I went on one date with a man, and then we decided to travel together indefinitely. It's not as romantic as it seems.
- After traveling full-time, I joined a dating app and went on a date; we fell for each other.
- Since we have similar values, we decided to travel together indefinitely.
Last year, I finally fulfilled my dream of traveling full-time when I got a job aboard a cruise ship. I was loving every moment of my nomadic life. I was too busy enjoying myself to worry about a relationship.
But in my second year of the job and third year of being single, I joined the Nomad Soulmates dating app. I wasn't necessarily looking for my soulmate because travel was my priority for most of my life. But at 32, I knew I had to make a proactive choice to prioritize relationships and dating.
In April of 2023, I disembarked the ship in Lisbon and tried out the app. However, I was skeptical it would lead anywhere because I only had two months off the ship before I had to head to Norway to join my next contract. Plus, I had already scheduled my travel plans for the next two months.
But then I matched with someone that made me rethink everything.
We had an instant connection
I matched with a man who was in Lisbon for the month. He asked me out for Greek food, and I figured it was worth a try. Once again, I didn't imagine it would go anywhere because I only planned to stay for a week before heading to Porto for the weekend and then off to Spain for the next leg of my trip.
But our date ended up being so much fun that I was interested in seeing where this could go. He was silly, and that was refreshing. We shared many of the same values and loved traveling, so the conversation never lagged.
I surprised myself when I invited him to stay with me for a few nights in Porto. During our visit to Porto, I canceled my trip to Spain and accepted his invitation to return to Lisbon with him, beginning our partnership.
We decided to keep traveling together
I had to choose between my travel plans and my partner. Having been a solo traveler, giving up my travel plans for something that may or may not work out was not a decision I took lightly.
But I wanted to take a chance on this as we found ourselves on the same page about everything — especially what we were looking for in a long-term relationship and what we wanted in the future. I never saw myself returning to the US; I wanted to return to Italy or continue traveling full-time with my future partner and kids. He also had no plans on returning to his home country of Germany and, having been traveling full-time since 2018, was uninterested in stopping. He also wants children and plans to travel with them full-time.
I saw that we were on the same page regarding how we wanted to incorporate parenting, traveling, and our careers, so we decided to continue traveling together — which was a decision we made exceptionally quickly.
I was fearful at the beginning of our relationship because I heard horror stories from friends about traveling with partners they just met. Luckily, being seasoned travelers, we face inconveniences quite similarly and calmly. Within the last year, we have dealt with being separated for months at a time and spending every second together for months at a time. We have also experienced missed flights, scooter accidents, cockroach infestations, and a lack of necessities such as hot water. It's not all romance and dreamy vacations.
Like so many other relationships I've had, I thought each new inconvenience would fracture our relationship, causing us to decide that maybe this wasn't the right partnership for us. But it all had the opposite effect, building the foundation of our relationship as we moved into the second year of traveling full-time together.
Bound by wanderlust, we aren't sure what our futures hold, but we will sculpt it with our shared dreams.