5 Romantic Destinations for a Kiss
Valentine’s Day always makes me think about the places that seem made for romance—the kind that invite you to linger, dream and perhaps steal a kiss. Everyone’s list would be different. These are five places that captured my imagination.
The Taj Mahal, Agra, India
Nothing quite prepares you for the first glimpse of the Taj Mahal. I had seen it countless times in photographs, but standing before it—even in the scorching heat and August crowds—was something else entirely.
Built by Shah Jahan as a monument to his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal, the Taj Mahal is a wondrous sight to behold.
At dawn, the early light transforms the marble into shades of petal pink. As the hours pass, it appears pearl white beneath the blazing sun. Whatever the hour, its beauty seems almost unreal—a monument to love that no photograph can quite capture.
Aït Benhaddou, Morocco
“Aït Benhaddou rises from the shimmering sand, resembling a palace out of the Arabian Nights.“
– Pamela Windo, Escape to Morocco
When you arrive in Aït Benhaddou, park your car, your camel, or your donkey. Cross the shallow, reed-strewn river as the sun rises high in the sky, painting the landscape in the muted shades of the desert – salmon, dusty pink, and tawny gold.
The kasbah’s chaotic jumble of red-ochre dwellings seems to spill down the rocky bluff, coming to rest at the village’s outer walls.
Climb the narrow, rutted stairs to the turreted rooftops, where you can gaze across sun-kissed fields stretching toward the desert. Standing high above the village, it’s easy to imagine the caliphs and sultans of the past, veiled princesses, and the deeds of conquering tribes.
Down below in the alley, a man in a sapphire-blue robe leads his camel into the shadows. He dismounts and embraces a slender, dark-eyed woman. Reluctant to let go, they look around anxiously – then steal a lingering kiss in the dark.
The silence of the empty alleyway whispers of stolen kisses and secrets hidden amongst these ancient walls. A place for romantics, most definitely.
The Alhambra Palace, Granada, Spain
“It absolutely appears to me like a dream, or as if I am spellbound in some fairy palace.”
– Washington Irving
Here, in this Moorish realm of legends and dreams, I sought refuge from a summer storm in the magnificent royal garden of the Palacio de Generalife, once the summer palace and country estate of the Nasrid sultans of Granada, Spain.
On the Patio of the Sultana, I sheltered in the shadow of an ancient brick doorway. Gazing at the garden, an old, dead tree caught my eye. Held steady by an iron brace, I realized it was the ancient cypress associated with the legend of Sultana Zoraya, who was said to have met her lover there.
I wondered how many people had sheltered in that doorway before me. So many people had lived and loved and dreamed here, in this garden meant for romance.
Sweetheart Abbey, New Abbey, Scotland
This beautiful Cistercian Abbey, just 8 miles south of Dumfries, was one of my favorite stops in Scotland. Its romantic story became even more memorable when the caretaker, an elderly gentleman with snow-white hair, paused to tell it to us.
Sweetheart Abbey was founded in 1273, he said, by Lady Devorgilla of Galloway, daughter of Alan, Lord of Galloway, in memory of her husband John de Balliol. When her husband died, she had his heart embalmed and placed in a casket made of ivory and silver. She carried his heart with her everywhere, and, upon her death, she was laid to rest in front of the Abbey church’s high altar, holding her husband’s heart close to her own.
Walking through the graceful red-stone ruins, surrounded by green fields and silence, I understood why the place had stayed associated with devotion for more than seven centuries.
Burns Country, Alloway & Dumfries, Scotland
“O my Luve’s like a red, red rose, That’s newly sprung in June: O my Luve’s like the melodie, That’s sweetly play’d in tune.”
– Robert Burns
In Burns Country, romance seems woven into the landscape. It follows you from the humble cottage in Alloway where the poet was born to the medieval Brig o’ Doon, setting for the climax of his famous tale Tam o’ Shanter, then along the coast toward Dumfries, where he spent his final years.
In Dumfries, the journey ends naturally over a pint at the Globe, Burns’s favorite howff (pub)—a place where his presence still feels remarkably close.
Romance doesn’t belong to one kind of place. It can be found in a marble monument, a shadowed alley, a rain-soaked garden, a ruined abbey, or a landscape made famous by a poet. Sometimes a destination stays with us not only because of what we saw there, but because of what it made us feel.
