5 Romantic Destinations to See Before You
Die
When we think of romantic getaways, we’re a bit stuck on the obvious—Paris, Rome,
Bora Bora. So with Valentine’s Day coming up, we turned to Patricia Schultz, author
of 1000 Places To See Before You Die, for some fresh ideas. Here are a few of her
favorite romantic destinations in the world, excerpted from her perennial bestseller.
Ashford Castle
Cong, County Mayo, Ireland
Ireland has no shortage of dreamy castle hotels, but Ashford Castle—an imposing flight
of fancy reflected in Ireland’s second largest lake, Lough Corrib—stands alone. Think
turrets, drawbridge, and battlements, coupled with gracious service, canopied four-poster
beds, armor-lined corridors, and crackling fires in richly paneled drawing rooms. Dating
to the 13th century and enjoying a stunning top-to-toe restoration completed last year, the
world-famous hotel served as the Guinness brewing family’s private residence for almost
100 years, beginning in 1852. Imagine an evening of elegant dining, replete with vast
windows-with-a-view, Waterford crystal engraved with Ashford’s crest, and custommade Wedgwood place settings. Activities on the idyllic 300-acre grounds include lake
fishing and cruises, golf, and falconry lessons; they are open to non-guests as well. In
1952, when John Ford filmed scenes of the silver-screen classic The Quiet Man (with
John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara) on Ashford’s grounds and in the neighboring village
of Cong, the cast called the flamboyant castle home.
There is plenty to explore during day trips in and around scenic County Mayo. A bronze
memorial dedicated to the victims of the Famine stands at the base of Mayo’s sacred
mountain, Croagh Patrick, hallowed since the era of the Celts. Originally called Croagh
Aigh, it was renamed after the saint who fasted there for 40 days in the year 441. From
his post there, St. Patrick reputedly banished “the snakes” from Ireland, likely a
euphemism for eradicating much of Celtic religion and introducing Christianity.
Mayo’s history goes back even further—over 5,000 years—at the Ceide Fields, the
world’s most extensive Stone Age site. Perched at the ocean’s edge, Ceide’s farming
settlement has the oldest-known walled fields, preserved over the millennia by the bog.
These days, Mayo enjoys a solid reputation for the brown trout that thrive in the waters of
Lough Conn. To angle on the lake, visit Cloonamoyne Fishery, on the grounds of
Enniscoe House, the 17th-century ancestral home of Susan Kellett and her son DJ, who
open its rooms and those of their farmhouses to overnight guests. Wrap up the day at
Matt Molloy’s pub in the popular and picturesque town of Westport. Owned by flutist
Matt Molloy from the world-renowned trad band the Chieftains, the pub has a back room
that is alive with music every night of the week.
Granada
Nicaragua
Neighboring Costa Rica has long been a favorite Central American destination. But
Nicaragua deserves equal attention, particularly the elegant and captivating colonial city
of Granada that sits on the western shores of Lake Cocibolca (also called Lake
Nicaragua), the largest freshwater lake in Central America. Today the heart of the city is
still the lively tree-lined Parque Central (also known as Parque Colón), dominated by the
magnificent yellow Cathedral of Granada. Enjoy the view from the polished-wood
balconies of Hotel Plaza Colón, an exquisitely restored 27-room colonial mansion
overlooking the park. Three blocks away is Central America’s oldest church, the massive,
sky-blue San Francisco with its attached convent (now a museum); it’s home to a display
of towering black basalt statues, carved about 1,000 years ago and discovered in the
1880s on the ancient ceremonial island of Zapatera. Stroll to nearby El Zaguan for some
of the best dining in town. The courtyard restaurant serves succulent fire-grilled meats,
fresh rainbow bass from the lake, and sea bass from the Pacific.
Just offshore from Granada are some 365 diminutive islands called Las Isletas, formed
20,000 years ago by an eruption of the now dormant Volcán Mombacho. Many of the
islands are privately owned, including the one where you’ll find the luxurious Jicaro
Island Ecolodge, with nine sleek, two-story casitas that look across the water to
the volcano.
So wide is Lake Nicaragua that it takes 4 hours by boat to reach Ometepe, the exquisitely
beautiful, twin-peaked island formed by two volcanoes. Ometepe is a mosaic of small
farms producing plantains, corn, avocados, and coffee, and home to two lazy commercial
centers, Moyogalpa and Altagracia. In addition to climbing the volcanoes, visiting
secluded beaches, and hiking trails that wind among trees ruled by monkeys, you can
view more than 70 ancient petroglyph sites and numerous stone idols scattered across the
island.
A perfect day trip from Granada is to Masaya, long a center of art and culture and well
known for its market; this is the place to find handmade hammocks, intricate pottery,
wood carvings, and leather goods. Not much farther is Masaya Volcano National Park,
where a road and trails lead directly to the most accessible live volcano in Nicaragua and,
some say, the world. This low, gaping, gas-belching volcano and its fiery eruptions
inspired the Spanish to call it the Gates of Hell.
Vieux-Quebec
Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
Canada is celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2017—so join the festivities and head to
Quebec City and its charming old-world enclave Vieux-Quebec, where a year full of
special events awaits. Once the capital of New France, Quebec City is one of the oldest
European settlements in North America and the continent’s only walled city north of
Mexico. Perched on Cap Diamant, a rocky promontory above the St. Lawrence River, it
was established in 1608 by French explorer Samuel de Champlain. The walls of VieuxQuébec (Old Quebec) didn’t stop the British from taking the city in 1759, ending
France’s colonial aspirations in eastern North America. Spend some time here and you’ll
wonder if the French ever got the memo.
Vieux-Québec is divided into the Haute-Ville and Basse-Ville (Upper and Lower
Towns), designations that are now simply geographic but were once economic and
strategic. Haute-Ville is the fortified city that occupies the crest of Cap Diamant.
Brimming with atmosphere, it is best explored on foot. Winding, hilly streets lined by
vintage stone houses and chic boutiques lead to leafy public squares, with glimpses of the
St. Lawrence in the distance. Constructed by the British to defend against U.S. invasion
during the War of 1812 and occupying the highest crag of Cap Diamant, the Citadel is
still a military fortification. At the center of Haute-Ville, the Auberge Place d’Armes
bridges history by occupying two buildings—one from the 1640s, the other from 1853.
The lovingly restored inn balances the genuinely old—antique stone walls and one-of-akind period details, such as furnishings from Versailles—with every modern comfort. A
few steps down Rue St-Louis is Aux Anciens Canadiens, a venerable restaurant in a 1677
structure known for its home-style Quebecois fare, such as savory meat pies, mapleglazed duck, and platters of local cheese.
From the Terrasse Dufferin viewpoint, take the Escalier Casse-Cou (the aptly named
Breakneck Stairs) or the funicular to Basse-Ville, the old port district at the base of Cap
Diamant. The heart of Basse-Ville is Place Royale, the city’s public market area in the
17th century, now a charming cobblestone plaza flanked by stone houses, cafés, and the
Église Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, dating from 1688. Amid the historic shops, galleries,
and flower-bedecked squares of Basse-Ville is an updated gem, the Hôtel Le GermainDominion, whose vintage stone façade masks a stylish, contemporary boutique hotel.
Formerly a warehouse, it has been transformed into a strikingly attractive place, the
rooms all appointed with quiet good taste. An equally stylish experience awaits just
around the corner at Laurie Raphaël Restaurant, where chef Daniel Vézina charts the
frontiers of modern French-Canadian cooking, with bold flavors and exuberant
presentations that are excitingly new yet grounded in Quebec’s hearty terroir.
Towering above all of Vieux-Québec with green-copper turrets, and in many ways the
symbol of the city, is the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac. Designed in the style of a Loire
Valley château, it was built in 1893 on the highest point in town. Book an odd-numbered
room in the main tower for a view of the St. Lawrence River, or an even-numbered room
for a panorama of the city’s rooftops—probably the most European vista this side of
Paris.
Venice’s Carnevale
Venice, Italy
“Your visit to Venice becomes a perpetual love affair,” wrote Henry James, a quote that
still resonates today regardless of the time of year you visit the city known as the Queen
of the Adriatic.
The off-season months might not be considered an optimal time to visit, but many find its
cold and grey days, when a light mist settles on the lagoon, almost mystical—and
gloriously void of crowds. Unless you arrive during Venice’s Carnevale season that is,
which generally takes place during the otherwise dormant month of February. Those long
ago times of unbridled and hedonistic festivities expired along with the rest of the
Republic with the arrival of Napoleon in 1797. But local tourism authorities resuscitated
Carnevale in 1980, complete with rich damasks, cascades of lace, powdered wigs,
elaborate costumes, and everywhere the characters and masks from Italy’s Commedia
dell’Arte. Wintertime Carnevale and its impressive roster of concerts and special
events—light years away from Rio de Janeiro and its pulsating samba bands—unfold
across this “city built on water” for two weeks culminating in Shrove Tuesday (February
28, 2017) before the somber pre-Easter period of Lent.
Venice confuses and enchants year round, a unique and fragile world built on 118 small
islands well over a thousand years ago in the northeast corner of the Italian peninsula. It
invites you to toss the map and let yourself wander its car-free alleys and open “campi”
(squares), among Byzantine domes, palazzos, and canal-front merchants’ homes in
various degrees of magnificence and neglect.
Time travel like this transports you back to a time when Venice ruled much of the
Mediterranean and beyond, and when native son Marco Polo set sail for the distant
corners of the world and faraway Cathay. Visit one of the many centuries-old palaces that
line the Grand Canal—Venice’s watery main boulevard—and imagine the sumptuous life
of the courtesans and doges, and Cassanova, that famous man about town, on his way to a
nocturnal assignation.
The Taj Maha
Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
Nothing can adequately prepare the visitor for his or her first glimpse of the Taj Mahal. It
may be a visual cliché, the Niagara Falls of architecture, but it’s also the embodiment of
grace and romance, of balance and symmetry, an architectural icon revered for three and
a half centuries as one of the most beautiful and dazzlingly constructed buildings in the
world.
The fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, built the Taj as a tomb to honor his third and
favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal (Chosen One of the Palace), who died giving birth to their
14th child in 19 years. It took 22 years and 20,000 laborers to build the white-marble
mausoleum, completed in 1653, and costing the equivalent in today’s currency of $340
million.
It was an extravagance that moved one of Jahan’s sons to eventually depose and imprison
him in the nearby Agra Fort. Long considered the “architect” of the powerful Mughal
dynasty, Shah Jahan had renovated the fortified red sandstone fort/palace that now served
as his jail. It had been built by his grandfather Akbar—the third and greatest of the
Mughal emperors—over 8 years and completed in 1573. From his chambers, Shah Jahan
would gaze at the Taj Mahal downriver, mourning the loss of his wife and his empire,
until his death in 1658.
Akbar’s other landmark fort, Fatehpur Sikri (City of Victory), is worth a visit to
understand the legacy of the Mughal dynasty, as is the elegant Tomb of Itmad-ud-Daulah,
a precursor to—and likely inspiration for—the Taj Mahal.
Although there are plenty of hotel options to accommodate the crowds, many visitors
experience Agra as a day trip from Delhi. But thanks to the Oberoi Amarvilas (Sanskrit
for “eternal haven”), there’s now an irresistible reason to linger overnight in this
otherwise unlovely city. The Moorish- and Mughul-inspired palace hotel boasts terraced
gardens, bubbling fountains, a marble pool, the fine Esphahan restaurant, and the Oberoi
spa. It and every one of the hotel’s 100-plus rooms afford an unobstructed view of India’s
most beloved national monument, a mere 650 yards away. A less extravagant
interpretation of the Amarvilas is the new Orient Taj resort (no relation to the Taj hotels),
where the welcome is no less grand. If you plan your visit to fall on the night of the full
moon or within two nights before or after, you’ll find the Taj Mahal grounds open for
viewing.