Travel

Summer holidays: 10 of the best trips for couples

You may only have eyes for each other, but stupendous views and fantastic food and wine will only make things better. Here are our experts' tips for romantic breaks à deux

Keep it simple, Umbria, Italy

Tuscany and Umbria have a reputation for being stuffed to the salami-hung rafters with braying, posh types in raspberry chinos, but it's easy to steer clear of the Chianti-quaffing crowds. The solar-powered Locanda della Quercia Calante on the Umbria/Tuscany border is a peaceful, eco-friendly agriturismo. The emphasis is on the simple things in life: good food (home cooked and mainly organic); wellbeing (Iyengar yoga in the onsite studio), and chilling. Even the wine is biodynamic, which must be good for you, surely? Owner Fausto makes much of the fact that the property is built on leylines and the rooms are free of magnetic fields, which he claims makes for a better night's rest. We were sceptical until my insomniac partner slept longer and deeper than he had in years. By day you can mooch around nearby towns – historic Orvieto is 18km away – and spookily quiet medieval villages. Evenings are for wining and dining in the cosy restaurant. We made the mistake on the first day of accepting second helpings of the fantastic meat-free lasagne, only to realise it was just a starter. Perhaps it's not the leylines that ensure a good night's kip.
• Doubles from €60B&B; +39 0763 627199, querciacalante.com
Isabel Choat, Guardian online travel editor

Very fine dining, Copenhagen, Denmark

Unless you're the kind of person who precision-plans their leisure time, you probably won't book a holiday in Copenhagen sufficiently far in advance to get a table at Noma, named Best Restaurant in the World for the second year running. But at Relæ (restaurant-relae.dk), former Noma head chef Christian Puglisi cooks in a way that's just as surprising and inventive, and a good deal cheaper. And Geranium (geranium.dk; this year singled out by Michelin as a rising star) is equally brilliant, in more of a polished, big-night-out way. Aamaan's Etablissement (aamanns.dk) was our favourite lunch spot, mainly for its steak tartare and citrus-and-spice marinated salmon. And for mornings after, the great coffee and the brunch menu (plus the cosy sheepskin-covered chairs) at café/deli Gourmandiet (gourmandiet.dk) made our hangovers almost pleasurable.
• Doubles at 71 Nyhavn, a converted, canal-side spice warehouse, cost from £110 (+45 3343 6200, 71nyhavnhotel.com)
Jenny McIvor, food writer

Romantic retreat, Carswell Farm, Devon

Arrive in daylight and wear sensible shoes, the instructions from Carswell Farm advised. We pulled up after midnight after the long drive to south Devon. The directions from the farmhouse to the impossibly secluded Beach Hut were clear, but scrambling across cliff tops with bags and very unsensible footwear, we had only an inadequate torch and the alarming sound of crashing waves to make sure our romantic holiday didn't start with the wrong sort of splash. Once there we just climbed the little ladder to our bed in the eaves, so the next morning, we were unprepared for the picture-book adorableness of our surroundings. The Beach Hut is fairly basic, but no less lovely for that: there's no electricity, but a woodburner and gas hob – and a wood-burning hot tub outside (everything is eco, including the loo)! And then there's the view – this beach hut gives new meaning to the idea of a private beach. Nestled in a cove, unreachable except by that rocky footpath, this is as hidden-away a hideaway as you could dream of. It isn't cheap, but you could travel the world and not find such a romantic retreat. If the sun shines it is bliss, and if it rains it is bliss too.
• Two nights at the Beach Hut costs £450 (optional organic dinner hamper £45); +44 (0)1752 830020, carswellcottages.com/thebeachhut
Lisa Allardice, editor of Guardian Review

Life after children, Sicily

"Why've we stopped?" whined our eldest, then 14. "There's nothing here!" "Here" was a quaint Italian riverside village with a bar with Prosecco on tap, but this was when we realised we'd have to put more effort into holidays with teens. So for a few years it was activities (rafting, canyoning) and cities (they loved Amsterdam). But teenagers grow up, go to university, and suddenly mooching around Europe is possible again. And cheap. Term time in Sicily and not only were hotel rooms almost half the summer price, half-board was sometimes thrown in. We stayed at friendly Pensione Tranchina in Scopello, an hour from Palermo, and ticked off all the things our offspring would have moaned about. No pool, tiny rocky beach, no shops, nothing to do after dinner except sit chatting with the owner over a digestivo. Worst of all, the rugged Zingaro natural park stretches for 7km up the coast, with footpaths for long bracing walks. There were even – horror! – wild flowers. Some things the youngsters would have liked: the fantastic food, and especially our cute black hired Fiat Cinquecento. But that's the sort of iconic vehicle only the child-free can bomb around Italy in. No room in the back for long teenage legs. Shucks, kids.
• Pensione Tranchina (+39 0924 541099, pensionetranchina.com) offers half-board from €55pp per night
Liz Boulter, travel writer

Canaries in style, Lanzarote

Forget the sun, sand and sex-on-the-beach stereotype; there's another side to Lanzarote. Away from the big resorts, the easternmost of the Canaries is a heady mix of wild volcanic landscapes, surfer-friendly beaches, theatrical modernist architecture and vineyards made up of volcanic stone circles that could have been designed by Andy Goldsworthy. You can reach them all easily enough from the coastal resorts with a hire car, but a much better idea is to base yourself at Caserío de Mozaga, an 18th-century country house in the centre of the island that's been turned into a very stylish boutique B&B with restaurant. Or you could book into a luxury yurt and cosy up under canvas at Finca de Arrieta on the north-east coast.
• Doubles at Caserío de Mozaga cost from €63 (+34 92 852 0060, caseriodemozaga.com). Yurts at Finca de Arrieta cost from £385 a week (lanzaroteretreats.com)
Rhiannon Batten, travel writer

Grecian splendour, Kefalonia

Along a rambling road near Fiscardo in the north of Kefalonia lay our cottage, Villa Trizoni. It had all the ingredients for a romantic break – the bare minimum, but done in style. We had three gorgeous bedrooms at our disposal, an airy open plan living space of white sofas, and an infinity pool surrounded by funky day beds. There was almost nothing to do, but that was fine by us – all we wanted was to loll around in the sunshine and spend time together. Then it poured with rain all week. Instead of languorous afternoons in the pool our memories are of drinking Mythos beer behind a rain-splashed plastic awning, paddling in the drizzle at beautiful Daf Noudi beach, and getting caught in a dramatic storm while half-way across to the neighbouring island of Ithaca in our rented motorboat. There, we were revived at the magical Polyphemus restaurant by an inebriated communist chef who fed us Che Guevara rum and sun-dried octopus for hours, then insisted he drive us back to the harbour. We even made up a silly song about Polyphemus which make us feel like teenagers recalling their first kiss when we sing it now.
• Villa Trizoni has weeks available in May, July and August, from £1,239 a week, with holidaylettings.co.uk. Villa Zouzouni, next door, sleeps two from £885 a week, and has weeks left in August
Gemma Bowes, Guardian Travel editor

Mountain highs, Slovenia

We'd seen photos of the Soca Valley, and read reviews about the chic mountain retreat called Nebesa. But nothing prepared us for the staggering Alpine beauty of the region – flower-filled meadows, crystal-clear rivers and lakes – nor the views from Nebesa's chalets; snow-capped mountains to the east, endless valleys to the west, trailing down to the Adriatic. Four glass-fronted chalets are the base from which to soak up these views. From our terrace, we watched a storm come in, then get chased away by glorious sunshine. We hiked up the mountain one day and white-water rafted down the turquoise Soca the next. In the evening we took at taxi to Hisa Franko, Slovenia's answer to The Fat Duck, for a sublime gourmet feast. The X factor at Nebesa isn't the luxuriousness of the hotel – it's actually fairly simple. What makes it so special is the setting and the isolation: it's a perfect place to hole up with a partner.
• Two-night stays from €255 for two including breakfast and use of bikes (i-escape.com/nebesa.php)
Liz Simpson, deputy editor, i-escape

Surf and city, Biarritz, France

I thought a trip to Biarritz would be ironically glam: pink cocktails and discotheques, that kind of thing. But at some point since the 1980s, it had morphed into a quietly hip surfing mecca. My then-boyfriend suddenly looked interested. We camped under the pines in the main surfie site at Anglet and walked down to the beach every morning. Compensating for the lack of kitsch, the boyfriend even serenaded me with Elvis Presley on the sand. Surf by day, cosmopolitan comforts by night: we ate outside at pretty old clifftop restaurants, drank wine from Gérard Dépardieu's nearby vineyards, and wandered along the pier that juts from the spectacular coastline out through the breakers. A little black dress and a surfboard are all you need in this town where la bonne vie meets Endless Summer.
• Biarritz Camping (+33 5 5923 0012, biarritz-camping.fr) charges from €23 for a pitch in summer. Hotel Alcyon (+33 5 5922 6460, hotel-alcyon-biarritz.com) has doubles from €105 in summer
Sophie Cooke, novelist

Beers and pintxos, San Sebastián, Spain

We took the Eurostar to Paris and the sleeper train to Hendaye. When we woke, it was a short hop over the border to San Sebastián – or Donostia, as it is known by its Basque inhabitants. We chose from one of scores of affordable pensions in the beguiling parte vieja (old town). We spent lazy days on the city's beautiful beaches, and late nights bar-hopping. The city specialises in pintxos, simple Basque tapas: we wandered from tavern to tavern, greedily sampling as many as we could. For a once-in-lifetime meal, try to get a table at legendary restaurant Arzak (arzak.info), ranked eighth in the world. We relaxed at La Perla (la-perla.net), a beachside spa; visited Eduardo Chillida's wave-lashed sculptures in La Concha Bay; and climbed Mount Urgull for the castle, enormous Jesus Christ statue and panoramic views. We bought a couple of beers just as the basic hilltop bar was closing and sat alone by the fig trees, watching the sun set over the bay.
• For travel details see seat61.com/Spain.htm
Rachel Dixon, travel writer

I left my heart in San Francisco

I'd been obsessed by San Francisco since reading Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City series – the rolling hills, the smell of marijuana, the glamorous casualties of a life lived as though every day was 1969 – but it wasn't until my 27th birthday that I finally visited, a surprise present from my boyfriend, who'd been choking on the secret for months. It was San Francisco I'd had in mind when I chose to move to Brighton for university, where the lovely gayness and scattered vintage shops charmed me, briefly. But it took a week in a budget downtown hotel – queuing for breakfasts at Dottie's True Blue cafe, taking shy photos outside the house Maupin was inspired by – an afternoon in Alcatraz, and various second-hand clothing purchases along Haight Street, for me to convince my boyfriend that this, one day, should be our home. Plans are in motion ...
• Hotel Majestic (+1 415 441 1100, thehotelmajestic.com) has period styling and doubles from $115; at the other end of the aesthetic spectrum Hotel Tomo (+1 415 921 4000, jdvhotels.com/tomo) offers brightly coloured Japanese pop art and doubles from $129
Eva Wiseman, columnist, Observer magazine

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