Valentine’s Day: Holiday destinations so romantic they have love in their name

It’s a fact that there are some places that are just more romantic than others.

Appropriately positioned in the heart of France, this village makes full use of its name.

Visiting sweethearts can hang metal hearts with their initials on a tree, stroll the Lovers’ Garden and buy souvenirs in a themed boutique.

Marriage confirmations are offered. Less predictably, the Au 14 Fevrier restaurant serves inventive Japanese-French fusion food.

Drive up Newfoundland’s wild, craggy Avalon Peninsula in north-eastern Canada and you’ll pass Heart’s Delight, Heart’s Desire and Heart’s Content.

Thought to be named after fishing vessels, these successive small settlements entice as much for splendid views across Trinity Bay – where whales and icebergs are commonly seen – as for their names.

Pretty ports line that dramatic bay, while eastwards beckons another sweetly titled place in Cupids. Lowering the tone completely, however, is a nearby town called Dildo.

Say it out loud and the inadvertent charm of this two-mile-long island’s name becomes apparent.

Found on north-west Scotland’s seaside Loch Ewe, it’s a mostly flat, grassy slither housing just a single family.

Though visitors cannot land without permission, it’s usually possible for couples to pay boatmen from nearby fishing village Aultbea to sail them around.

While lovers should clearly avoid the spa town of Bad Kissingen, despite its Unesco status, this backwater further south in Bavaria sounds more promising.

Definitely snog-worthy is adjacent Kissinger Heide reserve, an ancient grassland where bluebell butterflies frolic above rare orchids.

And three quick train stops north will take you to ancient university city Augsburg, over whose grand guild houses the 17th-century Perlachturm bell tower offers enchanting views –after you surmount its 258 steps.

While a couple of rather prosaic caravan parks rather undermine the little village of Red Roses’ potential for amour, it does have The Sporting Chance: a fire-heated, food-serving pub with comfy Chesterfield sofas.

You can also hold hands on hikes across farmland to Pendine Sands, seven spectacular, MoD-owned miles of dune-backed shore where Britain’s land speed record was set in 2019.

Other snuggly, close-by temptations include National Trust woodlands and the cobbled Pembrokeshire town of Tenby.

A scattered community in the south-eastern state of Arkansas, Romance supposedly owes its name to a schoolteacher.

Having newly arrived, he described views from local bluffs as ‘romantic’ and the rest was history.

Similar to those seen in True Detective’s third series, big-skied landscapes here contain woodlands and plains below the Ozark Mountains.

In Romance itself, there’s a post office popular for its Valentine’s Day postmarks and al fresco wedding services, plus stepped waterfalls up the Clifty Creek stream.

Just beyond well-heeled Cabo San Lucas in north-eastern Mexico, the Baja California peninsula concludes at a rock formation called, for obvious reasons, The Arch.

Before that comes the two-sided Love Beach – also known as Lovers’ Beach (Playa de los Amantes) – whose yellow sand is best accessed by water taxi.

Arrange collection with your skipper, then spend an afternoon swimming off the calmer eastern shore. Surrounding Los Cabos also promises great spas.