Hotwire Wants to Send New Couples on a Free Vacation — to Put Your Relationship to the Travel Test

The last year and a half has been an undeniably weird time to be single. For the lucky people who managed to find love in the time of COVID-19, they're finally getting to know their partner in more normal settings. Since travel is the ultimate challenge to fortify bonds or help remove those rose-colored glasses, Hotwire is sending three new couples on a free mini-getaway, and they're doing it with the help of someone who's no stranger to love and fast connections: The Bachelor franchise heartthrob Joe Amabile.

Hotwire's Love at Last Minute dating challenge is designed for newly minted couples who are ready to put their relationship to the test. Three couples will be chosen to win a last-minute "quickie" trip with Hotwire. Will their love survive the inevitable bumps of travel? If they do, these couples will then have the chance to win a luxury Valentine's Day bae-cation worth $10,000.

"Travel is one of the best ways to gauge how a relationship is going — from how much your partner prefers to plan things out to how they react to unexpected events on the road," Amabile told Travel + Leisure. "For my relationship, it's been a great way to expand our horizons and strengthen our bond. Hotwire's Love At Last Minute challenge is for those quarantine couples who haven't had time to travel together yet to test their compatibility."

The team at Hotwire considers themselves experts in what constitutes a good "quickie," and by that they mean last-minute, two- to three-night getaways with the most bang for your buck. For the third year in a row, Hotwire released its "America's Best Cities for a Quickie index" after analyzing 10,000 data points across 350 destinations. According to Amabile, the cities that made the cut are the ones with "the most four- and five-star hotel options, swankiest amenities, and most in-destination experiences."

When the three winning couples are chosen for the Love at Last Minute challenge, they'll be sent to destinations on Hotwire's Quickie Index. Some of the cities featured on the list include Miami, New Orleans, and Palm Springs. After this mini-vacation, at least one of the couples will win $10,000 courtesy of Hotwire to use on a vacation at the domestic destination of their choosing.

For a chance to win not one but two romantic getaways, couples can head to the official Love at Last Minute challenge website and upload a video responding to a travel-related Q&A. Applications are open now through Nov. 5, so couples need to act fast if they want to win a mini-break on Hotwire's dime.

Jessica Poitevien is a Travel + Leisure contributor currently based in South Florida, but always on the lookout for the next adventure. Besides traveling, she loves baking, talking to strangers, and taking long walks on the beach. Follow her adventures on Instagram.