The evening you remember is the one you booked before you flew.
Which dinner cruise seats couples at their own table and which sits you with six strangers. What a private table on the Agafay sand costs against the shared one. Whether a proposal photoshoot needs a sunrise slot. Reviews of the experiences couples actually book, worldwide.
Five evenings couples book before they book anything else.
A gondola with a singer in the boat behind it, a candlelit deck on the Danube, a table set on stone desert. What each costs, and what the couples who went came back saying.
01VeniceRomantic Venice: 30 Minute Gondola Ride with SerenadeThirty minutes on the back canals with a singer and an accordion travelling in the boat behind yours.
02BudapestCandlelit Dinner River Cruise with Live MusicDinner served on the Danube with the Parliament lit from the water. The one Budapest evening worth dressing for.
03MarrakechAgafay Desert Magic Sunset Dinner & Live ShowForty minutes south of the city the ground turns to stone desert, and somebody sets a table on it. Bring a jacket, the temperature drops fast.- 04BaliBali Hai Sunset Dinner CruiseA dinner cruise out of Benoa harbour, timed so the sun goes down somewhere between courses.
05SantoriniRomantic Sunset Caldera Cruise with DinnerThe caldera from the water rather than from a wall in Oia, with dinner coming out as the light goes.
One country, three completely different nights out for two.
Las Vegas will marry a couple in an afternoon and Hawaii will feed them on a boat. Three American evenings, what it costs to get on each one, and where it happens.
Dinner on a boat is the romantic evening couples book most.
Two hours out of a harbour, dinner served while the light goes, and no table you have to give back at nine. It works on the Nile, off Waikiki, up the Danube and out of Benoa. What changes is the food, and how many other people are aboard.
Six places couples fly to for one evening, and what to book in each.
A stone desert outside Marrakech, a caldera that empties into the sea, canals with singers on them, a strip that marries people in an afternoon. Six starting points for two.
Santorini sells the sunset. Couples book the photographer.
Oia at seven is four hundred people deep and every one of them is holding a phone. The couples who came for the picture book a shoot at first light on an empty lane instead, and take the caldera itself from a boat.
Every Santorini booking for two →
What a romantic evening actually costs, wherever you are having it.
Every experience on the site, grouped by what it costs a head. A good number of the best ones come in under the price of the dinner you were going to have anyway.
Gondola rides, city sunset cruises, an hour with a photographer, the shorter desert dinners.
The standard evening for two: a dinner cruise with a table of your own, a spa afternoon, a private driver.
Chartered boats, helicopter hops, chapel packages and the once-a-trip splurge.
Marrakech sends couples out of the city to eat.
Everything in Marrakech →
The riad courtyards are lovely and the rooftops are fine. The reason people fly here for an anniversary sits forty minutes south, where the ground turns to grey stone desert and the caterers drive out with tables, rugs and a fire.
Dinner in the Agafay, with the show
Camel or quad first if you want it, then a long table under the lanterns, tagines out of the ground and drumming after dark. Transfers are almost always included, which matters because there is nothing out there to get a taxi from.
A rooftop table in the medina
The alternative is a courtyard or a roof in the old city, with the call to prayer going up over the plates. Cheaper, shorter, and you are back at the hotel before eleven.
Beyond Marrakech
Essaouira for the wind and the fish, the Atlas valleys for the quiet, and the Sahara camps for couples who want two nights rather than one dinner.
The couples photoshoot has become its own kind of romantic booking.
A photographer waiting on a corner you agreed the night before, an hour of walking, and thirty edited images a week later. Nobody has to ask a stranger to hold the phone, and it costs roughly what dinner does.
The romantic experiences couples book more than any others.
Every experience we have reviewed →Gondolas, candlelit decks, chapels and desert tables. The ones that fill first, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Romantic Venice: 30 Minute Gondola Ride with Serenade
Join a shared flotilla from Santa Maria del Giglio for a roughly 30-minute gondola ride past the Grand Canal, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Accademia Bridge, and Santa Maria della Salute. A singer performs from one gondola, so your view and sound depend on where you are seated.
From · $66
Read our review →
2
Romantic Cruise with 3-course Dinner on Seine River
from $94
3
Nile Sunset Dinner Cruise, Show & Optional Transfer
from $33
4
Candlelit Dinner River Cruise with Live Music
from $129
5
Budapest Danube River Candlelit Dinner Cruise with Live Music
from $133
6
Agafay Desert Magic Sunset Dinner & Live Show
from $22
7
Agafay Desert Sunset Dinner with Live Show
from $27
8
Volcano and Hot Springs Sunset Dinner Cruise
from $106
Italy is a serenaded gondola, a hill-town dinner and a photographer who knows the light.
Venice does the half-hour on the back canals with a singer following. Florence and the Tuscan hill towns do the long vineyard evening. A good number of the proposals on this site happen somewhere between the two.
- 1Romantic Venice: 30 Minute Gondola Ride with Serenadefrom $66
- 2Romantic Shared Gondola Serenade on the Grand Canalfrom $55
- 3Romantic Photoshoot for Couples
Half of these romantic evenings put you on a boat with two hundred people.
The word private is doing a lot of work in these listings. On a dinner cruise it usually means a reserved table on a full boat. On a desert dinner it can mean your own tent, or a long bench with eleven other couples on it. The ones below are genuinely just the two of you, and they cost accordingly.
Three romantic experiences that only work in one place on earth.
Dinner with a view happens everywhere. A singer in the boat behind yours, a table set on stone desert, and a dress shoot on a caldera terrace at first light do not.
The Serenaded Gondola
The gondola is not transport and has not been for a century. The serenade version puts a tenor and an accordionist in a second boat that travels alongside a small convoy, so the singing carries across the water rather than at you. Half an hour, mostly on the quieter back canals off the Grand Canal, and it costs the same per boat whether two of you go or six.
- 1Romantic Venice: 30 Minute Gondola Ride with Serenade★★★★★★★★★★ 3.5 · 2,742 reviews
- 2Romantic Shared Gondola Serenade on the Grand Canal★★★★★★★★★★ 3.8 · 270 reviews
- 3Antalya/Kemer: Phaselis Yacht Trip for Families and Couples★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 183 reviews
The Desert Table
The Agafay is not sand. It is grey stone hills forty minutes south of Marrakech, close enough that caterers drive out each afternoon with rugs, lanterns and a fire, and far enough that there is no light from the city. Dinner starts as the Atlas goes pink behind the ridge. The temperature falls hard once the sun is down, and the transfer back is the last one.
- 1Agafay Desert Magic Sunset Dinner & Live Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,442 reviews
- 2Agafay Desert Sunset Dinner with Live Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 1,286 reviews
- 3Pinnacles Desert Sunset Dinner and Stargazing Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,034 reviews
The Caldera Shoot
Somebody worked out that a whitewashed terrace three hundred metres above the water photographs like nothing else, and an industry grew on it. Shoots run at sunrise because that is the only hour the lanes are empty, dresses with long trains are hired by the hour, and you get the edited images back a week or so later.
- 1Couple photoshoot with 30 edited Photos★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 388 reviews
- 2Customized Private Photoshoot Walk in Oia★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 335 reviews
- 3Oia Private Couple Photoshoot with 35 Photos★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 316 reviews
Four romantic bookings that will not wait until you land.
Most of a trip can be arranged over breakfast on the day. These four run on sunrise times, licence paperwork and a fixed number of seats, and they are the ones couples are most upset to miss.
- 01Elvis-Themed Graceland Chapel Wedding or Vow RenewalNevada issues the marriage licence separately and before the ceremony, and the named chapels lose their Saturday slots months out.
- 02Agafay Desert Magic Sunset Dinner & Live ShowOne sitting a night, a set number of tables, and a transfer that leaves the city at a fixed time. There is no walking up to it.
- 03Romantic Venice: 30 Minute Gondola Ride with SerenadeThe serenade runs as a small convoy at set departure times, not on demand, and the boat is priced whole rather than per seat.
- 04Couple photoshoot with 30 edited PhotosSunrise is the only hour the lanes are empty, so the first slot of the day is the one every couple wants.
Proposal, wedding, honeymoon: the order couples book the romantic bits in.
The proposal
The photographs
The ceremony
The toast
The honeymoon
The recoveryThe newest romantic experience reviews.
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