Minnesota

There are business hotels and then there are hotels with themed rooms designed for a romantic getaway. These are fun and exciting with a little bit of naughty thrown in for good measure. Especially in a time like this where you might desperately need an escape but aren't really wanting to go out and hang around with people, finding a themed hotel room near you might just be the perfect solution. The interesting thing is that while you might think this type of getaway would be only found in California, New York, or Las Vegas... the reality is that there are options all over the country, including states you might normally think of as being more conservative such as Illinois, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio, and even Utah!

The Mississippi River is a legendary maritime highway that allowed Midwestern states to prosper. From the 1800's to today, this river continues to generate incredible amounts of wealth leading to culturally diverse cities spanning it's 664 navigable miles. While not quite the romantic castles and palaces that you might find along European rivers, the Mississippi offers an opportunity to explore a different side of American history from a variety of angles including civil rights, food, music, industry, agriculture, and military heritage. I've had the fortune to explore nearly the entire length of this region on road trips but I can already tell you that traveling by boat would be the ultimate way to explore the "Mighty Mississip'!"

Expedition voyages are one of the fastest-growing segments of the luxury cruise market. While once this was synonymous with Arctic and Antarctic cruises, I'm thrilled that new players are opening new markets. While some may not see the Great Lakes as being glamourous compared to cruising past penguins and thousand-year-old chunks of ice, the Great Lakes offers a unique and relatively unexplored part of our own country that are also are central to the science and history of our global climate history. 

Traditionally, our wives and girlfriends sit and wait for us to pick a hotel that they want for Valentine's Day - but why can't we turn the tables and do things differently? We scoured the internet looking for epic hotel ideas that will inspire romance this Valentine's Day in a completely different manner than the typical 4-star resort with breakfast in bed!

Each of these motels caters to fantasies or have themed rooms that will make your Valentine's Day that much more fun compared to a leeway gooey, boring romantic night at a typical hotel with red roses and chocolates.