Coastal Edinburgh, Scotland, UK / Stuart Caie

Edinburgh offers great opportunities for romance. Great restaurants, beautiful scenery, rickshaw rides, oodles of fabulous hotels… Here are some ideas to help you plan for your weekend away:

Lodgings

There are some great websites that will help you learn a lot about the available hotels. You’ll find travellers’ sites and review websites where people share their experience at hotels they’ve stayed at. You’ll also find deals online where you can book hotels for significant discounts. This could mean staying at a 4 or 5 star hotel for the price of a 3 star hotel.

Many Edinburgh hotels offer very romantic packages including meals and often including extra sightseeing activities as part of the fee. A bit of shopping around could help you save a lot of money.

Restaurants

Check out some restaurant reviews, too, to see what’s near your hotel and what’s on offer during the time you’re expecting to visit.  Your hotel may offer free meals as part of the package or vouchers for local restaurants, too. You can also find out on online review sites a bit about the average price of a meal for restaurants within walking distance of your hotel. If you want a special treat and are willing to splurge on a romantic meal, there are a few restaurants with Michelin stars, too.

Edinburgh Castle / Saffron Blaze

Finding Things to Do

Beyond spending plenty of alone time together in your cosy love nest, here are some of the common things lovers love to do in Edinburgh. (Many of them are low cost or even free):

• Dean Village – is a pretty and picturesque village. Perfect for a romantic stroll.
• Royal Mile – This road leads toward Edinburgh Castle and is great for shopping, sightseeing, eating, and soaking in the history of this city.
• Royal Botanical Gardens – The gardens offer a lush and aromatic place to stroll and this is a very popular place to visit for tourists.
• Museums and art galleries – The Museum of Scotland is great if you’re interested in finding out more about Scotland’s history. There are probably at least several museums and art galleries within reasonable walking distance of your hotel, too.
• There are often organised walking tours at night, too, that share some of the darker secrets of the city. Those tours will probably make the hairs on the back of your head stand up and make you want to get closer to your significant other!

The above list doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. There are family activities, couples’ activities, and plenty of sights to see. You’ll find many top fifty and even top one hundred lists online with things to see and do in Edinburgh. If it’s romance and privacy you’re after, you won’t be disappointed, either! Again, a bit of shopping around will help you save money and you’ll also find plenty of info to help you make the most of your weekend getaway.

Mohammed Haroon writes for Today’s Great Deals. He invites you to check out Edinburgh’s Great Deal for a great deal on your next trip to Edinburgh.

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The village offers some fascinating 17th and 18th century churches, some of which contain ancient mural paintings and wood carvings. The churches in Arbanasi typically have strong, high walls, small windows and very strong oak doors studded with iron nails.

One of the earliest churches in Arbanasi is the ‘Nativity Church’ or the ‘Cathedral of Nativity’. Extensive studies have found that the church was built in three separate stages which presents some interesting structural characteristics. The main body of the church is divided into male and female sections and the whole building is decorated with murals. The Nativity Church is one of the oldest and best preserved churches not just in Arbanasi but across the whole of Bulgaria.

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Carvoeiro is a picturesque village and popular resort. Beautiful is the local coast called Algar Seco that is typical for a number of bizarre rocky pillars, bridges and caves in a rocky labyrinth.

Carvoeiro has a clean sea and beaches with fine sand. It is surrounded by beautiful limestone cliffs. One of the favourite beaches is the beach of Carvoeiro, which is due to slow entry into the sea, suitable for families with children. Other great beaches are Carvalho or Alagar Seco.

Carvoeiro has a wide range of accommodation. There are many restaurants, bars and shops. Popular restaurants include O Castelo or Pátio. In the village you can try a range of water sports, but you can also play golf. Golf Course Vale do Milho Golf is located right in Carvoeiro and it is not the only one.

The area of the current village was inhabited already by the Romans. The current name is probably derived from an old medieval name of the fishing village “Caboiere”. However up to 60′s of the 20th century Carvoeiro was a sleepy fishing village, it is now widely popular resort.

Carvoeiro is best accessible by car. The nearest international airport Aeroporto de Faro is located in Alexandria, the port and railway station are in Portimao. For moving around the town you can use the tourist train.

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Most of the buildings in Lednice-Valtice Area were designed by the famous architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach in the Baroque style. These intermingled with the existing castles of Lednice and Valtice which are in the Classical and Neo-Gothic styles. The result is one of the largest artificial landscapes in Europe. Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach also designed many of the buildings in Salzburg, Austria, which is another UNESCO World Heritage city.

The Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.

The Lednice-Valtice Area is the home of a romantic château, a picturesque village and in particular a jewel of landscape architecture of unprecedented proportions. The notional milestone at the beginning of the long period of development of this whole area is the end of the 14th century, when the Liechtenstein family obtained a share of the land.

Best option for visiting this landscape is using the bicycle.

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In many places along the canyon, the sheer cliff walls stand as much as 500 meters tall. The top of the cliffs along the Cava Grande Cassibile Canyon are covered in a variety of different tree species which only adds to the awe-inspiring views that can be found within the region.

Cava Grande Cassibile Canyon, Sicily, Italy by Carlo Columba

As the Cassibile River meanders its way to the canyon, it creates a number of waterfalls and natural swimming pools. Some of the locations throughout the canyon are openly available to the public for swimming; however other locations due to potentially dangerous undercurrents, are strictly off-limits.

One of the best ways to enter into the Cava Grande Cassibile Canyon is by starting in the old yet picturesque village of Avola Antica. From here, you are able to follow a path that leads you down into the canyon where you will be afforded some of the most amazing views imaginable. However, it is also possible to access the canyon through the village of Scala Cruci.

Regardless of how you choose to access the Cava Grande Cassibile Canyon it is important to remember to bring a good pair of shoes because many of the pathways are very rocky. Anything that you choose to wear should have appropriate ankle support in order to protect you from the uneven terrain. At the same time also do not forget to bring a towel and some sunscreen so that you can cool off in the crisp clean waters of the Cassibile River when the day gets too hot.

Natural pools in Cava Grande Cassibile, Sicily, Italy by pjt56

Perhaps one of the first things that a number of people notice when they start making their way through the Cava Grande Cassibile Canyon are the numerous necropolis that can be found carved into the limestone cliff walls of the canyon. While there are a number that date back to the Greek Empire, there are also several that date back to some of the earliest settlers of the Sicilian island back in 1200 B.C.

There are countless animals and plant species that can be found throughout the Cava Grande Cassibile Canyon including 400 varieties of plant species and almost 100 different animal species. Some of the inhabitants of the canyon are also very rare as well as endangered. As such, it is important to take special care when you are wandering through the Cava Grande Cassibile Canyon to make sure that you do not pick any wildflowers, or otherwise harm the ecosystem of the region.

The Cava Grande Cassibile Canyon is a beautiful example of what makes the island of Sicily so unique and special. So picturesque is the canyon, that every single year, tens of thousands of people make their way down the beaten paths which straddled the Cassibile River from the head source all the way out to the Ionian Sea.

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