Our goal as a couple is to lead a healthy, happy, and fulfilling life together. Therefore, new experiences and adventure are a must.
Yet, it’s easy to get sucked into the busyness of day-to-day life, with our own bucket list and dreams falling to the wayside. This blog post is, in part, a reminder that the unique memories created using bucket lists is what makes a memorable and fulfilling life.
In this article, we’re baring it all and sharing our own personal bucket list. Follow along, join in on the fun, and get some of your own adventurous couples bucket list ideas!
couples bucket list ideas
“To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” — Anatole France
Bucket lists are intensely personal and don’t need to make sense to anybody but yourselves. But, they’ve been such a big staple in our lives that we’re willing to share our personal couples bucket list with the world.
Why? First off, we think every couple should have a bucket list. It’s a continuous funnel of newfound, exciting experiences to bring you closer together.
Secondly, bucket lists guide you like a road map, making sure you hit the big things while keeping you out of a rut. By writing your dreams as a couple down on paper, you can start the planning on how to cross them off.
We’re so passionate about the magic of bucket lists that we published a journal about it (more on that below). In it, we describe how to brainstorm your own ideas and how to make them a reality. Because what use is a bucket list if you don’t actually make it happen?
This article is our running list of bucket list ideas. We’ll mark off the ones we’ve done, and add to it as we think of more. We hope that it gives you the inspiration to add a few new items to your list as well — and comment below for things you think we should add and consider!
What’s On Our Couple’s Bucket List
According to the largest study ever performed on bucket lists by Stanford University, the vast majority of bucket list items cover three categories:
1) Travel (79% of participants)
2) Personal Goals (78% of participants)
3) Life Milestones (51% of participants)
Surprisingly, only 15% of participants included “daring activities” — something that we all assume are on everyone’s bucket lists.
We’ll cover all of these categories and more in our own running couples bucket list ideas.
Why listen to us? We love adventuring as a couple. Together we’ve spelunked in Borneo, skiied down Patagonian volcanoes, bushwacked in the Amazon, and put some serious miles down on the Appalachian Trail.
Our proudest moments have been starting a family, publishing a book, becoming fluent in multiple languages, and quitting our jobs to become entrepreneurs abroad.
On a whackier note, we’ve been the feature of a Daily Mail article, been extras in a beer commercial, and had a color named after us (Ryalex, check it out!)
This isn’t to toot our horn because there’s loads more that we want to do — as you can see below. Hopefully, we’re able to offer an interesting, off-piste perspective. Don’t be shy, the comment section is open and we’d love to hear what’s on your list!
The Bucket List Journal for Couples
Something to consider as you start planning your bucket list: our bucket list journal that helps you plan and celebrate your adventures.
Now available on Amazon, we designed the most structured and organized journal to help couples make their bucket list a reality.
The Ultimate Bucket List for Married Couples features:
- Space to record over 50 of your best experiences
- A planner section that includes thoughtful and actionable prompts for identifying your true desires and aligning your goals with your partner’s
- Practical tips that help you save time and money
- Dedicated space for saving important memorabilia such as photos, tickets, and more
- Colorful illustrations and inspiring quotes
No matter how lofty or practical, your bucket list reflects your life goals. Embarking on the journey with your spouse and forever partner will help you build a stronger connection and a more satisfying marriage.
Our Unique Bucket List Ideas for Couples
While our couples bucket list ideas below is compiled of travel and adventures that aren’t necessarily tied to a geographic location, we have added big, small, and DIY adventures for the ultimate bucket list for couples.
A few of these we have done (and found them exhilarating!) and a few we hope to do in a few years.
Here they are in no particular order. Comment below on the ones you’ve done and other ideas that you’ve added to your bucket list!
Couples Bucket List Ideas – goals
1. Become Fluent in a New Language
Status: In process with Spanish
2. Run a Marathon Together
Status: Scheduled for December 2023
3. Give a TED Talk
Status: Not yet
4. Cook Every Recipe in Ryan’s Grandmother’s Cookbook
Status: In process
5. Learn How to Give a Good Massage
Status: Completed! Here’s what we did to learn how to give your partner a professional quality massage.
6. Start a Charity Foundation
Status: Not yet
7. Retire Early
Status: Completed! Sort of, we still write this blog!
8. Buy a Plot of Land in the Mountains
Status: Not yet
9. Build an Epic Treehouse
Status: Not yet
10. Go on a Meditation Retreat
Status: Not yet
11. Be an Extra in a Movie or Commercial
Status: Completed! June 2015 as extras in a Tsingtao beer commercial
12. Read All of the Classics
Status: In process
13. Complete an Ironman Together
Status: Not yet
14. Write Letters to Our Kids Every Year
Status: In process
15. Sell Everything and Travel the World
Status: Completed! Left our engineering jobs in March 2018 and bought a one-way ticket to South America.
16. Go Backcountry Camping with Our Kids
Status: In process — scheduled in Tayrona National Park late-2023
17. Publish a Book
Status: Completed! Published in March 2022, The Ultimate Bucket List for Married Couples.
18. Get Interviewed by a Large News Network
Status: Not yet
19. Buy Our Childhood Dream Car
Status: Completed! The top is off on our 1997 Jeep Wrangler as we speak.
20. Live on a Ski Mountain
Status: Completed. In June 2018, we lived for three months on the slopes of Cerro Catedral, Argentina’s largest ski mountain.
21. Buy Nothing for a Month
Status: Not yet
22. Learn How to Dance
Status: In process. Taking salsa classes as we speak.
23. Move Abroad
Status: Completed! We first moved to China in 2011 for three years and once again, permanently to Colombia in 2020.
24. Hitchhike
Status: Completed! We’ve had great experiences doing this in Hawaii and Argentina in 2018.
25. Hunter or Gather All of Our Food
Status: Not yet
26. Write a Song
Status: Not yet
27. Bring the Family to Disney World
Status: Not yet
28. Meet Our Grandkids
Status: Not yet
29. Create Our Signature Dish
Status: Not yet
30. Volunteer Weekly
Status: Not yet
31. Build Our Dream Home
Status: Completed! We purchased our condo and did a full renovation in 2021.
32. Sleep Under the Stars
Status: Not yet
33. Live to 100
Status: In process
34. Attempt Couple’s Acro Yoga
Status: Completed! It’s seriously fun. Here are our favorite 23 couples yoga poses that you can follow along with.
35. Ditch the Car for a Bike
Status: Not yet
36. Get Featured in a Magazine
Status: Completed! We were even on the cover of Ryan’s university alumni magazine in 2019.
37. Start that Side Gig
Status: Completed! You’re on it.
38. Leave a Legacy
Status: In process. Just how Ryan’s grandmother left handmade pottery to her grandkids, we want to leave bonsai trees and pots
39. Subscribe 1,000,000 People to Our Newsletter
Status: In process. Enter your email address at the bottom of this page to join now!
40. Become Wine Experts
Status: In process. We’ve just finished James Suckling’s MasterClass.
couples bucket list ideas – Travel
41. Backcountry Ski Tour to Refugio Frey, Argentina
Status: Not yet
42. Celebrate the Day of the Dead in Mexico
Status: Completed! In November, 2019 in iconic San Miguel de Allende.
43. Trek to the Lost City in Colombia
Status: Completed! In May 2019, and it was epic.
44. Dive the Great Barrier Reef
Status: Not yet
45. Dog Sled in Iceland
Status: Not yet
46. Spend Christmas on Christmas Island
Status: Not Yet
47. Flamenco in Andalusia
Status: Not Yet
48. Stay with a Local Family in a Homestay
Status: Completed! Our favorite was staying with a local family in Vietnam in May 2013.
49. Peacock Bass Fish in the Amazon
Status: In process. We’ve connected with the guide and just need to pick the time.
50. Trek the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
Status: Completed! In November 2018 while living in Cusco.
51. Travel in a Tiny House, Skoolie, or Camper Van Across New Zealand
Status: Not yet
52. Sail Down the Nile
Status: Not yet
53. Eat Fresh Sushi at the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo
Status: Not Yet
54. Join an Expedition
Status: Completed! We ventured to Tayos Cave deep in the Ecuadorian Amazon in April 2018.
55. Watch the Sunrise from a Volcano
Status: Completed! We did this while backcountry camping in Haleakalā National Park, Maui in January 2019.
56. Follow the Great Wildebeest Migration from Tanzania into Kenya
Status: Not yet
57. Visit Our Family’s Ancestral Hometowns
Status: In process
58. Watch the Golden Eagle Festival in Mongolia
Status: Not yet
59. Scuba Dive with Hammerhead Sharks in the Galapagos Islands
Status: Completed! May 2018 in a pod of twenty or so sharks just feet from us!
60. Dive into an Untouched Waterfall
Status: Completed! Everywhere from Costa Rica to Minnesota, this is one of our favorite things to do.
61. Swim in All Five Oceans
Status: In process
62. Visit Everest Base Camp
Status: Completed! In October 2013, after eating lots of yak meat and yak cheese while sleeping in huts made of yak dung…!
63. Drive Through Baja California Sur in a Vintage VW Beetle
Status: Not Yet
64. Listen to Big Brass in New Orleans
Status: Completed! August, 2016
65. Tan on Ipanema Beach
Status: Not yet
66. Drink Glühwein at a European Holiday Market
Status: Completed! In Belgium, 2017.
67. Stay in a House Boat in Amsterdam
Status: Not Yet
68. Skinny Dip in the Wild
Status: Completed! In 2014 Malaysia in wonderful Gunung Mulu National Park.
69. Pet Sit Around the World
Status: Completed! We had amazing experiences and made lifelong friends through TrustedHousesitters (this is our hack to travel for free!)
70. Discover the Best Soup Dumplings in Shanghai
Status: Completed! Personal favorite is at Fuchun Xioalong by the Jing’an Temple.
71. Party at Oktoberfest
Status: Not yet
72. Blast Into Outer Space
Status: Not yet
73. Dive with Whale Sharks
Status: Completed! In September, 2014 in beautiful Oslob, Philippines.
74. Thru-hike the Appalachian Trail
Status: Not yet, although we have hiked multi-day sections in New Hampshire already
75. Drink the Local Moonshine
Status: Completed! While this can be done anywhere, we were in Mai Chau, Vietnam, staying with a family in May 2013.
76. Soak in Devil Falls
Status: Not yet
77. Motorcycle Tour around India
Status: Not yet
78. Hike the Annapurna Circuit
Status: Not Yet
79. Run the Antarctic Ice Marathon
Status: Not yet. Do you think we can run in our beloved Vibram FiveFingers there?
80. Summit a 20,000+ Foot Peak (6096+ meters)
Status: Not yet, although we’ve come close in Peru!
81. Sleep in a Cave in Cappadocia
Status: Completed! In October 2015.
82. Ride the Trans-Siberian Railway
Status: Not yet
83. Join the 200 Club
Status: Not yet
84. Go to a Country That You’re Not Supposed To
Status: Completed! We had a spectacular honeymoon in Cuba in 2017.
85. Surf Oahu’s North Shore
Status: In process — scheduled for December 2023.
86. Visit Every National Park in the USA
Status: In process
87. Befriend a Monkey at Angkor Wat
Status: Completed! In June 2014.
88. Travel the Silk Road
Status: Not yet
89. Spend a Night at a Tibetan Monastery
Status: Completed! In October 2013 we toured Tibet.
90. Fly in a Private Jet
Status: Not yet
91. Overnight Canoe and Portage to a Private Island
Status: In process, we’re planning a trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northern Minnesota
92. Watch the Northern Lights from a Norwegian Fjord
Status: Not yet
93. Spelunk in Deer Cave, Borneo
Status: Completed! One of our most adventurous trips in October, 2014.
94. Spearfish
Status: Not yet
95. Raft Across the Amazon
Status: Completed! April 2018 for Ryan’s thirtieth birthday.
96. Climb the Great Wall of China
Status: Completed! Alex even ran a marathon on top of it in 2014.
97. Dance on a Table in Mykonos
Status: Completed! In 2016.
98. Find the Big Five on Safari
Status: Not yet
99. Camp in the Scottish Highlands
Status: Not Yet
100. Ski Down a Volcano
Status: Completed! July 2018 for Alex’s thirtieth birthday in Patagonia, Argentina.
101. Pick, Roast, and Drink Our Own Coffee in Colombia’s Coffee Triangle
Status: Completed! Our favorite place for this is the town of Jardín, although pictured below we’re in Costa Rica. Great coffee there as well!
102. Heliski in Alaska
Status: Not yet
103. Take Mirror Photos in the Uyuni Salt Flats of Bolivia
Status: Not yet
104. White Water Raft in the Grand Canyon
Status: Not yet
105. Drive Across the Atacama Desert
Status: Not Yet
106. Follow a Polar Bear in the Arctic
Status: Not Yet
107. Visit the 7 Wonders of the Modern World
Status: In process
108. Summit Chimborazo
Status: Not Yet
109. Watch Sunset from an Ancient Pagoda in Bagan
Status: Completed! We entered in February, 2013, on one of the first-ever international flights into the country.
110. Ride a Camel Through the Desert
Status: Completed! In Morocco, 2017.
111. Fly Over Namibia’s Skeleton Coast
Status: Not yet
112. Watch the Ball Drop at Times Square on New Year’s Eve
Status: Completed! In January 2013.
113. Stay at a 5-Star Resort in the Seychelles
Status: Not yet
114. Get Lost in the Vatican City
Status: Not yet
115. Tour the Hagia Sofia
Status: Completed! In October 2015.
Our Proven Tools for Healthy Couples
Based on our research and experience, these are our proven tools to optimize your relationship.
Download our guide for the best books, movies, apps, date night ideas, quizzes, questions, and games for healthy couples.
What Did We Miss?
You’re an adventurous couple. So, what do we need to add to our bucket list? Please share in the comments and thanks in advance for the new ideas.
Putting together a couples bucket list makes for a great at-home date activity. For more at-home date night ideas check out our downloadable date night idea “Menu.” Just roll the dice and get ready for an epic and memorable date night in!
For more marriage and relationship tools, such as the best couples massage class, or “would you rather” questions for couples, please visit our Healthy Couples page.
Proven Tools for Healthy Couples
A decade of experience, hundreds of hours of research and testing, and over 50,000 words of wisdom condensed into one PDF.
Download our guide for the best books, movies, apps, date night ideas, quizzes, questions, and games for healthy couples.
Hey we're Ryan and Alex
A husband-wife duo, two engineers, and the creators of Ryan and Alex Duo Life.
After eight years working in the corporate world as engineers, we left to tackle our true passion:
Helping highly motivated couples optimize their relationship and health by cutting through the muck and sharing what the research says works.
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