Secluded picnics on a sandbank within the Maldives, strolls alongside the Seine at sundown — journey brings loads of alternatives for {couples} to dial up the romance. However what occurs when Cupid’s arrow misfires or one thing goes fallacious? We requested Occasions Journey journalists to share the moments they’d somewhat neglect.

Predominant photograph: Limassol Marina in Cyprus, scene of 1 author’s unintended romantic nadir (Getty Pictures)

Varanasi on the Ganges, river of romantic doom (Getty Pictures)

Loss of life by boredom on the Ganges

I took my associate to India for a romantic cruise on the Ganges. The entire journey was a catastrophe. One tour concerned 13 hours in a bus with no lavatory stops, arriving again in darkness, at which level the guides couldn’t discover the ship. The bar on board was locked as we had been travelling by a dry state.

Within the absence of something to do, we toured a brick manufacturing facility

There have been limitless delays as a result of the river was blocked by a collection of seasonal barrage bridges. Within the absence of something to do, we toured a brick manufacturing facility. A notable low was when the ship ploughed into one of many barrages and we needed to take to the lifeboats, abandoning the cruise. We slept in 5 beds in seven nights. By the point we obtained to Varanasi, we had been too traumatised for love. Then I caught a Covid-like bug on the best way dwelling.
Sue Bryant

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On yer bike

After I was nonetheless in college I had a wild few summer time months on an internship in Barcelona. I arrived within the metropolis misplaced, with nowhere to remain and my cellphone battery useless. On my first day I met an Australian bike tour information (swoon). We hit it off. It was a completely fledged Summer season Romance. He confirmed me the most effective elements of Barcelona, we went to the seaside day-after-day and nice bars each night time. It was solely in direction of the tip of my journey, after I ran into a bunch of his pals at a terrace bar and joined them for a drink that I realised one thing was terribly fallacious. Then my tour information turned up and kissed a woman within the group. His girlfriend. It put me off bike excursions for all times.
Katie Gatens

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Skanderbeg Sq. in Tirana, the place for candlelit romance (Getty Pictures)

The ability (reduce) of affection in Albania

Fifteen years in the past, I met my now-husband in a shared dorm room in a youth hostel in Krakow, Poland, when our travels throughout the Iron Curtain met within the center. We went for a Zubrowka vodka within the basement bar that regarded like an Anderson shelter, and nicely — the remainder is historical past. We then, somewhat mawkishly, carried on with the shared dorms. One memorable Valentine’s Day was then spent in a hostel in Tirana, Albania, lengthy earlier than it went wherever close to a Lonely Planet listing. This was within the days of standard energy cuts, which meant somewhat than cuddling one another, we ended up huddled collectively over the fan heater. Romance certainly.
Cathy Adams

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A lone wolf on Honeymoon Island

Generally, it’s important to get out into the world and be true to your self. Observe your dream, otherwise you’ll spend your whole life wanting over your shoulder at what may need been.

Properly, that’s what I informed myself after I left my girlfriend Vera behind in London for a fortnight and went browsing in French Polynesia. It was solely after I obtained on the aircraft that I realised how a lot I used to be going to overlook her. And my agony deepened after I arrived, and found I’d booked a vacation on Honeymoon Island. I wore my jaw out attempting to elucidate to kindly American newlyweds why I’d left the girl I cherished on the opposite aspect of the planet.

Then, midway by the journey, I nearly drowned. Good job too, as a result of I lastly awakened from my deluded, lone wolf fantasy. I went again to London and requested Vera to marry me. Are you able to guess the place we went on our honeymoon?
Sean Newsom

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The scene of the crime: Rialto Bridge, Venice (Getty Pictures)

When gondolas go fallacious

In my twenties I had a boyfriend who was universally disliked by my family and friends. Even I wasn’t too certain about him, and felt shocked when he spontaneously instructed a weekend in Venice. Considering of it as a make-or-break journey, I agreed, and as soon as there we rallied slightly, our relationship buoyed by Bellinis and town’s dazzling magnificence. On our remaining day my boyfriend instructed a gondola journey and, as we drifted out from beneath the Rialto Bridge, dropped onto one knee and proposed, ring in hand. Completely failing to hide the horror from my face, I blurted out a “no”, and we each fell right into a dismal silence for the remainder of the journey. The poor gondolier didn’t know the place to look.
Orla Thomas

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Honeymoon hell in Siem Reap

My husband and I arrived in Siem Reap in Cambodia two days into married life — so newly wed that the phrase “my husband and I” nonetheless felt hilariously novel. We deposited our luggage within the luxurious lodge room we’d booked for a number of nights and skipped straight out to discover city, by way of noodles on the market and sugar-cane juice from a avenue vendor. A number of hours later we felt the rumblings that informed us we’d be paying closely for that grasping enthusiasm. You do not need the small print, however let me let you know that over the following 24 hours, that luxurious room got here into its personal. Or somewhat its rest room did: having a bidet in addition to a toilet meant that within the (frequent) occasion of an emergency, neither of us needed to wait. It couldn’t have been much less romantic but it surely may need saved our marriage. Or, as my disco-loving husband may need stated, final night time a bidet saved my spouse.
Liz Edwards

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The forgotten crime scene in Thailand

In 2001, whereas travelling with a college pal, I fell for a Swedish backpacker from Umea. We first met in Nepal, attached in Thailand whereas in Bangkok one month later after which organized to fulfill for a Christmas fling on Koh Phi Phi, the island setting for the movie model of Alex Garland’s The Seashore. And but, the night time earlier than our grand get-together issues couldn’t have gone worse. Following a number of ephedrine-heavy Sang Som rum buckets, my buddy collapsed on a glass bottle in my room, utterly severed his thumb and wanted instant reconstructive surgical procedure.

I obtained again to Koh Phi Phi in time for our date, however forgot one sobering element

I’ll spare the horror present, however what occurred subsequent concerned a kamikaze two-hour speedboat journey to Phuket in pitch blackness, a pie-eyed in a single day stint in A&E, then a hungover race again to Koh Phi Phi in time for our date. Defying the chances I made it however missed one sobering element: my crime scene bed room, with bloody handprints on the wall and mattress sheets soaked deep pink. It took a hell of a variety of explaining to the distraught lady that I wasn’t Patrick Bateman from American Psycho.
Mike MacEacheran

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A soul-crushing sundown cruise

One night, on a solo press journey in Cyprus, I used to be introduced with two potential night plans: dinner alone within the lodge restaurant or a sundown cruise — and foolishly selected the latter. Clocking the boat’s identify, Seaduction, I instantly knew it was the fallacious transfer. My night was spent propping up the one solo desk on the ship, surrounded by cherished up {couples} clutching roses, and avoiding the eyes of the violinists who smiled sympathetically at me like I used to be a jilted bride on the altar. The night hit a remaining bum be aware when an aged saxophonist took pity and requested if I wished to hitch him on the dancefloor with the opposite {couples}.
Lucy Perrin

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Turmeric — essentially the most romantic of all elements? (Alamy)

{Couples} spa therapies in Vietnam

Rose-petal strewn baths or beds are usually not my concept of romance. Nor are joint spa therapies. My husband refuses them however I’ve skilled one on a keep at Six Senses on the previous jail island Con Dao in Vietnam. Coated in a turmeric-infused scrub that turned us a sickly yellow, my pal and I couldn’t take a look at one another with out laughing. We needed to bury our faces within the towelled beds.
Jenny Coad

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Dinner catastrophe in Deia

I’d deliberate a dreamy weekend at La Residencia in Deia, on Mallorca’s northwest coast, with my boyfriend on the time, however already on the drive up from the airport, I used to be feeling distinctly peely-wally. I settled my abdomen with a packet of biscuits and a number of other of the truffles left in our attractive suite by the concierge service, and by meal time I used to be tip-top. The eating room was hushed and formal, and we had been positioned bang within the centre, kilometres from the closest exit. When two liveried waiters arrived bearing plates coated with silver domes, put them down on the desk and did the massive, choreographed reveal, it was already too late. Retching into my linen serviette, I jumped up and ran, making it to the poolside patio — fortunately abandoned — simply in time to vomit unobserved.
Mia Aimaro Ogden

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