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ASPEN, Colo. - This winter I put my relationship to the ultimate test: a romantic ski vacation. Many couples ski together, but my fiancee Sheri Askinazi is just learning while I've been skiing for more than two decades. We'd done group ski trips, but never skied alone. To make this trip work, we needed some advance planning and clear expectations. I wanted to ski with Sheri but also desired time to speed down the harder trails. We chose four days at Aspen/Snowmass in Colorado because it offered a little bit for each of us. "I am a little nervous about the trip. It's a lot of time skiing," Sheri confessed to me a month before we left. When I mentioned that I had found ski buddies for a day, she asked: "A whole day?" The conversation continued at dinner a few nights later. One of our friends flat-out said: "He has to ski with you. That's it." We chatted through our desires and made a plan. Sheri would take two days of lessons. The first was at Snowmass. Elk Camp Meadows, a new beginner's area there, is fenced off from the rest of the resort so experts don't race through on their way to the lift. She quickly advanced to other parts of the mountain. I took a refresher course - it's never too late to learn something new - and we met up for lunch. The next day, she took a lesson at nearby Buttermilk Mountain. It's geared toward beginners but has some great intermediate trails that she mastered by the end of the day. I met up with some friends and got my adrenaline fix on the harder Aspen Mountain. Lessons were key - it was much better for Sheri to get tips from a professional instead of me. "Taking feedback from someone you love can be the hardest thing. You start to personalize it," says Katie Ertl, who oversees the ski and snowboard schools at the four mountains of Aspen/Snowmass. (Warning: Skiing isn't cheap. If purchased a week in advance, a four-day lift ticket costs $396. Adult group lessons start at $139; full-day private lessons start at $660.)

Valentine's is coming up and there are more than enough ways for couples to experience something different but altogether romantic. Instead of going the traditional route, why not go for an intimate getaway in the offbeat track? Planning early? Travelers Today has prepared a list of some of the world's lesser-known gems couples deserve to discover. 1. Plitvice, Croatia For couples who love nature, Plitvice National Park in Croatia can make for a fantastic, educational and unforgettable tour. It's a UNESCO site and is home to Europe's most beautiful nature reserves, which consist of 16 emerald lakes each, connected by a waterfall. Couples should look close enough and focus less on taking photos, as it's incomparable to personally see the colors of the lakes change from turquoise to navy. To add to the experience, it's best to stay in a rustic yet homey B&B. 2. Hiddensee Island, Germany For both beach bums and nature enthusiast, Hiddensee Island is a dream come true. It's a place that's seemingly stuck in time with a picturesque view of the sea and a virgin beach perfect for a romantic escape. Couples should try snuggling into a big beach basket made for two, which locals call Strandkorb and enjoy the view of the sunset. 3. Bettmeralp, Switzerland For nothing short of a cabin romance, settling in Bettmeralp is the best choice a couple can make while in Switzerland. Guests board a cable car, which leads them to a car-free zone and into the quaint little village. There's an incomparable view of Snowcap Mountains. Not to mention the best-tasting Swiss chocolate to add to the sweet vacation. 4. Canary Islands, Spain While Barcelona and Madrid sound good for a vacation, a true romantic getaway this Valentine's Day in Spain is to be brought to the Canary Islands. These lands have everything any couple wants in a perfect trip. Secluded beaches, cozy tapas bars, wine vineyards, volcanic hills and cliffs poss

With each trip I take, I make it a point to bring home cultural souvenirs - gold nuggets of experiences I'll remember all my life. Whether it's sitting and talking with a Muslim at the Great Mosque of Granada in Spain, waving a flag at an Irish hurling match, or getting naked with Germans at a spa in Baden-Baden, it's experiences like these that give each trip that extra sparkle. Whenever I'm in Turkey, I make it a point to see a whirling dervish. This is not a performance, but rather, a religious ritual done by the Mevlevi, followers of a 13th-century Muslim mystic named Rumi. Dervishes whirl while praying in a meditative trance. A dervish once explained to me: "As I spin around, my hand above receives the love from our Creator, and my hand below showers it onto all of his creation. " One night, while walking through Istanbul, I came upon a big patio filled with tourists, enjoying a single dervish whirling on an elevated platform. My immediate reaction was negative, as I have a bad attitude about dervishes doing their whirl for tourists, who have no idea what's going on. I prefer seeing the real deal at a place like the Galata Dervish Monastery or the Foundation of Universal Lovers of Mevlana. But on that night, I buried my bad attitude and simply enjoyed the beauty of his performance there in the Istanbul night. In Barcelona, it's a joy to join in the sardana dances to celebrate Catalan culture. Locals of all ages seem to spontaneously appear in the cathedral square. Everyone is welcome. Participants form a circle, hold hands, then raise their arms-slow-motion, Zorba the Greek-style - as they hop and sway gracefully to the music of the band. The rest of Spain mocks this lazy circle dance, but for me, it is a stirring display of the Catalan region's pride and patriotism. Good things come to those who participate. All of my Protestant life I've watched hardscrabble pilgrims and frail nuns climb Rome's Scala Santa Holy Stairs on their knees.

Artists, and art lovers, have been coming to western Cornwall for centuries, but the picture-postcard appeal of St Ives, with its Tate Gallery and Barbara Hepworth Garden, tends to steal the limelight from its plainer sister, Penzance. Yet this historic port has much to love: atmospheric pubs, smart restaurants, designer-y shops and galleries that have established it firmly on Cornwall's art trail. Gallery-cum-boutique hotel Artist Residence is on Chapel Street, the most charming and browsable street in Penzance's old quarter. But for art lovers the real draw is the original designs by British artists in the hotel's 14 bedrooms. The reception area opens into a spacious cafe-gallery hung with paintings of Cornwall (all for sale) and mismatched shabby-chic tables and chairs. On a sunny Saturday it's buzzing with couples and young families, setting a laid-back tone for the rest of the hotel. Friendly staff show us to the Picture Room, a light and airy double with crisp white linen and walls hung with playful graphic prints saying things such as "Rise and shine". It's modest rather than spacious: a comfy double bed leaves room for two stylish arm chairs and a desk with views to the neighbouring buildings. (Only the two attic rooms have sea views.)

Whether we're innocently stalking our crush on Facebook or tweeting our deepest feelings into the depths of cyberspace, our iDevices have become integral to our daily social networking needs. Knowing this, app creators work tirelessly to come up with new ways to integrate various aspects of life into a social framework - new reasons to connect people. In this regard, developer Toby Gunston has come across a rather unique proposition: we all love to travel, but who wants to travel alone? That's where Travel Buddies comes in… The Travel Buddies app is the the mobile component of an already successful online hub for world travellers, and brings with it a rather useful suite of social functions for holiday-makers, road trippers and weekend wanderers. Aimed at users with a penchant for meeting new people and discovering new places, Travel Buddies builds a social network around the concept of looking for travel partners.