Some of my questions are funny, others are thought-provoking and deep. I’ve included a few conversation starters for new couples as well as for married couples who know each other well already. There are also some intimate questions if you wanna learn more about your partner’s preferences and enhance your bedroom experience!

Fun Road Trip Questions

In this section, I included some “would you rather” questions for couples as well as random road trip discussion ideas. As fun as they are, most of them can’t be answered right away and will require some time to think. You will probably end up having great eye-opening conversations and laugh a lot while your relationship becomes stronger.

With that said, check out these fun questions for couples and enjoy your super fun road trip!

1. If someone made a movie about your life, what genre would it be and who would play you?
2. How would your perfect day look like?
3. Which fictional character you could be friends with?
4. What superpower you’d like to have?
5. Would you rather live 200 years back or 200 years into the future?
6. If you could shop for free at one store, which one would you choose?
7. Would you rather have an extra hour in a day or an extra day every month?
8. Would you rather not be able to open any closed doors or not be able to close any open doors?
9. Which movie character do you associate yourself with?
10. Would you rather never speak again or never have sex again?
11. What are your pet peeves?
12. Would you rather give up bathing for a month or give up the internet for a month?
13. If you could travel in time, where and when your first destination would be?
14. Have you ever gone skinny dipping?
15. Would you rather give up movies or games for a year?

40 Funny Travel Quotes That Will Instantly Make Your Day Better

Traveling should be fun so I created this list with the most funny travel quotes I could find to inspire you. They are supposed to instantly improve your mood and…

Road Trip Questions For New Couples

If you went on a road trip together, I think it’s safe to assume that you’ve had a date night or two already and liked each other enough to travel together. So this road trip is just one ‘first thing’ of so many firsts that are ahead of you!

Good conversation starters will help you avoid those unavoidable periods of awkward silence along the road. Pick a question, make it fun, listen, and talk about yourself too. It shouldn’t feel like an interview, but a way to learn more about each other’s life.

Anyway, being a new couple is so exciting! It means that you have a lot to discuss and so much to learn about each other. It’s much easier to come up with interesting road trip questions for new couples than for those who have been living together for a few decades!

16. Have you ever had pets?
17. What is your dream job?
18. If you didn’t have to work for a living, what would you do?
19. What is currently your main goal?
20. How would you describe yourself in three words?
21. Would you rather plan everything to a T or be totally spontaneous?
22. What is your favorite movie?
23. Would you rather spend $5,000 on travel or on material things?
24. What is your most unrealistic dream?
25. Have you ever cheated while being in a relationship?
26. What are top-5 places on your travel bucket list?
27. What guilty pleasures do you have?
28. Would you rather find your true love or a suitcase with five million dollars inside?
29. Which is your favorite song and why?
30. What are your best pick-up lines?
31. What did you want to become when you were a kid?

10 Best Travel Board Games For Adults

My husband Andrew and I, we love playing board games, both alone and with friends! Luckily, we didn’t have to say goodbye to board games just because we went traveling!…

Deep Road Trip Questions

Where else you will have so much time to talk if not on a road trip?

All that time sitting together for hours in a moving car is meant to be used for deep conversations! Just make sure that whoever drives still puts enough attention to the road.

This list includes some good trip conversation starters for couples that can lead to long discussions. Here is how you get to know each other better: by realizing what are your inner drivers, what scares you both, and what are the things that had the most impact on your lives.

These deep questions for a road trip make it easier for you to really start talking about important stuff instead of never-ending shallow conversations about random routine daily things.

32. What is your earliest childhood memory?
33. How would you prefer to die and why?
34. What is the worst thing you’ve ever done?
35. If you could literally change the world, what is the one thing you would do?
36. Who made the most impact on your life?
37. What do you think we can do together to make the world a better place?
38. Is there something you would change in your past?
39. What would you do tomorrow if it was your last day on Earth?
40. Would you wanna know when you are gonna die?
41. Do you believe everything happens for a reason?
42. What advice would you give a 15-years-younger self?
43. If you could see the future, what’s one thing you’d wanna see?
44. What’s something that scares you that you would never ever try?
45. If everything was possible, who would you become?
46. Which book has changed your life?

50 Cultural Activities For Travelers Online

Not everyone can travel all the time. It is time-consuming and expensive. Unless you a millionaire with no responsibilities, you can’t just decide to fly to Portugal tomorrow for a…

Intimate Road Trip Questions

Is there anything you’ve always wanted to try in bed but was ashamed of asking? Do you have some fantasies that you two can role play in your bedroom? Don’t answer me, tell each other!

Here you have some curious sex questions for couples that might broaden your horizons!

Prepare to hear something unexpected and share your deepest desires with your lover. Sometimes we need to ask in order to get the answers. Thanks to my set of hand-picked intimate questions for couples you should be able to ease these dreadful topics into your road trip conversations.

47. What is your favorite part of my body?
48. Where is the strangest place you’ve ever had sex?
49. What is your craziest sexy fantasy?
50. Have you ever had a sexual dream about me?
51. How old were you when you lost your virginity?
52. Where would you love to have sex?
53. What’s your most sensitive body part?
54. Did your parents tell you anything about sex?
55. Do you believe in friendship between man and woman?
56. Is there a celebrity you’d like to sleep with?
57. Ideally how often would you like for us to be intimate?
58. What turns you on instantly?
59. When did you have a first kiss?
60. Is there a role play you’d like to try?
61. Have you ever been to a strip club?

South Coast Of Sri Lanka: Best Beaches Uncovered

For such a small country Sri Lanka has an absolutely crazy amount of things to do and see! Climbing Sigiriya Rock, watching wildlife on safaris in national parks, tasting Ceylon…

Road Trip Questions For Married Couples

Years into the marriage you might think you know everything about each other, but it’s never true. Andrew and I are together for more than eight years and we still learn new things here and there. Childhood memories, life struggles, old ideas we don’t even remember until it comes up one day… There is always something new to learn about another person, even if you spent your whole life together.

If you think you know your significant other better than they do themselves, check out these questions and maybe get some fresh perspective!

62. What do you remember about our first date?
63. Do you think I have changed in any way since we met?
64. If you inherited $100,000 right now, how would you spend it?
65. What’s a favorite memory that you have about us?
66. How would you describe me in three words?
67. What is your earliest childhood memory?
68. Where would you take me on a perfect date if money wasn’t an issue?
69. What was the scariest moment of your life so far?
70. What is the hardest part for you in living together?
71. What was the proudest moment of your childhood?
72. Which things from your bucket list we can do together this year?
73. What is the best gift you’ve ever received?
74. Who was your favorite teacher when you were at school, and why?
75. Do you want to be cremated or buried?
76. Are there other couples we could become friends with?
77. Is there something you would never tell me?

7 Romantic Places In Kandy: Travel Guide For Couples In Love

Sri Lanka is a marvellous getaway destination for love birds! Today I’m gonna cover some of the most romantic places in Kandy that are must visit if you travel as…

Looking For More Road Trip Questions?

When you’ve talked the heck out of my 77 questions and want more, consider purchasing a Conversation Starter Kit. This Our Moments set is specifically designed for couples to have some joyful conversations and strengthen your bond!

Also check out this book that includes 469 Thought-Provoking Conversation Starters and has some great reviews from other couples. If you travel together often and talk a lot, this bigger set of questions may be the best for you!

Conclusion on Road Trip Questions For Couples

So here you have them: 77 random questions for couples to start an interesting road trip conversation!

I’ve talked before about travel importance and one of my points was that traveling together strengthens your relationship. So however long your road trip is supposed to be, it can’t be boring if your significant other is right there beside you. Put down your phone and just start talking! If you need some help, funny and romantic conversation starters are here for you!

I hope your next car ride will be great and full of new impressions thanks to these intriguing road trip questions! You should never get bored on the way if you come prepared with a few dozens of thought-provoking things to discuss on your mind. Don’t forget to pack your favorite adult board games to have some more fun together when the car finally stops!

Pin this for later

The post 77 Intriguing Road Trip Questions For Couples | Boredom Killers appeared first on Live Your Dream TODAY.

Even if you are super creative, at some point you will run out of ideas on how to kill the extra time and what you can do together besides just staring at your phones. You don’t want to be bored on a special trip with the person you love!

And sometimes you are just too tired or lazy to come up with something original, so you need a good and preferably easy trip games solution for the two of you.

Well, you probably already know how much I love board games after my post 10 Best Travel Board Games For Adults, but this time I wanted to focus specifically on couple travel realities and cover more than just board games.

On my new list of the best travel games for couples, there are some new board games ideas, but also a few suggestions for digital games for two as well as discussion games to kill the boredom if you just wanna talk and have some fun!

Discussion Games For Couples – When There Is Extra Time To Get To Know Each Other Better

How often do you find time to just sit and talk?

These days everyone is busy all the time, so a trip together gives a perfect opportunity for actually talking to each other. When you walk around a new city hand in hand, sunbathe at some beautiful beach, or stuck in a car, bus or train for hours before you get to someplace nice, take this time to learn a new thing or two about each other.

Make it fun and in a form of a game instead of being all serious!

Here are some ideas for discussion games you can use on your road trips, during airplane layovers, or whenever you wanna talk to your partner.

Even if you do it just for kicks or to kill the time, you might still deepen your bond and have some fun time together instead of being bored and cranky!

Tell me in the comments if you have other discussion travel games ideas for couples on the road!

1. Use Conversation Starters And Make Sure To Listen

Sometimes you may feel like an old married couple that has nothing to talk about anymore.

Believe me, it’s never true!

Just because there are no fresh topic ideas off the top of your head at the moment, doesn’t mean they don’t exist. I’m sure there are plenty of new things to discuss for you two!

These cool conversation starter cards were created just for situations like that. Whenever you feel stuck, just pick a card and you’ll have something to talk about. Just like that!

There are 100 cards in the pack. You can hardly ever run out of ideas even if you choose this as your main travel game!

Some of them are romantic, some philosophic. There are a few to share your childhood memories and previous experiences, others make you dream about your future.

These cards are said to be perfect for all kinds of couples: from new to married, no matter the age. You can decide how deep you want to dive into a specific subject. And if you aren’t in the mood for some topic right now, simply pick another card!

Sample questions from Our Moments for Couples:

• What’s your most embarrassing memory from Junior High?
• If you had an extra $100 to spend on yourself every week, what would you do?
• What did you want to be when you were 10 years old?
• What would be the absolute perfect day?

Shop Now

2. Play Would You Rather – Fun Road Trip Game For a Couple

Time to have some fun on the road!

Would you rather fall asleep from boredom or play some fun road trip games with your loved one?

Haha, don’t answer that.

For this game you don’t need any equipment, but a book of ready-to-choose random questions may be very handy when you are out of ideas or too tired to come up with the fun ones.

Some questions are fun and may be easy to answer right away, others may be more challenging and take some time to think.

Turn on your imagination and discuss all the ‘what if’s together! You may be surprised when you partner’s answer is the opposite of yours!

Sample Would You Rather questions:

• Would you rather never get a paper cut again or never bite your tongue again?
• Would you rather be able to see through walls or be able to hear sounds from a mile away?
• Would you rather have to drink only hot drinks all summer long or eat only cold foods all winter long?

Shop Now

3. Practice Your Foreign Language Skills

Going on a trip to Spain and wanna practice your speaking skills? Even if not, foreign languages are always a good idea!

We tend to forget a language fast if we don’t use it regularly. If you are lucky to have at least one language in common with your partner besides your native one, why not practice it on the road? It can be a great idea to diversify your usual airport or car games and do something productive for a change!

You don’t necessarily have to go to a specific country to speak with someone when you conveniently have someone right here, by your side! It works best if you are more or less on the same learning level, but if not you can help each other get there.

Basically, there is no rules for this but one: you have to talk.

You may start with something simple, like talking about the day or plans for tomorrow – but in another language. When you get tired of discussing the same daily things every time or master that vocabulary, turn to my previous game ideas again. But this time play in another language! Even the questions that are easy to answer might be challenging to answer correctly – and you might even learn some useful vocabulary in the process!

Here is another book full of ideas that are handy for language speaking practice.

It includes different kinds of questions like:

• Tell me about the top three things on your bucket list.
• Would you rather X or Y?
• If you could do X, what would be Y?
• Trivia questions as in: What country is known as X?

Shop Now

Travel Board Games For 2 – When Two Is More Than Enough

Okay, enough with talking, let’s play a real game or two now!

What is your relationship with board games?

It’s one of our go-to things to do when we want to spend some time together.

Of course, we love to play with others too and organize game nights with friends whenever we are in town, but as we travel a lot, most of the time it’s just the two of us. That’s why when we discover new board games, we first check if it works for a two-player situation.

Most, if not all of the board games in my list of best travel board games for adults are portable and suitable for two players, so check them out!

Here I share three new board games for 2 people I found recently that I haven’t played yet, but they look intriguing.

Tell me in the comments if you have some experience playing any of these and if you liked it! Also please share if you have more board or card games on your mind that are travel-sized and without too many little details. I’d love to play some new ones I haven’t heard of yet!

4. Skull King – Fun Pirate Trick Card Game

Skull King is a fun travel board game for 2 or more people that can be played wherever you have a small surface for cards. Even the back seat of a car will work fine if you have some space in between.

Frequent players say it’s very easy to learn and teach someone else!

Pirate theme creates the cool fun atmosphere and immersive playing experience.

You say Yo-Ho-Ho as real pirates and place your bids for how many tricks you think you each win in the current round. There is a straightforward but interesting way of counting points based on the accuracy of your bid. You can even choose to play a risky approach and either win or lose big time.

Besides the main deck, there are many special cards that make the game less predictable. So you never know for sure how strong your cards are!

Here is a video with the full game overview and all the rules explained in less than ten minutes:

There is a scoresheet included, but you can also keep track of the scores on your smartphone notes app to make it more environment-friendly.

Skull King is especially fun to bring on an actual cruise!

Skull King

Players: 2-6

Play time: 15-30 min

Shop Now

5. Codenames: Duet – Learn To Be On The Same Wavelength

Codenames Duet is an expanded version of the original Codenames game that is more travel-friendly and designed for two players. It has 400 extra cards with words that you can mix together if you have previous version.

While the classic game is better played with more people, in teams against each other, this one is great for a couple playing as one team, so you can win or lose together.

In any Codenames edition, you have to think and choose words carefully. You need to give one-word clues to each other that help to uncover agents, but if you aren’t careful you can bump into an assassin that makes you both lose immediately!

Watch this video to see the gameplay for two players in action:

Codenames Duet card game will be hard to play inside the car as you need some surface to arrange the cards. Still, it’s packed small and easy to bring with you, and you can play it whenever you have a table, a desk, or any other flat surface in front of you.

Some of the suitable places I have in mind are a cafe, a tent, on a picnic, in any airport lounge (a chair between you two will do as a surface), on a cruise ship, and on a train. Just make sure it’s not too windy as it’s a card game after all.

Codenames: Duet

Players: 2 or more

Play time: 15 min

Shop Now

6. Hanamikoji – Beautiful board game for two players with Japanese vibe

The name of Hanamikoji game comes from one of the famous geisha districts in Kioto, Japan.

The goal is to win the favor of enough geishas to earn more charm points than the other player. In each round, there is a set of four actions that you do in turns depending on your current card hand state.

So, the game process looks something like this: the first person draws a card, adds it to the hand, estimates the situation, and performs one of the four actions that seems the most applicable. Then they “give” their open cards to geishas they belong to according to the color and end the turn.

There are a few winning situations and you can even win if you don’t have enough points!

Watch this video for a good overview and rules explanation:

You need a bit of a surface to play Hanamikoji, but it’s a fun game and the box is small enough to even pack it in your hand luggage.

All cards are beautifully designed and put you into charming Japanese quarters even if it’s not your current travel destination. This board game for two will especially complement the vibe of your trip to Eastern countries!

Hanamikoji

Players: 2

Game time: 15-20 min

Shop Now

10 Best Travel Board Games For Adults

My husband Andrew and I, we love playing board games, both alone and with friends! Luckily, we didn’t have to say goodbye to board games just because we went traveling!…

Free Digital Games For Couples – When There Is No Network

In our era of digital availability, relationships can easily struggle from the mutual lack of attention.

If you look around in the airport lounge zone or even in a restaurant, you’ll most likely see a few couples that are immersed in their phones instead of spending quality time with each other. They are together physically, but mentally many miles apart.

You don’t wanna be like them!

I’ve covered discussion games that make you closer above, and here are some digital travel games for couples for a change.

If you can’t give up your phones, at least do something fun together!

Many digital games for two don’t require a network connection, just a Bluetooth one. Some can be even played on the same device so one of you can save some battery juice for travel emergencies.

For this post, I’ve chosen three games we played together and liked enough to share with the world. They are quick to play whenever you have a few minutes to waste: in the airport, in the back of a car on a road trip, on a picnic, on a bench in the park, in the hotel when too tired for anything else… You get the idea.

Airplane Comfort Items: 30 Best Travel Accessories For Long Flights

Even the idea of traveling abroad can be exhausting when you think of being stuck in an uncomfortable plane seat for many long hours. Fortunately, there is something you can…

7. Sea Battle 2 – Classic Old-School Game For A Couple

Who doesn’t know sea battle?

If you are young enough and never played it on paper, this is how we used to do it in the 90s.

There are tons of sea battle interpretations in the digital world, but I like this particular one because it’s nostalgic and looks similar to what we did manually back in the day. Of course, now you don’t need to draw anything and even think about the strategy of arranging your ships. When we feel lazy, we just both press Auto and go with whatever random distribution the game gives us.

This version is called Sea Battle 2 as they expanded it a lot: you can now earn points by winning the battles and use them to build your city. There are all kinds of extra cheat weapons you can use to win the battle, but to be honest, we prefer old-school fair play without any extra help.

In case you don’t know what’s all this about, the idea is quite simple. You place a number of ships on the field and take turns guessing where your opponent’s ships are. Oftentimes the lucky one wins, but there are some strategies on both placing and guessing parts that can be used to improve your chances.

As opposed to other games I’m gonna tell you about today, for this one you need both your smartphones as you shouldn’t be able to see each other’s screen while playing. Being online is not necessary though, as all you need for this game is a Bluetooth connection. So you can play Sea Battle even on a camping trip with no Internet connection.

Download on Android | iOS

8. Fruit Ninja – Fast And Fun Game To Play Together

Looking for a quick fun game to play together when bored? Check out Fruit Ninja!

It only takes a minute to play so you can use it as a time killer absolutely everywhere, even when waiting in line.

The main idea is to cut fruit that comes to you randomly from the bottom of the screen as if someone throws it for you to practice your ninja cutting skills. You share the screen with your partner as it’s divided in half and it scores how much fruit you cut in a given time. There are different modes where you lose if you miss three items or where you have bombs to throw to make each other’s life harder.

Even though it’s random, all the fruit thrown at you is the same that your partner gets, so it’s as fair as it can get. As long as you don’t use unexpected bombs…

Fruit Ninja is a good way to practice your reaction skills and find out who is faster! It’s also fun to play when you are sleepy because of an early take-off or something and need to wake up. Just a few minutes of this competitive fruit cutting – and you are wide awake and ready for a new day of wandering.

Download on Android | iOS

9. Badland – Best Graphics Game To Play For Two People

Badland is a super easy and very beautiful game for a couple.

It can actually incorporate up to four players, but that would be more convenient on a tablet than on a tiny smartphone screen. For two players it’s much more comfortable as you don’t cover too much of screen space with your hands and can see everything clearly (as opposed to upside down) just sitting shoulder to shoulder.

As you can see from my screenshot, it’s not surprising that it has won a number of awards. It’s definitely one of the most beautiful game graphics I’ve ever seen! It immediately puts you in a cute atmospheric story: you fly through the magical world together and generally just try to survive all the obstacles on your way.

The co-op mode is available offline as you play on the same device. The gameplay itself is super simple: you just touch the screen to go up and don’t touch to go down. It might seem stupid as touching the screen with your one finger in the same place is the only thing you do, but wait until you immerse into that world! Surviving there is not as easy as it looks!

Download on Android | iOS

Final Thoughts About The Best Travel Games For Couples

Okay, I guess now you have enough ideas on how to spend some valuable time with your partner on the road!

I hope these diversify your usual road trip activities and make your journey even more fun and memorable!

Traveling as a couple is a wonderful experience already, but with these interesting travel games for couples, you can spend more time together and learn more about each other in many ways. Playing games as a couple while exploring the world is a great way to deepen your bond and improve your relationship even more!

Tell me in the comments what is your favorite travel game for two people, I’d love to hear more ideas for the two of us!

Pin this for later!

The post 9 Best Travel Games For Couples: Tips For Boredom-Free Trips appeared first on Live Your Dream TODAY.

This is what you expect to hear as the beginning of my story, and this is actually pretty accurate.

But, unlike other people who choose to become full-time travel bloggers, my story doesn’t end up as a success.

The global pandemic has ruined many people’s plans all over the world, and I’m not an exception. I just chose the worst time ever to start a new life!

What does failure even mean?

I mean, I actually left the country with a one-way ticket and long travel plans.

The goal was to see Asia and I had a great time traveling around the whole island of Sri Lanka: I watched elephants in natural parks, climbed UNESCO sites, shoot photos with various waterfalls, visited Buddha temples, indulged in Sri Lankan food, swam with turtles, and did many more memorable things. As a new travel blogger, it gave me enough material to write a few posts about my adventures and schedule even more to write later.

This was the exact lifestyle I was hoping for.

The thing is: it only lasted one month.

So I decided to go all-in and expected a lifestyle of traveling and adventures, but merely got a month-long vacation. A very stressful one, I should add, although amazing anyway.

The happy beginning

Changing careers and jumping into a travel blogger lifestyle wasn’t just a whim for me.

I planned this for about a year.

I gave my notice far in advance, in midsummer, as I liked the company and wanted to keep the good relationship after leaving.

September was the month I officially stopped calling myself a full-time software developer and started to think of myself as a travel blogger. I love how my last working day happened to be Friday, 13th.

At the end of September, my husband and I went to Spain for a month to kind of test this lifestyle and see how it suits us both.

Malaga was a great destination to test the nomadic lifestyle. It was sunny, warm, and social enough. We actually decided that it was the first place we visited where we could possibly stay for life.

It gave us some understanding of how we felt about potentially living like this long term, and what needs to be changed for us to feel even better.

Then we came back in November and started preparing for a real trip, the one with no coming back in the foreseeable future.

We gave ourselves some time to fix ongoing health issues, to get rid of our stuff, and to use all the gift certificates for experiences that would expire when we left for a year.

Our new life was going to start in February.

Soon, the day X came.

We packed two suitcases and two small backpacks, gave up our rent, said our goodbyes to all our friends and family members, and jumped in a taxi to the airport.

Coincidentally, we were leaving on February 14th. We took it as a good sign! Little did we know…

Our first destination was Sri Lanka. Besides our honeymoon in Maldives, where we pretty much didn’t see anything but our hotel, this was the first time we’d go to Asia. So we were really excited to immerse ourselves in a totally different culture.

And it was an amazing month-long trip. Unforgettable even. The perfect way to start a new travel-based lifestyle. We visited plenty of places, stayed in cool authentic Sri Lankan homestays, explored beautiful beaches, hiked in Sigiriya, went on breathtaking safaris, attended a cooking class with a local family, and learned a lot about Sri Lankan culture.

It was our last day in Sri Lanka when it all went downhill in a matter of hours.

Friday, March 13

See how it was Friday 13th again? Only this time it wasn’t lucky.

Situation on Friday morning: we are going to India tomorrow and then to Nepal in a month!

…I was downloading all the tickets and other documents for tomorrow’s trip as I wanted to ask our hotel to print them for us. I opened my visa approval letter from the Indian Department of Immigration to print it. It said that I should print a correct visa form from their site instead of printing it from this email.

Surely, I clicked through to their site. And this popped up.

All existing visas issued to nationals of any country except those issued to Diplomats, Official passport holders, those in UN / International organizations, those on Employment, Project visas and those who are operating aircrew of scheduled commercial airlines, and who had not yet entered India, are suspended…

From the Indian Government website.

India closed the borders the day before we entered. How lucky we are!

This is when it all went wrong

First of all, I’m not someone who jumps on sudden trips.

I like to plan ahead, book everything in advance, and know (at least to some extent) where I will be every day.

Yeah, it’s not very adventurous of me and probably not the best quality for a travel blogger, but I am who I am.

And suddenly realizing that tomorrow’s trip is not happening… I can’t even describe how stressful it was.

At least I found out about this the day before thanks to my organizational skills, and not in the airport when we would be denied boarding the next day.

So we had to find another country to go to. To-mor-row. This alone blew my mind. I’ve never ever planned anything for tomorrow, not even a coffee meeting! And now – a whole trip to replace a long thorough-planned and fully booked trip to India.

Ok, it was southern Asia, options were many.

Of course, India was the closest, but it was out of the picture.

Our next planned destination after India was going to be Nepal – I started investigating it and quickly found out that they did the same as India and closed the borders.

A few other visa-free options were either the same or too close to China, the coronavirus epicenter.

After some digging and a lot of reading from travel-related and nomadic communities, we decided that Thailand was safe enough. There weren’t many cases of coronavirus and many travelers who were there at the time decided to stay.

So we bought the tickets and booked nice accommodation for a month. We decided not to travel much around the country and stay in one place as the situation was uncertain. It looked like a good and safe option to replace India.

However, during this investigation, we started to see a lot of things that were happening in the world in the context of the virus. They hadn’t started to call it a pandemic yet, but many countries introduced some restrictions. We saw a few countries that restricted entrance from China and all the nearby countries, including Thailand.

At this point, it became obvious that we probably won’t be able to travel to many places after Thailand and we’d have trouble getting anywhere else next month.

This is when we decided to cut the trip short and come back to Ukraine after Thailand in case the situation gets worse.

So we bought the tickets from Thailand back to Ukraine, and went to bed feeling anxious, but somewhat relieved.

Situation at the end of Friday: we are going to Thailand tomorrow and then back to Ukraine in a month!

Saturday, March 14

We woke up to Ukrainian news featuring our president’s video speech.

He just announced that all air travel would be suspended after March 16.

Apparently, now we had less than 3 days to come back home if we wanted to.

This was a tough decision to make.

Did we consider staying in Sri Lanka?

Of course we did! We loved our Sri Lankan adventures and would gladly stay for more.

However, our visa would expire on Monday.

We could of course ask for a visa extension, but:

• The Department of Immigration was located in Colombo, whereas we weren’t anywhere near at the time.
• Visa acceptance application working hours were from 8.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. Monday to Friday. It was already Friday afternoon and we weren’t even in Colombo.
• Monday was our last permitted day, so we could try to come and apply for an extension, but should they decline, we’d have to leave immediately. And as other countries started to suspend visas, we thought that the chances of our extension being declined were high.
• Unless we left on Sunday, we wouldn’t be able to come back to Ukraine anymore.

A few days later Sri Lankan department of immigration decided to extend all the current visas for present foreigners for another month. But we couldn’t possibly foresee this happening, and it was still for one month only. Even if we stayed, we would be in the same situation again in April. But coming back to Ukraine wouldn’t be an option anymore.

Why we decided to go home

The main reason is: uncertainty.

We had some other options, but at the same time, there were many things to consider.

1) Countries started to close borders and suspend visas

India (our next destination) already suspended our visas, Nepal (our planned destination after India) already closed its borders, and some other closest Asian countries as well. This means that at some point we could potentially get stuck in a transit zone of some country. Not being able to go anywhere if every country closed borders, and not being able to stay as our short travel visa would expire. Even the mere thought of this frightened us big time.

2) As Ukrainians, we could only stay up to 30 days in most Asian countries

Being a travel blogger, you don’t have a reason for any visa other than a short-term tourist visa. With my Ukrainian passport, I can go to many places with either an online requested visa or obtain a visa upon arrival. However, this only works for short-term tourist intentions, usually up to one month, and then you need to leave.

With all the uncertainty in the world and restrictions changing literally every day, it was too risky to expect that every month there would be some country nearby to welcome us and give us a travel visa for another month. Not with all the chaos that was already happening around us.

3) We wouldn’t be able to come back home later

As I already mentioned, we only had 3 days to return to Ukraine before they closed the air.

And even if it was physically possible to come from Sri Lanka by land, the neighboring to Ukraine European countries like Poland and Hungary already closed the borders. We heard all the news about long lines of cars and buses being stuck in-between countries for days and not being able to come home. And we wouldn’t want to risk it.

In case the current visa expired and no other country would let us in, we wouldn’t even be able to go home. The thought of not being able to live anywhere in the world was terrifying.

4) Simple things like eating would be a hard quest every day

Imagine coming to a foreign country for the first time when everything tourist-oriented is closed.

You don’t know anything about the infrastructure, you can’t go to a restaurant to eat, and you don’t speak the language to buy your own food. Local markets are most likely closed anyway. Nobody speaks English. Even if you find a place to live that has a kitchen (for example, in Sri Lanka we only stayed in homestays and hotels without a kitchen), you don’t know where the supermarket is (if there are any at all), and public transport might not operate for you to get there.

Not that it would necessarily be that dramatic, but at that point, this is how we saw it. And, to be honest, it could.

5) Without knowing a local language foreign quarantine could be tricky

Unless we spoke Sinhala (for Sri Lanka) or Thai (for Thailand) or the language of whatever country we would stay at, it would be really hard and stressful to follow the rules and stay out of trouble. We heard a lot of cases of people being fined in Ukraine for going out without a mask or entering a park when it wasn’t allowed. But at home we can follow the rules and know about all the restrictions. With every country having different rules which were subject to change every few days, we could easily unknowingly get in trouble.

Obviously, being at risk of potentially getting fined, being put to jail, or even deported was not the fun travel lifestyle we anticipated. This was the last straw that led to our decision of going home.

6) With all the tourist attractions closed, there wasn’t much to explore anyway

Among many reasons for traveling, my main goal at the time was to get to know the world and share my experience in my blog.

When everything is closed, I wouldn’t have much to write about. So what’s the reason to sit in the apartment abroad and stress about every little thing, if I could sit at home and don’t stress? All the anxiety would be for nothing.

And it’s not like all of this would have ended in a month or two. We would get stuck in the uncertainty for who knows how long.

So, we changed our plans again, and found new tickets to Ukraine. This time for today.

Situation on Saturday afternoon: we are going home to Ukraine today!

Anticipated itinerary: Sri Lanka – Qatar – Turkey – Ukraine.

We checked out of our last hotel, called a taxi to Colombo, and went to the airport.

Finally, at the airport leaving Sri Lanka… or not?

It was kinda early when we arrived at Negombo airport and we weren’t allowed to go through security just yet, so we spent a couple of hours in the only cafeteria they had there. Finally, check-in time came.

We went through the security scanning and found our flight on the information display. Staying in a queue to drop off our luggage, we felt relieved as we knew we’ll be home soon.

Only this wasn’t the case.

When we handed our passports and tickets to a check-in guy and he was looking at them for too long, I knew something was wrong.

Long story short, Qatar just closed the borders a couple of hours back so they couldn’t let us in on the flight.

Apparently, if we had connected flights, and not self-connected, they would let us through.

But our flights were with different airlines, and we couldn’t go through the transit zone in Qatar. Instead, we’d need to exit the airport and enter it again for the next flight, with passing security, grabbing our luggage, and checking in again. Only now we couldn’t do it as they closed the borders.

Our check-in guy told us that if we could purchase another ticket from some partner company, then they would be able to connect those flights and get us through the transit zone.

He told us a couple of companies that were ok, and we went to look for a local ticket office.

I should say, going back after you passed security is not an easy task.

We were stopped four times by different security guys on the way out and had to tell the story all over again. Then that next guy would shout to a previous one ‘Did you let them through?’ across the hall, and we were allowed to go a dozen meters until the next one stopped us.

A few minutes later, after running in circles around the airport floors with our luggage and losing each other in elevators, we found the office we were looking for. Only it was closed and apparently didn’t sell tickets anyway. There were some other lost souls sitting on the floor near that door hoping for the best. Everyone just wanted to go home.

So we sat there too, for a bit. Until I realized that we are wasting precious time.

Wait, did I mention that we only had 40 minutes to find another ticket and get back to that flight?

At some point, we left the airport as they had a ticket office outside, still hoping to find the tickets and catch that flight.

We asked the woman in a ticket box if there were any tickets from allowed partner companies available to connect with our flight. She searched and said no. Only at that point, we realized we are actually not flying home.

So there we were, staying on the street with all our belongings, deep in our phones, trying to find a new way to get to Ukraine in two days.

This was probably the most stressful point of the whole story.

We had nowhere to go, our Sri Lankan visa was about to expire, and we had limited time to come home.

If you think finding tickets online was easy, you are wrong.

Remember that it was the day when our president announced a 3-day window.

Every Ukrainian person from all over the world was trying to get a ticket home, the same as we were.

Because of such high demand, the prices jumped from around $300 to $1000 and above.

So you find a new option that fits your time window, the system says ‘there are 2/3/4 tickets left’, you happily start to enter your data to buy them, press Next, and find out that there aren’t any tickets left. Apparently, someone else just bought those last ones a moment faster while you were entering your card information. Right under your nose.

It was a few times like that for both of us until finally we were able to purchase connecting tickets with Turkish Airlines for another $1500. For tomorrow. At least we now had a chance to come home. Fortunately, it would be on the last day before the air restriction.

As we needed to spend another night in Sri Lanka, we found an Airbnb close to the airport, called a taxi, and went there. At that point, I just wanted to lie down and forget about all of this.

Situation at the end of Saturday: we are staying one more night in Sri Lanka, and going home tomorrow!

Sunday, March 15

Not much to tell here. This time everything was fine. We caught the flight, and then another one.

About one third of the people in the airports were in masks, including all the staff. Some people just used scarves to cover their faces.

Up to that day, there were no known cases of the virus in Sri Lanka, it was calm and safe. Nobody would wear masks on the streets. So the airport seemed surreal and as if we were in some kind of a pandemic movie.

Despite our personal rush, it wasn’t like that for everyone. The travel industry was already suffering, we just weren’t aware of it. For example, I had never seen a half-empty plane in my life before. And this is how a huge Istanbul airport, which is a main hub for many connections, looked when we arrived. Disturbingly empty.

Monday, March 16

We arrived in Lviv in the morning and checked into the hotel we managed to book for a week in between flights.

We chose the one with a breakfast included option to not worry about at least one meal per day.

Ironically, the next morning new restrictions came up in Ukraine and all the cafeterias were forced to close, including the one in our hotel. Sorry, they said, we can’t make you breakfast anymore.

We stayed there for a week and then found an apartment for a month so we had a kitchen to cook our own food. And the rest is history. There were quite different opinions among people around us: some were scared and washed everything that came from the supermarket with soap, while some others didn’t even believe that coronavirus existed.

We choose to stay somewhere in the middle: be cautious, but sane. And looking forward to a better future.

Final thoughts about our homecoming journey

We’ve been through a lot, we learned a lot, and survived.

We went through all of this as a family, relied on each other, and it brought us even closer together.

As they say, what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.

Fast forward to 2023, I am still a blogger, just not a travel one. We attempted another year-long trip but ended up cutting it short again after 3 months spent in Mexico because the neighbor attacked our country. After that, we decided to settle down somewhere and are now building a new life in Canada. I got certified as a happiness coach and started to teach people to look for joy in the little things through my blog Utterly Positive.

We still plan to travel a lot in the future but I don’t think we’ll ever attempt a digital nomad lifestyle again. We learned our lesson and decided to put down roots. Besides, we realized that travel becomes much less fun when it’s your job.

The post How I Failed To Become A Full-Time Traveler appeared first on Live Your Dream TODAY.