Who doesn’t enjoy a good old-fashioned travel love story?! No doubt, there are many, many travelers out there which start off backpacking solo, only to meet their future husband or wife in an awesome hostel. And so, we bring to you a collection of real life travel love stories from our traveler community.
Read all the great stories from around the world. You can instantly share them as well if you enjoy them!
Find all 180+ short travel stories here.
We met at a Hostel in Bruges, 10 years later we are still married
In 2002, after finishing college on opposite ends of the Earth (Florida and Australia), fate threw us together at a Hostel in Bruges during our solo travels. I was assigned the top bunk, and a cute curly haired brunette had been sleeping in the bottom bunk.
A few of us went out for drinks that night, as people do in hostels, and Bell and I just clicked.
We both happened to be traveling to Amsterdam, so we briefly met up again there. Then, we also organized to meet in Rome before going our separate ways to opposite ends of the Earth. But we stayed friends, and two years later we finally planned to reunite again in Thailand.
After booking our plane tickets and the days ticked down, we couldn’t imagine saying goodbye again, so I was able to organize a working holiday visa to move to Melbourne, Australia, to live with her.
We reunited in Thailand after being apart for 2 and ½ years, and 2 weeks later I set foot in Australia for the first time, to live and work random jobs for a year. 8 months later we got married at the Melbourne courthouse, and a few months after that we relocated to Florida for a few years.
When a PhD position came up for Bell in Amsterdam, we moved there for 3 and ½ years. After, we moved to Dublin for 2 and ½ years, now we have spent the last year and a half living in Boston.
We’ve returned to Bruges twice, including this year 2015 for our 10 year wedding anniversary, and have even had dinner and drinks at our hostel’s restaurant and bar.
A couple of months ago, Bell got a Belgian stamp tattoo on her upper back with the date we met on it, January 31st, 2002.
We fell in love at Marken Gjestehus in Bergen
Well, we met at a hostel in Lisbon. We had a good connection and exchanged Facebook accounts.
Not very much, I kind of put her name on Facebook looking for her, sent the friend request, and she accepted me (does that make me a stalker?)
We kept in touch, talking on Facebook, until I decided to go to Norway for traveling…and to see her.
I was not expecting anything, since I’m a Brazilian guy that lives in Lisbon, and she is a Norwegian living in Bergen.
But then I booked the Marken Gjestehus Hostel and went there with an open heart. If we didn’t connect for real, well, at least I would be visiting an amazing pretty city in Norway, would stay in the best hostel of Norway and would be an amazing experience anyway.
Read: Guide to the 27 best things to do in Bergen, Norway
But, thanks Thor, our connection was real. We went for a walk in the mountains, she got me those super good Norwegian cakes (Sommerbolle, I think) and our date was perfect, so perfect that after that I changed my booking for a double room instead of a bunk bed. We had an amazing time in the hostel.
The double room has a window with an amazing view to the mountains with those Bergen colorful houses. It was, actually, one of the most romantic moments of my life. And there, in that double room in the hostel, with that breathtaking view, we fell in Love, I guess….sounds cheesy but, cheesy is real sometimes.
After that, we kept traveling to see each other for months until she moved in with me in Lisbon to work in the Norwegian embassy in Lisbon.
Now she has to go back to Norway to study, and we will keep these far distance thing. It is not optimal, but at least it makes us travel more.
Read: Funny Hostel Stories – From Russian Spies to Harpoon Budgeting
I met my Fiancé thanks to Vikings and Bus Hostel Reykjavik
In July 2014 I traveled by myself to Iceland. I arrived at the Bus Hostel Reykjavik in the evening, and the following day I walked around Reykjavik to do some sightseeing. On the back of the map I got from the hostel, there was an ad for a museum about vikings. I decided to go there, and by the end of the tour you had the option of dressing up as a viking. I of course wanted to do this, and I also wanted a photograph of myself in said costume.
So I walked up to a random guy and asked him if he could take a photo of me. He instead suggested we take a photo together. And so we did.
Turns out, he was also a solo traveler staying at the Bus Hostel.
We ended up spending the week together, and now, a year later, we are engaged!
Read: 3 top hostels in Reykjavik here and best hostels in Iceland with itinerary.
