Holiday romances are the most intense and passionate relationships most people will ever experience. The idyllic surroundings, the excitement of a new place, the liberation of being miles from home – all of these factors combine to make a love affair simply irresistible. But these types of relationships also have the unfortunate habit of being too good to be true. Back in the clear light of day, people often realise that things weren’t exactly as they had seemed. How can you tell when you get home whether your romantic experience was just a summer fling or true love calling your name? Here are a few things to think about…
Before you met
Cast your mind back to before your romance began. What kind of emotional situation were you in? If there is any reason you may have been feeling particularly vulnerable – a relationship ending or being hurt by someone you cared about, for example – this could be a bad sign. It’s very easy to wrongly transfer feelings from one person to another in these situations. Your desire to get close to someone in your vulnerability may be the reason the affair was particularly intense. Watch out for this and try to examine the new relationship on its own as opposed to in relation to another.
Your type
Ask yourself what made the person you met stand out from all the other singles at your holiday destination. Make a note of their good qualities and examine the list closely. Are these qualities ones you would normally go for in a partner? If so, there might be something in this. If not, or if the list is very short and made up of physical characteristics, then chances are this was just a summer fling and you were simply caught up in the moment.
Holiday talk
Think about the conversations the two of you had during your time together. If they revolved around hobbies, mutual interests and home life, then this is healthy. It shows you were keen to learn as much as possible about each other, found a level of compatibility and expressed an ultimate desire to be involved in each other’s lives. Long conversations about your feelings for each other, however, suggest that you were in your own rather unrealistic world, which won’t exist back in reality.
Saying goodbye
Think about the way you said goodbye – because this says a lot. A trying-to-be-cheerful one with a date in mind to see each other again is very promising. A miserable one where it felt like the last time you would ever see them is more worrying!
Whether through examining your emotional state when you met or the way you said goodbye, you should be able to work out if your holiday romance could turn into something more. If not, just speak to them when you’re home from the heat and you won’t need a personality quiz to work out if it could go somewhere.
