Dreamy Escapes: Why Some Places Bring Us Closer
What makes dreamy escapes truly memorable?
Is it a sunset over Santorini? A table for two overlooking the Amalfi Coast? Snow falling on an Alpine village? Wandering cobblestone streets with nowhere in particular to be?
Perhaps.
But we’ve come to believe there’s something more to it.
The dreamy escapes we remember aren’t necessarily the ones labeled “romantic.” They’re the places where, for whatever reason, we slow down enough to notice where we are—and who we’re sharing it with.
That’s a different way of thinking about romantic travel.
And it raises an interesting question:
Can a journey actually bring two people closer?
Dreamy Escapes Aren’t Really About the Destination
The travel world loves lists.
The ten most romantic destinations. The best honeymoon resorts. The perfect places to celebrate an anniversary. The dreamy escapes everyone should experience at least once.
There is nothing wrong with any of them. Linda and I certainly appreciate a beautiful hotel, a remarkable meal, and a spectacular view.
But put two people on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean, and you haven’t necessarily created romance.
You’ve created a setting.
What happens within that setting is the experience.
Perhaps that’s why some dreamy escapes stay with us long after others fade.
Travel pulls us out of the routines that occupy so much of everyday life. The appointments, errands, work, household responsibilities, phones, television, and countless other things competing for our attention suddenly become less important.
We have time.
Time for dinner that lasts two hours.
Time to walk somewhere instead of driving.
Time to sit with a glass of wine and watch the sun disappear.
Time to talk.
Time to laugh.
Time to discover something together.
Maybe that’s where romance actually begins.
Dreamy Escapes let us slow down.
Some destinations seem particularly good at creating that space.
Consider Positano, where buildings tumble down the cliffs toward the Mediterranean and narrow streets make wandering almost unavoidable.
Or Annecy, where canals thread through the old town beneath the French Alps and the lake seems to invite you to walk alongside it.
There is Bruges, with medieval streets, canals, cafés, and the feeling that you have somehow stepped into another century.
And Český Krumlov, where the Vltava River curls around a town of red roofs, cobblestone lanes, and a castle overlooking it all.
What these places have in common isn’t simply beauty.
They encourage lingering.
And lingering may be what transforms ordinary travel into the dreamy escapes we remember years later.
Other destinations create connection through sheer wonder.
Stand together above Santorini’s caldera as the light changes over the Aegean.
Look across the Adriatic from the walls surrounding Dubrovnik.
Watch mountains reflect in the lake at Hallstatt.
Stand at Ronda’s Puente Nuevo and look into the enormous gorge beneath you.
Or walk beneath spring blossoms in Kyoto.
Sometimes something is so beautiful, strange, ancient, or unexpected that conversation stops.
You look.
Together.
That shared sense of wonder matters.
Years later, we may not remember what we ate for breakfast that morning or which hotel room we stayed in.
But we remember turning toward someone we love and saying:
“Look at that.”
The best dreamy escapes give us moments like these—not because they were manufactured for us, but because we were there together when something remarkable happened.
The Best Dreamy Escapes Have a Sense of Place
Another ingredient sometimes gets lost when we talk about romantic travel.
The destination should matter.
If we’re in Italy, let Italy be part of the experience.
Eat what people there eat. Drink the wine grown nearby. Wander through the market. Learn something about the village. Meet someone who lives there. Sit in the piazza. Listen to the church bells.
In Greece, taste the Assyrtiko grown in volcanic soil.
In Belgium, find the little café you didn’t know you were looking for.
In Japan, notice the rituals and details that make the culture distinctly its own.
The most memorable dreamy escapes don’t isolate us from the destination. They draw us deeper into it.
A journey becomes more meaningful when we aren’t simply occupying a beautiful room somewhere.
We’re experiencing that particular somewhere together.
Dreamy Escapes Need the Right Place to Stay
This is one reason we believe exceptional accommodations matter, but the hotel should never overwhelm the destination.
The right place to stay becomes part of the story.
It gives us somewhere wonderful to return to after exploring. Perhaps there’s a balcony where the day ends with a glass of wine, a fireplace beside which we talk about what we discovered, or a breakfast table where we decide what rabbit hole we’re following next.
The best accommodations complement our dreamy escapes rather than becoming the entire reason for them.
Luxury isn’t necessarily about extravagance.
Sometimes luxury is simply having the time and space to be together.
Dreamy Escapes Leave Room for the Unexpected
Some of the best moments between two people can’t be scheduled.
That’s a difficult admission for people who design travel.
We can reserve the extraordinary restaurant.
Arrange the private guide.
Find the remarkable hotel.
Introduce you to fascinating people.
Get you somewhere at precisely the right time.
But creating dreamy escapes also requires knowing when not to schedule something.
Leave an afternoon open.
Turn down the street because it looks interesting.
Stop at the café.
Stay for another glass of wine.
Change the plan because someone you met told you about a place you’ve never heard of.
Those moments create a different kind of memory because they belong entirely to you.
Nobody packaged them.
You discovered them together.
Perhaps that’s what we’ve been getting wrong when we call places romantic.
Santorini isn’t inherently romantic.
Neither is Positano, Kyoto, Dubrovnik, Bruges, Annecy, Hallstatt, Ronda, or Český Krumlov.
They’re extraordinary settings.
What transforms them into dreamy escapes is what happens while we’re there.
The conversation over dinner.
The wrong turn that becomes an adventure.
The ridiculous thing that makes you both laugh.
The sunset you almost missed.
The person you met.
The meal you still talk about ten years later.
The photograph that means something to nobody else but instantly transports the two of you back to that moment.
Those are the souvenirs that matter.
Where Are the World’s Best Dreamy Escapes?
We don’t think there is one answer.
And that’s the point.
For one couple, the perfect escape might be a candlelit table overlooking the Mediterranean.
For another, a cabin in the mountains.
It might be Paris.
Or Patagonia.
A vineyard in Portugal.
A road trip through small-town America.
Or someplace neither of you had ever considered until curiosity led you there.
So perhaps the better question isn’t:
“Where should we go for a romantic trip?”
It’s:
“What kind of experience would give us the chance to reconnect, explore, laugh, wonder, and create a story that belongs to us?”
Now that’s a question worth building a journey around.
Because the best dreamy escapes aren’t necessarily the places everyone tells us we should visit.
They’re the places where, for a little while, the rest of the world becomes background—and we remember the joy of experiencing it together.
Robert Riesmeyer is the Founder and Travel Concierge/Host of Epic Explorations and the voice behind The Resonant Explorer. A lifelong traveler, storyteller, and relentlessly curious explorer, Robert looks beyond the obvious—into the people, history, culture, and unexpected stories that give a place meaning.
Based in the Kansas City area, he explores the world, follows intriguing rabbit holes, and seeks experiences most travelers overlook. For Robert, travel isn't about collecting destinations. It's about curiosity, connection, wonder, and discovering the stories that stay with us long after we return home.