When thinking of the world’s romantic sweet spot, you’d be hard-pressed to look beyond Paris. It didn’t get the “City of Love” nickname for no reason, given it’s full to the brim with dreamy restaurants and couples proposing left, right and centre.
In 2022, however, a certain city seems to have snuck ahead in one aspect of what we’ll call the “romantic power rankings”. Yes, London has been dubbed the best city for a romantic dinner date in a brand new study, hailed for the sheer number of restaurants on offer and scoring high on a “proposal rank”.
We’re as shocked as you that the big smoke has bagged a place ahead of ville de l’amour, but a victory is a victory! Men’s health site From Mars created a Global Proposal Index to determine the best cities in the world to propose, with determining factors including romantic hotels, number of couples attractions, and (obviously) most Instagrammable cities. Because did you really propose if you didn’t get that perfect snap for the ‘Gram?
Paris may have beaten London in the proposal index, with an impressive score of 9.66 (though not enough to beat Rome’s 9.73), but London came out swinging with a very respectable 9.32. London’s 1,874 restaurants saw it top the charts for romantic dining, and was praised for the “cozy wine bars, quaint streets, and an abundance of green spaces, making it an ideal destination for a romantic day out”.
London also was found to have the highest number of couples attractions with 1,059, just ahead of Rome’s 854 and New York’s 747. Speaking of ranking ahead of NYC, London was also found to have more romantic hotels than the Big Apple.
You can read the study by From Mars in full here.