In anticipation of Valentine’s Day (or in dread of, depending on your romantic perspective), I’ve been pondering the notion of love and travel. Not as in ‘the love of travel’ or ‘love to travel’. But rather love and travel as in expressing your love through travel.

Do you follow me? Let me try explaining that again. The pairing of travel and love (often travel and sex) are commonplace in film, music, art, literature, popular culture. You’ve seen it a million times: a fling in Paris, a romance in Thailand, a chance encounter on 42nd Street. But that’s not what I mean.

What I’m after is how the people who love travel (and who love to travel) might express a token / totem / trinket / knickknack / ticket stub of their love, on Valentine’s Day, to like-minded lovers of travel.

I love travel, you love travel, I love you, ka-boom, let’s go travel together. That’s what I am after, the ‘ka-boom, let’s go travel together’ moment. So I made a list.

My list is for people who are tired of the same old Valentine’s Day gift options. Dinner for two. A bouquet of roses. A box of chocolates. There’s nothing wrong with showing your love with these things. But for those of you who travel blindly for love, or travel for love blindly, there’s got to be a better way to say “I love you”. Share your obvious and overwhelming passion for travel this Valentine’s Day with one of the following:

Write a love song about your travels

Playing the guitar is not easy. Writing a song is not easy. Skip ahead to the next bullet point if either of these sounds too intimidating. How to start? Make a list of places that rhyme with “I love you” (…Timbuktu, Kalamazoo, San Diego Zoo…). Or get inspired by musicians who know a thing or two about travel and love (Eddie Money, Berlin, Duran Duran, Edith Piaf, The Cure, Danzig). Shortcut: Buy the album 69 Love Songs and pretend your the original songwriter.

Write a book / blog / Myspace page about your romance

If you’re old school try the NaNoWriMo approach and give yourself 30 days to write An Important Novel About Love and Travel for your sweetheart. Or start a blog about love and travel, because honestly, I spent an hour searching the web for blogs about love and travel and there are none I can recommend in good conscience. If you’re under age 25 then you’ll need to create a Myspace profile about love and travel. Trust me, you’ll hit pay dirt.

Make a short video about your love

There are literally thousands of excellent role models to chose from, if you’re prepared to spend research time on Youtube. I did a search on travel love and got an excellent set of results. My personal favorite is here. It helps if you have video of yourself on the road, but it’s not required. Just remember one thing: don’t be like Tommy Lee.

Pop the question on the road

It’s possibly the most romantic way to express your travel-loving self to another person with a travel-loving mindset. Of course it’s not without pitfalls and risks. Choose the wrong venue and you’re toast. Don’t plan a helicopter wedding if your loved one is afraid of heights. It all sounds obvious, but hey, never underestimate the obvious. Your role models here? We have a few favorites from Viator.com, all from actual travelers who were engaged on one of our tours.

• “If I book a package to Medieval Times… will I be permitted to, at a reasonable fee, ask to have my fiancee Marry Me sometime during the performance/intermission??” --Barry W.
• “Our tour started with the Trevi Fountain, at which I asked my girlfriend if she would marry me. She said yes. We then saw the outside of St Peter’s Basilica and the Colosseum. We were then taken to dinner. Due to this night being the finals of the World Cup Soccer Championship the restaurant was empty. This was great. The owner and his wife both sang to us during our dinner. Very romantic. After dinner we were taken as close to our hotel as traffic would allow. The streets were full of thousands of people on their way to the Circus Maximus to see the Italy win on the big screen. We joined in the celebration. We absolutely loved the tour and would like to take it again next time we are in Rome.” –Kent B.
• “This was the best day of my life as I got engaged on the Canadian side of the falls!!! For any of you that aren’t taking this plunge I still definitely recommend this tour, as it really is one of the wonders of the world and is spectacular to see in real life. No photos ever do it justice!!” –Published anonymously

Say ‘I do’ on the road

For those of you ready to tie the knot and commit to a life of love, travel and romance, we have a few suggestions. Top of the list? That’s easy. The Loving You or Can’t Help Falling in Love Elvis wedding packages. That’s right, get married by the King himself in fabulous Las Vegas, where else? Or kick it up a notch with a Grand Canyon helicopter wedding for a cool three grand and change (it’s Vegas, baby!).

Hopefully by now you’re catching on to the fact that, come Valentine’s Day, there are dozens and dozens of ways to do something special, and different, with an emphasis on travel.

We wish you love, romance and travel this coming Valentine’s Day.

–Scott McNeely

You can say “I love you, let’s travel” with a new Valentine’s Day-themed Viator.com gift certificate, available in US and Aussie dollars, British pounds and euros. And if you love to travel, read Viator’s complete list of Valentine’s Day gifts for travelers or go the whole nine yards and book a destination wedding package.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 12:37 am and is filed under Destinations, Travel Inspiration, Travel Wishlists, USA, Canada, Mexico. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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