I think you missed the point of my post. I wasn't saying I wouldn't go away with my husband. I said I wouldn't go away that great a distance because if something did happen, the distance would become a huge issue - better while the children are young to go away somewhere local. I'd rather regret the things I didn't do than regret the things I did, and having said that missing a vacation thousands of kms away isn't something I would regret anyway. I've travelled, and basically the scenery might change, but people stay the same which means I stay the same wherever I am and can therefore enjoy or not enjoy myself (as I choose by my behaviour) wherever I am, so Paris or Sydney (where I live) I'm going to have a great time, and in Sydney I would be comfortable. In Paris I would not.
You can have the same alone time wherever you are away from home (even if the motels only ten minutes from home as you can hundreds or even thousands of kms from home - and no I'm not saying ten minutes is as far as I would go, just making an extreme example of it, as I think a trip to Paris would be while you have little ones). It's a matter of what you're willing to put into the holiday.
Personally, I would look to something a lot more local, and see what I could find out about the local area to make a romantic holiday, then put the extra money saved by taking the more local vacation toward something more family oriented. After all (and this is just from my experience in life) what's the point of expensive vacations that only one person in the marriage wants if the other person is looking at the house and thinking about the fact that there isn't even decent furniture in the kid's rooms (I'm trying to say, maybe she sees other stuff as more or equally important and feels that you don't put any importance on the stuff she sees as important).
Nor would I. Besides, if you look at the poll you will see that one in four women who have responded have said they wouldn't be comfortable with a trip like that, and even some who said they would go mentioned that they wouldn't do so until the children were older.
Ruthie