When it comes to naming the most romantic destinations in Europe, a few obvious destinations tend to pop up the most. London, thanks to its iconic landmarks and legendary movie scenes. Rome, thanks to its delish food and intimate restaurants. Paris, thanks to its, y’know, everything.
And now there’s a new ranking of Europe’s most romantic capitals. Research by Catamaran Charter Croatia (after all, what’s more romantic than, erm... renting your own catamaran?) has ranked the continent’s capital cities based on their number of romantic restaurants and hotels per million residents. According to the study, a ‘romantic’ hotel or restaurant is one where it’s described as such on TripAdvisor.
Top of the ranking came Lisbon. That’s right: if you’re looking for romance, apparently the Portuguese capital is the place to be. Lisbon boasts 588 romantic restaurants and 152 romantic hotels, the highest ratio per inhabitant of any city in Europe.
Next up in the list was Monaco, in part due to its small size compared to the number of ‘romantic’ establishments, while third was the City of Love itself, Paris. Here are the full top ten most romantic cities in Europe right now, according to CCC’s study.
- Lisbon, Portugal
- Monaco, Monaco
- Paris, France
- San Marino, San Marino
- Rome, Italy
- Andorra la Vella, Andorra
- Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Athens, Greece
- Prague, Czech Republic
- Reykjavik, Iceland
Now, just as romance is expressed in different ways, no two rankings of the most romantic cities are the same. Another recent study by luggage storage company Bounce, for example, named Paris the world’s most romantic city break destination. You can read more about that one here.
We, meanwhile, have our own lists of the most romantic places in the world and the most romantic holidays destinations for couples. So if you’re on the lookout for a super-romantic getaway, there’s no shortage of inspo!
Did you see that this Italian city has been named the world’s best food destination for 2023?
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