While my husband and I visit each of our hometowns a few times a year, our honeymoon will be our first real trip together in our 3+ years as a couple. We’ve taken very memorable day trips outside New York, but this trip will be our first time out of the country together, sans family and without work getting in the way. That being said, I want our honeymoon to be as perfect as possible, starting with the right luggage set. When you find a suitcase that fits all your essentials in convenient built-in compartments, while still fulfilling airline size regulations, your trip is already off to a good start.

My husband and I have much to learn about each other’s travel styles and preferences, but I’ve learned from our smaller trips that my husband is far from a light packer. As much as I’ve tried to change his ways, he’s more of a “take it just in case” kinda guy. I knew I needed to find luggage spacious enough to fit all his stuff, but in an organized fashion, and with a hard case since we’ll be moving around a lot, transferring hotels and European cities every two days for two weeks. Ricardo’s Arris 29-Inch is the solution. It’s easy to maneuver with 360° dual spinner wheels, has protective bumper guards, interior pockets and zippered compartments, and even a separate pocket to place a Tile, which is a Bluetooth tracker. We keep Tiles on everything at home, so we’re especially excited about that.

When choosing a honeymoon destination, we went back and forth between an adventurous kind of trip with snorkeling and rappelling or a European vacation of touring and getting lost. We ended up deciding on Europe since my husband’s never been and it’s my favorite continent. We’ll be starting our honeymoon in Amsterdam, heading over to Belgium, and then ending our trip in Paris. Creating the perfect itinerary with taking our different personalities into account won’t be easy, but I do believe it’s possible.

Here are my best 3 tips to planning a vacation you and your spouse will both enjoy.

1. Understand what vacation means to each of you.
   When my husband and I discussed what we wanted to do on our honeymoon, we both said get lost in Europe and explore. I thought that meant we were on the exact same page until he saw me researching museums in Amsterdam and told me how unthrilled he was about that part of the trip. I responded confused, “I thought you wanted to explore! Don’t you want to see Van Gogh’s artwork?” His response was less enthused, “No, I just want to explore. Walk around and see what we find.”
   Good thing we figured out how differently we define the word “explore” before our trip because now I know to only schedule part of the day and leave the rest for pure, uninterrupted exploration. I probably should have figured as much since our day trip to Boston included wandering the city, daytime bar hopping, and checking out random stores. My husband is definitely the more spontaneous one in our relationship.

2. Agree on the ideal time you both want to start your day.
   Some people view vacation as a time to sleep ‘til noon, eat breakfast in bed, and get out of the hotel by 2pm to do some sightseeing. I am not part of that group. I’m not an early riser either and can’t say a city walking tour would ever get me out of my bed at 7am while on vacation, but I do like to utilize my time away and pack my days with things to do.
   My husband and I have yet to have that conversation, but my guess is that we’ll settle on sometime between 10-11am, although we do love to sleep in on the weekends.

3. Make a list of priorities.
   Before you go, make a list of the top attractions you’re dying to see, so even if your plans change while you’re abroad, you won’t miss out on what’s most important to you. Along those same lines, prioritize types of activities. Is good food at the most popular restaurants a priority or will you both be fine with whatever’s convenient? Would you rather book museum tickets in advance to avoid the lines or buy at the door so as to leave flexibility?
   People’s personalities come out a lot while traveling since everyone has a different idea of what’s important and there’s limited time to do everything. Try to do as much research beforehand to avoid conflict later on. Thankfully neither my husband and I are foodies and we both value convenience. I also used to live in Paris, so while I plan to drag my husband from museum to museum in Amsterdam, our Paris itinerary will be completely unplanned and up to my husband. And that is what I call compromise. :)

To everyone else currently preparing for a trip, happy planning and definitely make sure to check out the Ricardo Beverly Hills Arris collection!

Shop Arris 20-Inch
Shop Arris 29-Inch

xx Esther

*Thank you Ricardo Beverly Hills for sponsoring this post.