How to Create Outrageous Vacation Memories! By Brian A Schmidt Publisher, a1-discount-cruises.com Guest Writer

Have you ever wished you could color outside the lines, just once? Do you and your partner usually follow the rules, but long to be adventurous while traveling together? Here are four intriguing ways couples have stepped (safely!) over the line on vacation and added spice to their private memories.

Celebrating Anonymity: Before you leave on vacation, why not think of something you'd love to do if no one back home could see you? Vacations spent quietly browsing museums are fine, if that's what trips your trigger, but if you long for a little more adventure, celebrate being anonymous in a distant place by doing something totally outside your character.

Mike and his wife worked hard all year doing other people's taxes. On vacation last summer, they realized no one on their island vacation resort would ever see them again. Unknown to their fellow guests, they'd never gone dancing together.

Releasing their inhibitions, they threw up their hands and dove together onto the dance floor at a pulsing salsa club. That fantastic memory they share of laughing wildly as they learned the joys of salsa is one that has them more than ready for their next anonymous vacation adventure.

A Cutting Edge Vacation: Celeste and her partner spent every spring in London, searching antique stores and flea markets for special treasures to ship back home. What was lacking, Celeste decided, was a vacation experience that truly transformed them both.

On the way from their hotel to the tube station, they passed a funky hair salon blasting techno music and smelling of illegal botanicals. Ready to take a leap, Celeste literally dragged her partner off the street and into the little salon.

Shouting over the techno music, she asked a young stylist pierced beyond description if she could transform both partner's simple hair styles into something outrageous. The caveat was that they had to be to appear professional once again when vacation was over.

The stylist accepted the challenge, Celeste persuaded her partner to take the plunge, and they spent the morning watching each other's hair be transformed into edgy, geometric styles. To be even more daring, they had her add temporary neon highlights.

It might have been the driving beat of the music, but they were both a little lightheaded by the time they stepped out into the afternoon sun, sporting cutting edge hairstyles and huge grins.

The thrill of their shared risk added an edge of adventure to the rest of their trip, and the memories of those hours in a London techno salon gave them intimate smiles each time they remembered their vacation.

Discovering the Inner Athlete: Sometimes it takes being outside your normal experience to uncover talents you didn't know you possessed. Take our friends, Rick and Megan, two forty-something professionals with a shared dislike of physical activity.

On a recent anniversary cruise, though, Rick was struck with the desire to do something more active than walking to three huge meals a day. It might have been the ocean air, or the sight of his once fit body giving into gravity and overindulgence. Whatever the cause, he hunted down the cruise activity director and learned he could do some amazingly athletic things without leaving the ship.

His wife gave her blessing as she read and snoozed on her deckchair, grateful for five whole days without clients and telephones. Rick plunged headlong into tackling the climbing wall, the surfing pool and virtual golf. Intrigued by her husband's newfound energy, Megan joined him near the end of the cruise on the ice skating rink and bungee trampoline.

What started out to be a peaceful, relaxing cruise turned into a time of discovering their love of activity. The memories they share of physical challenges add a spark to their relationship and have the two of them exploring new athletic adventures back home.

Waking the Sleeping Romantic: On the other hand, sometimes time away should be spent alone relearning intimacy with your partner. What delicious memories could the two of you create, given time away from jobs, family and the outside world?

Lila surprised her husband with a weekend at a five-star resort, telling him not to bother to pack. Playing along, her hubby entered the lush vacation cottage, wondering what the weekend would bring.

Lila had made arrangements in advance for a secluded, romantic getaway vacation. Room service meals were ordered, massages on the deck of their cottage planned and a private beach encouraged midnight swims. For three days, the couple saw no one but discreet resort staff and each other.

The scents, sounds and sensations of their private retreat built powerful, intimate memories for them both. That kind of "tingle" can't be manufactured, it comes from spending time discovering each other fully.

Why not wake up the sleeping romantic, athlete or risk-taker in each of you? Time together doing things outside the norm could be just the thing you need to build a bond and some wonderful memories.

©2009 Brian A. Schmidt

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