When Emma* set off on her first holiday with her boyfriend of six months, she was eager to arrive in the south of Spain neighbourhood that he loved. “I was so excited to see the area because he went there every summer and I’d heard it was a beautiful place,” she says. “We had some good moments. We had some bad moments – and when we got back to the UK... we broke up.”
A couple’s first holiday has long been considered a relationship hurdle that some glide over with ease, while others tumble and fall. On ITV’s bikini-clad dating show Love Island, you hear all the time about how the villa is “a test” for the contestants and their partners. Among ordinary civilians, a 4am airport wake-up call and a trip on an Airbus A320 will do.
