The Sydneysider, celebrating the end of her high school years with a bunch of friends, saw Daniel sitting by the pool at the hotel where they were both staying.
The two quickly hit it off.
"He was confident, smart, and funny. He seemed the type of person who cared a lot, who stood up for you, who wanted to be around you all the time," Alex says.
The rest of the holiday was spent doing what Alex describes as, "the whole holiday facade - dinner, long walks, movies".
For the then 17-year old, it was the kind of summer romance that opened up an alternative world free of work, responsibilities and reality.
"It was intense and we were both living in the moment," Alex says.
"We basically lived in each other's pockets. I was happier when he was around, I was lonely without him."
When the week-long holiday ended, they decided to stay together. Well, that was the plan. But what Alex didn't count on was how the return home would change the relationship over the next few months.
"He wanted to please everyone else," she says.
"And he started saying things like, `we should spend less time together', and 'absence makes the heart grow fonder'."
For Alex, qualities that were heightened in the summer heat diminished as the challenges of home life and real-world responsibilities caught up.
It's one of the biggest pitfalls of the summer fling, explains Relationships Australia NSW's operations director Lyn Fletcher. People have to eventually revert back to their `real selves' once the holiday is over.
"If you're single and you're going to a place where there won't be anyone you know, you tend to try on different personas," Fletcher says.
"It's hazardous because the big question at the end of the holiday is whether you can maintain that persona."
Fletcher says it's more common for attraction to form given that the fresh, unpredictable or exotic nature of a summer fling is different from ordinary life.
But can this draw opposites together - can a go-go dancer with a penchant for trance music fall for a quiet, shy accountant?
"A big hazard is to believe that the person who is very different to you will change to fit into your real world," Fletcher says.
"This is a person you're physically and emotionally attracted to in this context and point in time.
"And you're both on your best behaviour. They probably only see a quarter of you, because you only give a bit of yourself away."
Fletcher says the summer romance is a bit like permanently wearing "beer goggles", and things like the weather, the setting, even time, can cloud people's judgment.
"You're sometimes in settings that are quite romanticised in movies and you end up thinking `it's just like that film, he's the man of my dreams'," Fletcher explains.
That can lead to bad decisions, especially when it comes to practising safe sex.
"It's absolutely non-negotiable. You wouldn't eat a very exotic food unless you know it's safe, so in the same way you need to monitor your sexual appetite," Fletcher says.
"You don't risk your future for the present and that's particularly important when you're in a completely different environment."
When it comes to the final decision, at the end of the day, the more important question to ask is not whether it's the real thing, but whether the relationship can endure.
For Alex and Daniel, the clash between fantasy and reality eventually took its toll after about six months, when Daniel moved overseas.
"Everything went way too fast looking back on it, but at the time it was one of those whirlwind romances," Alex says.
"But it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me because ... I tried a lot of new things, and have since realised who the right and wrong people are," she adds.
By Rashida Yosufzai
