Can you go to beautiful nature parks without looking for romance?

I know this sounds silly, but from the beginning I feel an ongoing pressure that the virtual world is supposed to be for people to find romance and become partnered, not necessarily in real life, but in world.

I certainly don't begrudge people doing that. It's rather charming. But what if you're not really interested in that for yourself? You look for a beautiful nature area, and they are invariably advertized as a romantic spot. If you explore the area to try to appreciate the build, if there is anyone there at all, you look at the mini-map at the green dots to try to see where you can go without disturbing anyone.

"There's two together - shoudn't go there. There's two over there - nope. Two here . . .wait, there's one alone. No can't go there either. Someone might think I'm on the prowl." You feel like a fith wheel.

So are there any attractive builds that are frequented as hang out places but aren't Makeout Mountain? Surely there are one or two others on line that also are not looking for a fling.

Or maybe I'm taking the whole romance /privacy thing too seriuously.

The Heian-era garden run by Dithean Ringo in Kawaii is a lovely Japanese sim, strikingly devoid of couples poses. Indeed the build is refreshingly free of any poses in the garden areas .. meditaion poses are confined to the temple areas, as I recall.
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Heh. I've honestly hardly ever even look at the mini-map when I'm not in my home sim of Periwinkle. If they're romancing out in the public space I assume they either don't care that I might come tromping through...or are maybe exhibitionists.


Don't know about "hang out places", but I try to put up links to builds and sims that I find interesting on a Tourism Board at the Periwinkle Infohub.

I just went to the Virtual Parks & Recreation Service site and they are closed! (cry)

The VPRS kept a very nice list of places to visit in SL, I recommend going to their website and copying this list pronto before they take down the site:
http://www.virtualparksandrec.com/

My current favorite nature place is Chakryn Forest. Oh, and also Svarga, which has its own ecosystem, very cool.
I also keep a list of scenic place LMs, if you want a copy send me an IM in world and I'll be happy to send it to you.

I hear you...

The Forest of Kahruvel Is an old growth forest in the sims - Rodeo, Stinson, Cowell & Noyo.
There are even rainstorms. It's often deserted and so far, I haven't encountered any smoochers, lol. Although, I wasn't really looking... I just love to go there for the peace and beauty.

I cant copy and paste the thing. Any ideas anyone?

Great answers. I worried I was being foolish. I'll check these suggestions out. Thanks.

I can vouch for that...its pretty...

Wow! Thank you for the link. I wonder if anyone's had a chance (and the time) to visit all of them.

@Kira, I have no idea why you aren't able to copy/paste. Sorry, wish I could help.

Just to preserve the final version of the Virtual Parks and Recreation list (because the VPRS site is supposed to disappear at some point, and the kiosks should stop working if they haven't already), I've put the entire list in 3 posts on Higbee's most recent forum thread about it. I just wanted to keep it in some public place.

The list is long, and includes things such as sandboxes and welcome centers that Higbee thought deserved mention, in additiion to the parks themselves.

It starts in post 71 on this page:

/327/04/202439/3.html

thank you hun, when I try to do it all I get is a bunch of squiggly lines on the page.
Got if off Nika's post, thank you..

Svarga and Apollo come to mind as beautiful places to visit, although there are buildings, not just untamed nature. Damania is a nice futuristic place to wander round, although it is more of an architectural marvel than a natural one.

I totally relate Weston.

I am so not a couple lol nor do I plan on ever being part of a romance in SL....but I love exploring and when I see things advertised as romantic and bla bla bla it tends to make my skin crawl and I steer clear. Svarga is really cool as was mentioned......also The Rain Forrest is a neat sim.....and Mexico.....there's a sim dedicated to some mexican ruins that is just totally cool.
The trick I found, is to use not so ordinary key words when searching......and you stumble on a lot of unexpected cool places. For example, I never use 'garden' or 'park' or 'tropical'.....I try for more interesting words like 'ruins' or 'relic' or whatever....just stuff that isn't so cookie cutter.

If you're interested, IM me some time, I have got a slew of landmarks to really amazing places that I found by accident. lol

Weston, I wouldn't worry about disturbing a couple if they are cuddling in a public area. Just like a park in RL, it is there for everyone. Just wander on by them... smile and wave if you feel so inclined...

Most of the time they will be in private IM mode and won't even notice (unless you stop and stare at them in a creepy way).

I saved the VPRS web page to my hard drive so it will load even if it disappears. I check some of it out at random and thought they were all old broken links. It was SL that was broken. It's good to have a list of those other places too. I'm just not having much patience with search for some reason

Milla, I did find The Rain Forest just today by accident, and it's great with lots of winding passages to get lost in. I didn't know about Mexico. Guess I'll have to print out this thread. I want to go see all the recommendations.