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By Bill Satre |

The Best Valentine’s (On A Radio Budget)

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The LOVE statue stands in the civic center of Scottsdale, voted as one of the best places to celebrate Valentine’s Day.

So with Valentines Day, you want to make it special, but not blow the budget to have a good time. According to WalletHub.com Americans will spend over 20 Billion dollars to show someone that they are special on this holiday. So is a get away the way to go? Is there someplace that you could travel to and not spend a fortune? They also gave us a list of places and ranked them.

They ranked San Francisco the top place with New York, Vegas, San Diego and Honolulu in the top 5. Though I would like to get to San Fran at some point, it wasn’t in our budget this year. Airfare was more and lodging was a bit high too. So Vegas has cheap airfare. It’s also Vegas and I was hoping to class it up a bit this year. Below the top five is Seattle and a foot of snow, might as well stay home. Number 7 on the list is Scottsdale, Arizona. 

The Bronze Horse Fountain is one of many statues that adorn the area.

I know what your thinking… Scottsdale is where we send all of our retired people from the Midwest to golf and Facebook on how much better the weather is. It’s so much more than AARP approved buffets at 4:30! Lodging was reasonable. Airfare out of St. Cloud was cheap. We fly to Mesa Gateway instead of Sky-harbor in Phoenix and have to fly Allegiant. Please pray for us. 

The real reason we chose Scottsdale is for the romantic gondola and train rides to memorable gourmet dinners. Art galleries in Old Town, brewery tours, winery tours and even exotic coffee tasting. For the adventurous, there is hot air balloon rides and horseback excursions in the dessert. They have taken the pressure off planning the perfect Valentine’s Day celebration! Oh, and the temperatures are in the upper 60’s and low 70’s. It’s an even escape from the frigid winter we have been having.

Wine tasting on a sunny February afternoon is something you can only really do in Arizona.

Our Valentines trip included some walking to Scottsdale’s hot spots. Fine dining at the Cafe Monarch is one of the country’s most romantic places to eat. A notable entertainment spots is “The Venue” and we found many great breweries. Wine tasting at LDV Wines in Old Town Scottsdale was a highlight of our excursion. The visit included galleries and the many museums if the area. We also did a fair amount of shopping, too. It’s easy to see how it was ranked as a top spot for Valentines.

LDV Winery Owner, Peggy Fiandaca with B93.3’s Bill Satre showing off the Valentines gift baskets in the wine tasting room.
The Venue is a top spot in Scottsdale for entertainment.