Happy Snow Day to everyone in NYC and beyond!
As I sit here in my US Rowing sweatpants, black China Town slippers, and an old green Bingo t-shirt won many years ago, fat snowflakes float around and drop heavily in the window behind my laptop. Besides the scraping sound of shovels below, the city is quieter than normal; it sits still under a blanket of moving white specks while my mind wanders.
View from my dorm room in The Tower. Jr Yr. Bowdoin College. Brunswick, Maine.
I can’t help but think a little about romance this week. Not in the personal sense, but in the universal, travel sense. We all know that February 14th is lurking around the corner like a loaded gun that, for many, may or may not fire. And what a mess of thoughts, feelings, expectations, happiness, love, and disappointment that day can be! Loving people is very complicated, isn’t it?! Luckily, loving travel is not! I’m surprised I’m even bringing Valentine’s Day up, btw. Usually — no matter what my circumstances — I find it safer to just ignore, like skiing with a bad knee. But now that it’s been brought into the open, I want us to focus instead on our romance with travel!
Sunset and pigeon. Tarragona, Spain.
Let’s try something a little different. This week — all week long — whether you have someone you want to kiss, someone you want to punch, used to, will, or are scared, excited, or inappropriately “necking” (that was a “Catcher in the Rye”/JD Salinger shout out) as you read this… I want us to put together our own list of what WE consider THE WORLD’S MOST ROMANTIC PLACES.
Sunset at 9,200 ft. from Mauna Kea, The Big Island, Hawaii.
Trust me, I know the word “romance” can make a lot of people gag (kind of like the words “crusty” “moist” and “purse” for me…), but it cuts to the chase. I could try and describe what I really mean in several other ways, but you get the idea (and I’m probably already losing you — come back! Stay with me!)…
Traveling can give many of us the same satisfaction and the same za-za-zoo buzz as love does. (Holy crap. I just realized that might have to do with why I travel so often! I LOVE THAT FEELING! I feel so… exposed! Hehe.) For me, perfection is combining the two… But I better stay away from ME in this particular entry… (Walk away, Tavel… WALK AWAY!)
Sun starting to set. St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles.
PLEASE CONTRIBUTE! I want you to share what you believe are the most romantic spots EVER. Tell us the places you’ve been, the places you want to go, a short story about a romantic experience, an adventure, a dream destination, and/or send me (travelswithtavel@gmail.com) a photograph of one of the most romantic spots you’ve visited. I will post all the photographs and comments in the next entry.
Me mid-air in front of the Torre de Belem. Lisbon, Portugal.
And while we’re on the subject of love/romance… Trust me, I certainly know that sometimes, even if you’re in the most beautiful, romantic place in the world, it usually comes down to the one person who’s there with you (or who you want there with you) — anywhere. But this week, no matter what you have going on in your little hearts outside of T w/ T, let’s celebrate the love we all share for travel… with or without Tavel 🙂
(Preferably, with!)
Travels with Tavel 
First of all, ‘purse’ is one of those words for you? haha
So I am sticking to the most romantic spots I have been, in no particular order.
1-Paris, France (though this is #1!)
2-Cinque Terre, Italy
3-Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
4-Venice, Italy
5-Vence, France
Tavel, I would like to suggest the Sacre Coeur in Paris. Its basilica sits atop the city and looks out on all the beautiful rooftops of Paris. When I went there when I was 16, I thought to myself, “When I meet the man I am going to marry, I will bring him here. And, if he cannot see the beauty here, then he won’t be able to see beauty anywhere and I won’t marry him.”
I haven’t found my romantic place yet…..but I have some ideas where I’ll find it:
Provence
Tuscany
Australia
Borneo, Dominica, or somewhere with a beach, a sailboat, and not many other people 🙂 doesn’t matter which corner of the world!
I’ve seen Paris with friends, so it hasn’t opened up its romantic side to me, but it IS stunningly beautiful–and Parisians are really good at romance <B Can't discount the city of love! I'd go back to Sacre Coeur with someone special to give it a chance in a heartbeat 🙂
Venice! (but I don’t have pictures…)
My question: Let’s assume you are in a beautiful spot: Does it become a romantic spot when you are there alone and yearning for love? Or when you are in love but alone? Or when you are happily in love? Or is it only a memory, a feeling after the fact?
My pants.
This seems more like a “girl” sort of question, but I will be brave in throw in my two cents. The top of Sacre Coeur is certainly a gorgeous spot (it’s featured prominently in Amelie actually) and Paris (the architecture, the public parks, the bridges) is a wonderfully romantic place if a little bit tainted now by having become a cliche. Personally, I a real sucker for the beach and I’ll nominate something a little closer to home and with some personal resonance: Newport, Rhode Island’s Second Beach, mid August, at sunset, just as the day is beginning to cool off.
Maine Coast, sunset, preferably on the rocks and not a beach. Giant Steps on Bailey Island comes to mind. Watching the sunset and the waves crashing on the rocks while being with someone you love = amazing
Haas Promenade, Jerusalem, Israel, at Sunset. And not just because I proposed to my fiancée there. Really.
Rome. Most amazing city on earth. It doesn’t really get more romantic than sitting at a cafe in front of the Pantheon and watching the crowds go by.
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