If every Friday is set aside for the same ho-hum dinner-and-a-movie, “date night” will repeat like Groundhog Day and eventually become a grind. That kind of drudgery can derail even the most starry-eyed-in-love couple (think Prince William and Kate Middleton).
The good news: It’s not that difficult to turn up the heat. The trick, experts say, is finding new and exciting ways to bond with your honey — and trying to be a little spontaneous about it.
Fairmont Heritage Place, Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco
Our friends from SELF asked Tina B. Tessina, Ph.D. (aka “Dr. Romance”), psychotherapist and author of The Unofficial Guide to Dating Again, for five ways to bring back the spark. Oyster experts picked the best places and environments to rejuvenate your relationship, whether you’re on vacation or it’s just another night.
Get nostalgic. Think back to when you were first dating. Go back to the place where you first met, watch a DVD (complete with popcorn) of the first movie you saw together, hit Happy Hour at the bar near your old job or wander through the park with a picnic lunch.
Where to do it: Picnicking in New York’s Central Park is something special, anyone who has done it will tell you. The beautiful escape in the middle of a bustling metropolitan city has a unique and exciting feel; the setting ignited an appreciation for life’s simple things. Perfect for surfacing old memories that make you both smile, Central Park has got it all. The Excelsior Hotel on the city’s Upper West Side is just a block from the park, located in a quiet, residential neighborhood.
Central Park, New York
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Craving something sweet but don’t want to break the bank? Whether we’re talking food or hotels, we’ve got the perfect solution for you.
Our friends from SELF found the treat: satisfy your sweet tooth without guilt with these Plush Puffs fat-free marshmallows from DylansCandyBar. No fat, just flavors: Vanilla or caramel-swirl marshmallows step up s’mores; lemon meringue enhances tea. Or enjoy them plain for about 70 calories. (And you get five per serving.)
And as for hotels, the list is endless. But, we’ve picked our favorite budget-friendly hotels that will make you feel like a million bucks.
Hotel: Grano De Oro, San Jose, Costa Rica
Price: $130/avg. night
Pearls: Rating: 3.5 Pearls
This former Victorian mansion turned intimate, 40-room hotel features large, homey rooms, a rooftop Jacuzzi, and a renowned fine dining restaurant. Antiques, tinkling fountains, wood floors and artful flower arrangements make it feel like you might be staying in the home of a wealthy colonial-era plantation owner. But it lacks the features a larger hotel — there’s no business center, fitness center, pool or spa.
Grano De Oro, Costa Rica
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It’s beach season! Who doesn’t love a day in the sun, lying out in the sand and playing in the ocean waves? The only thing that makes it better is getting lost in a juicy page-turner. And new research finds that reading makes us happier. Reason is, we get attached to the characters and feel a genuine connection to them. A book is no replacement for real-life friends, of course, but it can expand your horizons and let you get lost into a rich fantasy world. And that’s exactly the kind of escape you want on a lazy beach day.
To make your beach reading experience a social one, try what my family does and read as a group. Bring a few novels on vacation, then pass them around so you can all be on the same page and discuss them together. Instant book group! I’m currently loving Piper Kerman’s gripping memoir, Orange is the New Black: My Year in Women’s Prison and Jennifer Egan’s gorgeous Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Visit from the Good Squad.
Don’t know which book to stash in your beach bag? Our Facebook friends from SELF couldn’t put down these hot picks. Oyster helps you pick where to read them.
To really embrace the summer feeling
Read:
- Summer Sisters, by Judy Blume
- Summer Rental, by Mary Kay Andrews
- The Island, by Erin Hilderbrand
Where: The Setai, Miami
Miami is the perfect destination for a getaway without going too far. These light summer reads don’t require complete seclusion, as you’ll want to share some stories with your girlfriends or dip your feet in the waves every now and then. The Setai’s clean, quiet patch of beach is as posh as it gets in South Beach. If you’re feeling a bit too hot, attendants deliver luxurious loungers and spritz guests with Evian on request. How’s that for a summer read?
The Setai, Miami
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The JW Marriott Orlando, where the free resort credit really is free
Oyster just posted more than two dozen reviews of Orlando hotels and resorts, and the bundled “resort credit” is currently very popular among them. Basically, it’s a gift certificate to spend on resort services during — and only during — your stay. Sounds nice, but the catch is that booking one of these “specials” for a certain room category is sometimes more expensive than reserving just a room of the same type.
You’ll occasionally net a free drink or free valet parking — things that can indeed add up over a multi-day stay — but these so-called deals deserve particular scrutiny. Here’s a closer look at four hotels that are offering room-and-resort credit packages — and a breakdown of whether paying extra for is actually worth it. As it turns out, sometimes it is…
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The funky, floral Ocean View rooms of the Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel
We just got word about a new “Discover Oahu Package” from the Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel, a property that made it onto our list of the best hotels in Oahu thanks to a spectacular beachfront location and great views of the ocean from the color-splashed rooms. But does the three-night bundle, which includes accommodations, tours of some of the island’s most important attractions, and a pre-packed picnic lunch, really “take the stress out of planning an adventure-filled vacation for two, while also saving valuable time and money?” Let’s take a closer look at the details.
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Sheraton Nassau Beach Resort in the Bahamas is offering a free roundtrip flight deal for guests who book a four-night stay.
On the surface, the Sheraton Nassau Beach Resort’s “Companion Flies Free” package announced yesterday sounds amazing: It offers a free roundtrip companion flight to the Bahamas for guests who book a four night stay, and 40 percent savings on room rates. But we at Oyster are always a little skeptical of hotel package deals, so we embarked on a fact finding mission to get the truth. Has the recession caused the Sheraton to resort to desperate measures to fill rooms, or is the deal too good to be true? Welcome back to Oyster’s Bundle Breakdowns, where we go through the painstaking process of (roughly) breaking down the costs of popular hotel bundle offerings to determine whether you’re getting a steal or getting robbed.
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We like to keep abreast of the latest in hotel package offerings, and this one from the Hotel Diva in San Francisco is certainly titillating, if also a wee bit tacky: the boutique property, part of the (female-run!) small West Coast chain Personality Hotels, is shilling a hotel package that shamelessly promotes and encourages Cougardom. That is, the act of being a Cougar — a female on the prowl for younger male playthings. Stupid and gimmicky? Sure. But since the haters are probably gonna hate, we’re gonna tell you a little secret: it’s not a terrible deal.
You could spend 50 bucks on your monthly Botox injections (kidding, sort of), or you could add that 50 bucks to your room rate at the Hotel Diva and get all these Cougar-friendly amenities with the Cougars With Personality package — oh, and everything comes in pairs, so you can bring your wingwoman, too:
- A one-night stay ($159.00)
- Two Hanky-Panky animal-print thongs ($22.00 each)
- Two Lemon Drop cocktails
- Two $25 Gift Certificates for the Epi Center MedSpa ($50.00 – and yes, they do Botox)
- Professional bra fittings at Nordstrom (free, though the reminder that the ol’ ta-tas may be a bit closer to the waist than they were the last time you got a professional bra fitting is probably priceless…)
- “A list of San Francisco’s hottest Cougar bars” (we assume this is where young dudes hang out)
A standard room on October 30th is $159; with the Cougar package, you’re looking at a rate of $209. So for $50 you get at least $100-worth of goodies – who says an older woman can’t have a cheap, hot night if she doesn’t mind being a cliche and is prepared to take responsibility for causing irreparable psychological damage to her children by openly identifying as a Cougar?
by admin on September 9, 2009
The Wynn Las Vegas
We’re not usually proponents of forking over four figures for a hotel package (or for anything, really), but this — well, this is different.
Wynn Las Vegas is collaborating with ZERO-G weightless flights — yes, folks, that’s a flight on a Boeing 727-200 that’s been modified to replicate levels of weightlessness on Mars and the moon (as well as zero-gravity)– to offer a package that includes some sexy digs, a float-y flight with ZERO-G, and a spa treatment. And listen: it’s $5,746 per seat plus tax, but don’t roll your eyes just yet. You might actually be into this.
First (and least exciting) of all, your Wynn experience is going to include a two-night stay in a Tower Suite Room and a choice of either a Custom Massage or a Classic Facial. Cool.
But the ZERO-G flight. Oh, man. You’re looking at a two-hour(ish) flight that has “15 separate weightless intervals” that are each about 30 seconds. It departs out of The Signature Terminal at McCarran on Saturday, September 19, and the whole experience includes…
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by admin on September 3, 2009
The Franklin NYC
Ever wonder if those “romance” or “adventure” hotel packages are really giving you more bang for your buck — or if you’ve been suckered into booking a clever marketing pro’s cutesy champagne and chocolate-covered price markup? Welcome back to Oyster’s Bundle Breakdowns, where we go through the painstaking process of (roughly) breaking down the costs of popular hotel bundle offerings to determine whether you’re getting a steal or getting robbed.
Since, according to Gossip Girl, you’re “nobody until you’re talked about,” we’re going to take a hot time out to talk about this Gossip Girl package being offered by the Franklin NYC – but would any of the characters on Gossip Girl even bother with it? Most of them are rich and all, but, you know, we’re in a recession. Even they watch what they’re spending these days.
The Deal: 2 night stay in an Executive King Room; $100 Gift Certificate at Henri Bendel; $100 Gift Certificate for dinner and drinks at Mansfield Hotel’s M BAR; Two tickets to the Metropolitan Museum; a Gossip Girl Guide to NYC; Luxury Car Service up to 4 hours.
The Package Price: $999 for two nights, plus tax
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