The Top 10 Most Romantic Cities In The U.S.

There’s no shortage of ups and downs when you travel with your partner. But despite the possible drama that may ensue, you should definitely find time to do it. According to a recent survey conducted for Travelocity, 56 percent of couples say that traveling helps to keep the spark in their relationship alive.

Travelocity conducted a survey of 1,000 adults and the results were pretty eye-opening. We all know how important it is to find time for your partner and your relationship regardless of how busy your life is. But what the survey found was nearly 60 percent of people spend less than 10 hours a week with their partner. So when it comes to "romantic time," only seven minutes are dedicated to that each day. Finding "couple time" is not only "highly important" but in fact, "crucial", Dr. Kathryn Smerling, New York City based psychotherapist tells Bustle.

"If you're no longer making an effort or if there's a lack of interest in an attempt to find quality time together, it could be a potential sign of trouble in the relationship. The end could be near!" Smerling says. "If you're becoming irrelevant to each other, the relationship is not worth finding time for. But if you find you're still trying to make it work and squeeze couple time into your busy schedules, there are ways to get creative and squeeze in date time without compromising each other's commitments and obligations."

Smerling suggests doing things like being spontaneous. Surprise your partner with something totally unexpected that breaks away from your daily routine. It's also important to "get physical" without having it be about sex. "Just make sure when you're together, you're not showing any physical signs of distance," Smerling says. "Small intimate gestures, when passionate and thoughtful, mean alot and go a long way. Studies have previously shown that actions as simple as holding hands can make your relationship much stronger."

So try hugging a little longer before each of you heads out for work, or spend time in scenarios where getting close is natural like watching Netflix on the couch. Smerling also says to remember to "use technology to your advantage." Sending a quick text here and there wouldn't hurt.

While those are great suggestions to incorporate into your day-to-day routine, finding time to get out and travel together is another great thing for your relationship. However, while over half the respondents in the Travelocity study say romantic getaways are important to keeping that spark alive, 30 percent say they’ve never been on a couples-only trip and nearly 50 percent say they haven’t done one in over two years.

Because of those stats (and the fact that Valentine’s Day is just around the corner), Travelocity hotel experts put together a Romantic Hotel “Heat Map” identifying the country’s most romantic cities with the greatest number of romantic hotels. "We determined these cities by analyzing our database of properties (with over 300,000 properties worldwide—it’s a BIG database!) and dug into the descriptions that our local hotel experts used to describe the property," As Keith Nowak, the Director of Marketing Communications at Travelocity tells Bustle. "Then we filtered the list to identify all of the ones tagged with 'romantic' and looked at which cities had the largest number of these properties. The cities (and regions) that we listed were the 10 that came up at the top of the list."

Check out the map below:

As you can see, New York City reigns supreme as the city with the greatest number of romantic properties, followed by Miami and Los Angeles. So if you're looking to a book a trip for you and your partner, those cities are filled with romantic places to stay.