Romantic trips are often centered around events such as honeymoons or anniversaries. But recent research has discovered a new category of romantic travel: ‘just’ travel.
A survey of 1,000 American adults found that 61.4% of couples had taken or were planning a spontaneous romantic vacation without a special event. This category has now surpassed anniversary trips (35.3%), mini-months (27.9%) and proposal trips (26.4%). What used to be “Plan C” is now the main option.
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Romance travel is no longer limited to milestones.
Key Results
- 61.4% Couples who have taken or are planning a romantic getaway ‘just’ are almost twice as likely to take an anniversary trip (35.3%).
- 43% of Generation Z They say finishing major life goals, like paying off debt or buying a house, is worth a couple’s trip. 8.7% of baby boomers
- Women are More than twice the probability Because men are skipping the milestone entirely: 18.1% vs. 8% say they don’t need a reason to travel.
- 30.4% of baby boomers Planning a major romantic trip in just 1-3 months. This is more than double the Gen Z rate.
- 45.8% Among respondents, 4-5 nights are the ideal short-term romantic getaway.
- Cost is the biggest barrier The proportion wanting a more romantic trip rose to 41.7% overall, 47.1% for women, and 56.5% for baby boomers.
- 72.9% of couples plan to travel equally together.
The honeymoon hierarchy has been flipped.
When asked what romantic trips they had taken or were planning in the past two years, the majority of respondents said “just” vacations (respondents could select multiple categories).
- “Just” vacation – 61.4%
- Anniversary trip – 35.3%
- Travel to celebrate a birthday or milestone – 31.2%
- Minimoon – 27.9%
- Proposal trip or engagement celebration – 26.4%
- Babymoon – 10.8%
- None, only traditional honeymoons – 6.4%
It’s worth clarifying what “just” actually means here. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a last-minute trip.
72.7% of couples are planning a major romantic trip between three and 12 months out, while only 3.1% describe themselves as truly spontaneous bookings. What defines the “just” category is that there is no trigger event on the calendar.
The travel industry also took note. Parade’s 2026 Romance feature features new books from travel writers Kathryn Romeyn and Kelli Acciardo. Bucket List: Romantic Escape The book, published in March, told couples not to wait for their anniversary.
“There’s nothing more adrenaline-inducing than booking an impromptu trip,” Acciardo said. According to the survey, couples have already gotten the message.
Generation Z is building a reward system through romantic travel.
For young couples, important trips are no longer reserved for big events. 43% of Gen Z respondents said completing a major life goal, such as paying off debt or buying a home, is worth celebrating with a couple’s trip. For baby boomers, that number was 8.7%.
Career achievements show a similar split. 35.5% of Generation Z said they were able to travel due to a promotion or new job, compared to 8.7% of Boomers. This pattern suggests that the category of life events that warrant celebratory travel has quietly expanded for young couples.
For a generation that is watching the housing market and student loan debt redefine what adulthood looks like, the small victories that previous generations saved for retirement or 25th anniversaries carry greater weight.
This is tracked through broader generational data. Fortune recently described millennials as the inventors of the experience economy and Gen Z as the generation reinventing travel itself.
Romance travel fits this pattern. It’s personal, worth sharing, and can easily connect to almost any life moment a couple wants to mark.
Women skip milestones more often than men.
Women are typically the members of the family who carry a heavier mental load, including keeping track of calendars, anticipating logistics, and explaining what might go wrong before it happens. This makes the survey results on voluntariness even more surprising. According to the survey:
- The proportion of women (18.1%) who responded that they did not need any special milestones to go on a romantic trip was more than twice as high as that of men (8%).
- Women were more inclined to ‘just’ escape (40.7%) than men (32%).
- Women are three times more likely than men to say that couples should travel “whenever we can” (15.3% vs. 4.6%).
But there is also a tension that comes with spontaneity. Women say they want to travel more freely, and they are also the most likely demographic to cite cost as a barrier to doing so (47.1% vs. 37.2% of men).
Spontaneity is not unlimited. This is filtered through a clearer awareness of how much travel costs and who is tracking it.
Baby boomers are the last minute travellers.
30.4% of baby boomers said they were planning a large-scale romantic trip in just one to three months, more than twice the rate compared to other generations. Some parts of the explanation could be freer.
By the time you’re in your 60s, most of the constraints of work and family that force you to plan ahead have disappeared. What appears to be spontaneity often means being able to leave when you want.
The bigger drivers are financial and structural. Baby boomers feel more financial pressure than any other generation, with 56.5% citing this as their biggest barrier.
They also prefer shorter trips, with 52.2% choosing 2-3 nights as their ideal romantic getaway. A long weekend within driving distance is much easier to book in the short term than a week abroad. The entire pattern fits together well. Short, flexible, price-sensitive trips don’t require six months of planning, and baby boomers know it.
This pattern raises real questions for the travel industry. Most booking platforms build their inventory and pricing strategies around a six-month booking window. However, a meaningful share of one of the highest spending demographics operates on a completely different timeline.
Cost is what stands between couples and the trip they want to take
41.7% of respondents cited cost and budget stress as the biggest barriers to taking more romantic trips. Respondents saying they don’t have enough PTO ranked second at 21.6%.
Pressure does not feel even.
- 49.1% of Gen
- Among households earning $25,000 to $50,000, 48.9% cited costs, compared with 28% of households earning more than $250,000.
- Costs were mentioned by 54.8% of respondents without a high school degree, compared to 34.1% of those with a bachelor’s degree.
Financial pressures also show up in how couples test their beliefs. While 96.2% of respondents agreed that romantic travel is more important than spending on material things, only 53.2% strongly agreed.
The remaining 43.0% chose ‘Somewhat agree, but it depends on financial situation.’ Nearly half of countries value experiences over things in principle, adding a financial asterisk in practice.
Couples are adjusting to the pressure. NerdWallet’s Summer 2026 Travel Report found that 89% of travelers this summer are actively taking steps to save money, with 35% driving instead of flying and 33% choosing accommodations based on price rather than amenities.
The picture that emerges from both data sets is of couples who still want to travel, but are trying to redesign their trips to make it happen.
Couples plan together and believe in the same things.
72.9% of couples responded that they plan a romantic trip together. This agreement has deeper implications than logistics. Across all respondents, across all generations, genders, and income levels measured in the survey, belief in experiences over objects held.
Graduate experts led the ‘strongly agree’ camp at 60.9%, but no strongly agree demographic group fell below 43%. That sentiment is not a Gen Z thing or a wealthy family thing. A shared baseline.
That baseline lies within what economists call the experience economy, a documented shift of consumers toward spending on experiences rather than physical goods that has been building since the early 2010s. Romantic travel is one of the places where this behavior really shows up.
Honeymoons still happen, but they are now one of several romantic trips that couples take to continue their relationship. The intergenerational arc is what makes the change feel real rather than situational.
When asked to prioritize just one romantic getaway in the next two years, all generations chose ‘just’ an elopement over a big international honeymoon, but the gap widens dramatically as they get older.
Generation Z is evenly split between the two (31.2% each). Millennials lean slightly toward ‘just’ (31.9% vs. 28.4%). Gen X definitely exists (47.2% vs. 16.1%). The baby boomer generation is completely over (69.6% vs. 0%).
The trip itself has become less important than the purpose of the trip. JayWay Travel has expanded its honeymoon and romance products to include anniversary trips, mini trips and impromptu getaways.
methodology
To understand how Americans approach romantic travel, we surveyed 1,000 adults nationwide about their honeymoon experiences, anniversary travel habits, and romantic vacations.
Participants answered a series of questions about what makes romantic travel meaningful, how often they travel, what stops them from doing so, and how their plans evolved.
Responses were analyzed by gender, generation, household income, and education level to identify trends and gaps between demographic groups.
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Born and raised in Athens, Maria is passionate about travel and storytelling, an ideal combination for her role as Content Manager.
