Travel solutions: Romantic Breaks
Three very different city breaks to put a little more romance back into your love life
Edinburgh
Sample some of the city's beautiful gothic elegance
Ravenna
A small, sleepy city steeped in Byzantine history - perfect for lovers in search of a little culture
Brussels
Slowly wander around the beautiful baroque and gilded buildings taking plenty of beer and hot chocolate breaks
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For Gothic elegance: Edinburgh
It’ll be dark by the time you alight from the Friday night King’s Cross train, but that befits Edinburgh’s gothic drama. Against the night sky, the castle looms over the city from its lofty outcrop of volcanic rock while the bright lights of Princes Street beckon. Glasgow might be Scotland’s coolest city, but Edinburgh – with its good manners and meticulously preserved architecture – is where the romantics go.
By day, Scotland’s capital reveals itself as a stately, pleasantly hilly place. In the winter and early spring, long before preparations for the all-consuming Festival have begun, it’s palpably colder here than in London, the wind as sharp as needles. It’s even more biting on the Royal Mile, where you should ignore the numerous tartan shops and get into the castle in time for the one o’clock gun. If gazing into each other’s eyes is more mesmerising that the intricacies of Scottish history, take the weight off your feet at the Redcoat Café, next to the gun, which serves delicious, hearty food and enjoys a fabulous view.
For somewhere to stay, Tigerlily, which opened in June 2006, is a boutique hotel with its own restaurant, two bars and a club. In the heart of the New Town on George Street (parallel to Princes Street), the Grade I-listed Georgian building of butter-coloured stone houses 33 suites and rooms. Many of the original features have been retained and blended successfully with contemporary fabrics, colour schemes and expensive mod cons such as swivelling Bang & Olufsen tellys, complex mood lighting and iPod docks.
Downstairs is Lulu, Tigerlily’s plush new club, but trysting couples might prefer an intimate candlelit dinner. A ten-minute taxi ride away is the old Prestonfield Hotel (Prestonfield Rd, 0131 225 1333) which has been revamped by the people who gave Edinburgh the famous Witchery restaurant. A seventeenth-century mansion, now housing the restaurant Rhubarb, it lies in the shadow of Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh’s other huge and incongruous volcanic mound. Inside, tall windows draped with opulent swags, ornate ceilings and polished wood approximate the set of a particularly lavish period drama. The food is good, too – a highlight of the dessert menu is the rhubarb assiette, five mini puddings all featuring the eponymous vegetable.
Kate Riordan
Stay at Tigerlily, 125 George St, Edinburgh (0131 225 5005/ www.tigerlilyedinburgh.co.uk). From £175 for a double room.
Getting there King’s Cross to Edinburgh with First Great Western from £38 per single ticket (www.nationalrailenquiries.com).
