15 romantic Valentines Day gifts that go beyond tired clichés

It’s not that there’s anything wrong with a box of chocolates or flowers on Valentine’s Day: Some things are clichés for a reason, and who doesn’t love being the envy of the office when a surprise bouquet of flowers is delivered to your cubicle? But flowers die, and chocolates get eaten. (Probably pretty quickly, if we’re being honest.) Even a gourmet meal, one of the cornerstones of the holiday, only lasts a couple of hours.

Luckily, there are tons of incredibly romantic gift ideas out there — gifts you can keep enjoying without an expiration date. We’ve scoured the web for the best of the best, keeping in mind that not all couples define “romance” the same way. Some couples embrace their inner cheeseball year-round, lavishing each other with adorable gifts at every opportunity. Others are really only prepared for this level of cornball-ery once a year, so we like to make it count.

We’ve selected gifts that suit partners at every stage of a relationship, from couples who have built lives together, to those who are still charting the fragile terrain between “casual hookup buddy” and something more serious. Do you live with your boo, or are they hundreds of miles away? Somewhere in between? We’ve got ideas for that, too. Below are our favorite romantic Valentine's Day gifts for 2026.