Why does travel make us horny?

From basking in a sense of rebellion to finding fertile ground to experiment, beyond the beaches and mimosa-soaked sunsets lies a vivid, but risk-filled world

It’s a visual straight out of a dream—taking it easy in the mountains with its rolling mist and pinecones jutting out into the sky. Your partner cuddles up to you and the roaring clouds become a metaphor for whatever follows soon thereafter. There is a sense of unpredictability while being on the road, particularly with your partner. Mark Twain once famously wrote that the “broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” Travel, he argued, is “essential to life itself for the narrow-minded among us, limited in their dreams and fantasies.”

Is the liberatory potential of travelling somehow connected to also feeling horny, taking risks, and that sweet scent of going off the deep end with a mysterious stranger? In the 2001 cult Mexican classic, Y Tu Mamá También, two teenage boys take a road trip with an older woman. She teaches them about sex, love, and life. The Beach, released in 2000, follows a young backpacker who travels to Thailand and discovers a secret community on a secluded beach. Sure enough, relationships become messy and sex follows. 

We speak with those who have immersed themselves at the intersection of travel and sex, understanding why–and how–travel makes them push the boundaries.

Breaking the routine

For some couples who like to explore the wilder aspects of their relationship, the mundaneness of a suburban household might just take the steam out of things. Travel, then, becomes ripe ground to truly emerge out of the boredom inherent in the everyday. Tanisha RK, sexuality educator and chief of social voice at The Sangya Project, tells The Established that the rhythm of going to work in the day and only being intimate at night puts us in autopilot mode, often doing it just on the weekends. 

“It does get very frustrating and tiresome when the personal and more spontaneous moments are restricted to just certain hours of the night or the weekend,” she says. “Now, when you are on a leisure trip, it allows you to break out of that autopilot mode. Suddenly, you realise you can have sex at three in the morning or even seven in the evening. There is this freedom of truly owning your day, allowing you to see your time as full of possibilities.” 

This was the case with Nakul and his partner Rhea, both investment bankers for whom the weekend is a pipe dream, and every financial year is just an accumulation of more than a dozen leaves that could never be utilised. “Every year, we disappear for a week. For the real world, we might as well be dead for those seven days,” says Rhea. “It’s not like we consciously think of filling our days with endless sex, but it’s just science, really. If your boss is not sitting on top of your head all the time, won’t you have the mental bandwidth for intimacy? Only travel can allow that to happen.” 

Tanisha, too, acknowledges that personally, travel allows her to be creative. Even though she stays with her polyamorous partners, these schedules and routines can often become cumbersome to navigate, and there is a struggle to then find “pockets of sexual intimacy” or just explore one’s own sexuality on an individual basis.

“When I’m home, I stick to tried-and-tested ways of sexual intimacy. When I am travelling, my body feels calm and patient enough to try new things just because I have the time and space to do so,”  she shares.  

A cycle of risks 

Even without these escapades, a study suggests complex associations between international travel and young women's sexual and reproductive health–in the way it affects the menstrual cycles, lack of contraceptives and travel-associated Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). In India, travel-based sexual infections are also high among truck drivers, according to a report by the National Aids Control organisation. Another study, the first of its kind, that analysed Canadians and their sexual behaviours during travel, found that this sense of rebellion and freedom one feels on the road might often culminate into STIs, unwanted pregnancies, and excessive alcohol consumption which contributes to multiple, casual sex partners and is, in turn, linked to “inconsistent and inexpert use of condoms.” 

“In the queer circles, there are some of us who would much rather travel to simply scope out interesting men in different cities as opposed to enjoying travel,” says Mihir, a 32-year-old closeted PR manager. “While all of us should have the freedom to explore hookups beyond our home city, I personally feel this is full of risk, particularly on queer dating apps where the person you are meeting is a blank space and you are not even familiar with the geography of the city.” 

In July 2022, VICE World News reported on a sextortion gang in Ahmedabad who would lure locals and tourists alike on Grindr through video calls to inspire authenticity. Once the man would visit the hotel room of the gang member, he would be secretly filmed and then blackmailed that his videos would be released on social media if he didn’t pay them upfront in cash. 

According to intimacy coach Pallavi Barnwal, these risk-taking behaviours–or even partaking in a sense of adventure–are influenced by one’s company during travel. Here, the company is not just your partner but even the group or the circle around you, or the strangers in your social circle for those few days. “To be myself, acceptance is crucial. This is the reason one feels more at ease with strangers, because someone might not share their deepest kinks with their partner for the fear of offending or hurting them. If your circle or company is non-judgemental, it brings out the adventurous inside you,” she says. 

The fallout of this is also substance abuse, that cocktail of drugs and sex that often accompanies wild encounters during travels. The portrayal of such scenarios in pop culture only adds to the appeal–the point where some people might feel drugs and sex have to be merged for the ultimate travel experience. “Unfortunately, drugs and getting drunk are also used as an excuse by some to misbehave or to cross the line with their partners or friends. The next morning they can just be apologetic and say that they were under the influence and must be forgiven,” says Barnwal.  

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