Dating guru’s advice on a first vacation together…Keep it light.

Paul A. Falzone, dating guru and CEO of The Right One and Together Dating as well as online hybrid, eLove.com, explained, “Although a vacation in Tuscany would be very romantic, planning it would be extremely complicated. There may be many unforeseen snags such as lost passports, airport security, lost luggage, long flights, foreign food, language barriers and so on. A week or more is definitely too long a vacation for new couples. As you are both still at the ‘getting to know each other’ stage, a two-to three-day mini-vacation is perfect.”

Falzone offers his sage advice for a new couple’s mini-vacation:

Plan the trip together. Figuring out a destination is probably the easiest part of planning the trip. It’s the little details that cause all the trouble. So your boyfriend assumes you are going to stay at the best resort, while you, being more budget conscious, intend to stay at a more affordable hotel or bed and breakfast. This is why it’s so important to plan each aspect of your trip together. Compromising is key. Perhaps you acquiesce to stay at the resort as long as you get to choose where you will (affordably) dine out each night.

Discuss a budget. Under Cupid’s spell, some couples simply cannot imagine arguing with each other. When finances come into play, battles arise among even the most loving of couples. Discussing a budget beforehand is a must. Figure out how you will pay for things like gasoline if it’s a road trip, admission fees, etc. Maybe you are going to split all activities and expenses right down the middle or maybe one of you will pick up the hotel tab while the other pays for transportation and meals.

Have a game plan for each day of your vacation. That doesn’t mean you need to make a strict sightseeing schedule and stick to it. It simply means you should discuss several things you’d like to do during your trip and figure out when you’d like to do them. That way, you both have input into how your vacation will take shape and one person won’t lead the other around like a tour guide. A plan of action helps to slow down those folks who delight in over-scheduling themselves, while providing those folks who take each day as it comes, some structure.

“Working out the little details of your trip will help to ensure your first trip is lighthearted and fun while bringing you closer together,” concluded Falzone.

Catering to more than 300,000 members at 60 locations throughout North America, The Right One and Together Dating are the largest bricks and mortar dating services in the industry, offering a more consistent product, a greater number of potentially compatible mates and added value of flexibility in transferring memberships to another geographic region.

Romantic Locations
The Right One’s offices and affiliates located throughout the United States include: California (San Diego); Colorado (Glendale); Florida (Miami); Georgia (Atlanta); Kansas (Wichita and Overland Park); Illinois (Downers Grove, Rockford and Bloomington); New Jersey (Cherry Hill, Hackensack); Massachusetts (Norwell, Newton, Shrewsbury and Woburn); Nebraska (Omaha and Lincoln); Pennsylvania (King of Prussia, Pittsburgh and Monroeville); Rhode Island (Warwick); Texas (Dallas, Austin); and Wisconsin (Madison, Appleton, Brookfield).

North American locations and affiliates of Together are: California (Encino, Irvine, Los Angeles, Upland); Florida (Palm Beach, Vero Beach); Georgia (Savannah); Indiana (Ft. Wayne, Indianapolis, South Bend); Kentucky (Lexington, Louisville); Maryland (Columbia, Frederick); Minnesota (Minneapolis); Nevada (Reno); New Hampshire (Hooksett, Nashua, Portsmouth and Salem); New Jersey (Bridgewater, Clark, Colts Neck and Lawrenceville); Ohio (Cincinnati); Pennsylvania (Mechanicsburg); South Carolina (Greenville); South Dakota (Sioux Falls); Texas (San Antonio, Beaumont and Houston) and Virginia (Falls Church).

For more information about Together Dating and The Right One, please visit their websites at www.therightone.com, www.togetherdating.com, and www.elove.com or call
(800) 818-DATE (3283).

(Editor note: For interviews with the colorful and articulate Paul A. Falzone, CEO of eLove, The Right One and Together Dating and the author of a book on the history of