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There’s no better travel partner than, well, your partner. Someone to take care of all the documents while you check out? A gossip buddy, a perpetual plus one? Yes please. But it’s not always smooth sailing; a couples holiday can make you or break you.

For some, the feeling of being together 24/7, relying on one another and facing challenging foreign situations can strengthen them as a couple. For others, a baecation can cause trouble, as, like we say, you’re in such close proximity with that person for a sustained period of time. In the case of Gemma Nice, who worked as a veterinary nurse before she changed careers into being a yoga and relationship coach, a big trip in 2006 helped save her marriage, which was crumbling due to work stress.



‘One day, I came home and told my partner that we needed a long holiday,’ the 41-year-old from Brighton told Metro.co.uk.

‘After a little persuasion (it didn’t take much), we booked a seven-month backpacking trip and left our lives behind to find some semblance of happiness. ‘Those months were truly amazing. The first three months we visited South Africa and China, which gave me the opportunity to go on safari and camp out under the stars, and I remember in just the first couple of days looking up at the sky in the middle of the night during a storm and a sense of peace washing over me – as though all the stress had completely lifted from my shoulders.

’ It was in Thailand that Gemma discovered her love of yoga, which she still carries to this day. It made her realise life as a vet was too stressful to sustain. She decided to leave that career and focus on her health, and attributes the positive life changes that have happened since to that trip.

Gemma adds: ‘Because of that journey, I now have a truly solid relationship, which I genuinely believe would have not have been the case had I not started putting my health first. I’ve also since been blessed to welcome two wonderful children into the world and spend every single day feeling genuinely happy about everything I have. ‘My husband and I were married on a beach in Turkey back in 2010 and still together 14 years later, been together 24 years in June.

’ For 24-year-old Iman Khan*, a spontaneous trip with her partner seemed like the ultimate chance for their relationship to hit the next step. But sadly this wasn’t the case. She tells Metro.

co.uk: ‘I went on holiday to Dubai to visit some friends. I had three days left there when a guy I was seeing [back in the UK] messaged me saying he wanted to see me urgently.

‘I told him it couldn’t happen because I was abroad, but I would be back in three days. The next day I woke up to see a screenshot in my messages. He was coming to Dubai, just to see me.

I picked him up from the airport and we had the most amazing two days together – it was like we were in our own little world. I showed him around the city and we tried different foods. I loved it.

‘We even considered moving there together. At the end of the trip, he told me he loved me. It was an incredible feeling to have someone tell me they loved me through such a grand gesture.

Then we flew back together back to home to London.’ When they got back to the UK, however, they both realised they wanted different things. ‘We were still together for – I would say – two months.

He told his family about me, I met his siblings and things were going well but behind the scenes, but we had a lot of issues about how we envisioned our lives together. We just wanted really different things,’ she explains. ‘He was more conservative; me more liberal.

I wanted different things from life and I guess that’s what broke us up. It was hard to keep fighting for something when it felt like every decision was going to be a hurdle,’ Iman reflects. Miriam Khatib *, however, wound up finding her husband on what was originally a solo trip to Dubai.

The London-based producer in her 40s had wanted a beach getaway to escape from the shackles of the city. ‘I wasn’t looking for – nor did I expect – to meet someone,’ she tells Metro.co.

uk. ‘But do what you love and you find others who love it too. More Trending Worst city to visit in the UK is branded a 'rundown dump' Is the UK's 'worst seaside town' really so bad? Don't write it off just yet This one thing we all do on holiday could land you in hospital This European hotspot is the best 'home from home' for Brits abroad (and it's not Spain) ‘I was busy doing yoga, sunset watching and photography, and beautiful walks – and that’s how we met.

He was already doing and appreciating the very things I did.’ She explains: ‘The reason the holiday helped is because it allowed us to put life on pause a little and genuinely talk to people, whereas back home, in our busy jobs, we often rush past even those we know saying “hi, how are you?”, without waiting for a reply. ‘It’s so ironic, as I was so close to cancelling this trip as Covid was on the rise again.

My friends and I had to change our destination...

so I joke with hubby sometimes; was it fate?’ *Names have been changed. Do you have a story to share? Get in touch by emailing [email protected].

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