My wife and I recently celebrated our ninth anniversary, and I wanted to take her some place, just her and me. When I saw that Holiday Inn Express in our town had a Romantic Getaway package, I decided to set up something as soon as I could line up a babysitter for our three children.

According to the Holiday Inn Express website, the Romantic Getaway Package includes a room as well as a bottle of sparkling cider or champagne. However, I opted for the Sparkling Cider, since I don’t drink. They gave us that, and they even took it upon themselves to put it in a bucket full of ice. I have no idea how long it was there, but it only takes a half-hour to really chill it, probably.

Anyway, we were also supposed to get a bouquet of flowers, but I believe we had one rose. The site also says we get a “box of chocolates” per stay, but I think we only got a hand full of Dove chocolates. I suppose Forrest Gump was right when he said that life really is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.

I had to admire that we did get a gift basket that was not listed on the website whatsoever, so I definitely called that a pleasant surprise. The basket included some things like MandMs, little Oreos, crackers, and other snacks that were surprisingly enough to create a meal on. Assuming we wanted to have dinner, the package included a certificate to cover about $20 at Swilly’s, a nice restaurant located nearby.

Holiday Inn Express

The Holiday Inn Express does not have rooms that are particularly large, and this one was not a suite (two rooms) but it did have a couple-sized hot tub in the corner. I suppose you could call the hot tub romantic, and it was almost in the shape of a heart. It was more like a geometic heart, kind of like Superman’s crest. If it had been heart-shaped and pink, I probably would have been in a cheap honeymoon suite.

As it was, I was in Holiday Inn Express, and I fully enjoyed it for about $129.00. Hopefully, you can get it for a smaller price in your town, and you better make certain they include the gift certificate. I suppose that price sounds like a lot, but it certainly gave what my wife and I wanted: uninterrupted time together alone.