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Road trip vacations can challenge couple relationships or bring couples together.

Hidden strains in the couple relationship can surface with the intense time together.

You need to plan in advance to avoid conflict.

As a marriage counselor, I often ask couples, as a diagnostic tool, if the problems that brought them to therapy get better or worse when they’re on vacation. Best-case scenario: When they are away from the demands of the home, the dishes in the sink, the laundry to be done, the bills in the mail, and the in-laws, the stars align, and they remember why they love each other.

Worst-case scenario: They’re trapped in a car for 10 days driving from place to place in Newfoundland, in and out of hotels every two nights. All the bickering, feeling controlled, trouble with decision-making, misaligned comfort with spending, differences in values, and previously hidden competitiveness boils over like a too-full pot of stew bubbling on the stove. A mess to clean up!

A road trip means that there are countless decisions to be made. Someone had to start work months before to book the flights and hotels, rent the car, and organize who would take care of the dog. The organizer is vulnerable to the disapproval of the........

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