3 Unconventional Travel Experiences I’ve Shared with My Husband That Were Memorable

We like to go on all sorts of adventures together!

Long before I met my husband, I’d already been bitten by the travel bug.

I’d volunteered in Guyana, lived and worked in South Korea for two years, and backpacked around Southeast Asia with a friend, among other trips and vacations.

I never wanted my love of travel and exploration to be a contention point in my relationship. I always hoped that if I did meet someone special someday, they’d share my interest in seeing different parts of the world and be just as excited to venture to new places as I was.

Early on in our relationship, I realized that having some adventure in our life together was never going to be a problem — and for that, I am so grateful. I found someone who wants to do crazy things with me, and I’ve never lost sight of how lucky I am that my desire to travel and explore and experience new things aligned perfectly with his adventurous spirit.

We’ve now been together for over six years, and in that time, we’ve had some pretty unconventional trips. Below are the three that stand out the most.

1. Car Camping Our Way to Key West and Renting a Sailboat as Our Airbnb

This was our first big trip together, and it was about a year into our relationship.

We both wanted to go somewhere warm, and we thought a road trip would be a fun way to spend quality time together while on vacation. Since neither of us had ever been to the Florida Keys, we settled on Key West as our final destination.

Now all we had to do was drive 1,726 miles—all the way from Ontario, Canada! We left home at 5 a.m. in the cold and snow of a Canadian winter with visions of sandy beaches and sunshine on Key West warming us up. I couldn’t wait to drive the Overseas Highway that connects all the islands together and look out over the endless sparkling blue water.

To save money on accommodation, we decided to imagine our Dodge Journey as a luxury hotel and set up an air mattress in the back. We’d stop at rest stops along the Interstate highways to sleep at night, and in the morning, we’d move from the back to the front seats and be ready to hit the road once again! It certainly wasn’t the most comfortable arrangement, but we made do to save some money and still have laughs about it today when we think back on it.

We had so many adventures and mishaps on this trip, and most of them were related to our unusual accommodation.

Rather than booking an expensive hotel in the heart of Key West, we rented a small sailboat for three nights through Airbnb! Our “room” was moored out in the bay in Cow Key Channel, and we had to kayak to and from it whenever we wanted to go exploring on the island or head into town.

This, to me, felt like the perfect way to experience life in the Keys. We’d wake up to the sound of waves lapping against the boat, jump in for a swim anytime we pleased, look up at the stars at night while sipping a cold beer from the Florida Keys Brewing Company, and even got to kayak through some of the mangroves and canals nearby and see wildlife. It really was the perfect first (long) road trip together!

You can read more about this experience here:

2. Walking 177 Miles from Porto, Portugal to Santiago de Compostela, Spain

If the first trip was all about laid-back island life, this one was about endurance!

Ever since I saw the movie The Way and learned about the Camino de Santiago, I wanted to try a long-distance hike. I don’t know exactly why, but I imagined that simply walking for hours a day with nothing else to do and nowhere to be would actually be relaxing. I was mesmerized by the idea of traveling through a place on foot. After all, how often do we really get to see a country like this, from this perspective?

I kept thinking about it, and eventually, those dreams turned into real plans! We began doing a little research so that we could nail down which route we wanted to walk. (There are several routes leading to Santiago de Compostela from all over Europe). Eventually, we settled on the Camino Portugués de la Costa—the Portuguese Coastal Way—and started slowly picking up the gear we’d need to tackle such a long walk, including proper backpacks to carry everything we’d need with us!

Neither of us were hiking enthusiasts before setting out on this long, multi-day walk. At the very least, though, we both really enjoyed walking and had made an almost-daily habit of taking long walks together years prior to setting out on this challenging trek. Still, I wasn’t sure how we’d hold up doing back-to-back long days over all kinds of different terrain—but we were soon going to find out!

In the end, most days were comfortable and manageable. Some of the shorter days were surprisingly easy. But then there were a couple of days that I thought would never end! On these days, my feet were throbbing and I could barely feel my legs by the time we made it to our next accommodation.

But no matter how beat we were by the time we arrived in the next town along our route, we still felt the incredible satisfaction of having walked there! That was an accomplishment that we couldn’t stop smiling about. That, and there’s just something about walking in nature that grounds me, clears my head, and makes me feel alive.

If you’re interested in hearing more about the Camino, here’s a list of the stories I’ve published:

3. Sailing around the Bahamas on a Real Tall Ship (Schooner)

Everybody is familiar with cruise ship vacations, but what about cruising around on a historic sailing ship instead?

Since we both loved the experience of sleeping on a small, 22-foot Catalina sailboat in Key West, we upped the stakes a bit for our next water-related vacation.

We’d been looking for something special to do to celebrate my husband’s 30th birthday. Turning 30 was a big deal, we thought, so we wanted to do something out of the ordinary that we’d never forget. The answer came in the form of a Bahamas sailing trip aboard a 125-foot schooner called the Liberty Clipper.

As the Liberty Fleet’s website says:

“A windjammer sailing cruise is a unique tall ship experience where the destinations are influenced by the winds and tides to provide the ultimate relaxation and peacefulness on the water.”

We spent five days island-hopping around the Bahamas and taking in the beautiful scenery life at sea provided. We had the opportunity to go snorkeling, kayaking, swimming, and paddle boarding. We could lay around in hammocks on deck, learn more about sailing, help raise the sails, or chat with the other passengers and crew.

It was a fantastic way to truly disconnect from the outside world, and definitely one of the more outside-the-box travel experiences we’ve had.

For more insight on this adventure, take a look at the story below.

There you have it—some of our most interesting trips together so far. I can’t wait to see what the future brings!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this and that you got some ideas of your own for your next grand adventure!

Safe travels!