It may be the UK's next City of Culture, but that hasn’t stopped Hull from being voted the least romantic destination in the UK. The annual “Destination Romance Report” from Hotels.com saw a not insubstantial fifth of the Brits polled vote for the Yorkshire city as lacking in the romance department. And we’d have to agree – though Hull is slowly on the up, it’s still far from the place you want to be whisking your loved one to for a weekend.
Top in the romance stakes was London – conversely (and perhaps showing us Brits for the fickle nation we are), the capital was also voted the third least romantic city. Which says it all, really: what’s romantic for one person might not be for another.
Ultimately, when it comes to romance, it’s about the person you’re with and how the place makes you feel as much as anything else – after all, great company can make even the dreariest of towns sparkle a little.
But the report did get us thinking. On what criteria should you judge whether a city is romantic or not? We came up with five factors:
- An impressive setting
- Plenty of places in which to do very little
- Great places to stay
- Atmospheric places to eat and drink
- Well suited to independent exploration
Do you agree? What do you think of the results? Does Hull leave you cold and London light your fire?
If you're looking for more romance, we recently picked 20 impossibly romantic places around the world.
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