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Packaged Goods
By Ron Donoho
Packaged Goods

Hotels and resorts like to offer cleverly named packages to get your attention—especially around Valentine’s Day. Advertising a rack rate is downright blasé. It’s more fun to throw in a few amenities — champagne, scattered rose petals, late checkout (wink)—and call a night’s stay Love Potion #5 (5th Avenue Suites Hotel, Portland). Add strawberries and a large can of Reddi-wip and it’s the Love Shack Package (Hotel Allegro, Chicago). Or throw in a DVD Handycam camcorder and tripod and you’ve stolen a scene from Wild Romance (Hotel Solamar, San Diego.)

Here are some other real deals being offered:

Don’t Be Desperate: An all-girls event, and a play off television’s Desperate Housewives. Includes a “Gabrielle-style” lingerie makeover, dirty-secret martinis at Mini Bar lounge and a naughty night out at the All American Male Strip Club; $249. The Muse Hotel, New York City, 877-NYC-MUSE.

Tease Me, Please Me: Deluxe room, $100 dinner gift certificate and a Kama Sutra Weekender Kit; $235-$499. Directly from a press release: “Adventurous lovers will be drawn to this couple’s mountain package.” Sky Hotel, Aspen, Colorado, 800-882-2562.

Beaches and Bets: Guys, go all in for “full house” accommodations, an evening of gambling on a cruise ship and a “royal flush” cabaña on the beach; starting at $179. Cocoa Beach Hilton Oceanfront, Cocoa Beach, Florida, 800-526-2609.

Priceless Package: Stay in the Presidential Residence (not suite—a 3,700- square-foot residence), get a wine region tour, go horseback riding, do Pilates with a private instructor and have three meals a day prepared in-room by a private chef. Don’t be fooled by the name—there really is a price: $10,000. Bacara, Santa Barbara, 877-422-4245