Forget Paris. These 7 Indian Cities Are More Romantic Than the West
Riya Kumari | Jul 17, 2025, 16:50 IST
( Image credit : Times Life Bureau )
Highlight of the story: You know the story. Girl dreams of Paris. Guy buys tickets. Eiffel Tower. Accordion music. One kiss. Boom, cinematic romance. Except… real life doesn’t come with a string quartet playing La Vie en Rose in the background. It comes with traffic, overpriced wine, jetlag, and maybe a mild stomach bug from that suspect airport baguette.
There comes a moment, usually somewhere between heartbreak and healing, when you realize that love has nothing to do with perfect lighting or grand gestures. That real romance isn’t something you perform. It’s something you feel. Quietly. Without needing to be seen. Paris is beautiful. It’s what we were all taught to believe romance should look like. But the truth is: most of us don’t live that version of love. Most of us are not falling into strangers’ arms at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. We’re sitting in real places, living real lives, trying to find meaning in a world that often demands too much and gives too little. And maybe, just maybe, there are cities right here, in our own backyard, that understand the kind of love that doesn’t need to be translated. These six Indian cities aren’t romantic because they try to be. They are romantic because they allow you to feel what the world rarely lets you: peace, space, depth. The kind of love that doesn’t rush you. The kind that doesn’t expect you to be more than you are. Let’s begin.
1. Udaipur
Udaipur is not flashy. It’s not loud. It doesn’t grab your attention the way Delhi or Mumbai might. But there’s a quiet dignity to it, a kind of grace you only notice when you slow down enough to see. It teaches you that romance isn’t always about excitement. Sometimes, it’s about stillness.
About looking at someone across a dinner table, in the golden light reflecting off Lake Pichola, and realizing you don’t need to fill the silence. That being seen doesn’t require you to perform. Love here is in the slow boat rides, the faded palaces, the way the sky turns pink without asking anyone to look.
2. Coorg
Coorg doesn’t just ask you to rest, it insists on it. With its mist-drenched mornings, endless coffee plantations, and the kind of rain that makes you want to read old letters, this is a place that invites introspection. It’s where you learn that romance isn’t escape. It’s presence. It’s waking up to the same person every day and choosing them again, not because they’ve changed, but because you have.
It’s learning to love the slow, the repetitive, the ordinary, because real connection isn’t built in peak moments. It’s built in quiet consistency. Coorg doesn’t dazzle. It nurtures. And love that lasts? Often does the same.
3. Spiti Valley
Spiti Valley strips you down. Not in a dramatic, tear-everything-apart way, but in a gentle unraveling. It’s remote, raw, and achingly honest. You stand there, surrounded by mountains that don’t care who you are, what you've achieved, or how much you’ve been loved and you feel small.
And for the first time, that smallness doesn’t feel like a threat. It feels like truth. In love, we often try to be big: impressive, flawless, enough. But Spiti reminds you that real intimacy begins when the ego softens. When you no longer need to be perfect, just present. Just real. Just human.
4. Goa
Goa is known for freedom and not just the kind that happens on beaches or in bars at 3 AM. The deeper kind. The kind where you take off the expectations, the titles, the masks and just exist. In a world where love is often weighed down by roles and responsibilities, Goa reminds you that it can also be light.
That connection doesn’t always come from heavy conversations and shared trauma. Sometimes, it’s in the laughter. The music. The moment. Goa doesn’t force depth. It trusts you’ll get there in your own time. It gives you space to be yourself and invites you to love others from that place of fullness, not need.
5. Pondicherry
Pondicherry speaks softly, and that’s what makes it powerful. It doesn’t yell for your attention. It waits. And when you’re ready to listen, it tells you something you didn’t know you needed to hear. That romance isn’t about finding someone who completes you. It’s about returning to yourself.
That when you know your own mind, your own soul, your own rhythms, then love becomes an offering, not a search. Walk its French lanes, drink its quiet coffees, sit by its restless sea and somewhere in that gentle in-between, you’ll remember: the best kind of love doesn’t fix you. It meets you where you are, and walks with you anyway.
6. Darjeeling
Darjeeling isn’t about intensity. It’s about warmth. About a kind of safety that doesn’t feel boring, it feels earned. It’s the kind of place where love isn’t a high, it’s a grounding. Where you learn that being cherished isn’t about fireworks. It’s about someone handing you tea before you ask.
It’s about familiarity that doesn’t take you for granted. The world tells us love should be dramatic to be real. Darjeeling disagrees. It tells you love is quiet. It’s soft socks, warm lights, long walks. And when life gets cold and it will, this is the kind of love that will keep you alive.
7. Neemrana
There’s a reason Neemrana feels sacred. It’s not just the fort walls or the echoing courtyards. It’s the weight of time. The knowing that people loved here long before you, and will long after. Neemrana isn’t about new love. It’s about old love. The kind that survives distance, silence, even disappointment. It reminds you that love is not always soft. It is, at times, stubborn.
Faithful. Built on quiet resilience. You don’t come here to begin something fleeting. You come here to remember that romance, when rooted, can outlast empires.
Final Thought:
The most romantic cities aren’t the ones that give you perfect pictures. They’re the ones that let you fall apart a little. The ones that let you be fully human, flawed, hopeful, messy and still worthy of connection. Paris may promise you magic. But these cities? They offer you meaning.
And in the long run, that’s what love needs. Not drama. Not grandeur. Just enough space to be real. And someone, somewhere, willing to stay. So go. Pack light. Travel slow. And maybe, this time, you won’t just fall in love with a place. You’ll fall back into yourself.
1. Udaipur
Udaipur
( Image credit : Freepik )
Udaipur is not flashy. It’s not loud. It doesn’t grab your attention the way Delhi or Mumbai might. But there’s a quiet dignity to it, a kind of grace you only notice when you slow down enough to see. It teaches you that romance isn’t always about excitement. Sometimes, it’s about stillness.
About looking at someone across a dinner table, in the golden light reflecting off Lake Pichola, and realizing you don’t need to fill the silence. That being seen doesn’t require you to perform. Love here is in the slow boat rides, the faded palaces, the way the sky turns pink without asking anyone to look.
2. Coorg
Coorg
( Image credit : Unsplash )
Coorg doesn’t just ask you to rest, it insists on it. With its mist-drenched mornings, endless coffee plantations, and the kind of rain that makes you want to read old letters, this is a place that invites introspection. It’s where you learn that romance isn’t escape. It’s presence. It’s waking up to the same person every day and choosing them again, not because they’ve changed, but because you have.
It’s learning to love the slow, the repetitive, the ordinary, because real connection isn’t built in peak moments. It’s built in quiet consistency. Coorg doesn’t dazzle. It nurtures. And love that lasts? Often does the same.
3. Spiti Valley
Spiti Valley
( Image credit : Unsplash )
Spiti Valley strips you down. Not in a dramatic, tear-everything-apart way, but in a gentle unraveling. It’s remote, raw, and achingly honest. You stand there, surrounded by mountains that don’t care who you are, what you've achieved, or how much you’ve been loved and you feel small.
And for the first time, that smallness doesn’t feel like a threat. It feels like truth. In love, we often try to be big: impressive, flawless, enough. But Spiti reminds you that real intimacy begins when the ego softens. When you no longer need to be perfect, just present. Just real. Just human.
4. Goa
Goa
( Image credit : Unsplash )
Goa is known for freedom and not just the kind that happens on beaches or in bars at 3 AM. The deeper kind. The kind where you take off the expectations, the titles, the masks and just exist. In a world where love is often weighed down by roles and responsibilities, Goa reminds you that it can also be light.
That connection doesn’t always come from heavy conversations and shared trauma. Sometimes, it’s in the laughter. The music. The moment. Goa doesn’t force depth. It trusts you’ll get there in your own time. It gives you space to be yourself and invites you to love others from that place of fullness, not need.
5. Pondicherry
Pondicherry
( Image credit : Unsplash )
Pondicherry speaks softly, and that’s what makes it powerful. It doesn’t yell for your attention. It waits. And when you’re ready to listen, it tells you something you didn’t know you needed to hear. That romance isn’t about finding someone who completes you. It’s about returning to yourself.
That when you know your own mind, your own soul, your own rhythms, then love becomes an offering, not a search. Walk its French lanes, drink its quiet coffees, sit by its restless sea and somewhere in that gentle in-between, you’ll remember: the best kind of love doesn’t fix you. It meets you where you are, and walks with you anyway.
6. Darjeeling
Darjeeling
( Image credit : Unsplash )
Darjeeling isn’t about intensity. It’s about warmth. About a kind of safety that doesn’t feel boring, it feels earned. It’s the kind of place where love isn’t a high, it’s a grounding. Where you learn that being cherished isn’t about fireworks. It’s about someone handing you tea before you ask.
It’s about familiarity that doesn’t take you for granted. The world tells us love should be dramatic to be real. Darjeeling disagrees. It tells you love is quiet. It’s soft socks, warm lights, long walks. And when life gets cold and it will, this is the kind of love that will keep you alive.
7. Neemrana
Neemrana
( Image credit : Unsplash )
There’s a reason Neemrana feels sacred. It’s not just the fort walls or the echoing courtyards. It’s the weight of time. The knowing that people loved here long before you, and will long after. Neemrana isn’t about new love. It’s about old love. The kind that survives distance, silence, even disappointment. It reminds you that love is not always soft. It is, at times, stubborn.
Faithful. Built on quiet resilience. You don’t come here to begin something fleeting. You come here to remember that romance, when rooted, can outlast empires.
Final Thought:
And in the long run, that’s what love needs. Not drama. Not grandeur. Just enough space to be real. And someone, somewhere, willing to stay. So go. Pack light. Travel slow. And maybe, this time, you won’t just fall in love with a place. You’ll fall back into yourself.