Summer Love – The Benefits of Dating While on Vacation

If your date card is empty, try casting a wider net and schedule some summertime dates, out-of-town.

The summer heat is rolling, school’s out, the airports are crowded, and it’s time to start thinking about summer love and your very own fireworks display.

The Fourth of July holiday is around the corner, National Kissing Day, just two days later on July 6th, and Match predicts the busiest day for dating this summer will be on Saturday, July 8th.

With that in mind, it’s also a busy time for online dating, with new singles joining dating sites to find a summer romance, or maybe even more.

As a dating coach, I always recommend that singles expand their search by changing their zip codes. If you knew the person of your dreams was in another city, would you be willing to hop on a plane to meet him or her?

To make it easier to date while in vacation mode, I have two approaches that work well.

1. Act like your in vacation mode.

Have you ever noticed how friendly people are while they’re on vacation? They let their guards down and don’t size each other up based on their resumes and work history like they do at home. As a result, it’s easier to strike up a conversation with someone who’s sitting next to you on a plane, or poolside as you sip on a frozen libation. If your summer doesn’t include a fantastic trip to the Greek Islands, why not act as if you’re there? Try smiling more often, engaging with someone who’s not your usual type, and even the playing field while leaving work behind.

2. Go on a Date-Cation.

This means getting prepared in advance, by joining or being very active on an online dating site before you leave, using mobile dating apps when you’re there, changing your profiles to indicate that you’ll be on vacation and listing the city, and going on dates every day while you’re gone.

While the thought of becoming a serial dater while on vacation might not sound appealing, it’s effective, and you’ll have an opportunity to be the out-of-town girl or guy everyone wants to meet.

While I recommend going into the vacation zone for singles, whether they’re home or venturing out to another city, don’t just take my word for it.

Online dating site Plenty of Fish polled over 1500 singles in the U.S. aged 18-60 to find out how they felt about dating while on vacation. It turns out the majority (over 70 percent) were open to the opportunity to go on a date while out of town.

While I’m not an advocate of the ‘Mile High Club,” 52 percent of singles in the POF survey had experienced having a great conversation with someone on the plane, and 20% actually hooked up on a plane or a train.

If you find yourself seated next to someone attractive and exciting, be bold and take it a step further.

Ask the person who you shared your life story with at 15,000 miles in the sky if they’d like to meet for a drink or go to a museum while you’re in town.

Some other fun facts from the survey include:

49 percent of singles had gone on a date while on vacation.
40 percent of singles had a vacation fling.
22 percent of singles fell in love while on vacation.
46 percent used a dating app to scope out singles in another city before traveling there.
16 percent of singles ended up in a long-term relationship with someone they met while on vacation.

All of these possibilities are just a click, swipe, or smile away.

Wishing you much love and joy in cyberspace, or wherever you may swipe or roam.

Julie Spira is America’s Top Online Dating Expert and Digital Matchmaker. She was an early adopter of the Internet and has been coaching singles on finding love online for 25 years.

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Pucker Up – It’s National Kissing Day

Pucker up! It’s National Kissing Day, so if you’re still on a high from Fourth of July fireworks, there’s no need to let the flame sizzle.

Every year on July 6th, singles and couples will have a good excuse to become more romantic and flirty for this annual holiday. It’s time to get creative, both on the lips and in the desired location of that memorable kiss.

In honor of International Kissing Day, our friends at online dating site Match have partnered up with Colour Pop with a “Kiss + Tell” Survey, which showed that 84% of singles really enjoy kissing, with most experiencing their first kiss between the age of 13 – 16.

Other kissing survey results include:

Ideal Kiss

The TOP 3 spots to be kissed?

At sunset (48%)
Moonlight stroll (46%)
The beach (37%)

How long is the perfect kiss?

20 % of singles agreed that 10 seconds is the amount of time for the ideal kiss.
70% of singles say BAD BREATH has definitely ruined a kiss.
70% of singles say a bad first kiss is NOT a deal breaker.
75% of single women and 53% of single men say they CLOSE their eyes during a kiss.
The second most romantic place to be kissed is on the neck.

Lipstick Rules!

Nearly 1/3 (30%) of single women say they’ve actually had more success landing a first kiss while wearing lipstick!
Nearly 1/3 (30%) of single men say a great make out is when they have a woman’s lipstick on their face.

Celebrity Kisses
Women:

Kanye vs. Drake: DRAKE (86%)
President Trump vs. Former President Obama: OBAMA (82%)
Prince William vs. Prince Harry: HARRY (64%)
Chris Hemsworth vs. Liam Hemsworth: LIAM (58%)
Dev Patel vs. Aziz Ansari: DEV (58%)
Ryan Reynolds vs. Ryan Gosling: REYNOLDS (52%)
Brad Pitt vs. George Clooney: BRAD (51%)

Men:

Taylor Swift vs. Miley Cyrus: TAYLOR (82%)
Gigi Hadid vs. Bella Hadid: GIGI (60%)
Jessica Alba vs. Jessica Biel: ALBA (60%)
Kim Kardashian vs. Khloe Kardashian: KHLOE (55%)
Beyonce vs. Rihanna: RIHANNA (55%)
Emma Watson vs. Emma Stone: STONE (51%)

Top 3 TV show hosts singles would want to kiss:

Women:

Jimmy Fallon (28%)
Ryan Seacrest (22%)
Trevor Noah (18%)

Men:

Megyn Kelly (35%)
Kelly Ripa (28%)
Savannah Guthrie (11%)

In honor of National Kissing Day, Match and Colour Pop created limited edition lipstick, Mwah, a raspberry red ultra-matte lipstick, plus $1 of each lipstick purchased will be donated to GLAM4GOOD Foundation, for only $6.

Check out these special lipsticks here: ColourPop.com/mwah

If you’re away from your sweetheart, remember to send a few digital hugs and kisses XOXO’s via text on your mobile phone to celebrate International Kissing Day. Remember that a goodbye kiss can be more important than the hello kiss and leave a wonderful memory to the end of your date.

What’s your kissing style? Do you have your own kissing dos and don’ts? A dream spot for that first kiss?

Follow @JulieSpira on Twitter and Instagram

Julie Spira is America’s Top Online Dating Expert and Digital Matchmaker. She was an early adopter of online dating and creates Irresistible Profiles for singles on the dating scene. For more dating advice, sign up for the free Weekly Flirt newsletter

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National Kissing Day – Pucker Up

Today, world will be celebrating International Kissing Day, so if you’re still on a high from Fourth of July fireworks, there’s no need to let the flame sizzle.

In honor of International Kissing Day, our friends at online dating site Zoosk conducted a survey of 3500 singles in the United States to find out everything you need to know about kissing. From air kisses to French kisses, find out the most popular styles of kissing and the biggest turn-offs for a bad kiss.

Related: Kissable Lips

According to the survey, most singles have dated a bad kisser. With 73% of the singles polled claiming they’ve been stuck in a bad kissing situation, know that you’re not alone when you meet a kisser with the slobbering tongue, bad breath, or the one who kisses with his or her mouth closed.

Speaking of closed, the Zoosk survey showed that 83% of singles do prefer to kiss with their eyes closed as compared to wide-open.

Music and romance do go hand-in-hand, so it’s natural that those surveyed had some favorite make-out songs. The top selections included “Could I Have This Kiss Forever?” by Whitney Houston & Enrique Iglesias, as well as “A Kiss From a Rose” by Seal and “Blow Me One Last Kiss” by Pink.

French kissing, surprisingly enough is more popular in the United States than in France. According to the survey, 46% of Americans prefer the French kiss as compared to 21% of those kissing in France.

Where do couples want to memorialize their kiss? The beach came in as the top choice with 30% of the votes, followed by kissing in the car, by a roaring fireplace, and on a carriage ride in Central Park in New York City.

What’s your kissing style? Do you have your own kissing dos and don’ts? A dream spot for that first kiss?

Follow @JulieSpira on Twitter

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