What do you do if your idea of holiday heaven is a days-long hiking trip in the wilderness – while your partner can think of nothing worse than trudging through the mud, trekking amid all manner of bugs and animals?
It’s true, all good relationships are built on compromise. But some things are just not worth enduring – and that’s where the idea of a ‘holiday divorce’ comes in.
Far less daunting than it sounds, separating for the duration of your holiday (and perhaps also the sake of your marriage) is a genius way to ensure you both have your fun – and it certainly works.
The stats back this up, too – travel company Road Scholar research shows 60 per cent of its solo travellers in 2022 were married but travelling without their partner, while 65 per cent of women from the US took a holiday without their partner in the year 2024-2025, according to Condor Ferries statistics.
One such married couple, Lev Baker and Mia Kim, from USA and New Zealand respectively, occasionally travel separately in order to holiday exactly the way they want to.
The couple have been travelling the world together for four years, visiting more than 30 countries after having met at a youth hostel in Poland while solo travelling.
They run a travel Instagram, @thenomadalmanac, blog and YouTube account.
‘Most of the time we travel together, but occasionally, if there’s something that doesn’t quite align, then we will do separate trips,’ Lev, 27, tells the Daily Mail.
‘I think the biggest thing is that I’m very much of an outdoors person, I love to hike and do what I call type 2 fun – things that are not fun while you’re doing it, but afterwards you reflect and think, “that was fun”.
Lev Baker and Mia Kim are married, and travel the world together
Most of the time, they are side by side, having visited more than 30 countries together
‘Things like going on seven-day backpacking trips, and hiking big mountains. Things that hurt and are fun later. And Mia doesn’t love those.
‘When we first started dating, I was very into hiking and doing my adventurous stuff, and I really tried for a couple of years to get Mia into the hiking. Eventually I realised she’s just not going to have fun doing this, so we’ll do other fun things together.’
Mia, on the flip side, enjoys ‘shopping, “Instagrammable things”, cafes and photography.’
Things came to a head when planning an especially adventurous trip.
Mia, 30, says: ‘I’m not naturally an outdoorsy girl, but I learned to enjoy hiking and all that. But then Lev had planned a hiking trip with his bestie to hike the West Highland Way in Scotland.
‘The way that they wanted to do it was camping the whole time, carrying everything on their back. I considered it for a bit, thinking I could book some hotels along the way.
‘But with the camping, plus the midges, I just didn’t think I’d have a good time, so I ended up booking a solo trip to Porto instead.
‘So that’s what we did last summer. He spent 10 days in Scotland, and I spent 10 days in Porto. And we both had a great time.’
But now and then they separate to enjoy things they like on their own – with Mia venturing to Porto, Portugal for a solo trip
Meanwhile, Lev partakes in hiking trips without his wife
While Lev trekked through mud and rain, Mia enjoyed taking photos, ‘eating my way around the city, enjoying the music, the vibes and the views, and drinking port wine. A very opposite trip than what Lev had’.
As Mia enjoyed eating pastéis de nata, Lev dined on ‘cans of tuna and peanut butter and jam sandwiches’.
There are plenty of advantages to this type of travel.
Lev says: ‘I think it allows us to occasionally do something that the other person might not want to do. Sometimes you just want to do your own thing, do something the other person probably wouldn’t have fun doing.’
Mia adds: ‘A couple of years ago, we were both in Peru, and he wanted to hike to Machu Picchu, which is a five-day backpacking trip.
‘But I was really struggling with the altitude, so I decided not to do that, and instead took the train.’ As a result, they had a great trip.
It even works on a day-to-day basis.
If Mia wants to check out a market while Lev wants to go for a run, they will happily separate for an afternoon.
It does, of course, require security and trust in one another.
They say it works because they trust each other, and means they don’t have to compromise on any of their hobbies
On their social media, they get plenty of comments showing ‘couples that feel more insecure about letting their partner do certain things without them,’ they explain, adding: ‘There were a couple of comments saying she’s gonna find a man that better suits her, or something like that.’
Mia adds: ‘I’m happy just doing my own thing. Sometimes I am more of an introvert than he is, and since we do spend a lot of time together, sometimes I do enjoy just being alone and being allowed to be in bed, just doomscrolling, or just walking around the city taking photos with my camera.’
The downside? Missing each other.
They speak on the phone every day when they travel separately, and Mia says when they reunite: ‘I will sit down for an entire evening, and show him all of my photos, and he’ll show me his photos, and it’s just a fun time, fun reunification after the end of it as well. Just having a lot of adventures to share with one another.’
The ‘holiday divorce’ is far from permanent, too, with the list of things the couple both like to do very long – food, coffee, wine, checking out cool cities, road trips.
But it might just be a great temporary solution – to make your travels even better.
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