Vacay Like You’re on a Dating Reality Show

Just 20 minutes south of where ABC’s Bachelor in Paradise is filmed in Sayulita, Mexico, you’ll find Imanta Resort, an even more spectacular property than the one where former Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants reconvene for another chance at love. On 250 acres of oceanfront jungle, the intimate resort has but 12 casas and is eco-conscious to boot.

Fox tried to revive its dating reality show offering Paradise Hotel earlier this year. While the show didn’t inspire much passion from viewers, there’s no love lost for its tropical location of Acapulco, Mexico. Here, the Banyan Tree Cabo Marques offers the right kind of drama—private, stilted villas with infinity pools perched on a lush bluff overlooking the Pacific.

In CBS’ American iteration of Love Island, which just crowned baby-faced Zac Mirabelli and Elizabeth Weber as favourite couple, contestants were sent to Armstrong Island in Fiji to find love. Reachable by speedboat on neighbouring Malolo Island, Six Senses Fiji is a serious step-up from what the Love Islanders are used to. In addition to 24 freestanding villas, it has 9 luxury multi-room residences that could house a gaggle of singles if need be.

The ITV2 original which the new US version piggy-backed off of, UK’s Love Island is filmed in a private villa on the Spanish island of Mallorca. It’s nice and all, but we’d prefer to sit by the pool at Son Brull Hotel and Spa. It’s also an intimate setting with just 23 suites, and their pool deck setup is perfect for unpacking one’s love life with girlfriends over bottles of Rioja.

The third season of USA Network’s Temptation Island, which rather cruelly puts couples’ relationships to the test by inundating them with singles, was filmed in Maui, Hawaii. On the other hand, staying at the Lumeria Maui is more likely to strengthen a relationship, as this 25-suite property is a relaxing educational retreat with daily classes in yoga, meditation, aromatherapy and healing arts.

A kind of reality TV inception, MTV’s Ex on the Beach brings together cast members from other shows, such as Big Brother and Vanderpump Rules, for a beachy holiday and then one by one their exes start showing up. While that premise is a nightmare, staying in the same swanky Southern California neighbourhood where the show is shot at the Malibu Beach Inn definitely isn’t. Gaze out to the ocean from one’s private patio and thoughts of exes, along with all other worries and cares, recede like the tide.

Perhaps the most bizarre of all the dating reality show concepts, VH1’s Dating Naked makes singles date in nothing but their birthday suits. Thankfully, the backdrop of 2016’s third and final season provided the contestants with another distracting view, that of Bora Bora’s beautiful turquoise waters and green-covered Mt. Otemanu. While you can’t walk around naked at the Four Seasons Bora Bora, you can bathe in the buff with an open-air ocean view in their overwater bungalows.