Meet Yvette and Michael, a long-distance, traveling couple with some unforgettable Valentine’s Day and travel stories to share. Making it work (and with such effortless energy) from Toronto to Dallas, they have a few tips and stories about how to make Valentine’s day and couples trips in general special.
With Valentine’s Day around the corner, we reached out to hear some of their favourite and not-so great Valentine’s memories and lessons.
Tell the Travel Noire readers a little about who you are
We’re Yvette and Michael, a couple who live in two different countries. We are the epitome of long distance relationships. Michael lives in Toronto, Canada and Yvette lives in Dallas, TX. So, trips for us are a way to reconnect back to what really brought us together in the first place.
What has been your most memorable Valentine's trip to date?
We are two African souls colliding and trying to navigate this world. Michael is Ghanian and Yvette is Congolese so we love merging our cultures in different places that our families are not used to.
Our most memorable Valentine’s trip to date would be our road-trip to San Antonio, TX right before the pandemic put us in lockdown. We are really big into sight-seeing so we went to the Alamo and the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park. Our friend who is a photographer did a shoot of us and the pictures looked like we were in Europe. That was our most memorable valentines trip because we now make it a tradition to do a shoot in every city we visit. It is truly magical.
And of all your many trips... which has been the worst experience?
We enjoy every city we visit. We feel like most of our bad experiences happen during the journey to our destination.
For instance the worst experience we’ve had was flying with a low budget airline, catching a flight to Miami. We flew Frontier and almost completely cancelled our weekend getaway due to the experience with the airline. We’ve all been there where we felt like the prices were attractive but it didn’t provide the level of service we expected. Our time at the airport turned into so many delays which turned into a cancelled flight. In the end we lost a day trying to get from Dallas to Miami.
What are your tips for experiencing the best couples trip?
We think just being in the moment is really what matters the most. A couples trip is about connecting and learning about each other. Trips are a really great way to form a bond. One tip we can offer is to make sure to turn your phone off or put it on ‘do not disturb’ during date night.
Another tip we have is helping each other conquer your fears. We went to Guatemala and Michael had never been a fan of heights. Adding to this, his best friend tragically died by suicide which made it very hard for him to be close to edges. We ended up climbing Indian Nose Peak and at the top of the mountain Michael felt a sense of relief that he never knew he had inside. He was able to step to the edge of the cliff with no fear.
Yvette’s biggest fear is flying on a plane with turbulence. Through that process, Michael guides her through meditation and breathing. Another thing we like to do is get the best playlist together and then listen to music we haven’t heard before. A lot of the albums we listen to transport us back to memories about a trip we’ve had together.
Where is high on your list to travel to next?
https://www.instagram.com/p/CRLc0WoMMcx/
We are excited to be spending New Years in Ghana this year. Back in 2021, we had plans to do the Amalfi Coast and Santorini, Greece. We hope to make that happen post-COVID or even in the year 2023.
Otherwise, we’re excited to run some group trips with Purpose Travel which is launching very soon.