The best romantic trip I have ever taken cost about £180 / €210 / $230 for 3 nights and involved a hire car with a dodgy window seal in the Austrian lakes. The most expensive one had a rooftop pool, a turndown service and a bill that made me quietly put my card away and let my other half pretend he had not noticed. I think about those 2 trips a lot when people ask me where to go for a romantic getaway, because the money had almost nothing to do with which one we still talk about.
Romance is a weirdly badly served travel category. Search it and you get the same fifteen photos of the same overwater villa, usually attached to a price that assumes you have recently sold a kidney. Meanwhile the places that actually work for couples tend to be the ones nobody puts on a list: small towns with early sunsets, cities where the good bit starts after 9pm, coastlines you can drive in an afternoon.
So this is my honest version. Where to go, what it costs in real money, and the stuff that quietly ruins trips for two people who mostly like each other. If you want the wider picture on travelling as a pair, start at our couples travel hub and come back here for the destinations.
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Romantic Getaways: Quick Facts
What makes a place romantic, and what really doesn't
Rose petals on the bed do nothing for me. Neither does a heart drawn in chocolate sauce on a dessert plate, which always tastes like the kitchen has given up. What works, in my experience, is much duller and much more reliable.
Places that are good for couples tend to share a few traits. They are walkable, so you are not negotiating transport every hour. They have a decent gap between lunch and dinner where nothing is expected of you. And they have somewhere to sit outside after dark, because most of the best conversations I have had on trips happened on a bench or a balcony at about eleven at night.
- Short distances between where you sleep, where you eat and where you wander.
- A reason to be outside in the evening. Squares, riverbanks, promenades, rooftop bars.
- At least one thing you can do together that is not just looking at something.
- Food you can share without it becoming a project.
- Enough going on that you do not need to book every hour, but not so much that you feel guilty sitting still.
Different types of trip suit different couples, and this is the bit people get wrong at the booking stage. Here is the rough shape of the options.
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| Type of trip | Who it suits | Daily spend for two |
|---|---|---|
| City break | Couples short on time who like eating out and walking a lot | £100 to £250 / €115 to €290 / $125 to $315 |
| Beach and island | Anyone who wants to do nothing without feeling bad about it | £120 to £300 / €140 to €350 / $150 to $380 |
| Mountains and cabins | Couples who want quiet, fires and no phone signal | £90 to £220 / €105 to €255 / $115 to $280 |
| Road trip | Pairs who actually enjoy each other’s company in a car | £110 to £240 / €130 to €280 / $140 to $305 |
| Adventure trip | Couples who get restless on day two of lying down | £80 to £200 / €95 to €230 / $100 to $250 |
| Resort or honeymoon | Anyone who wants the whole thing handled in advance | £250 to £700+ / €290 to €810+ / $315 to $880+ |
Europe's best romantic getaways
Europe wins on this because the distances are small and the evenings are long. You can be in a different country by lunchtime and still make a dinner reservation. A few that consistently deliver.
Paris, France
Yes, it is the obvious answer. It also earns it, which annoys me slightly. The trick is to avoid the stretch between the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe after about 10am and go and be a normal person somewhere else. Canal Saint-Martin on a warm evening, the Marais for dinner, Montmartre early enough that the stairs are empty. Paris is at its best when you stop trying to see it.
Three nights is plenty. Four if you want a day trip. More guidance on the wider country in our guide to France’s most romantic getaways.
Venice, Italy
Venice at 7am with the mist still on the canals is one of the few travel experiences that actually matches the hype. Venice at 1pm in high summer near the Rialto is a nightmare with a gelato in its hand. Stay the night rather than day tripping and you get a completely different city.
Watch out: Venice charges day visitors an access fee on busy dates, roughly €5 / £4 / $6 if you book several days ahead and double that last minute. Book a night in the city and you are exempt, though you still need to register and carry the QR code. Turning up without one on a charged day risks a fine.
Prague, Czech Republic
Prague is the one I recommend most often to couples on a tighter budget, because you get the full grand European city thing at maybe two thirds of the western price. Cross the Charles Bridge before 7am, then spend the day in Vinohrady where the locals actually live. Dinner and wine for two runs about £45 / €52 / $57 in a good neighbourhood spot.
Hallstatt and the Salzkammergut, Austria
This is where that £180 trip happened. Hallstatt itself is rammed with coach groups in the middle of the day and lovely at either end of it, so the move is to stay in Obertraun or Bad Goisern and use the lake. Austria in general is quietly excellent for couples, and we covered the rest of it in Austria’s most romantic towns.
Lisbon and the Alentejo, Portugal
Lisbon has the hills, the tiles and the light, plus the cheapest good wine in western Europe. Two nights in the city then a hire car down into the Alentejo is one of the best value week long trips going. Our full write up sits in romantic Portugal.
Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic
A river loop, a castle on a rock, and about four thousand residents. It is small enough to see in a day and much better over two, once the day trippers have gone back to Prague and the restaurants relax.
The Moselle and Rhine valleys, Germany
Vineyards on impossible slopes, castles every few miles, and river towns where nothing much happens after nine. Germany surprises people on this front, and it is one of my favourite countries full stop. More in Germany’s most romantic locations.
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| Destination | What it does best | Three nights for two, mid-range |
|---|---|---|
| Paris | Long dinners, aimless walking, proper bakeries | £650 / €755 / $820 |
| Venice | Early mornings and empty back canals | £700 / €815 / $885 |
| Prague | Grand scenery on a modest budget | £420 / €490 / $530 |
| Hallstatt area | Lakes, silence, very early sunsets in winter | £480 / €560 / $605 |
| Lisbon | Light, wine, rooftops and cheap taxis | £450 / €525 / $570 |
| Cesky Krumlov | Storybook streets with almost nobody in them at night | £380 / €440 / $480 |
Prices are a guide and vary by route, date and demand. They assume a decent central double room, two dinners out and public transport rather than taxis everywhere.
Money saver: Fly into the big hub and take the train to the small place. Flights into regional airports near romantic towns are usually priced for people with no choice. Paris to Lyon, Prague to Cesky Krumlov, Vienna to Salzburg, all cheaper and calmer by rail.
Where to Stay in Europe
Beach and island romance
The Maldives is the headline act and it is spectacular, though you are paying resort prices for everything including the boat you need to leave. Budget £2,000 / €2,325 / $2,520 per person for a week and up from there. Worth it once, in my view, for a honeymoon or a big anniversary, less so as a repeat.
The alternatives I push harder:
- Croatia’s Dalmatian islands. Hvar, Vis and Korcula in late spring. Ferries, konobas, swimming off rocks rather than sand.
- Zanzibar. Stone Town for two nights then the east coast. Around half the Maldives price for similar water.
- The Greek small islands. Skip Santorini in midsummer unless sunsets with a thousand other people is your thing. Milos, Naxos and Folegandros are better dates.
- Bali’s east coast. Sidemen and Amed rather than the south. Rice terraces, volcanoes, almost no crowds.
- Albania’s Riviera. Still the cheapest good coastline in Europe, though it is filling up fast.
Where to Stay in Greece
Adventure trips for couples who cannot sit still
Some pairs go feral after 48 hours on a sunbed. If that is you, the romance comes from the shared effort rather than the setting, and the destinations change completely.
Iceland is my personal favourite and I have been more times than is sensible. The south coast in a camper, hot pools most evenings, weather that changes your plans four times a day. It is not cheap, around £160 / €185 / $200 a day for two once you factor in the van and food, but the money goes on experiences rather than thread count.
Slovenia does the same thing at half the price. Lake Bohinj instead of Bled, the Soca valley for the ridiculous green water, Ljubljana for two nights at the end. Norway’s fjords in summer, New Zealand’s South Island for a proper long haul, and northern Vietnam if you want mountains and food and a budget that barely registers.
Where to Stay in Iceland
What a romantic getaway actually costs
People massively overestimate the cost of the trip and underestimate the cost of the room. Accommodation is almost always the deciding number, and once you accept that, the rest of the budget stops being scary.
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| Budget level | Where you sleep | Eating and doing | Daily total for two |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tight | Hostel private room or a simple guesthouse | Market breakfast, one dinner out, free walking | £70 to £100 / €80 to €115 / $90 to $125 |
| Comfortable | Central three or four star, or a good apartment | Two meals out, one paid activity, occasional taxi | £150 to £220 / €175 to €255 / $190 to $280 |
| Treat yourselves | Boutique hotel, spa, or a room with the view | Tasting menu, private tour, transfers included | £300 to £550 / €350 to €640 / $380 to $690 |
If you want to model your own numbers before booking anything, our travel budget calculator does the boring arithmetic for you, and the budget travel section has more on squeezing a trip without making it feel cheap.
A note on the tight column, because people flinch at it. Private rooms in decent hostels have come a long way, and in expensive cities they are often the difference between going and not going. You get your own door, a shared kitchen for breakfast, and usually a bar downstairs full of people who will tell you where to eat. Not for every couple, brilliant for some.
Gear we actually travel with
Passport holders, packing cubes, travel wallets. Stuff that earns its place in the bag.
Browse the shopWhere to stay, and what to book first
My booking order for a couples trip has not changed in years. Room first, because it sets the budget and the neighbourhood. Then flights or trains around it. Then one dinner and one experience. Then stop.
For the room itself, I search on Booking.com because the filters are the least annoying and the free cancellation rate is high, which matters when you are booking three months out and one of you might get a work thing. Filter by review score above 8.5, then sort by distance from the centre. Ignore anything with fewer than 40 reviews. You can also browse our own shortlist over on handpicked stays.
Things worth paying extra for, in rough order of how much they improve a trip for two:
- Location. Always. Every time.
- A quiet room away from the lift and the street. Ask when you book, not at check in.
- A bath, if either of you cares about baths. Surprisingly hard to filter for.
- A balcony or terrace, even a tiny one.
- Breakfast included, but only if it is the kind you would actually get up for.
Small print: City tourist taxes are almost never included in the price you see at checkout. Expect roughly £2 to £7 / €2.50 to €8 / $2.50 to $9 per person per night across most of Europe, usually collected in cash at the property. Annoying rather than ruinous, but worth knowing before someone asks you for €40 on the way out.
Recommended Tours and Tickets
Planning it without planning the life out of it
The most common mistake I see is a spreadsheet. I say that as someone who owns several. Over planned couples trips fail in a specific way: you stop noticing where you are because you are always thinking about the next slot.
What I do instead is book one anchor per day and nothing else. Morning anchor or evening anchor, never both. The rest of the day fills itself, and if it does not, you have found an afternoon to sit somewhere with a drink, which was the point.
For the anchors themselves, I book tours ahead for the handful of things that sell out, cooking classes, wine tastings, boat trips at sunset. Everything else can wait until you are there and know what the weather is doing. We keep a rolling list of the ones we rate on handpicked experiences.
Trips for the big occasions
Anniversaries, proposals and honeymoons all get treated the same way online and they need completely different things. A proposal trip needs one controlled moment and a lot of slack around it. A honeymoon needs a slow start, because you will both be wrecked. An anniversary usually wants somewhere new rather than a repeat of the original, though I know couples who go back to the same town every year and love it.
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| Occasion | What the trip needs | How far ahead to book |
|---|---|---|
| First trip together | Short, close, easy to bail out of. Three nights maximum. | Four to six weeks |
| Proposal | One private spot scouted in advance, plus a backup for rain | Three months |
| Honeymoon | A slow first two days, then movement if you want it | Six to nine months |
| Big anniversary | One properly good hotel night rather than a week of average ones | Three to four months |
| Getting away from it all | Bad phone signal, a kitchen, and nowhere to be | Two to eight weeks |
If you want the slower, switch off version of all this, we wrote a separate piece on planning a proper couple’s retreat.
The boring bits that save the trip
Nobody wants to read this section. It is also the one that has saved me the most money and the most arguments, so here it is quickly.
Get covered, both of you, on one policy. A joint travel insurance policy is barely more than a single and it removes the worst possible version of a trip, which is one of you in a foreign hospital while the other works out how to pay for it. Our travel insurance guide walks through what to actually check in the wording.
Know your rights if the flight goes wrong, because delays and cancellations hit couples twice as hard in cash terms. The travel compensation guide covers what you can claim and when. And read the theft and scams guide before a city break, since distracted couples are a specific target for the more professional pickpockets.
Mistakes couples make on romantic trips
I have made most of these, which is the only reason I can list them with any confidence.
- Booking a long flight for a short trip. Four nights does not survive two travel days. Either go closer or go longer.
- Saving the good restaurant for the last night. By then you are tired, packed and thinking about the airport. Do it on night two.
- Both trying to navigate. One person has the map, the other has the opinions. Swap daily if you must, but not mid street.
- Assuming you want the same pace. Some people want breakfast at eight. Some want it at eleven. Sort this out before you are standing in a hotel corridor being passive aggressive about it.
- Photographing everything, including each other, badly. Take five minutes somewhere nice and get one decent picture of the two of you. Ask a stranger. Nobody has ever regretted this.
Where to start
If you are stuck between options, pick the shortest flight on your shortlist and book that one. The trip you can reach in three hours is the trip you will actually take, and you can save the Maldives for the anniversary with a bigger number on it.
Then grab the free travel starter kit for the checklists, and have a poke around the rest of the couples travel hub for country by country guides. Go book the room. The rest sorts itself out.
FAQs
What is the most romantic destination for couples?
There is no single winner, but Paris, Venice and the Amalfi Coast are the reliable classics, while Prague, Lisbon and Cesky Krumlov give you a similar feeling for a lot less money. Pick based on how much walking, eating and sitting still you each want to do.
How much does a romantic getaway cost?
A comfortable three night European city break for two lands around £450 to £700 / €525 to €815 / $570 to $885 including a central hotel, two dinners out and one paid experience. Beach and resort trips run considerably higher because the accommodation does most of the work.
When is the best time to book a romantic trip?
Four to six weeks ahead for a short city break, three months for anything involving a specific hotel or a proposal, and six to nine months for a honeymoon or peak season island. Booking flexible rates early beats hunting for a late deal in almost every case.
Is a resort or a city break better for couples?
Resorts suit couples who want everything handled and zero decisions, which is perfect after a wedding or a brutal work year. City breaks suit couples who like discovering things together and talking about them afterwards. If you argue when bored, go to a city.
How do we travel together without falling out?
Agree the budget and the two or three must-do things before you leave, then keep the daily plan light. Most travel arguments come from being hungry, tired or over scheduled, so eat before you get grumpy and give each other a bit of space each day. Our travel problems guide covers the practical side when something actually goes wrong.
Travel Hubs
Recommended Websites and Resources:
- Flights: Find the best deals on Trip.com
- Hotels: Best rates on Booking.com · Best hostels on HostelWorld · Ratings and bargains on TripAdvisor
- Apartments: Affordable rentals on VRBO
- Car hire: Best prices on RentalCars.com
- Travel insurance: EKTA for worldwide cover · AirHelp for flight delay compensation
- Activities: Tours and skip-the-line tickets on GetYourGuide · Instant mobile tickets on Tiqets
- Trains: Most affordable trains on Trainline · Rail passes on Rail Europe
- Travel eSIMs: Use your mobile phone anywhere worldwide with Airalo
- Need more help planning your trip? Visit our Resources Page to see all the companies we trust and use for our travels
