How to plan the best Anniversary Getaway; Top Anniversary Ideas

Planning anniversaries can be overwhelming. instead use these Anniversary Ideas to spark the fun plus find the best Getaways in Salt Lake City, Utah.

We just celebrated our 12th anniversary! It was so exciting! And I can’t wait to tell you all about it! So thankful services were provided for us to celebrate our anniversary getaway in style. Our opinions on our experience are entirely our own. 

August is one of my favorite months. Probably because it is the month I married my sweetheart. So every August we try to plan something fun. This year we are celebrating our 12th wedding anniversary. Most of our married life we have been weighted down by college (and no income) or the husbands military career where we were never together on our anniversary, or babies too young to leave behind. But now we are a little older, the kids are older, and we are no longer in college; we have a little more freedom to do something special for our anniversary. Since last year we spent our anniversary together WITH the kids; this year we wanted to do something fun without the kids! So I’m showing you how to plan the best anniversary getaway without the kids!

Anniversary Getaway Planning

To start the best anniversary getaway without the kids you need a few things in place

• someone to take care of the kids and pets
• a place to get away
• amazing food
• fun activities you’ll both enjoy

If you have those features in place you will have the best anniversary getaway possible!

A huge thank you goes out to my Niece who took the kids over night. And our neighbors who watched our dog and cat for us. Thank you for helping to make this amazing anniversary weekend possible!

While I can’t help you with the kids and pets; I can help you find the best places to stay, dine and enjoy while you are celebrating your anniversary in Salt Lake City!

If you are ever in the Salt Lake City, Utah area; seriously you need to follow suit!

If you’ve been following us on instagram (shameless plug; seriously you should follow us to get the “insider” look at upcoming projects!) then you will have seen a glimpse into the excursion we went on for our anniversary already. But you haven’t seen it all. Just wait until you see all these pictures. That’s also a warning…lots of photos coming up. Words just can’t describe what you are about to see. And yes, you need to see it so you can plan your anniversary getaway to be just as amazing!

Anniversary Getaway Hotel!

When looking for an Anniversary Getaway hotel you need to consider the location, price and amenities. We stayed at the Hotel Monaco in Salt Lake City! It is a Kimpton hotel, so if you have the Kimpton rewards you have to check this one out!

Located in down town Salt Lake city it is central to all the fun activities we had planned. Plus it was gorgeous!

We could look out and see the theater where they were showing Wicked-man I wish we had gotten tickets! And we were in walking distance of almost every activity we had planned. It was fantastic.

This Kimpton hotel features:

• AAA Four Diamond Award
• Complimentary high-speed WiFi on all devices throughout the hotel for Kimpton Karma Rewards members.
• Award winning Bambara Restaurant
• Pet-friendly hotel if you can’t get someone to watch the pets, no fees or size restrictions
• Kids 17 and under stay for free in existing bedding when accompanying an adult if you can’t get someone to watch the kids.
• Salt Lake City’s e2 Sustainability Award
• Complimentary 24-hour fitness center and wellness program
• Stylish meetings and events

Honestly I haven’t entered such a fancy hotel before! The room was pristine. And quite comfortable. I personally loved the headboard and decor.

We even had an adorable fish companion waiting for us in our room. This guy was so cute!

The lounge area is also quite elaborate. And in the evenings they offer happy hour. Though that wasn’t of interest to us as we don’t drink. We still appreciated the beautiful decor and comfort of the hotel.

On an anniversary getaway you definitely need a hotel that is close to other locations you will be visiting. You also need comfort. The Kimpton Hotel Monaco was perfect for our anniversary getaway and was such a luxury.

Anniversary Getaway Dining

You only want the best on your anniversary. Don’t settle for fast food. Really make it special. Because we all know this only happens once in a blue moon that you actually get to be away from the kids and spend time with just each other!

Introducing THE GARDEN

For Lunch; skip the fast food and go for some class. Like The Garden in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The garden is located on the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building near Temple Square in Salt Lake City. And let me tell you it was a lot of fun! It was casual enough that you don’t need to dress up. But definitely a lot fancier than fast food. And the food was amazing!

The husband got the most mouth watering steak I have ever tasted. It was amazing. I mean just look at it!

I was quite happy with my Saturday special of ribs. But I think I’ll have to go for that steak next time!

And the focassia bread with dipping oil was to die for! Best I’ve ever tasted!

And I should also mention the dessert! Can you say mouth watering? Yes! It was! The warmed Chocolate molten cake is amazing.

The atmosphere was amazing, it was a bright and comfortable dining experience. And let’s not forget the view! Being on the 10th floor you definitely have a great view!

Introducing The Roof Restaurant

For dinner make it extra special with visiting The Roof Restaurant in Salt Lake City Utah.

On Friday night we visited The Roof Restaurant. It is also located on the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. But on the other side of the lookout window on the 10th floor.

The Roof is a much more elegant dining experience. Thus it was perfect for our dinner date. Most everyone was dressed in their finest. And we had the most accomplished piano player providing the live music of the night on the grand piano in the center of the restaurant!

The table settings are what you would expect from an elaborate restaurant. We were even blessed with a fun little Happy Anniversary card on our table to help us celebrate the event. They also do those cards for birthdays and other special occasions.

The food is an all you can eat buffet of mouth watering dishes. They host a large array of salad bar along the back wall. With the specialty dishes/meats in the center with a trained carver. And then the desserts are arranged on both sides of the stairs surrounding the grand piano. Different desserts on both sides of the stairs I should mention.

You definitely have a lot of options to please everyone’s taste buds! We each tried a little of almost everything and easily were filled. Though we wished we could have gone back for 2nds and 3rds of certain dishes. Like the ribs and prime rib! Oh they were amazing!

You also have unlimited rolled with the most fluffy honey butter ever! This was definitely one of my favorites.

And again, we can’t forget the view! We were seated directly in front of the LDS Salt Lake Temple! And it was absolutely gorgeous!

We could also see the LDS Conference center with the gardens on the roof.

The night was just absolutely amazing. The husband said this was his favorite meal of the entire anniversary getaway. It was elaborate but comfortable environment that we could fully enjoy. And the service was amazing. The waiters and waitresses were extremely friendly and helpful. All around it just made our magical night even more memorable.

We finished off the evening with some special desserts. And they did not leave us wanting. They were quite indulgent and full of flavor. Bland food is NOT something you will find at the Restaurant! It is the perfect dining location for your special anniversary getaway.

Anniversary Getaway activity

One of the best parts of an anniversary getaway is the activities. Plan for some down time at the hotel. For our downtime at the hotel we enjoyed just relaxing after a fun filled day. It was nice to just relax in our Hotel. I mean; you saw it. It is quite elaborate. Make sure you have time to enjoy it.

We ended up playing a great co-op game of Pandemic together. I bought it for the Husband for our anniversary. So it was the perfect time to play it together. So make sure you take time to do fun things together that doesn’t take a lot of energy.

But also get at least one fun BIG activity planned. For us, that was a no brainer. Hello Massage! We haven’t had a couples massage in about 8 years. We are both over due for a great relaxing massage.

Matrix Spa and Massage in Salt Lake city is awesome! You can book special couples massage packages to fit exactly what you want. We used the Date with your Date Emerald Package which included

• 60 minute full body massage (deep tissue or Swedish)
• 15 Minute reflexology treatment
• Salt body scrub
• Private steam room
• And Meditation cave with Fruit drinks

Our service lasted approximately 3 hours. And was definitely worth it. You will leave feeling completely relaxed and refreshed. Honestly you won’t want to leave at all!

The entire environment just emphasizes relaxation. From the decor to even the wind chimes that have a very calming chime. And we were welcomed with a very friendly welcome and a cup of Chlorophyll water! Have you had  Chlorophyll water before? It’s amazing. But I’ll tell you about that another time. All you need to know is that it’s very refreshing and helps with the detox process.

We met our massage team Whitney and Karen. They were both so friendly and make our experience quite amazing.

We were shown into our private room. It had two heated beds set up for us. With very relaxing new age music playing very softly in the background.

All communication was done in calm and quite voices which really added to the relaxing atmosphere.

And then the massage. Oh my goodness. The husband can’t stop talking about it and I can’t stop thinking about it! The Massage team seriously knows what they are doing! They were very well trained and were very professional. And they worked out some knots I didn’t even know I had! By the end I felt completed relaxed and all the stress I had been carrying the last 5 months was gone!

Then they moved onto the reflexology and I never wanted to leave!

After our Salt scrub (which was amazing by the way and left us feeling incredibly smooth) we were shown to our private steam room. Now that was a fun experience. Have you ever sat in a steam room before? It is quite different from a sauna. And actually I prefer the steam room more. It’s more moist. It opened all our pours and was quite relaxing as well.

Showers were provided and we were able to wash off before entering our meditation cave. This was the perfect ending to our experience. It was a quite and secluded little cove with very soft lighting and comfortable chairs. We took the time to relax, and chat with each other.

We also indulged in the treats at the end of nuts, almond chocolate, sparkling juice and cheese and crackers.

I wish I could have captured better photos of the experience, but after the first room my camera battery died (the joys of traveling with no where to recharge) so I had to use my Phone camera. Which did not do the rooms justice.

The husband is still talking about our time at Matrix Spa and Massage. And is already planning our next trip! He says the sooner the better.

That is how good they are! They have a GUY excited to go back! We will definitely be visiting again!

So now you know how to have the perfect anniversary getaway! The last thing you need to remember is to relax. Enjoy each other. Rekindle the relationship! If things don’t go exactly as planned; don’t let it get you down.

I felt like the girl in Mom’s Night Out; where I had the perfect anniversary getaway all planned out. And then everything started to work against us on that Friday. Appointments were canceled -not by us and not by any place we mentioned above, traffic got in the way, and we were delayed in dropping the kids off at the sitter.

So at first we were both feeling quite down and grumpy. But you need to remember things will happen. Shake it off. And enjoy what is going right. And we definitely had a lot go right for us on our anniversary getaway. It was the best anniversary getaway we’ve had yet! Much better than our Honeymoon where we spent half of it sick (but that’s a whole new story for another time).

Remember the best Anniversary getaway will have no kids, a great place to stay, amazing dining experiences, fun activities you can both enjoy, and both of you present and relaxing and enjoying each other! That is the key to the best anniversary getaway!

What better way could you spend your anniversary?

Which part of our anniversary Getaway would you want to experience the most?