Edens for 2: Where to spend Valentine’s Day weekend

Tucked in Nantucket: Hole up with your sweetheart in the classic Americana inn The Wauwinet.

By Erik Torkells

Valentine’s Day is approaching, which means hotels are announcing themed packages. These packages are increasingly about sexiness more than romance, however, with extras like complimentary copies of the Kama Sutra and what used to be called “marital aids.” (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) But you don’t have to be Carrie Bradshaw to know that sex and romance are hardly the same thing, and Valentine’s Day isabout romance. We’re not talking about heart-shaped candy boxes and flowers, but the feeling that tends to happen early in a relationship, when it’s as if you’re the only two people in the world. How do you re-create that?

By isolating yourselves. But you don’t have to literally be alone in the world. You just have to be more isolated than usual:

• Retreat to an island: The Wauwinet on Nantucket and Friday Harbor House in the San Juans will do nicely. Ideally, you’d take a boat to whichever island you go to, because causeways generally aren’t as romantic.

• Stay above it all: The Mandarin Oriental properties in San Francisco or New York are both way up in skyscrapers.

• Go to the middle of nowhere: Cibolo Creek Ranch is on 30,000 acres in West Texas.

• Venture somewhere foreign: Even though people in Iceland speak English, you’ll still feel like you’re somewhere strange and different; Hotel 101 in Reykjavik is recommended. Or there’s always Quebec, Martinique, Mexico, the Azores…

You may have noticed that these are all luxury properties. Money can’t buy love, but it can definitely make a down payment on romance.

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Tagged: Hotels