Weekend travel warriors…. come out and play-eeee-yayyy!!!!

If you’re a regular reader of BMWK then you know that we heavily promote date night and its importance with your spouse.

Date night gives you the opportunity to recharge and reconnect and that connection is vital if you intend to maintain your relationship past the stress of work, parenting and everything else that happens in your world.

But beyond date night there is more!

Whenever we can, Ronnie and I have to take it a level beyond date night and extend date night into an over the weekend mini-vacation.

This can be a weekend alone, a staycation at a local hotel, a quick trip to a neighboring city or exploring somewhere far away that neither of us have ever been.

The excitement and rush of traveling kid-less with each other brings back the excitement and intimacy that we experienced when we first started to date and in our family I’m the one that pulls it all together. I handle everything from flights, rooms and rentals to sightseeing, restaurants and entertainment.

Over the past ten years of marriage, I’ve turned into a highly trained Weekend Escape Artist!  (In fact, I have recently partnered with Homewood Suites and Home2 Suites by Hilton to support their efforts to empower men to become Travel MANagers!)

I know from speaking to couples that many of you are due for an escape yourselves so I wanted to share 3 keys to the perfect date weekend without the kids. The cheapest flights and lowest fairs won’t mean a thing if you don’t get these three things right.

Keep reading to get all of the details:

#1) Know Your Spouse’s Travel Language

One of my favorite marriage books is The Five Love Languages by Dr. Gary Chapman. In the book he talks about learning how your spouse wants to be loved. But, did you know that your spouse has a travel language too?

Does your spouse love to chill on the beach, lay in the hotel bed, sightsee until there’s nothing else to look at or perhaps a combination of all of the above? Knowing how your spouse likes to unwind and relax is vital to planning the perfect weekend escape.

When you know better, you do better…so figure out step one first!

#2) Make a Clean Getaway

Early in our marriage, getaways were the worst and always led to arguments. As our marriage matured we realized that it was because of the stress involved with leaving in the first place.

Arranging for someone to watch the kids. Planning what they would eat for the week. Planning what they would wear for the week. Trying to tie up any loose ends with our highly stressful jobs.

By the time we left we were already tired. And being tired, in general, led to being tired of each other lol. We had to learn how to make leaving less stressful so we could make a clean getaway. As we embraced and learned this, it allowed us to start our vacations with a much better tone. That led to less fussing and fighting and more moving and grooving (yeah boy!)

#3) Be in the Moment

Y’all know it’s hard. You’re talking over a romantic dinner then you feel it — the slow, deliberate vibration of your cell phone letting you know that a message has arrived. Or, maybe it’s a Facebook notification. Or, maybe you just want to check the score of the game or who slapped who during the reality TV reunion special.

The phone is always calling me!

But really, it is your responsibility to be in the moment all weekend long. That means being intentional and engaged every step of the way, even if you’re doing activities that you aren’t crazy about because the weekend is about you both.

The weekend is an escape and our marriages need to escape from technology too! Put the phone up or leave it instead of checking it in the middle of the action.

When we do dinner we’ll agree to put our phones up (except for the occasional food pic) and focus on each other because that’s becoming increasingly harder if you aren’t intentional about making that happen.

These three tips will set you on the path to the perfect date weekend without the kids. They will allow you to enjoy sacred time with your spouse to rekindle the flame and recharge your love.

Cherish each moment like this and create as many of them as you can because your marriage needs them! And after your next weekend escape let us know if these tips helped.

Fellas if you want to plan the perfect trip, check out www.mencanplantravel.com for great tips and deals!

BMWK family, what are your tips for making a weekend escape? How do you cut down on the stress? What’s your travel language?

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Homewood Suites and Home2 Suites by Hilton. I’ve partnered with them as a #WeekendEscapeArtist ambassador to empower men to become Travel MANagers! All content and opinions are my own.