Pepper Schwartz - Frommers/AARP Places for Passion: The 75 Most Romantic Destinations in the World--and Why Every Couple Needs to Get Away

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ISBN 978-1-62887-150-0 (paper), 978-1-62887-151-7 (e-book)

Director, AARP Books: Jodi Lipson

Editorial Director, FrommerMedia: Pauline Frommer

Editor: Lorraine Festa

Production Editor: Kelly Dobbs Henthorne

Photo Editor: Meghan Lamb

Cover Design: Dave Reidy

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The opinions expressed here are those of the authors, not of AARP or Frommer's. Travel information can change quickly and unexpectedly, and we strongly advise you to confirm important details locally before traveling, including information on visas, health and safety, traffic and transport, accommodations, shopping, and eating out. We also encourage you to stay alert while traveling and to remain aware of your surroundings. Avoid civil disturbances and keep a close eye on cameras, purses, wallets, and other valuables.

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Pepper Schwartz, Ph.D., and Janet Lever, Ph.D., coauthored the Sex and Health column for Glamour magazine for a decade. Both appear frequently in national media as experts in intimate relationships and sexuality. Both earned their Ph.D.s at Yale University and are Professors of Sociology at University of Washington and California State University, Los Angeles, respectively.

Dr. Pepper Schwartz has authored or coauthored 19 books, including Prime: Adventures and Advice on Sex, Love, and the Sensual Years, The Normal Bar: the Surprising Secrets of Extremely Happy Couples, and Dating After 50 For Dummies. She has been the Chief Relationship Expert for perfectmatch.com since it started helping daters meet online. Currently, she serves as AARPs Ambassador for Love and Relationships and writes a regular column for AARP.org on those topics. She has offered romantic travel advice on the nationally syndicated Peter Greenberg radio show and is the Romance Concierge at the Salish Lodge in Snoqualmie, Washington. Dr. Schwartz is a past president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexualities and a charter member of the International Academy of Sex Research. Pepper is one of four on-air relationship experts starring in A&E Networks FYI channels Married at First Sight in 2014.

Dr. Janet Lever, after leading teams of researchers that designed the three largest magazine sex surveys ever tabulated, came to ELLE in 2002 to lead a series of annual surveys hosted on both the health and the business sections of NBCNews.com (formerly msnbc.com). Her Office Sex and Romance Survey; Work, Sex, and Power Survey; Good Sex Survey; and Sex and Money Survey are among the largest surveys on these understudied topics. Each of these Internet surveys has been reanalyzed for social science, management, health, and medical journals.

Acknowledgments

It has been a great adventure visiting all these places and meeting the fabulous people who make them so wonderful. We are indebted to the people listed below for their guidance, creativity, and generosity. However, our work could not have been accomplished without some even more extraordinary work from two people. Cooper Schwartz from HisandHersTravel.com did much of the early research, cultivated the contacts with resort personnel and media representatives, and organized the travel itineraries, searching out exceptional properties. Kate Nolan, perhaps one of the worlds best editors, helped make our early drafts into a much more polished product. Far more than an editor, Kate was a friend and lifesaver when deadline pressures loomed, and she put everything else away to pitch in. Finally, Pepper is especially indebted to Fred Kaseburg, who traveled many of these roads with her and made everything sooo romantic, but he also had to give up a lot of time together when getting the book done required solo trips and an enormous amount of writing time. Love you, Fred!

Lorraine Festa, our Frommers editor, went far beyond anything we could have hoped for in her inventive vision of this project, diligence, and talenteven some hand-holding when needed. Our deepest thanks to Pauline Frommer who believed in this book enough to publish it, and to Jodi Lipson, director of AARP's book division, who has always been a stalwart supporter of this book. Many thanks to Beth Domingo, Kristin Palmer, and Barry Spencer, also at AARP. We are in debt to Suzy Ginsberg for her big-hearted help with publicizing our book. Several people helped sharpen our proposal, and for that we especially thank Peter Greenberg, Sarika Chawla, and our agent, Helen Zimmerman. Early help from Linda Barth helped craft the books organization. For many other good ideas as well as technical support, we thank Brian J. Gillespie, Cynthia Cobaugh, Barbara Nellis, Monica Chavez, and Flavio Argueta. We also are grateful to our dedicated fact checkers: Angela Gee, Suzanna R. Thompson, and Jessica Weber. Jessica Y. Young assisted in fact-checking, too, and so much more. Our thanks, too, to Kelly Henthorne, our production editor.

We thank dear old friends for hosting us during some visits: Jonathan and Nancy Goodson and John and Elizabeth Haring. Other friends helped with valuable insights: Peter and Patti Adler, Tim Bagley, Deanna Fulton and Kunoor Chopra, Kristen Hunt-Greco and Rob Azevedo, Alexandria and Danny Mills, Gretchen Peterson and Mike Kozachenco, and Marcie and Kevin Spawr. For doing so much to introduce us to these special destinations, we thank the following people (and apologies to those we have inadvertently left off the list!): Sally Carson, Jolene Disalvo, Delaine and Mark Emmert, Nicki and Steve Fitzgerald, Zelda Gamson, Tarryn Gibson, Kristy Gordon, Steve and Bridget Griessel, Gil Herdt, Ed and JP Hollister, Claire Howe, Shannon Olson Johnson, Victoria Larrea, Julie Matteo, Greg Roper, Ray and Gail Sage DaMazo, Deborah Szekely, Marco Van Emden, and Michael Winfield.