to shut their borders and these “two weeks” turned into months, a full year even.

Crushed by the burden of online lectures and virtual labs, my boyfriend and I packed our bags and caught one of the first flights to his home country of Pakistan.

I had always been an over-ambitious traveler. I believed numbers were everything — the number of countries I visited, the number of hours I spent on a plane, the number of international trips I took in a year. These numbers were what defined me.

My feet were constantly itching and I never liked to spend more than a few days in a place before heading to the next country. Revisiting a place felt superfluous to me.

That’s why I was hoping to spend a month or two in Pakistan and then continue to check new countries off the list — after all, my online classes finally granted me the freedom to “work on my numbers.”

But as is usually the case in 2020, things turned out quite different from what I had expected. Borders remained closed and worldwide infections stayed rampant. At this point, I have already spent nearly half a year in Pakistan.

During this peculiar time, however, an amazing thing happened:

My mindset about travel started to change and I began to look at my long stay in Pakistan as perhaps my most valuable travel experience ever.

I may not have visited dozens of countries like in previous years but my experiences were deeper than ever before.

From trekking to one of the world’s tallest mountains to sharing tea with heavily armed officers at nearly 5,000 meters altitude to exploring hidden beaches in the most secluded regions to spontaneously being invited to village homes, my adventures in Pakistan couldn’t have been more incredible. They opened my eyes to the sheer diversity of many countries and completely transformed my idea about traveling. 

It took me nearly a full year of heavy restrictions on international travel and a few months in one of the world’s most fascinating countries to give up on my superficial ideals and become a more mature traveler.

This time will always have a special place in my heart.

-Arabela from The Spicy Travel Girl

19. What The River Taught Me

My travel story takes place in the summer of 2017 — the final summer before I graduated university — as it continues to play a significant role in the person I’ve become.

When I say that, people ask me if it was the portion of the summer I spent solo backpacking in Europe . And to their surprise, it wasn’t. It was actually the latter portion of the summer where I stayed closer to home.

For July and August I worked as a canoe guide leading whitewater canoe trips on remote rivers in Canada. It was here that I got to canoe the powerful and iconic Missinaibi River, a river that continues to influence me all these years later.

The Missinaibi River flows from the powerful Lake Superior to the even more powerful salty waters of James Bay. Here, I led a group of eight teenagers through dozens of whitewater rapids over 500 kilometers (~311 miles).

With no cell service for 25 days, we were forced to disconnect from anything other than the river.

During this trip I learned two important lessons:

First, I learned to be confident in my own abilities as a leader and problem solver.

There were a few rapids where my campers’ boats flipped and I had to rescue the campers and the canoes. One rescue saw two boats flip on a mile-long rapid. It took six hours to make it down the rapid, and during this time I managed stuck canoes and crying campers.

And while this was one of the most difficult rescues I’ve done, I was amazed at how calm I was throughout it. I gave clear directions, prioritized effectively, and kept my campers safe throughout the entire experience. Following the rescue, I had a newfound sense of confidence in my abilities.

The second lesson I learned on the Missinaibi was the power of disconnecting from society and connecting with the people around you.

A wild river commands all of your attention. Each day, you and your group must take down camp, load canoes, paddle up to eight hours while navigating both rapids and portages, get to a new campsite, set up camp, cook dinner, and go to bed.

And without the distraction of technology, your attention has nowhere else to be. You focus on the river and your teammates.

As someone who had wrestled with anxiety and depression prior to this summer, I felt at total ease on the trip. Now I seek societal disconnection and human connection as much as I can. 

Sometimes the most profound, life-altering trips are the least expected trips closer to home.

-Mikaela of  Voyageur Tripper

More Short Travel Experience Stories

25 Crazy Travel Stories You Need To Read To Believe

23 Inspiring Travel Stories Sharing The Kindness Of Strangers

17 True Short Adventure Travel Stories To Inspire Your Next Trip

38 Inspiring Travel Love Stories From The Road

16 Short Funny Travel Stories That Will Make You Laugh

20 Embarrassing Travel Stories That Will Make You Laugh & Blush

21 Travel Horror Stories About Scary Travel Experiences

Do you have any inspiring travel experience stories about life-changing trips to share?

Enjoyed these inspiring stories about travel? Pin them for later!

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These stories are so much fun to read! Thanks so much for putting a post like this together. It’s great to be able to check out other people’s blogs and read about other people’s experiences!

Always great to read about travel experiences of others. Some great stories to read over coffee. I’ve Pinned your post for future reference and to share with others. Will check out each story author’s blog as well. Great Job! 🙂

Amazing story for new traveler like me thanks for your contribution

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Travel love stories: love in the time of travel.

In the age of social media, where a swipe decides whether your love story will take place or not. Making and breaking relationships are so easy that at the slightest distress we run away from love, not wanting to go through the lover’s quarrels and dilemmas. What does that mean for travellers who are always on-the-go, finding love can be easy and difficult both. One may find a wider and more exciting dating opportunities yet the uncertainty of a fleeting relationship on your travels can be discomforting! So how does travel love stories takes place in the real world?

Why do we fall in love easily while travelling?

Seeing and experiencing a new place stimulates your brain and can give you an adrenaline rush and a sense of thrill when you are travelling. This can nudge you towards the initial romantic attraction you might feel for another human being. Most travel love stories start because of this sense of freedom and elation one feels while travelling.

According to a study done by Donald G Dutton and Arthur Aron , the flush of excitement and the mystery of the unknown can make two people feel attracted towards each other. They made female interviewers to ask male passerby on a terror-arousing suspension bridge to fill out a questionnaire containing pictures from TAT test. They found a great positive correlation of the male passerby to have post interview communication with the female interviewers. The conclusion is that, when you are in a presence of someone who is decently attractive and you face a fear stimulating stimulus it provokes you physiologically. The emotional reaction to fear is often misinterpreted as romantic love. Thus, begins the series of misperceived travel love stories!

Perils of Travel Love Stories

Even though the titillation of finding love on the road can be super stimulating yet we all know how most of the times these romances can end in a jiffy. The problem starts when you immerse yourself in the pool of love and the harsh realities of the world chase you down. The carefree girl or the handsome guy you locked your eyes with at the bar, the co-traveller who has been super helpful or the girl/guy being extra caring towards you on the trip might just be a mirage and short lived. What happens when this illusion breaks?

“The more I   traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends.” —  Shirley MacLaine

The melancholy associated with travel love stories is not the part where it ends. It is the part when you forgo the person with whom you created the most intense emotional attachments, and you know that you are not fated to be together to spend your lives along with each other.

6 Travel Love Stories from people who found love on the road

Bringing to you six of my favourite love stories from travellers who found their soulmates while travelling!

“Travel is like love, mostly because it’s a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed. That is why the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end.” — Pico Iyer

1. You’re The Sunshine That Greets Me Every Day

So, a lot of people ask me how Doulos and I met. The story started over a Facebook post where I wrote that I was going on a recce trip to Kasol alone and would love some company. Divya Shree and  Doulos reached out to me and we three decided to travel together. Before the trip, I thought I should at least meet this guy once before travelling with him.

A week before the trip, we met on a Sunday afternoon in the month of May and as usual he was late and I waited for a while (hate waiting, I am usually on time). And, we ended up spending a few hours talking (he did the talking and I listened) at a chai shop.

Taking A Chance On Love

He seemed like a good guy and that was that. On the day of our travel, the first thing he told me when we met at Kashmiri Gate bus terminal was that my slippers resembled like a bumble bee. I thought, who says that kind of funny thing to people they just met!

Two days in Kasol we all had a good time. It was on a night where I decided to stay in kasol and he carried on to Tosh. After a Whatsapp chat and some flirting we met the next day. The very first day he told me that if we continue this then it’s going to be for ever. I didn’t take him seriously initially but each day with this wonderful human being has been a blessing to me. After dating for two years, we married in 2016 and its been 4 years of marital bliss.

2. Color The World With Love 

Amogha met Steve at a ‘Mini Bloggers Meet’ to watch the last Harry Potter movie on-screen. They both loved to read, write, travel and were diehard Potter-heads, but they realised the love for each other only after they travelled together to Hyderabad. Amogha recalls how it all started back in 2011, “I sat across a total stranger making small talk and unsurprisingly, the small talk turned into a full fledged travel-talk. He had been to Leh-Ladakh, biked to the foothills, jumped into the Zanskar River – all before travel was mainstream and I sat with utmost envy having only a tiny list of travel accomplishments”. 

“I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” — Mark Twain

“Somehow, a week later, we found ourselves playing tourists in Old Hyderabad. Both of us were new to the city and we were keen on discovering the hidden secrets of the city. As we were walking the busy streets of Laad Bazaar leading upto Char Minar, while everyone around us were moving at a fast pace, it seemed like we were the only two people simply standing and looking at the structure, wondering out loud (almost at the same time) as to how many people the minarets must have seen over the years. When we climbed upstairs and took in the view the streets below, it become evident that there, in that moment, there was a more colorful chaos in our hearts than the market stretched out in front of our eyes with all the emotions that came surging out for each other out of nowhere.  We went to multiple places and ended up in Golconda Fort for the evening, just as dusk was setting in, the sky bright with the sunset hues”.

A Wild Ride Called Love

“The light show had been canceled because of less number of tourists at that time but he convinced the authorities to run the show, pointing out to his camera, saying he was going to write good reviews about them. We then personally asked a couple of other people there to attend the the light-show telling them it was a must-see so that there were atleast 8 people for the show to go on”.

“However, when the show started, I didn’t hear a thing because all I could hear was my thumping heart as I sat wondering as to why I had the biggest possible smile on my face. The moon came out from behind the clouds, we looked at each other and we just knew what we felt for each other without saying a word. So what started as two travelers exploring a new city ended up as a 12-hour-long “date”. 

“No road is long with good company.” – – Turkish Proverb

“We have seen some of the best and worst years of our lives ever since – from living in different cities and meeting up midway to explore different places together, to traveling separately, to living in different countries with me undergoing serious travelers’ envy when he was backpacking all over Europe, to convincing my parents with rural background to accept a person of different religion into the family, to living on opposite sides of the world even after our marriage, to living together and discovering an all new country little by little. It’s been a wild ride”. 

3. Love Is A Dream For Two Lives To Share 

Nancy Agarwal , a law officer with a Public Sector Bank from Delhi fell in love with a stranger who became her best travel mate, after travelling together for two years they decided to tie the knot.

She fondly remember, “He was from Himachal Pradesh and I from Delhi. He used to read my travel blogs and I used to like his travel photography. He was a biker and I had special flair for bikes. We planned a trip to Kasauli together without meeting each other first. There is a concept of blind date. I call our meeting as ‘blind friendship’. It was in February, 2016 when we first met in Chandigarh, centre point between Delhi and Dharamshala, to further go to Kasauli.

After many bad trips with friends, she decided to travel with other people, she mentions her reasons for not travelling with friends, “I usually end up breaking up with my friends after travelling with them. It is on a trip that you completely understand a person, their nature and attitude, your compatibility with them”.

All Things Grow With Love 

She further elaborates, “I don’t like friends who on a trip sit inside the hotel room and watch television or those friends who turned out to be very unhygienic. I usually liked to travel solo”. It was then she met this guy from the mountains. “It was only with Ashish that I could do 30 trips before we decided to get married. We never started with an intention to enter into marriage or for that matter in a relationship. I was 28 and he was 24 years old when we first met. And with every trip our friendship grew. We travelled to many places in trains, buses, flights and took lot of bike trips, with me always as pillion rider. He says that I am the best pillion rider he has ever got.  It was because of him that later I also learnt bike. He encourages me to grow.

“What we find in a soulmate is not something wild to tame, but something wild to run with.” – Robert Brault

It was September 2018 when we got stuck in the floods at Manali. Roads were broken, our car got stuck at Rohtang Pass but  somehow we managed to reach Old Manali. We stayed there for ten days. A person is best judged in time of problems and scarcity. In those ten days I realized that I could spend my life with this man. I told him what I felt and in December 2018 we got married. This is my short and sweet love story, a story which is very dear to me.

4. An Everlasting Bond Of Love!

Love comes in all shapes and types, intimate love is not the only kind of love. The bond of friendship surpasses all the other types of love. Meghana Sanka who is a die-hard wildlife lover met her perfect travel love in college. She recollects the sweltering heat of Chennai in July 2015 when she crossed paths with Shruti. “The librarian looked sternly at both of us and told us that we needed stamp size photos. I asked her if she wanted to go together, she shrugged her shoulders and  we walked down to the photo booth. That was the beginning of our friendship. We were expecting a big fat orientation the next day but alas, it lasted only 30 minutes; we had the entire weekend to ourselves. Not knowing what to do, we booked tickets to Pondicherry on impulse and caught a bus an hour later.”

“Both of us didn’t realise how overbooked Pondi could be on weekends and we spent 5 hours on the road, walking and talking, just trying to find a hotel in our budget. Those 5 hours made us both realise how much patience we had for the same things. It has been a rollercoaster ride ever since. From Hampi to Indonesia to Rishikesh to Ranthambore,  we have always chosen each other for trips.”

Friendship Is The Thread Of Life 

“You know how you have that one person, who likes the exact room you do, who wants the opposite side of the bed, who wants to do the exact thing you want to do, who is ALWAYS in sync with you. This girl, Shruti Menon is that person. As a solo traveller, I get worked up in group travel or planning travel with a lot of people but with Shruti, it’s just like reading a newspaper. It’s that relaxing to plan.”

“We are so close my mom often jokes, if one of us had been a boy, we would have gotten married. And that’s true, I do call her the love of my life.  Ours isn’t a conventional love story, we are just two inseparable girls. It doesn’t mean we don’t fight, we are both headstrong. But our love wins over every nasty fight we have had. If there was someone I would want to spend the rest of my life with, hands down it would be her. To friendships that are deeper than the Mariana trench! So grateful for this human being.”

5. A Moment In Time…A Reminder Of Hope 

After a life changing experience in Nepal, Dave begun documenting his travels in his blog Dave’s Travel Corner . Dave survived a 4 years long distance relationship with his wife whom he met at Koh Saket in Thailand. The path of long distance was not easy initially in the formative years of their relationship but they made it through with the help of Skype and emails. He says, “Love on the road can lead to beautiful things, most often it is ephemeral excitement. One don’t have the limitations that you would have with a traditional romantic relationship – you are short on time and living in the moment without stressors that weighs you down. Having a permanent location and profession can hamper your chances of finding love but when you are travelling and meet someone with whom your chemistry clicks, love inevitable.”

Dave found his soulmate on a trip, the strong degree of trust and communication between them helped them pull through the long distance phase with ease. They live in California and the love has only grown stronger with each year.

6. And The Story Begins…

Madhurima found her partner when she moved to a new city, she fondly recalls those days, “Sayantan and I met in the world wide web while discussing a political issue regarding a controversial movie released back in 2014. We were both Bengalis living in Bengaluru. He was fresh out of college, landed himself a job. I left my job in Delhi and came to Bengaluru to pursue masters.”

“We were homesick and hard-pressed to find a friend who will speak the same language. Besides, Bengaluru is an amazing city if you have money to spend on dainty cafe and malls and bars but the novelty weans out soon. We needed to visit one of those lush green parks, sit hand in hand and speak for hours which was amiss in Bengaluru but a norm for any Kolkata born for the initial days of love!”

“It was the republic day holiday of January when we escaped to Pondicherry. Pondy as they call it lovingly. The beachside erstwhile French town cast its spell as we walked till midnight in the town, filled us up with grilled prawns in lemon butter sauce, awaited sunrise by the beach alongside a few strays and a bunch of local fishermen, spotted a dead tortoise washed ashore during high tide and discovered bliss! For love, it is incumbent to laugh without reason, bounce in the palpable heightened sense of euphobia and discover the mundane in a new light! We did the same in Pondy. “

“5 years down the line, we laugh saying if we fell in love with each other or we fell in love with Pondicherry? Needless to say, we make it a point to go back t the beach town every now and then and rejoice in the waves of Bay of Bengal!”

Travel Love Stories In The Era Of Social Media

Finding the love of your life can be excruciating to say the least specially while travelling. To help travellers to find love on the road, there are many social media apps that gives opportunities to travellers to meet new people and experience of the joy of bonding when travelling alone. Check out the following apps:

Did you fall in love while travelling? Share with us your romantic travel love stories and we will feature it on our Instagram and Facebook page.

14 thoughts on “ Travel Love Stories: Love In The Time Of Travel ”

Traveling with the person you love the most is the best feeling, there’s no perfect place. I also believe that traveling and exploring with the person you love strengthens and widens your bide with each other.

My husband and I are preparing to travel soon with our children and suspect that we will fall in love over again. There is something magical about exploration!

I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was great. I do not know who you are but definitely you are going to a famous blogger if you are not already ?? Cheers!

Jaipur to Mount Abu cab service

These are sweet stories! I have heard of travel love stories before and it is heartwarming to hear them.

Traveling with the right partner can be so fulfilling. Traveling with the wrong partner can be hell!

Aw what a sweet post! It makes me wish I had met my partner while traveling too! These are some touching stories.

All these stories are so beautiful! Traveling does help you create special moments!

Such beautiful and different stories! I loved reading each one and kept thinking how amazing it would be if you revisited each story every few years to continue the beautiful story!

omg these stories!!! Super cute!!! I never experienced love when traveling, it must be such an amazing experience.

Traveling does make for some special moments with my husband. I think it is time for us to make a love story again

Well these totally warm my heart. I actually have a travel love story myself – Scotland will forever hold a close place in my heart!

This really sounds like a long and true love letter. Where the peaks of sharing and travel merge into one. Superb!

Oh gosh, I’ve seen 90 Day Fiance, I know this doesn’t always end well. I’d be too focused on the scenery and traveling than the people around me. Plus I’m married, ha.

Very nice collection of these stories. Each one of them made me fall in love again. 🙂 I wish my love story also had a similar tale. However, we are still in love and the common love is travel.

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5 Travel Love Stories to Inspire You This Valentine’s Day

Whether you’re a fan of Valentine’s Day or not, hopefully you’re a fan of love. Here at Discover Corps , we sure are: love for new cultures and experiences, love for friends, and love for family .

Because Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, we’re going to celebrate romantic love today. And because we’re always obsessed with travel, we’re going to put a little twist on it and share five travel love stories that made us smile.

5 Romantic Travel Love Stories

Chris + shaney.

We love all of Yahoo! Travel’s romance section , but this story is one of our favorites. Why? Because this Dutch/Australian couple met while volunteering on a turtle project in Costa Rica. How wonderful is that?! Since then, they’ve been all around the world; they even eloped in Antarctica.

In case you’re looking for love… did we mention we offer volunteer vacations in Costa Rica ?!

Lauren + Jared

Lauren, the travel blogger behind Lateral Movements, met her now-husband while on a bus tour in Europe. We could describe their international romance, but we think she says it best:

“They (the infamous ‘they’) say that ‘when you know, you know’.

I was always a little bit skeptical of this phrase, but as the months rolled by with Jared, I realized what it meant.

You do just know.”

Edna + Mike

Some people say you shouldn’t live together before you’re married. But what about living together before you’re dating ? That’s what happened to this travel blogger and her now-fiance; they met when they both moved into the same flat in Singapore.

They took trips to Bali, Thailand , and several other countries, before Edna realized something important: “I may have broken my promise to myself to stay single, but I wasn’t going to break the part about traveling all through my 20s.”

Luckily, she’d found a guy who understood and appreciated her wanderlust — and he proposed in Paris soon after she moved.

Tess + Michael

There’s something romantic about trains, isn’t there? Well, love was certainly in the air for these two, who met on an Amtrak train from Portland to Seattle.

It wouldn’t have happened without Michael’s quick thinking, though; “When I was waiting to get my seat assignment in the station, I see this beautiful woman walk into the station and get a ticket… So I got out of line, acted casual and got next to her in the line.”

And it worked! The two bonded over coffee and beautiful views, and are now married.

Dalene + Pete

This powerhouse travel blogging couple has been together the longest on this list by far: they’ve been married for almost 14 years.

Though their romance didn’t start abroad, they did eventually decide to leave their corporate jobs behind for a life of travel. And, as Dalene says, “The decision to travel was the best thing that ever happened for our marriage.”

They’ve now spent one-third of their marriage on the road, and they are happier than ever.

Do you have a travel love story to share with us? Let us know in the comments!

(Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wtlphotos/)

2 responses to “ 5 Travel Love Stories to Inspire You This Valentine’s Day ”

It’s so fulfilling to hear stories like these. Really makes you believe in love. Thanks for sharing them.

We couldn’t agree more Sam! Thank you for reading and we wish you happy holidays 🙂

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• The Inventory

The Greatest Time-Travel Romances of All Time

The greatest romances face the test of time — but what happens when two lovers are adrift in time and space? About Time is just the latest in a long line of time-travel love stories, and tales of time-crossed lovers. Here are the greatest time-travel romances of all timelines.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Teenage love is a tricky thing, and in the 2006 adaptation of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Makoto messes it up over and over again. After she discovers that she can literally leap through time, Makoto uses her power to play cupid not only with her friends, but with her own love life. She learns that relationships are complicated, even when you can arrange it so that certain conversations never happened. This beautiful anime film expands on the stories told in other adaptations of Yasutaka Tsutsui's novel. Makoto's aunt in the film is the protagonist of the original novel, and we see some of the ramifications of her own time traveling romance.

The Time Traveler's Wife

Throughout The time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger compares her main characters' relationship to that between a sailor and his wife. The description is apt as we see Henry and Clare torn apart again and again, never knowing if the storms of life will keep them apart forever. Henry suffers from a genetic condition similar to epilepsy, but instead of having seizures he travels through time. He and Clare struggle to lead normal lives despite his frequent disappearances. In 2009 Robert Schwentke adapted this into a film starring Rachel McAdams, the actress most type-cast as a time traveler's love interest .

Just after World War II, British army nurse Claire Randall is vacationing with her husband in Scotland when she stumbles through a group of standing stones into the year 1743. She wins the trust of a clan of Scotsmen after using her medical knowledge to relocate the arm of Jamie MacKenzie. One thing leads to another and Claire ends up being forced to marry Jamie, breaking her marriage vows to her husband in the future. The situation becomes further complicated when Claire realizes she is falling in love with Jamie. She must choose between trying to find a way back to her present and her husband, or staying with the man she now believes to be the love of her life. This sexy tale has gripped readers for over a decade. The eighth book in the series will be released in March 2014, and Ronald D. Moore is producing a television series based on the books set to come out in Spring 2014.

Somewhere in Time

The course of a life can turn on a penny as we learn in the 1980 film Somewhere In Time. The movie was based on Richard Matheson's beloved sci/fi book Bid Time Return. The story begins with Richard Collier having a strange encounter with an old woman who begs him to "come back to me" and gives him a pocket watch. Shortly later, Collier learns that she was Elise McKenna, an actress from the early 1900s. He grows enamored with her photograph and becomes determined to find a way to travel back in time to meet her. His former professor, who believes he has self-hypnotised himself back to the year 1571, teaches him how to will himself into 1912. When he finds Elise, their whirlwind romance lights up the screen.

Amy and Rory's storyline on Doctor Who

Amy Pond and Rory Williams are among the most popular companions in Doctor Who, and their romance stands out as one of the new series' best storylines. They have rocky moments, but seeing their struggles only makes their relationship stronger and more believable to the viewer. We get to see their relationship develop from Rory's one-sided teenage crush to Amy's willingness to sacrifice everything for him. It's difficult to pick one episode to represent their love story, but the tenth episode of the sixth series is a good place to start. The Girl Who Waited deals with some of the more complex issues with time travel and it's fascinating to watch these characters navigate a messy situation involving both a younger and older Amy.

Back to the Future

Oh Back to the Future, we will never get tired of your time travel hijinks. Marty McFly travels back in time to the 1950s, and in doing so, stops his parents from meeting for the first time. Instead of falling in love with George McFly when her father hits him with her car, Lorraine Baines starts falling for her time traveling son. Hilarity ensues as Marty must play cupid and get his parents to the Enchantment Under the Sea dance before he and his siblings disappear forever. Spoiler, he succeeds, and his parents fall madly in love. As George tells Lorraine, "I'm your density. I mean, your destiny."

Safety Not Guaranteed

A man named Kenneth posts an ad seeking: "Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. Safety not guaranteed." Darius, a young reporter, is sent out with a group to investigate his claims and see what he's really after, or if he's just insane. After winning his trust, the two begin to bond. What follows is a beautiful story about two people learning to accept and trust each other's weirdness. They build a time machine, train, and do everything they can to prepare themselves for the future. Spoiler: The ending is subjective and we never learn for certain if Kenneth can successfully time travel.

Only Backwards

This short story explores the sweetness of a first kiss, and the sacrifices made for loved ones. Mason invents a time machine so he can revisit the most important moment in his life, but not everything goes according to plan. When he returns, every memory after that moment is gone. He is a teenager trapped in a 40 year old body, with no recollection of his beloved wife. They touchingly console each other as they navigate this strange situation. She tells him, "Don't worry...You won't be alone. I'll be here."

Midnight in Paris

Gil Pender doesn't have the best of luck with his time traveling romances, unless you count his love affair with the city of Paris. In Midnight in Paris, he is on vacation with his fiancee when he discovers that every night at midnight, he travels back in time. He finds himself in the 1920s and he encounters all of his favorite writers and artists from that time period. With his present-day romance going poorly, he falls in love with Picasso's mistress Adriana. They begin a relationship, but the present is always there, calling Gil back. This nostalgic movie is romantic, funny, and full of fantasy.

Sense of the Past

When Henry James died, he left an unfinished time travel romance novel behind. It was published in 1917 and spawned a play and two movies. In the novel, Ralph Pendrel discovers that by going into his ancestor's London home, he is also transported to their time. In this time period, he is engaged to a woman named Molly Midmore, although he finds himself more attracted to her sister, Nan. The notes Henry James left outlining the rest of the novel make it clear that Nan reciprocate his love, and eventually realizes that he is a time traveler. If the novel had been finished, Ralph would have had to choose between returning to his own time and another woman or staying with Nan in the past.

The Dancers at the Edge of Time

The universe is about to end, but that doesn't stop Jherek Carnelian from having love on the brain. From the moment he sees Amelia Underwood, a Victorian time traveler, he knows that they will fall in love. Michael Moorecock's series which includes An Alien Heat, The Hollow Lands, and the End of All Songs, follows the lovers as they bounce back and forth through time. As the series goes on we see that their relationship is more important than even they could have imagined.

Quantum Leap: Star Crossed

Sam Beckett's wife left him at the altar, but it didn't happen in every timeline. In Star Crossed Sam leaps back to Donna's college days long before their marriage is set to begin. He theorized that she couldn't commit to him due to issues with her father, and he sets out to fix them before it's too late. Al repeatedly warns him against this plan, but Sam loves her and will do anything to give their relationship a second chance.

Star Trek: City on the Edge of Forever

Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are transported to New York City during the Great Depression — and I bet you can guess which ones falls in love. McCoy saves Edith Keeler's life, and Kirk falls in love with her. Edith is an impressive pacifist who would have gone on to delay WWII and indirectly lead to an Axis victory. Lovestruck Kirk must make a terrible decision—to set the timeline right with Edith's death, or change the course of history forever.

Time and Again

At the heart of Jack Finney's classic time travel novel is the romance between Simon Morley and Julia Charbonneau. The book has a complex plot full of action, mystery, and adventure, but the love story holds it all together. Simon Morley travels back to the 1882 New York City in order to solve a mystery. While in the past he falls in love with Julia, although she doesn't immediately reciprocate his feelings. Their sweet relationship has many memorable moments, but none as fun as the scenes of 1882 Julia experiencing 1970 NYC.

The Man Who Folded Himself

David Gerrold's The Man Who Folded himself gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "self love." Daniel Eakins is a college student who inherits a Timebelt, and with it the ability to travel through time. He uses it to travel to his future where he meets alternate versions of himself, and eventually having a sexual relationship with himself. He eventually meets a female version of himself, Diane, and they attempt to have a more traditional relationship, even having a child together. It's a strange sort of love story, but that doesn't make the book any less powerful.

Time Travel Romance Novels Beyond Outlander

Jessica Pryde

Jessica Pryde is a member of that (some might call) rare breed that grew up in Washington, DC, but is happily enjoying the warmer weather of the desert Southwest. While she is still working on what she wants to be when she grows up, she’s enjoying dabbling in librarianship and writing all the things. She can be found drowning in her ever-growing TBR and exclaiming about romance in the Book Riot podcast ( When in Romance ), as well as on social media. Find her exclamations about books and pho on twitter ( JessIsReading ) and instagram ( jess_is_reading ).

View All posts by Jessica Pryde

I love time travel. I will consume it in almost any format: prose, poetry, comics, film, television, radio drama. You name it, I’m there . I don’t know where my interest originally started, but it’s probably no coincidence that the earliest two adult books I recall reading were both time travel romance novels. To this day, a good time travel romance is a thing of beauty that I always find myself keeping an eye out for. 

There are several elements that play into making a time-travel romance successful. The biggest element is how the author establishes the HEA. Does the time-traveling protagonist elect to stay in their new time? Does the one who was traveled to somehow find their way to the other’s time period? Does the one who lives in the present find the soul of the one they met in the past? Or maybe something completely different?

Let’s look at a few to start with:

1. A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux

If you want a good example of an old-school time travel romance, you can’t go wrong with Deveraux. In A Knight in Shining Armor , we find out what happens when a young woman, abandoned and crying in a churchyard far from home, comes face to face with a real-ass knight, who is rightfully confused. Trying to keep the poor man alive is hard enough, but then there’s the whole being incredibly attracted to him thing.

If you enjoy that one, you might also find other books of hers interesting, including Legend , Remembrance , and Return to Summerhouse .

2. Love, Eternally by Morgan O’Neill

A flautist playing in an ancient ruin finds herself in the middle of the Roman empire. The Emperor is terrible, but a young senator catches her eye. Also, there’s a rebellion brewing, and Gigi is there to help fan the flames to dethrone a tyrant.

3. Beautiful Wreck by Larissa Brown

A woman from the future ends up in the past. Sounds pretty cool, right? In a world built on VR, Ginn, a VR designer, accidentally ends up in the 10th century. Multiple people have recommended this to me, and someone even said their husband told them “you didn’t tell me it was a romance—with the setting!” So yeah, if you’re into a lush depiction of a time period and a beautiful love story, this one’s for you.

4. The Duke and the Domina by Jenn LeBlanc

A reluctant duke marries a switch from the twenty-first century. That’s a hook. Grayson has been trying to escape his desire to submit, but that all goes to pot when he marries a woman who has awakened in a new body and a new time. Lulu is a professional dominatrix and she doesn’t want to be where she is, and isn’t sure she can trust her new husband. But it’s a romance, so they’ll figure it out.

5. Everything for Love by Marilyn Vix

Deidre is a Timeanaut. She travels through time using sex to power her travels.

Yeah, you read that right.

When she sees the same man in multiple time periods (I’m guessing unchanged? Because they’re not that far apart), she discovers that he, too, is a time traveler, and has been sent to save her life. They have adventures and make enemies and do all those things you’d expect people screwing with the timeline to do, including fall in love. But there are some complications with that, too.

6. Timeless and Timekeeper by Alexandra Monir

These are technically YA, but I loved Timeless so much. This book features an uncommon element in time-travel romance: the ability to go into and out of the specified time period. Usually, in one of these (thanks probably in part to Diana Gabaldon, NGL), the heroine (because it’s almost always the heroine) finds herself in a moment in history, and one of the most important plot elements is how to get her back to her own time (if, in the end, she even decides to do so). But Michele uses a journal to bounce back and forth between her own time and that of Philip, the boy she will eventually fall in love with. Also, it’s fun to get all the historical tidbits.

There are also some really, great, memorable, and iconic books that are more “time travel novels with romance in them” instead of the other way around. The love story isn’t always the focus, but these are definitely romantic love stories within the time travel story.

7. The Night Mark by Tiffany Reisz

No matter if it’s more general fiction or four alarm fire erotic kinky romance, Tiffany Reisz is an amazing storyteller. Here, Faye falls into the ocean and breaks the surface in 1921, where the spitting image of her now-dead husband is staring back at her. Part love story, part supernatural, part mystery, this book is all the things.  

Also: If you want to become completely obsessed with the history of lighthouses on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, this book is the starting off point.

8. The Firebird   by Susanna Kearsley

Nicola has a gift that allows her to see the pasts of objects she touches. Working at a gallery, this is a cool gift to have, for obvious reasons. When she touches a small carving and discovers its intriguing history, she follows a girl into the past.

9. The River of No Return by Bee Ridg way

A man about to die in the Napoleonic Wars wakes up in the modern day. There is a guild of time lords masters travelers who tell him he can’t go back. But he longs for his lady love, and long after he expected to be able to return, he is sent back in time. There is adventure and intrigue in this one, but people also appreciate the love story.

10. Somewhere in Time by Richard Matheson

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with this movie. Superman and Dr. Quinn fell in love but couldn’t be together. That sucked. But then it didn’t. I loved it. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered it was a book. The book was a little different, but in essence was the same. A young man “falls in love” with a woman in a portrait and then finds a way to get to her time period in order to meet her. Things ensue.

If there’s one thing you might notice about this list of time travel romance novels, it’s that with the exception of Alexandra Monir, the authors are all white. Non-white authors are indeed writing about time travel, but if they are writing time-travel romance , I have not yet heard about it. In fact, I wrote an entire essay about why (in my opinion) it is difficult for black women in particular to write about a modern black character traveling backwards into any era (except maybe prehistoric). The same can probably be said of members of other races who have dealt with Western oppression, whether it was slavery, genocide, ethnic cleansing, colonization, or anything else on the massive list of sins our European ancestors dealt onto our ancestors from Africa, the Americas, the entire continent of Asia, and the majority of Oceania and the Pacific Islands. I would love to see someone successfully write a believable Outlander-style romance featuring a protagonist of color. Or even a modern-day story in the style of The Time Traveler’s Wife , but, you know, happy.

Give me About Time with people of color in book form. I’ll love you forever.

(Okay, so Courtney Milan  did  write a story in which Adam Fucking Reynolds travels in time and encounters Frederica “Free” Marshal, but it doesn’t really count, right?)

The other thing about this particular list is that it’s pretty damn straight. Do you have any favorite time travel romance novels featuring queer protagonists? I want to hear about that too.

Or just tell me your favorite time travel romance novels. I want to know. (Give me moooooore.)

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Beyond the Bookends

A Book Blog for Women and Moms who Love to Read

8 Tantalizing Time Travel Romance Books

Star-crossed lovers have nothing on these couples who are separated by time. Time travel romance books are really the epitome of fighting for the one you love. There is nothing more romantic than crossing the boundaries of time to find a way to be with the one you love.

These tantalizing love stories will make you swoon or at least they will make you look at love in a whole new way.

*Time Travel Romance books Post contains affiliate links. Purchases made through links result in a small commission to us at no cost to you. Some Books have been gifted. All opinions are our own

Table of Contents

Best Time Travel Romance Books of 2023

The Seven-Year Slip by Ashley Poston

Clementine has had her heart broken one too many times. She has inherited her beloved aunt’s apartment and is constantly mourning her loss. When she comes home one day and finds a man sitting there, she realizes that he exists seven years in the past.

And, the more time they spend together, the more she realizes she is falling for him. But she can never figure out when their paths will collide! This is a fantastic pick if you are looking for romantic comedy books.

Dead Romantics ( GMA Book Club Pick July 2022 ) was one of my favorite books last year and this book did not disappoint! This is such an adorable time travel romance book and is perfect for our ultimate beach reads 2023. I needed to include it in our list of adult fantasy novels as well! And if you are not a fantasy lover, you can definitely call this a magical realism book!

The Deja Glitch by Holly James

Jack has been reliving the same day for months and believes the only way out of this circle is to get Gemma Peters to fall in love with him. The Problem? Gemma has a feeling of deja vu, but she cannot remember Jack and has made a vow not to date musicians again (after her last boyfriend used her).

I had high hopes for this time travel romance and it did not let me down. Do not be worried that you will have to read the same things over and over. This book has a refreshing spin that was utterly enjoyable. Thank you for my gifted copy of this book.

The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman

Alice Hoffman has a place in our hearts with all of her books, including Practical Magic (one of our favorite series). So it is no surprise that her newest book is on our list of time travel romance books. This is the newest Alice Hoffman book and it is a book lover’s dream come true.

This fantasy is a story of love, heartbreak, and the magic of books. Mia Jacob is on the verge of sinking herself into a river when the book The Scarlet Letter saves her. The words seem to tell her story of growing up in an oppressive cult where contact with the outside world is forbidden and reading books is a heinous crime.

Even more daunting is the inscription on the inside of the book that is inscribed to her. This is a time travel romance book as only Hoffman could do it. I loved the audio version of the book- it brought life and depth to this story.

Best Time Travel Romance Books

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander #1)

How do we love Outlander? We cannot count the ways. There is a reason this is one of my favorite books of all time .

This epic story begins in 1945 when Claire Randall and her husband take a second honeymoon to the Scottish Highlands to celebrate being reunited after the war. When Claire touches one of the standing stones, she is transported to 1743.

This is when the real story begins. In order to stay safe as an English woman in Scotland, she must depend on Jamie Frasier for protection. This book is definitely at the top of our list of best romance novels of all time but you will love it equally if you love historical fiction , magical realism , romance , or witches . This is one of the iconic and epic time travel romance books that has it all and is perfect for a list of books like A Discovery of Witches . It was easy to include this on the best fantasy books for adults as well.

The Time Traveler’s Wife By Audrey Niffenegger

Clare and Henry have an unusual love story. They’ve known each other since Clare was six and Henry was thirty-six, but got married when Clare was twenty-three and Henry was thirty-one. You see, Henry is an adventurous librarian who inadvertently travels through time.  

Why We Love This Book : I adore how this story explores very real challenges that any couple faces. With the added time travel element, it becomes an unforgettable pick from our list of romance books. The way that they fight for their love gives this book its clear spot on our list of best romance novels of all time. But be warned, this book may emotionally wreck you. Find This Book in Best Time Travel Books Like the Time Traveler’s Wife / Time Travel Books /

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston

I absolutely loved Casey’s first book and had very high hopes for this one.

August moves to NYC and into a house filled with weird roommates. When she meets Jane on the subway, sparks fly immediately, and riding the subway becomes the best part of her day. The twist? Jane is displaced from the 1970s and cannot get off the train. As paranormal romance books go, this one is not to be missed.

I enjoyed this book but, I felt that there were some parts that dragged on a bit. It is very hard to find new ways to talk about a relationship that can only take place on the train. I loved the premise of this time travel romance book.

In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren

Do you love Christmas movies? Are you obsessed with Christmas Romance books? Do you need to swoon? ⁣ If you answered yes to any of those questions, stop everything and order In a Holidaze. This is possibly my favorite Christmas novel of all time and was a must for best holiday books. ⁣

I adored Mae and Andrew’s love story. It’s set up like Groundhog’s Day with Mae repeating the same Christmas vacation until she gets it right. Time travel romance at its best. And man… does she get it right.⁣ Peppermint kisses, sexy sledding, snowball fights, Christmas Tree trimming… this book oozes cheer-filled holiday goodness with a few scenes that are steamier than a cup of cocoa.⁣

There is a reason this time travel book made our Best Books of 2020 list! This is an adorable magical realism book and a real must-read.

Some Like It Plaid by Angela Quarles

In this story, our hunky future chieftain leaves 1st century Scotland for 2019 San Francisco to catch himself a wifey, whom he promptly teleports back to Scotland (Druid magic IDK) and shenanigans ensue.

This book set in Scotland is funny, romantic, and totally cute. I loved it! This is one of the time travel romance novels you will want to read again and again.

The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley

I read this book set in Cornwall in only a few days because I loved it so much.  This is another book that I read this month that is the perfect pick for books like Outlander .

After Eva’s sister dies, she heads back to Cornwall England to find peace and rest.  What she discovers is more than she expects when she finds herself inexplicably back in time.  As her heart begins to feel again, can she find a way to heal her broken heart and find love? This is a wonderful time travel romance book that you will want to read again and again.

A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux

This setup of this time travel romance is the same as Outlander but in reverse! In the first part of the book, Douglass accidentally summons an Earl from the 16th century to modern England!

Dougless vowels to help return Nicholas to his own time, but not before trying to help him figure out who framed him for treason in his own era. But when he’s sent back and nothing changes, Dougless needs to head back to his time and try to save his life.

The attention to detail in the 16th century was reminiscent of Diana Gabaldon’s work. It’s a total must-read for fans of Jamie and Claire’s love story. You can find this one on our list of Time Travel Romance Books as well as 29 Books like Outlander for Fans of the Hit Series .

A love story that spans time is an easy pick for the best romance novels of all time

What are your favorite Time Travel Romance Books?

For more books like these, check out our complete list of time travel books.

Ultimate List of Romances

If you love time travel romance books, then this is the list for you! We have this list carefully divided by sub-genre.

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Jackie is the mother of three children and a Speech-Language Pathologist who uses her love of books to create language-based learning opportunities in her speech therapy practice and with her own children. Her 20+ years of experience in regular and special education classrooms ensures the website content is relevant and informative. She started this website with Kirsten to share their passion for literacy with other moms and kids.

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15 Fantastical Time Travel Romance Books

Last Updated on November 29, 2023 by Louisa

Time travel has always been something that’s both fascinated me and intrigued me. Paired with romance, and you’re on to a winning romance trope!

Time travel love stories can be truly enthralling as love is explored between characters across different periods and places. 

As readers, we have often been whisked away to faraway moments in history beyond our imagination and knowledge, whether in the past to 17th-century Scotland or the future when Martians have conquered the earth.

And this makes time travel romance books so gripping for me; it’s not just the romance story but what I learn about history and cultures in a time beyond the one I know.

If you’re looking for a special time travel romance book that combines creative imagination, history, and love, then you’re going to love these 15 books… 

Affiliate Disclosure : This post contains affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase through any of these links. 

What To Expect From Time Travel Romance Books?

Time travel romance books are known to combine elements of science fiction, adventure, and romance.

What I love about this genre is there are no limits. You can soar into a dystopian future, or back in time to a regency period.

Wherever your time travel plot takes you, you can expect to be taken on an imaginative journey where love transcends time and space.

These books often feature strong-willed characters from different eras or dimensions, who find themselves drawn to each other even though they are separated by time or circumstance.

Being from different generations and time periods, there are often cultural clashes, and different opinions on values, morals, or ways of courtship.

The character dynamics are one of the biggest reasons to read a time travel romance book, and they will be sure to have you questioning your own values and morals in today’s world.

Best Time Travel Romance Books

Now you know a little bit about the main features of the genre, it’s time to show you my favorite fantastic time travel romance books to leave you wishing time travel was real. 

1. A Highlander For Hannah – Mary Warren 

A Highlander for Hannah is a warm and easy-going, time-travel book with a slow burn romance story.

As the title suggests, the story is about the heroine Hannah and her budding relationship with Graham. Graham is a Highlander from the 1700s. 

Hannah summons Graham with a love spell purchased at a Renaissance Fair. Eventually, Hannah has to listen to her heart and decide if she wants to send Graham back to his own time at the next equinox.

Many readers describe this book as charming. Where many time travel stories can be action-packed, this story is more light-hearted and a book to cozy up with. 

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2. The River of No Return – Bee Ridgway

The River of No Return is an action-packed read. The story tells of Nick Devanant, who was set to die during the Napoleonic Wars but finds himself in London in 2003.

He eventually settles down as a farmer in Vermont. 

Nick is also a part of a time-traveling organization that is involved in intrigue and spying across different eras.

Previously a Lord, Nick navigates his new life while shadowed by The Guild (a guild of time lords), who want him on an assignment in the past. 

Nick also meets Julia, a woman from a neighboring estate.

Their romance is explored through all the action and mystery of Nick’s life as a spy and time traveler for the Guild. The mystery and romance are sure to leave you curious. 

3. The Winter Sea – Susanna Kearsley 

The Winter Sea tells the story of Scottish author Carrie, who treads the fine line between fiction and reality.

As a writer, Carrie starts recounting memories of her characters’ lives. A more imaginative way to explore time travel, this book transports you back to 17th-century Scotland. 

The time travel is done as Carrie recollects vivid memories of her book’s fictional characters. However, the reader is left curious as to what memory is, what imagination is, and what reality is.

The book also explores a secretive and tense romance between Carrie and her landlord’s son, Graham.

A more unconventional way to explore time travel, this story jumps back and forth through the visions of the heroine. A book that will spark your curiosity and leave you guessing til the end. 

4. Beautiful Wreck – Larissa Brown

Beautiful Wreck is about a girl who travels back in time and falls in love. Though it’s not anything new in terms of plot, it has been well written and the world-building is excellent.

Ginn is a virtual reality designer who surprisingly finds herself in 10th-century Iceland. Ginn’s current reality is dull as she exists in a future that is desolate and void of the romance she is craving. 

The book tells the story of how Ginn surprisingly finds herself in Viking Iceland!

She starts to enjoy the simple and homely life of the village she finds herself in and meets and falls in love with a native Icelandic Viking named Heirik. 

Although she finally finds the romance she has always wanted, she learns that love is much more complicated than expected. Henrik is reserved and tormented by what he believes is a curse. 

Penetrating his heart and also fighting against forces that try to tear them apart, this time travel romance lives up to the name of its title, a beautiful wreck.

5. A Knight in Shining Armour – Jude Devereux

A Knight in Shining Armour is a classic time travel romance book by author Jude Devereux .

It tells the story of a young woman who falls in love with a real knight from the Elizabethan age in England.

The book unpacks the love between the heroine Douglass, a young teacher, and a medieval knight, Nicholas.

Douglass is in a dating relationship with a doctor who treats her poorly, and only when meeting Nicholas can she experience true love. 

Although the book is about finding true love, it also shows that love between people from different decades can be challenging. Nicholas and Douglass are tested when they are separated from each other to go back to their times. 

This book will captivate your heart as you become invested in the fight for love between the two main characters.

They fight to discover why Nicholas has come to the current day and how to save his life in the past. 

This is a must-read for fans of time travel, romance and adventure genres, as it combines all three in an unforgettable story.

6. What the Wind Knows – Amy Harmon

What the Wind Knows follows the protagonist Anne as she surprisingly finds herself in Ireland in 1921.

The context is war, and we also glimpse Anne’s inner turmoil as she struggles with hurt and navigates the past.

You are introduced to the history of The Irish Revolution in the 1920s and also to a mysterious doctor named Thomas Smith.

The book explores Anne’s struggles as she begins to fall in love with a man who becomes involved in the war.

Readers are mesmerized by Amy Harmon’s poetic writing and ability to capture the love and heartbreak between Anne and Thomas. 

What the Wind Knows brilliantly weaves history, love, and social commentary into one book.

7. In A Holidaze – Christina Lauren

In A Holidaze is a different take on time travel where the main character Maelyn (Mae) is stuck in a time loop.

She travels back in time, but again and again. She is given a chance to re-live the past as she sees fit.

The book’s romance is not too heavy as it’s about Mae’s budding crush on her friend Andrew. Reliving the past gives her the courage to express how she feels about him finally. 

Set during the Christmas season, it is also festive. This is a friends to lovers romance book with a story that is great for a casual, fun, and upbeat read.

8. Before the Coffee Gets Cold – Toshikazu Kawaguchi

This is a charming story about a coffee house in Tokyo that allows people to travel back in time.

It follows the story of four people who want to travel back in time.

Examining the reasons we love Before the Coffee Gets Cold provides insight into the motives behind love.

One story follows a wife as she travels to the past to meet her husband again and explores love with sincerity and honesty. 

Time travel in this book is not without its rules. Time travelers must return to the present in a stipulated time, and their journeys prove interesting. 

A moving and emotional read, Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s novel is for those who want to dive deeper into time travel and deeper into love. 

9. Time and Again – Jack Finney

Time and Again is not only a love story between the main character Simon and Julia but a love story about New York…

The story tells of a 1970s man Simon traveling back to 1882 to solve a mystery plaguing his heart. 

This is one of the historical time travel love stories that is also an ode to the city in which it is set. New York is the third love in this book, with the author Jack Kinney capturing the city in its early years. 

His writing is gripping and makes it feel like you have been transported back to New York.

The romance is also a tale of choosing to follow the head or the heart, as Simon is torn between the present and the past.

10. Ruby Red – Kerstin Gier 

Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier is a witty and lively story of young Gwen who lives in London but soon learns that she can time travel.

A time travel gene runs through her family, although she does not expect to be someone who can time travel.

Soon she is catapulted into time travel suddenly and an unexpected romance. To tell you who the romance is with would spoil the book. You would have to find out by yourself. 

The book is fun and an excellent read for younger readers.

The heroine is 16 years old, and we see the world through her eyes. Described as a clever story, Ruby Red is the easy-going read for your next pick-me-up book.

11. In Five Years – Rebecca Serle

In Five Years is a time-travel romance that fast-forwards to the future!

The main character Dannie finds herself 5 years in the future (through a vision, or is it a reality?), living a life she did not anticipate. She is living with a random man who is not her current fiance.

The book follows Dannie as she unpacks her life 5 years in the future.

A future she is not familiar with but one with desirable possibilities. In this book, time travel is a tool that helps her to ask, what does she want?

It leaves the reader also wondering, what if I could get a picture of my future? Would I change anything?

The author’s writing style is poetic and evocative, with descriptions that transport you to different times and dimensions.

12. Somewhere in Time – Richard Matheson

Somewhere in Time is a beautiful story of love that lasts the test of time and different periods.

It explores the complications that exist for a modern man as he falls in love with a famous actress in San Francisco in 1896.

The author, Richard Matheson, writes this book intricately and can describe the love between the two characters with warmth.

We learn about love at first sight and are taken away by the chemistry between the two main characters. 

The time travel aspect is a unique and interesting vehicle that drives the plot, but at its core the story is about love, sacrifice, and second chances.

This book is also excellent for anyone who loves reading books about historical America and San Francisco. 

13. More of Us to The West – Trinity Dunn

More of Us to The West tells of heroine Alaina’s budding romance with Jack as they are both stranded on an island after their plane crashes.

The only problem is that Alaina is already married to Chris. 

She struggles to make sense of her new romance and how Jack and she ended up stranded on an island, along with 11 other strangers.

The reader is torn between the past and the future as Alaina tries to make sense of her heart as she is torn between Chris and Jack. 

The book also lures you with a mystery you will be dying to solve, making it hard to put it down.  

14. Return Once More – Trisha Leigh

Return Once More tells of 16-year-old Kaia, part of a time-traveling group known as the Historians.

Set in the future where humans live on other planets, Kaia grows up quickly as she is taught to be a Historian.

She is tasked with going back in time to witness important events. 

Young and brave, Kaia is lucky enough to be told who her “True One” is. Learning that her true one is her soulmate, she is eager to meet him. 

This story explores Kaia’s relationship with her “True One,” Caesarion. Caesarion happens to be Cleopatra and Caesar’s son from the past! 

Expect nothing less than a creative and original narrative set in the future but also an exotic past.

This book does a great job of depicting a romance across two different cultures and timelines.

15. A Thousand Pieces of You – Claudia Gray

A Thousand Pieces of You joins heroine Marguerite as she travels through time and a different universe. Marguerite is on the hunt to solve a mystery close to her heart. 

Marguerite’s parents are the inventors of the Firebird, the machine that allows her to jump from one exciting universe to another.

While focused on her mission, she finds love along the way in the most unexpected places!

This book does a great job of exploring the heart of a young girl keen on an adventure but also open to love.

Part mystery, part romance, this book is a fast-paced and action-packed book that is great for younger readers. 

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Final Word on Time Travel Romance Books

So there you have it, those are the best time travel romance books. As you can see, there are a lot of great novels to choose from!

I hope you found something on this list that sparks your interest. If you have any more suggestions, let me know in the comments.

About Louisa Smith

Editor/Founder - Epic Book Society

Louisa is the Founder, Editor, and Head Honcho of Epic Book Society. She was born and raised in the United Kingdom and graduated from the University for the Creative Arts with a degree in Journalism. Louisa began her writing career at the age of 7 when her poetry was published in an anthology of poems to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee. Upon graduating university, she spent several years working as a journalist writing about books before transitioning to become a Primary School Teacher. Louisa loves all genres of books, but her favorites are Sci-Fi, Romance, Fantasy, and Young Adult Fiction. Read more Louisa's story here .

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10 Romantic Time Travel Movies to Binge Watch: I’ll Love You to the End of Time

These are some of the best time travel romance movies!

Time travel as a genre is always fascinating in any medium, whether a book, movie, TV show or comic. The possibility of meeting anyone in existence, going to places long forgotten, and uncovering secrets of well-loved icons of the past and maybe even the future gives a special allure to time travel romance movies.

The fantastical direction this genre takes adds elements of magic, naivete, and touches of illusion, appealing to older and younger viewers alike. Add into this the sprinkle of romance, and you have me hooked.

If I get the chance to watch Shakespeare wooing a girl from the 21st century using poems that have become cult classics, I’m grabbing the popcorn and switching my phone off.

RELATED: 80 OF THE BEST ENTERTAINING TIME TRAVEL TV SHOWS YOU NEED TO WATCH

Like most people, I grew up watching time travel movies. Consequently, they have become my favorites. For example, we can all appreciate Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure or watching Hermione travel back in time to see herself punch Draco in the face. (Not only a win for Harry Potter fans but for girls all around.)

Meanwhile, Doctor Who (2005) is my first exposure to real romance and time travel. With the Doctor’s companions all falling for him, he initially only falls for Rose (Nine and Ten).

RELATED: 7 FUN AND ROMANTIC TIME TRAVEL ASIAN DRAMAS

As a result, it had millions of us hoping he would appear in our living rooms, ready to take us on our own adventure. Since then, there was no going back. There are just so many romantic time travel movies calling out to be binged.

Here is a list of my personal favorite romantic time travel movies that have thus far survived the test of time. However, I will admit this list is not exhaustive (limiting the films to 10 was difficult).

10 ROMANTIC TIME TRAVEL MOVIES TO BINGE WATCH

(In No Particular Order)

#1: ABOUT TIME (2013)

Without a doubt, this is a humorous and engaging retelling of a classic boy trying to win over a girl story. Tim wishes to change his life and get a girlfriend. With this intention, enter Mary.

Tom falls for her and is relentless and tenacious in his pursuit, all thanks to a family secret. The men in his family can travel through time! What a secret to have, and at 21, your options are endless.

About Time beautifully captures the fun-loving side of romance. And, as viewers, we see the benefits of having such a gift and just how painful the gift can be.

For this reason, we see the love between a man and woman and the close relationship between Tim and his father, played by the talented Bill Nighy . Have tissues ready, as poignant scenes will get you teary-eyed.

Content Note: This film is rated 12A in the UK for mild profanity, nudity, violence, and moderate love scenes. For the same reason, About Time is a mild rated R in the United States.

#2: THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE (2009)

This falls quite high on my list of must-watch romance films in general as it has sweeping romance and not to mention swoon-worthy Eric Bana as the protagonist. The film beautifully interweaves through different phases of time, keeping the viewer enthralled.

It follows the life of Clare (Rachel McAdams) and how she meets Henry (Eric Bana), or rather how he encounters her. Clare and Henry ‘meet’ in a library. Soon, they both know what Henry is and what he can do, which is being involuntarily thrown through time, forwards or backward.

The movie’s most interesting aspect is that, despite Henry being the traveler, Clare knows more about him. She’s even aware of their relationship during their ‘first meeting’.

You can assume this is not their first meeting without giving too much away. The story follows them through their life together, how his continued absence becomes a toll on Clare, and over time, it delves into the life of living with a time traveler.

Could you live with someone who knows your future? They will know exactly where your life together could end up. Instead of going for the fated lovers’ angle, this looks at how fate may have brought them together, but should they have walked away?

Content Note: This film is rated 12A in the UK for mild sensuality, nudity, and profanity. In the US, the film is rated PG-13.

#3: SOMEWHERE IN TIME (1980)

If you prefer sweet innocent love stories with classic romance, Somewhere in Time will be perfect for you.

Set in 1972, Christopher Reeve stars as student Richard Collier who travels to Mackinac Island to stay at the Grand Hotel, where he sees a portrait of a woman who he becomes enamored with.

He finds out she was a famous stage actress who has passed away. In this obsession with the picture, he finds a way to go back in time to meet her.

Using methods of self-hypnosis, he is able to get back to 1900 and meet Elise McKenna, but what fate is in store for two people with such a big ‘time’ difference? Get ready to fall in love with the characters, cinematography, music, and love stories all over again.

Fun tidbit: Somewhere in Time was nominated for an Oscar for best costume design.

Content Note : This film is rated PG for mild profanity and sensuality.

#4: THE LAKE HOUSE (2006) AND IL MARE (2002)

The Lake House is a somber story, showing love with a facet of yearning, similar to Somewhere in Time . Both have protagonists who are trapped in different times.

Kate Forrester (Sandra Bullock) moves to a new house, leaving behind a letter for the next tenant. The person who reads the letter, Alex Wyler (Keanu Reeves), realizes some unusual things are happening.

Events mentioned in the letter have yet to occur. They come to the realization that they are exactly two years apart, writing from different times.

This charming movie weaves a beautiful story that will appeal to anyone in a long-distance relationship. You will be able to relate to the dates they attempt to go on and how they try and share experiences with each other.

It will make you appreciate that you are at least a phone call away. The ending of the movie will have you on the edge of your seats, and the revelations revealed will make you want to believe in fate and kismet take your pick.

Special mention to the original movie Il Mare (2002), a Korean production and equally a must-watch if you don’t mind subtitles.

Content Note: This film is rated PG with mild profanity, alcohol, and drugs.

#5: BACK TO THE FUTURE PART III (1990)

If you are not familiar with this series, what are you doing? Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and the iconic DeLorean made a generation of kids dream about hoverboards and Nike trainers.

This is the third installment of the series, giving more focus to the ‘Doc’ Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd).

Set against the backdrop of the 1885 old west (and true to the name), we get standoffs, brawls, and romance. Meanwhile, Marty travels to 1885 and is stuck because his car breaks down.

Of course, he has a run-in with ‘Mad Dog’ Biff Tannen and his unruly gang. (Trying to send Marty back with their limited resources makes you appreciate a lot of amenities we take for granted.)

In this process, Emmett meets a school teacher, Clara Clayton (Mary Steenburgen), who is a science geek just like him, and soon a romance blossoms.

It is surreal and sweet to see Doc so enamored and unable to figure out how to act. Furthermore, the romance breathes new life into his character and shows an angle we never thought we needed.

In the climax of the movie, there is a race against time to get the DeLorean fixed and Marty back to the present day. Ultimately, even as a sequel, Back to the Future Part III is brilliant.

Content Note: This film is rated PG with moderate profanity, mild sensuality, nudity, and violence.

#6: MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (2011)

‘ You’re in love with a fantasy.’ ‘I’m in love with you.’

Woody Allen does it again, giving us a spellbinding movie with sophisticated and witty characters. He portrays Paris in a way that will make you want to go there and explore.

Winner of an Oscar, Midnight in Paris follows Gil (Owen Wilson) and Inez (Rachel McAdams) on vacation in Paris, where he wishes to move after they marry.

However, his wife-to-be doesn’t see the magic of the city, hoping to settle in America instead. In the meantime, Gil struggles to write his first novel and takes a strange late-night stroll through Paris, getting an invite to a party that includes guests such as Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Gertrude, and many others who frequented the famous salon of Stein.

It is up to the audience to decide if this is time travel or just the fantasy of a desperate writer who is in love with the golden era of the ’20s. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie because it gave a glimpse of how some of my favorite writers would interact.

This is what other genres cannot do, transport and introduce characters and figures who we would love to meet. This charming film will have you falling in love with the characters and the dialogue.

The superb acting by Wilson portrays an awe-struck, enthusiastic writer who meets his heroes. There is no real story to follow, but rather more events that unfold and how the characters react to them. But life is like this sometimes: we don’t know where things are going until later on.

Content Note: This film is rated 12A  in the UK and PG-13 in the U.S. for mild profanity, sensuality, and nudity.

#7: 13 GOING ON 30 (2004)

13 Going on 30 is a reverse-coming-of-age time travel romantic comedy. Jenna (Jennifer Garner) makes a wish on her thirteenth birthday, wanting to be older after going through an embarrassing ordeal.

Jenna wishes to make her older, and it is fulfilled magically. She wakes up the next day to find she is weeks from her thirtieth birthday, has a dream job as a magazine editor, a car, and a very attractive boyfriend.

Everything that anyone could want, but she is still not happy, which pushes the story toward what she truly desires.

This approach is always fun to watch, including hilarious scenes where the protagonist tries to understand the new circumstances and her new body. I admit it’s nothing new in terms of what we can expect, but Garner portrays the character’s innocence and naivete so well.

We see beautiful shots of New York City, which will make you want to book your flight and get over there. However, the surprise in this movie is Mark Ruffalo, who plays Matt, the high school best friend.

Seeing him in this role will be new and a fresh take for fans of the Marvel world. One of the best moments in the movie is the Michael Jackson ‘Thriller’ dance which will leave you astounded and get you on your feet.

Content Note: This film is rated 12A in the UK and PG-13 in the U.S. for mild profanity and suggestive content.

#8: WINTER’S TALE (2014)

Winter’s Tale is set in 1895 on the streets of New York and is based on the novel of the same name. Peter Lake (Colin Farrell) is a seasoned thief who enters the home of Beverly Penn (Jessica Brown Findlay). Beverly catches him in the act.

They both fall in love, and she tells Peter a story about how everyone is born with a miracle inside them. This is the theme for the whole movie so keep this in mind while watching.

The movie boasts a lot of big stars: Russell Crowe, Will Smith, and William Hurt, who all play fantastical characters brilliantly. The story jumps to modern times showing us Peter again. But he has amnesia, setting the story for the rest of the movie. The search for his memories and lost story.

Romance like this is always beautiful to watch, even though the audience and characters know it will not be the happy ending we all hope for.

Fans of Downton Abbey will recognize Findlay as Lady Sybil Crawley, carrying off the character of Beverly competently, with a timeless beauty that is only enhanced because we know the fate of the character.

Farrell is exquisite as always, playing his role as an Irish thief so convincingly. There are many twists and turns to keep you entertained during the second half, which is worth the effort.

Content Note: This film is rated 12A in the UK and PG-13 in the U.S. for violence and sensuality.

#9: IF ONLY (2004)

If Only uses the winning formula that led Groundhog Day (1993) to success, where the day is on repeat. We have Samantha (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Ian (Paul Nichols), who are a typical couple, showing the relationship and fights.

Tragedy strikes when Samantha has a car accident leaving a heartbroken and grief-stricken Ian. But fate gives him another chance to back in time to try and change events. He lives the same day again and, like any sensible hero, tries to alter the events leading up to her accident.

It’s a sweet story showing the importance of cherishing the people close to you. The film further makes you wonder about how you would react in this situation. Would you be able to change anything?

The story moves at a good pace, keeping audiences on edge as to whether Ian will succeed. Very beautiful moments occur between the two as Ian knows what will come.

He tries his hardest to make everything perfect (and take notes, guys – ahem, ahem). Tissues may be needed; you have been warned.

Content Note: This film is rated PG-13 for some sensual material.

#10: KATE & LEOPOLD (2001)

‘I’m not very good with men.’ ‘ Perhaps you haven’t found the right one.’

This time travel romance movie captures everyone’s heart because Leopold (Hugh Jackman) comes from 1876 and has a romantic, classic approach to love.

He has purity dripping from every glance and every word he speaks. It would make any girl fall head over heels for the chivalrous Leopold.

So, what chance does Kate (Meg Ryan) have? Leopold needs to marry someone for wealth, with a dwindling purse and big dreams to pursue. He enters a portal transporting him to modern times. This blows him away to see the sights and progress.

He meets Kate, a market researcher who is cynical but ambitious. They get close but inevitable differences arise, and he returns back to his time.

Kate & Leopold also provides well-written comedic scenes with Kate’s brother, an actor assuming Leopold is deep in character. For fans of epic romantic movies from the ’90s, this 2001 film is equally awesome. Plus, any fan of Jackman will enjoy seeing him in this swoony role.

Content Note: Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.

Did you find one of your favorite movies about time travel and love? If you had the chance to have one of these romances, which one would it be?

Top Photo Credit: Somewhere in Time (Universal Pictures)

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Book lover – reader and writer. Being a bookworm from an early age introduced me to all wonderful worlds, travelling from Narnia to Hogwarts. This became my hobby and passion leading me to pursue avenues where I can write not just for my enjoyment but also to progress my career. Some of my current obsessions include K-dramas, all things period - any BBC original adaptation. I am currently reading Dan Brown's new novel as well as "All men are Mortal" and re-reading "North and South" because you can never read enough about Mr.Thornton and Margaret!

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12 thoughts on “10 Romantic Time Travel Movies to Binge Watch: I’ll Love You to the End of Time”

Found some new ones for my list, so thanks! I love Hugh Jackson in Kate and Leopold – he plays it so straight it makes the whole thing so much funnier.

Though I haven’t seen it in a while now, I remember that I liked “Lake House,” and I just started to watch “About Time” last night. It’s nothing like I expected, but so far I quite like it! 🙂

Man, Rachel McAdams is all about that time travel life!

Oh, I hoped I’d find a new romantic time travel movie to add to my watched list, but I’m afraid I’ve already seen them all. Lovely curated list, tho!

A long time ago there lived a scientist who would hardly ever venture outside. His life was a lonely one, with long days of research and experiments. It was his ambition to create a potion to see into the future. He had over years collected hundreds of herbs and combined them in various ways until eventually, he was on the brink of a breakthrough…

Where am I able to find the remainder of this story? One mustn’t dangle a carrot expecting no one to bite! Rachel

All these are lovely —- another good one is “1994 Timecop” with Jean-Claude Van Damme and Mia Sara — thriller & romance

I can’t seem to find the movie which was based on a short story “ Christopher Frame “ a photo restorer who time travels ,.falls in love and stays there , tried to lookup but there is no information about it ,I can’t remember the name of the movie or episode either for the love of God ,If anyone knows about it please let me know ,thanks

Another outstanding time travel movie is the 1998 Hallmark Hall of Fame production “The Love Letter”, starring Campbell Scott and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Aired in the late 90s, it’s about an engaged civil war buff who finds hidden letters in an old desk which were written by an unmarried woman in 1863. He is compelled to respond to her and even though he lives in the late 20th century she receives his letters and they begin a correspondence through time. This obviously causes a big problem for his life with his fiance. It’s an excellent movie based on a short story by Jack Finney. Finney is the author of two great time travel novels, Time And Again and From Time to Time.

Hi Everybody, I read through the candidates for best time travel romance, all of which I have seen. I agree with your choices, but not exactly in that order. Although they were all great movies, it is “Somewhere in Time” that takes the number one spot. I was happy to see that at least you gave them the 3rd spot, but, in reality, it was the one movie that expressed so beautifully the concept that love transcends time and in the end, true love brings them together as they slip off into eternity.

There is one more movie to which I would give honorable mention. That is the 1979 movie “Time After Time” where the prolific writer HG Wells pursues Jack the Ripper into the future where Hubert (Malcolm Mcdowell) meets Mary Steenburgen and falls in love. This is another great movie. Thanks, DAD

Hi Dad! I agree with you that Somewhere in Time is the best time-travel romance movie. 🙂 Such a beautiful film!

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How I learned to love the slow route home to Ireland

Journeys are about so much more than getting from A to B, as our writer found when he ditched flying for the train and ferry between Dublin and London

T here’s always a moment in the journey from Dublin to London – which I make every month or two, taking the land-and-sea route via Holyhead instead of flying – when I stop what I’m doing – reading or writing or chatting to the person next to me – and think: you don’t get to enjoy this from 40,000ft.

Sometimes it’s at the Britannia Bridge in north Wales. As the train crosses the Menai Strait from Anglesey I can see, off to my right, a concrete statue of Lord Nelson keeping a lonely watch from the shore, and further upriver the grounds of Plas Newydd country house sweeping down to the water. To the left, on a tiny island with a curved jetty, stand two handsome whitewashed houses that will one day disappear beneath the rising sea levels but for now are holding out against the elements.

I’ll pause again as the train trundles past Conwy, with its hulking medieval castle and absurdly pretty waterfront, home to the smallest house in Britain, and later still as we move along the coast beyond Colwyn Bay, and legions of offshore wind turbines can be glimpsed through the haze.

On the return journey, as the ferry heads into Dublin Bay, I’ll cast an eye at Howth Head as it rises up to greet us, followed by the crimson lighthouse at the end of the Great South Wall and the looming red and white chimneys beyond – the unmistakable sign that we’re about to dock in the Irish capital.

People often ask me why I choose to travel between Dublin and London by ferry and rail instead of flying, which is considerably less time-consuming. I’ll respond by talking about the price, or the breezy check-in process with minimal luggage restrictions, or the direct connection into central London, or the carbon emissions, which by one estimate are about 95% lower than going by plane . But the little details – the things you see, the people you meet and the reveries you enter as the journey’s lulling rhythms take hold – matter to me almost more.

When I moved to London in 2002, the idea of taking the slow route home to Dublin didn’t occur to me. Going by air was quick: you can fly city to city in under 90 minutes, though of course you have to factor in the time it takes to get to the airport, clear security, wander through duty-free, wait to board, wait to take off, and go through the associated rigmarole on the other side. And it’s cheap.

Then, about 15 years ago, a friend tipped me off about SailRail, a package that bundled train and Irish Sea ferry tickets into a single fare – connecting not only to London but to any town across Britain with a station. I was dubious about the duration but the price was keen – these days it’s £102.20 return, but back then it was about half that – so I decided to give it a try.

I’ll be honest: I didn’t love SailRailing straight away. Train travel is one of life’s great pleasures but in Britain it can curdle to frustration in the face of delays, cancellations and broken-up routes. It took me a while to work out how to time my journey so I didn’t have to change trains in Crewe and again, 20 minutes later, in Chester. And Holyhead, for all the surrounding beauty of Anglesey, is not a town that makes the heart leap – not, at least, the stretch between the terminal and the ferry dock, which on even the sunniest afternoon feels oppressively grey.

The ships – Irish Ferries and Stena are the two options on the Holyhead-to-Dublin route – can feel dated and a bit tacky, and if you strike out from Dublin on a match day, you have the choice of watching football supporters getting stuck into cooked breakfasts and pints at 8am or joining them. The crossing can be rough, though it would take a serious gale to unsettle one of the bigger boats when its stabilisers are out. (In that kind of weather, I’d rather take my chances on a 50,000-tonne ferry than a dinky commuter plane.)

If you travel with Irish Ferries, which I tend to do, this unfolds within a literary theme park of unparalleled incongruity. The flagship Ulysses is riddled with allusions to James Joyce’s masterwork: you can eat reheated pizza slices (but not pork kidneys) at Boylan’s Brasserie, drink tequila slammers at the Leopold Bloom bar or engage in soft play at the Cyclops family entertainment centre. (The faster ferry, often cancelled if the wind picks up, is ingeniously named the Jonathan Swift.)

Despite – or perhaps because of – these idiosyncrasies, I kept returning for more. For years, I’d SailRail to Dublin and fly back; the journey out of London Euston tends to be smoother, especially if you catch the direct train to Holyhead departing about 9am. But since moving back to Dublin in 2020, I’ve ditched the air option and now actively look forward to my day meandering across the Irish Sea and down through Wales and England. The journey takes eight or nine hours, but without internet to distract me I usually get a solid day’s work done, or at least have time to read and think.

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Some distractions are welcome. When the Icelandic volcano eruption grounded European air travel in 2010, I got chatting to two fellow SailRailers on the train out of London. One, delightfully, was the actor who played Gestapo agent Herr Flick in the sitcom ’Allo ’Allo!. The other became a really good friend – and I often thank the ash clouds of Eyjafjallajökull for introducing us.

More recently I’ve fallen into conversation with touring graffiti artists, septuagenarian world travellers and a woman who found God after getting lost in the middle of the Sahara (she prayed for help and a crow appeared to guide her back to safety). Last autumn, when my partner and I took our whippet-saluki over on a morning sailing (pet-friendly cabins are available on Stena) he was lavished with attention by an elderly Traveller couple who told us about similar dogs they’d loved over the years.

The Traveller community uses the ferries a lot, following a route that Irish people with UK connections have taken for centuries. You’ll also encounter plenty of truckers, as well as students, backpackers and people who are averse to flying. What you don’t get a huge number of, among the SailRail contingent, are British tourists. When I mention the package to friends and colleagues in London, few of them have heard of it. And when I tell them the fare, which doesn’t shoot up for last-minute bookings, they’re astonished: £51.10 from London to Holyhead and then on to Dublin by boat? You’re joking, right?

Still, I rarely recommend SailRail without a string of caveats. It isn’t to everyone’s taste. And it could be so much better than it currently is – the rail connections are unreliable and foot passengers on ferries are often treated as afterthoughts. But despite its foibles I’ve come to enjoy the easy pace of the journey and offbeat crowd it throws together. I’ve even developed a fondness for those Joyce allusions.

And I love that long, slow train ride along the north Wales coast, past castles and wind turbines and island houses doomed to vanish beneath the waves. A journey is so much richer and stranger when you travel close to the ground.

SailRail tickets from London Euston to Dublin Ferryport from £ 102.20 return (+ booking fee) via trainline.com

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I've been to all 50 states. Here are the 10 I think everyone should visit at least once.

• Over the past decade, I've traveled solo to all 50 US states and most major US national parks.
• Although I've found beauty in every state, there are some that I want to visit over and over again.
• I love traveling to places like New Mexico, Montana, New Hampshire, and Arizona.

Over the past decade, I've successfully visited all 50 US states solo. I've even made it to most of the major US national parks along the way. Because of this journey, I'm often asked which states I'd recommend to travelers.

Although most international travelers gravitate toward states like Florida and New York , I've found fantastic beauty and history in every state.

However, these are the 10 states I always return to.

New Mexico boasts a surprising variety of stunning landscapes.

New Mexico is always at the top of my list when recommending US states. Nicknamed " the land of enchantment ," it lives up to its moniker — and then some.

Those who haven't visited New Mexico may think of the state as a mostly barren desert, but it's actually the diverse landscapes that keep me coming back.

From the otherworldly dunes of White Sands National Park to the snow-capped Sangre de Cristo Mountains, there's beauty to be found around every corner.

Outside the natural beauty, the state is chock full of history, art, food, wine, and culture.

Montana is a must-visit state for any outdoor enthusiast.

With its vast open spaces, majestic mountains, and endless opportunities for outdoor adventure, Montana is a must-visit state for any outdoor enthusiast.

The state is home to the breathtaking Glacier National Park and parts of Yellowstone National Park . The sky is vast and open, the mountains are towering, and the lack of development makes me feel like I'm entering another world entirely.

California is full of diverse landscapes and experiences.

Every time I visit California , I feel like I'm entering a completely different reality.

The sheer size and diversity of the state are impressive, and it has gorgeous beaches, cities, forests, deserts, mountains, and even volcanoes.

I love road-tripping up the coast, visiting Yosemite National Park, taking a boat to the Channel Islands, and wine tasting in places like Napa and Sonoma.

There's no place quite like the Maine coast.

There's so much to love about Maine, but my favorite part of the state is the coast. With jagged and dramatic cliffs, lighthouses, and lobster shacks, visiting the Maine coast is an unforgettable experience.

It's easy to find peace in the state that sees the first sunrise of the year and is home to Acadia National Park, which is one of the country's most popular national parks.

I love to road trip up the coast, stopping in beautiful towns like Kennebunkport, Bar Harbour, and Lubec.

I've returned to West Virginia multiple times.

While it may not get as much attention as some of the other states on this list, I've returned to West Virginia multiple times since my first visit.

The state's natural beauty is stunning, from New River Gorge National Park to ample lush forests, underground caverns, historic small towns, and over 200 waterfalls .

Wisconsin is home to beautiful scenery and great dining options.

Wisconsin has so much more than first meets the eye, from the natural beauty of the Apostle Islands and the 15,000 lakes in the state to the classic cheese curds, breweries, and wineries that dot the landscape.

I love spending time along the shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, dining at one of the state's famous supper clubs, and exploring the many Wisconsin state parks.

As my home state, Colorado will always hold a special place in my heart.

I couldn't write a list like this without including my home state of Colorado. The state has so much to offer, from beautiful views to fun activities.

On the Front Range, I enjoy hiking in Boulder and exploring Cheyenne Cañon. I like to spend the night at the The Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs before heading over to Great Sand Dunes National Park.

In the Rockies, I love driving Independence Pass to Aspen, as well as exploring the underrated Grand Mesa, which is the biggest flat-top mountain in the world . I also enjoy taking road trips to the charming mountain towns of Telluride, Buena Vista, and Steamboat Springs.

No matter where you find yourself in Colorado, there's no shortage of incredible natural beauty and outdoor adventure.

Utah is home to five major national parks.

Utah is a state that you have to see to believe. With five major national parks, 46 state parks, 15 ski resorts, and hidden gems at every turn — you'll never get bored here.

I love visiting Moab to hike in Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, and Dead Horse Point State Park before heading south to Bryce Canyon National Park, Kodachrome Basin State Park, and Zion National Park .

I also love making stops in Park City and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.

New Hampshire boasts some of the best skiing and hiking in the Northeast.

The Northeast is famous for fall foliage, but I can't help but think that New Hampshire is sometimes overshadowed by its neighbors, Maine and Vermont.

I was stunned by its natural beauty during my first trip to the state. From the White Mountains to Franconia Notch State Park, the state boasts some of the best skiing and hiking in the Northeast.

Arizona is the perfect escape for adventure and relaxation.

Arizona is well known for the Grand Canyon, but the state has much more to offer. From Flagstaff's high-altitude forests to Sedona's iconic red rocks, Arizona's diversity is surprising and worth a trip.

I love hiking among the cacti in Sedona or Scottsdale before heading to one of the many resorts to jump in a pool or hit the spa — the perfect escape for adventure and relaxation.

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10 Great Love Stories In Sci-Fi Movies

• Sci-fi movies often incorporate romance as an emotional layer to their stories, providing realistic love stories in fantastical settings.
• These movies showcase diverse and fascinating relationships, including those between humans and non-humans, but many end tragically.
• Iconic sci-fi couples like Neo and Trinity, Han Solo and Leia, and WALL-E and EVE demonstrate the power of love in saving the world and overcoming obstacles.

Although the sci-fi genre is mostly focused on action and even suspense, many sci-fi movies have made way for some interesting (and many times heartbreaking) love stories. Due to its fantasy elements, sci-fi stories can take place pretty much anywhere, offering the audience stories that feel more realistic and adventures in places that don’t exist or haven’t been fully explored yet. While this makes way for exciting adventures and suspenseful stories, most sci-fi movies also make way for some romance, even if not all of them have happy endings.

It’s not uncommon for the sci-fi genre to mix with the genres of romance and drama, though some movies end up relying more on one genre than the other, but this allows sci-fi movies to add a layer of emotion to the stories of their characters. The world of science fiction has seen romances in space, underwater, in parallel realities, fantasy worlds, and more, and not all of them have been between humans, which makes these couples even more interesting and fascinating, though many of them are doomed to tragic endings.

Related: 10 Most Horrifying Deaths In Sci-Fi Movies

Jake & Neytiri in Avatar

Jake & neytiri’s relationship broke many barriers.

James Cameron’s Avatar follows Jake (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic marine who replaces his brother on the Alpha Centauri moon of Pandora for a mission. Pandora is inhabited by the Na’vi, blue-skinned sapient humanoids that live in harmony with nature, and as Pandora is inhospitable to humans, humans use “avatars” to explore it. Jake meets Neytiri after he’s attacked by Pandoran wildlife, and though she is initially suspicious of him, they end up falling in love. Jake and Neytiri’s love overcomes the reveal of his identity and a deadly attack on Pandora, and at the end of Avatar , he’s permanently transferred into his avatar.

Tim & Mary In About Time

Tim uses his time travel abilities to be with mary.

About Time is the story of Tim Lake (Domhnall Gleeson), a young man with the ability to time travel. Tim uses it to change his past in hopes of improving his future, and this includes making sure that his romance with Mary (Rachel McAdams) happens. Tim and Mary’s relationship is one that can be considered as “meant to be”, but Tim’s travels back in time are also key to not only making their relationship happen, but also making him realize what’s truly important to him and what he doesn’t want nor need to change in order to be truly happy, even if that means making some heartbreaking sacrifices.

Seth & Ronnie In The Fly

A short-lived & tragic relationship.

David Cronenberg’s The Fly is the story of Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum), a brilliant but eccentric scientist who meets science journalist Veronica “Ronnie” Quaife (Geena Davis) at a press event. Seth shows her his latest experiment: a teleportation machine. As he keeps working on it and Ronnie documents the process, Seth and Ronnie fall in love, but their relationship takes a tragic turn when Seth, drunk and believing Ronnie is getting back with her ex-boyfriend, teleports himself alone but doesn’t notice a housefly has entered the pod with him. This results in Seth and the fly fusing at the molecular-genetic level, making him slowly transform into a grotesque, giant fly. At the end of The Fly , Seth, now fully transformed, begs Ronnie to kill him , and so she does.

Neo & Trinity In The Matrix

Neo & trinity saved the world.

Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Trinity’s (Carrie-Anne Moss) romance took some time to develop, but in the end, they saved the world together, which made their bond even stronger. Trinity and Neo meet in The Matrix , where it’s apparent that Trinity falls in love with Neo. Throughout the rest of the movies in The Matrix franchise , Neo and Trinity work together and rescue each other on different occasions, and in The Matrix Resurrections , their connection is a lot deeper and stronger than before, and together they save the world before flying off together, holding hands.

Vincent & Irene In Gattaca

Vincent & irene’s relationship was almost stopped by genetics.

Gattaca centers on Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke), a man who, in a world where babies are engineered, was conceived naturally, but that meant a high chance of several health issues, giving him an estimated lifespan of 30.2 years. However, eager to live life, Vincent takes the identity of a “Valid” (an engineered human) named Jerome (Jude Law) in order to join the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation. There, he meets Irene (Uma Thurman) and they fall in love, but Irene tests his DNA to make sure he’s as good as he claims. Although Vincent gives her one of the real Jerome’s hair, the truth about him is eventually revealed , but by then, Irene was too in love with him, and she didn’t care about testing his DNA anymore when Vincent gave him a strand of his real hair.

Zoe & Wash in Serenity

Firefly’s favorite couple had a heartbreaking ending.

The TV series Firefly introduced viewers to Zoe (Gina Torres), second-in-command onboard the Serenity, and Hoban “Wash” Washburne (Alan Tudyk), the Serenity’s pilot and Zoe’s husband. Although Zoe and Wash were very different, they perfectly complemented each other, and they were a big part of the heart of Serenity and the series. Unfortunately, their love had a tragic ending, as in the movie Serenity , Wash was fatally impaled by a Reaver spear after crash landing the ship. Still, and even though Firefly and Serenity saw other romances, Zoe and Wash’s remains the strongest, funniest, and most memorable one.

Sarah & Kyle In The Terminator

Without them, there would be no john connor.

Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and Kyle Reese’s (Michael Biehn) romance in The Terminator is what makes the whole franchise possible. Sarah and Kyle meet when the latter is sent back in time to protect the former from the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who is sent to kill her to prevent the birth of John Connor. During this whole experience, Sarah and John fell in love, and they conceived John Connor , thus being responsible for the events of the whole Terminator saga .

Lady Jessica & Duke Leto In Dune

Lady jessica & duke leto were a powerful couple.

Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac) was the leader of House Atreides and Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) was his Bene Gesserit consort, and together they had Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet). Together, Duke and Lady Jessica were one of the most powerful couples in the world of Dune , and they overcame many obstacles and faced various political enemies that attempted to break them. Like many other couples on this list, Duke and Lady Jessica’s relationship ended in tragedy , but their love continued living thanks to their son.

WALL-E & EVE in WALL-E

A one-of-a-kind-romance in a post-apocalyptic world.

Pixar’s WALL-E took the audience to the 29th century, when Earth had become a garbage-strewn wasteland, forcing humanity to evacuate to space on giant starliners. Humans left trash compacting robots to clean up Earth, but the plan failed and the only remaining active robot is WALL-E. When a robot known as EVE arrives to scan the planet for signs of sustainable life, WALL-E is smitten by her, and in addition to ther love story, together they are key to humankind’s future . What makes WALL-E and EVE’s love so memorable is how Pixar managed to make the robots expressive without giving them human-like physical traits.

Han Solo & Leia In Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

The greatest love story in the galaxy.

The ultimate sci-fi couple is, arguably, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), who finally confess their feelings for each other in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back , in a very unique way. Like other couples on this list, Han Solo and Leia seem incompatible , but they actually complement each other perfectly, and what makes them so different is what makes their relationship work. Although Han and Leia separated after having Ben Solo a.k.a. Kylo Ren, they never stopped loving each other and deeply cared about each other.

‘The Greatest Hits': Music turns on the time travel in charming love story

Story of a woman torn between two lovers — one of them dead — lands in just the right place..

Any time Harriet (Lucy Boynton) hears a song she shared with her late boyfriend, she time-travels back to that moment in “The Greatest Hits.”

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The first rule of time-travel movies is there are no plausible rules of time-travel movies. Whether it’s “Slaughterhouse-Five” or “Back to the Future,” “Time After Time” or “Looper,” “Somewhere in Time” or “The Terminator,” it doesn’t matter how much exposition we get, or whether there’s some kind of geeky “flux capacitor” explanation. We just have to go with it and see where the story takes us. If we care enough about the characters and their journey, we buy into it.

So it goes with writer-director Ned Benson’s sun-dappled Los Angeles time-travel romance “The Greatest Hits,” which takes a big pretty swing in the genre with a sentimental premise that might have you rolling your eyes — but only if you’re a COLD-HEARTED CYNIC WHO DOESN’T BELIEVE IN LOVE. (Just kidding. As far as you know.)

When we meet Lucy Boynton’s Harriet in present day, she’s a troubled soul who is still in deep mourning two years after her movie-star handsome boyfriend Max (David Corenswet, star of next year's "Superman") was killed in a car accident. Thing is, Harriet can’t really move on, because every time she hears a song attached to a memory of Max, she’s rocketed back in time to that moment and can stay there only as long as the duration of the tune. (Where’s the uncut version of “Autobahn” by Kraftwerk when you need it!)

Harriet’s apartment is filled with albums marked “Tested” and “Untested.” Sometimes she travels back in time by choice and tries to manipulate events; on other occasions, when she’s out in public and a time-triggering song plays on a car radio or in a coffee shop, well, that’s problematic, as it sends Harriet into spasms and causes her to pass out. Harriet wears noise-canceling headphones, and she works in a library to minimize the risk of an unplanned journey, but you can’t control the music everywhere you go.

With needle drops from an eclectic mix that includes Jamie xx, Roxy Music, Nelly Furtado and Technotronic setting the pace, “The Greatest Hits” introduces a number of familiar character tropes, including Austin Crute’s Morris, who is Harriet’s gay best friend and exists mainly to advise and support her and happens to be a DJ, which feels almost too on point, and Retta as the wise and caring group therapy leader, Dr. Evelyn Bartlett.

The sensitive and cutely awkward David (Justin H. Min), who recently lost both his parents and manages their charmingly dusty antiques store, develops a real crush on Harriet, though when she tells him about the Hunky Dead Boyfriend and the time-travel thing, he has his doubts. (Boynton infuses Harriet with such loveliness and charm that we believe David might stick around despite her crazy story.)

The script from writer-director Benson takes some interesting turns. We want Harriet to be reunited with Max, but dang it, what about David?

Just when you think “The Greatest Hits” has painted itself into a corner, the script finds a way and the story lands in just the right place. I could see myself going back and watching it again, even though I know exactly how it will all play out. Hey! Sort of like in a time travel movie.