Dumped while on vacation

Wednesday | February 25, 2026

Love Letters Breakups 🖤

Dumped while on vacation

Is there something on your mind about a relationship in your life? Or a relationship you wish you had in your life? Send your own question. Help others wondering the same thing. Use the form – or email [email protected].

I had a breakup while I was on vacation.

I went away for two weeks with my best friend, someone I hadn’t seen in years because she lives abroad. We planned the trip while my girlfriend at the time was running a camp, fully immersed in her activities.

I left a few days before my girlfriend did. At first, everything felt fine. But halfway through the journey, I began to miss home deeply. I found myself thinking about the plans we would make when I returned, the small gifts I wanted to bring her. By then, she had already left for her own trip.

And then, she disappeared. She stopped answering my messages for a few days. At first, I told myself it was normal. She was out in the countryside, and the signal wasn’t very good on some days, so I chose not to worry. But by the second day, the uncertainty became unbearable, and I started calling her, without getting any response.

On the third day, she returned from her trip and I was finally able to talk to her. She told me she didn’t want to continue the relationship. Being there had made her reflect, she said, and realize that because of some conflicts we’d had before, she didn’t want to stay together. It shattered me.

After that, the rest of the trip felt strange, unreal. The craziest and most inexplicable part is that just one day before she stopped answering me, she had said she was very much in love.

Have you ever been broken up with from a distance, or while traveling? What did you do with that?

– Traveling

Would this news have been easier to take at home?

It messed with your vacation, which should have been a lovely time with an old friend. Otherwise, geography seems to have little to do with how you feel.

You thought you were in a happy, loving, secure relationship. Days later, your girlfriend told you she wanted to leave you. That is disappointing, devastating, and shattering, indeed.

It might have been just as bad to get that news on your couch.

There are some people who need to see an ex one last time. Maybe their breakup happens over text, but they want confirmation again, in person. If you feel that seeing her would help you move on, you could ask for one final discussion.

But that could also set you back. It might be better to launch a new routine and call the vacation a reset.

There is no good time to be dumped without warning. It doesn’t feel good in a boat, on a float, on a plane, while in Spain … after a birthday, before a birthday … you get my point. It’s unpleasant whenever.

Now is the time to rest, heal, spend time with loved ones, and maybe travel again soon, if you can. Even day trips. What a great time for new experiences and journeys.

– Meredith

Readers? Is it worse to be broken up with on vacation? Was it bad form to do that to someone else while they’re spending time with a friend? How do you move on when you return to a new normal?

Breakups 🖤 There's no such thing as closure

Featured Comment

Most of all, realize this was not meant to be, and this was not the girlfriend for you. Don’t let your mind pick apart every little detail. Instead use that energy to look forward and move on.

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