For some, at least. Land up in Paris or Venice with an attractive member of the opposite sex, and sooner rather than later, you’ll find candles and ukuleles and chocolates popping up all over the place. Honestly, you can’t seem to escape it, at times.

I have to confess I’m a bit leery of this. I’d rather go with friends: there’s no shopping involved, the candles can go take a hike, and if you have a bitter argument over the cute local girl you were eyeing, you can always fix things with a beer, rather than live with a broken relationship. Places that are just meant for romance, in particular, worry me intensely. I’d rather have food allergies.

So, this time, we decided to seek out destinations and experiences that, while definitely pretty and romantic, had more to offer than just an opportunity for couples to ooze all over each other. These, we decided, had to give you something to talk about, be sufficiently interesting so you could tear your eyes away from your partner – and if it came to it, arouse enough excitement to distract you from your huffy lover. Ukuleles were definitely optional – great travel was much more important. With this in mind, we landed up in some very special places. Like Tuscany, intensely pretty and wine-soaked, but also filled with horse races in the city and incredible art – and, surprisingly, great surfing. And Sri Lanka, which has bounced back from the war with a watermelon grin, and features lovely little hotels built under enormous rocks, angry-faced monkeys and charming toilet-roll holders (I’m not kidding).

If you’d rather relax after the stress of courting, there’s the Seychelles, so beautiful it ought to be slapped – and with wildlife and people that are too often ignored by visitors who only stay in expensive hotels. And if that isn’t enough, we have 25 whole ideas for you to explore – from hot-air ballooning to spending a night in a machan – which should definitely put the fizz into your date.

And if there’s fizzle instead of fizz, hey, ditch the partner and go explore. It’s more than love that makes the world go round.

I’m talking about India and the countries around us, and I’m talking especially about travel. Isn’t it a shame we can’t head across the border, for a little trip? It’d be easy, of course, but more than that, it’d be fascinating, no? Seriously, look at what we have around us. Pakistan, full of incredible music and landscapes, but can you really go there? Or Nepal, which has run itself down so badly in the last decade, that most of the places I fell in love with on a post-school trip are almost unrecognisable. Bangladesh, with the Sunderbans and so much history, but again tough to visit. Burma, so darkly wonderful but quite inaccesible. Sri Lanka and Bhutan are both very much worth visiting and fairly easy to go to, but that’s quite a minority. And instead of being able to pop in and out, whether to borrow a metaphorical cup of milk or just to poke around, we have to just grit our teeth and hope that it’ll all be better someday. Oh well. The only consolation is that the world itself is smaller now, and if you can’t go to the immediate neighbours, the ones just beyond aren’t that far away. Thailand,
for example, goes out of its way to make you feel welcome – and that isn’t just in the famous tourist centres. You can find real culture and unspoilt beauty there, with the ease of travel and hospitality (and food) that makes it such a tourist magnet. Dubai presents itself in a flash of air-conditioned swank, loaded to the gills with things to do with the family, and a good, thick layer of culture under all the gloss. And never mind the neighbours’ houses – India itself is like a big, old ancestral villa whose attics you haven’t properly explored yet, with a vast garden you could still spend years looking around. The Andamans aren’t actually as far away as they seem, with genuine rock-to-the-head beauty. Even the places around Delhi, like Auli, Binsar and the Tirthan Valley, not more than a few hours’ drive away, can be astonishingly pretty and make for a rewarding short break. And sometimes, not being easy to explore has its benefits. Take Nagaland, which has retained so much of its beauty and culture – we bring you a tiny slice of it in a bonus photo-feature on the Hornbill Festival, the Nagas’ great annual gathering.

Last month, I promised you Easy Travel. This is it – easy, but never boring.