Plan a Surprise Romantic Getaway

A surprise romantic getaway can be a fun way to change things up and get out of your normal routine. Getting a successful getaway together takes some hard work in planning, but if you work out all the details you can make it work. There are a number of ways you can choose a destination, such as picking a place your partner wants to visit, going somewhere that has special significance for you, or even staying somewhere local to save money. When you’re picking a date you’ll need to clear up both of your schedules and it’s good to avoid holidays, which are busy travel times. You’ll also want to plan for taking care of kids and pets, remember your passports if you go abroad, and budget well ahead of time.

Steps

Choosing the Place

1. Pick a specific destination you have always wanted to visit. One way to plan a trip is to decide on the end location first. This could be a country (like Mexico), or a city (like Paris), or even a specific destination (like the Grand Canyon). Try to find a place that you both want to visit, even if you have to compromise a little.
   • If you have a country in mind, you’ll have a lot of options that you can choose from as you research your trip.
   • It will be more romantic if you both are interested in the destination. If you get a place in mind, try to drop some hints about it so you can see how they feel about it.
2. Choose a type of destination. You may have a certain type of location in mind, but you don’t know about specific options yet. For example, you may decide you want to travel to a ski lodge, and you can compare different options. Or if you just want a warm beach somewhere, you can decide how far away you will need to travel.
   • With this option, you’ll give yourself a much broader range of destinations. You could go skiing in Minnesota, Switzerland, or China. If you have limited time, you can pick based on where you can travel to quickly.
   • Once you have a budget in mind, you can use it to narrow down which places are your best options. You can see what type of accommodations are available in the areas you find.
3. Go somewhere that is special to you. If you don’t live in the city you met in, you could go back there and relive some of your favorite memories. You could go to a favorite place that you’ve both visited separately and make new memories together.
   • If you already have some specific connection to the place you go for your getaway, you’ll have some romance that already exists in that place.
   • Maybe your partner moved away from their home when they were young and you could surprise them by planning a trip there. The fact that you care about where they came from will add a romantic aspect to the trip.
4. Use what you know about your partner. For a successful romantic getaway, you need to go somewhere that your partner will like. If they don’t like nature very much, a cabin in the woods is probably not a good option. If big cities stress them out, their uneasiness will kill the romance.
   • If you don’t have much experience traveling together, you can casually ask some questions to gauge what places they would enjoy. You can mention somewhere you’d enjoy traveling and see how they respond.
   • Try to remember places they have mentioned during your relationship. Most people have said, “I would love to travel to [insert place here],” at some point, so rely on that. They will be surprised that you remembered and it will be romantic because it gives them something they have wanted.
   • Your partner may not be a big fan of surprises, so you need to take this into account as well. Maybe you can plan the majority of the trip but tell them a little bit for the departure date so they don’t feel caught off guard.
5. Stay somewhere local. You don’t have to go anywhere far away for it to be a romantic surprise. If you go to a local bed and breakfast or ritzy hotel, it can still be romantic. A low-key getaway would most likely involve less planning and therefore less secrecy.
   • Sometimes the only thing you need to create romance is a change of place. Getting out of your home and daily routine can be a fun way to mix things up.
   • Local doesn’t have to mean 10 minutes away. If you live in the country, you could head into a larger city somewhere nearby. If you live in the city, you may be able to travel an hour or so away to get to a quieter countryside setting.

Settling on a Date

1. Clear your schedules. Taking care of your own schedule should be fairly easy, but the hard part is figuring out how to make sure your partner is free. If you plan the trip for a weekend, you may have less interference from work. If you plan it on short notice, you should be able to find out if they have plans already.
   • A good trick you can use is to get a friend of your partner to make plans with them for the same time that you are planning the trip. Tell the friend that you need them to make fake plans. Your partner should end up keeping their schedule clear.
   • For example, call your partner’s best friend and say, “Hey, I want to take John on a surprise trip this weekend. Would you make some fake plans with him so he’ll keep the weekend open?”
   • If you’re planning a multiple day trip, you may only need the fake plans to be for part of that time, as long as your partner keeps the rest of the time open.
   • If you are willing to give away part of the surprise, you can simply tell them, “I’m making plans for us for this weekend, so keep your schedule open.” It accomplishes what you need, but it does not give the whole surprise away.
2. Avoid holiday weekends. So many people travel around holidays that it can be a little tricky to take your romantic getaway at those times. Tickets and housing can be a little more expensive, and travel can get more hectic. All of this can add some stress to the situation which can easily take away from the romance of your getaway.
   • If you want to make the trip part of the holiday experience, you can plan the trip for a weekend before or after the holiday time.
   • Sitting in traffic, walking through crowded airports, and dealing with packed hotels will most likely cause stress, not romance. For these reasons, holidays are best avoided.
3. Plan the trip around an event. A great way to surprise someone is getting tickets to an event they would enjoy. You could pick a concert, a stage play, or a convention of some kind. If you find a fun event, this will determine the date of your trip and you can work the other details out around it.
   • Most events are scheduled pretty far in advance, so this will help you with planning.
   • Focusing on an event will also help you narrow down where you’re going to travel.
   • You could also start with a location that you want to visit and find out what events are going to be in that area. This will most likely give you a good number of specific dates to choose from.

Working Out the Logistics

1. Plan for the trip’s expenses. A romantic getaway will most likely entail a number of different expenses. Planning for these expenses ahead of time will help make it go more smoothly. Your main expenses will be travel, lodging, food, and entertainment.
   • As you start to plan the trip, take note of how much each part will cost. You need to plan for travel expenses, which could be gas money, bus or plane tickets, or a rental car.
   • A hotel, cabin, cottage or some other housing rental may be one of the larger expenses. Once you have the destination in mind, you can compare various options based on price. If you specifically want a certain accommodation, you can compare different locations that have that accommodation.
   • The other main expense will be food and entertainment. On trips, you may have to eat at restaurants for most of your meals. You may plan a vacation package which includes entertainment, or you may need to plan that separately and include those expenses.
   • It is also possible to take food to cook if the place you are staying has a kitchen you can use, which can save money. You can plan low-cost or free entertainment like parks, museums, sightseeing, or relaxing at the beach.
2. Budget and save for all of the expenses. Most trips are going to cost at least a couple hundred dollars. If you can save for a month or two, this will make it easier. Spending lots of money can bring tension into a relationship, so being careful about money is important.
   • As you are planning and you determine the range of money you would need for the various trip options, consider your income and what trip options you can realistically afford.
   • Travel is most likely an unavoidable expense, but you can find ways to reduce the money spent on other options. You could plan for some cheap meals or buying food for sack lunches part of the time.
   • Talking about money usually isn’t romantic and is one of the biggest sources of tension in a relationship. If you can have a plan for most of the money aspects, you can make it more romantic by not worrying about it during the trip.
   • If you really want the whole trip to be a surprise, avoid using credit cards for which your partner could see the bill or spending from a joint bank account.
3. Pack passports if you are traveling abroad. It seems simple, but in the planning of a big surprise you may end up forgetting your passports. Your trip will be ruined or significantly delayed if you don’t have your passports.
   • If you have not traveled in a long time, you may need to get passports updated ahead of time.
   • Your partner may not have a passport, so this is a detail you’ll have to work out. You may be able to casually encourage them to get a passport just in case they need it someday, since you know they will definitely need it.
   • For example, you could say something like, “I would really like to visit Greece over the Christmas holiday, could we go ahead and get our passports early?” You can use a holiday or specific vacation time that is coming up to revolve the trip around.
4. Plan for your dependents. If you have kids or pets, you need to plan ahead for having them taken care of. If kids are teenagers, maybe you can realistically leave them home alone. Pets that can be self-sufficient may be fine for a couple days. Otherwise, you need to find a sitter who can stay at your house or will let them stay at their house.
   • You know your pets, so you know how much attention they need. You may be able to get a friend or family member to stop by your house a couple times a day. If your pet needs more attention, you may need to get someone to stay at your house while you are gone.
   • For your kids, you may have to pay a sitter to stay are your house. You may also be able to ask a favor of a family member or friend to save money.
5. Make transportation plans. You may be driving yourself to your destination, but if not, you need to make sure to plan specifically how you’ll get there. You may arrange for a driver, buy bus tickets, or purchase plane tickets.
   • Make sure you make these arrangements well in advance so you ensure you can get to where you need to go.
   • How far you are traveling will have a significant impact on transportation options. If you are going out of the country, flying is most likely your only option.

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