Valentine’s survey confirms romance is all about creativity

If you still haven’t picked up a gift for your Valentine this year, you might want to forget the fancy lingerie or box of chocolates, and take your date skydiving, to a movie, or for a massage instead.

A recent national survey conducted by matchmaking service It’s Just Lunch asked more than 750 men and women their thoughts on Valentine’s Day, dating, and gift giving. Of the women surveyed, only 5.2 percent rated chocolates as a good gift idea; worse was lingerie, which only got 1.6 percent of the votes.

While 43 percent of male respondents believed that a bouquet of flowers was the best gift on Valentine’s Day, only 30 percent of female respondents agreed. The majority of women surveyed believed that the best type of gift was a gift certificate for an activity that a couple could do together.

For couples living in Metro Vancouver, that might mean surprising your date with a trip to the Whistler Sliding Centre, where for $149 per person, you and your date can hurl yourselves down the bobsleigh tack that was built for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. If you’d prefer taking your romance at slower speeds, how about renting a tandem bike and pedaling around the Stanley Park seawall on a crisp, dry day? Instead of taking your date out for dinner, surprise him or her with a visit to the Dirty Apron Cooking School, which offers classes specifically for couples. If your date is more artistically inclined, an afternoon at the Vancouver Art Gallery or Museum of Vancouver won’t break the bank (at $17.50 and $12, respectively, per person) but also won’t go unnoticed. Meanwhile, old-world romantics might want to pick up a pair of tickets to Vancouver Opera’s upcoming performance of The Barber of Seville.

Of course there’s tons of other activities that are fun to do as a couple and won’t cost a cent: a weekend hike at a nearby trail, exploring a seldom-visited neighbourhood, and checking out the many excellent and free smaller art galleries around town, to name just a few.

If you’re single on Valentine’s Day, lucky for you, you’re off the hook from planning a romantic activity; however, don’t be afraid to start up a new romance. According to the It’s Just Lunch survey, more than 83 percent of respondents said that they’d go on a first date even if it fell on February 14.

You can follow Michelle da Silva on Twitter at twitter.com/michdas.