One of our local PBS stations has recently gone all…
Wedding Wednesday: The Honeymoon
Rob and I are a little stumped when it comes to a honeymoon destination. There are just so many options!
We’d like to stay somewhere where there are things to do (kayak, explore, etc) and in a hotel that has a lot of character (old world fancy…not Atlantis fancy). And it is the end of September, so no hurricane-prone areas. We’re leaning toward Greece but it is wide open.
Since you blog readers have been right about so many things, so many times – the wedding location, the favors, etc – I’m opening it up to you: What are your honeymoon recommendations? Any hotels you really love?
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I LOVE Greece, if only for the food:) That would be a great place, aside from the very long plane ride.
lisbon – then do parts of spain.
have you been to Costa Rica? Tons of outdoorsey stuff to do and so beautiful. Check out El Jardin in Montezuma or Villas Nicolas (don’t go the big resort route. there are sooo many beautiful places to stay there).
Ok, my advice comes from a place of thriftiness, but the boyfriend and I were just discussing this, and with the dollar being as week as it is our ideas of good spots included Mexico – I think the west coast has some amazing out of the way spots on beautiful bays with Kayaking, etc, and we were discussing Aztec Pyramids as a good adventure. Also on our list: lots of places in South America (Argentina is supposed to be really cool, also Chile). We thought these spots would cool and adventurous, but affordable, with currency like it is. Anywhere in Europe is just too expensive these days, at least to travel as nicely as you want to on a Honeymoon.
I vote for Greece. I’ve never been there, but saw the special that Giada DiLaurentis did for Food Network when she went to Santorini and it looked gorgeous!
I recommend the South Pacific, and specifically the Cook Islands. I have never been anywhere more beautiful. Aitutaki is one of the islands and is paradise. You can rent bikes to pedal the islands, snorkeling is amazing, and the place is beyond tropical!
Have you thought about Venice? So romantic and pretty!
Kauai is very outdoorsy. Lots of hiking, kayaking, etc.
I’ve had friends have TONS of fun in Greece. We went to the Mohonk Mountain House, which has a lot of outdoor activities on its humongous property and a brand new, lovely spa for the sore muscles afterward.
I’m coming out of lurker status to suggest Costa Rica. Someone else suggested this as well and I give it VERY high marks. It is spectacular – you can find remote and private beaches, take unbelievable hikes and while it wouldn’t necessarily be the pampered honeymoon, there are some fantastic eco-resorts with everything from bird watching (never thought I would enjoy that but it was amazing) to river rafting to sitting in a hammock on the porch in the middle of a downpour listening to the jungle. The only drawback is the food – I found it all pretty bland so maybe if you brought your own hot sauce to sprinkle over everything.
I am firmly in the “after your wedding, what you’ll want to do is lie still and have someone hand you cool things to drink without requiring that you make decisions” camp. We went to Nevis for a week and it was blissful. (It was late august/early september but Nevis is far enough east to be out of the hurricane path, generally.)
But if you do want something more active I highly recommend Argentina. You can combine fancy schmancy hotels for a few nights (the Llao Llao in the Lakes Region is supposed to be amazing, and there’s tons of outdoorsy stuff there) with fun city stuff in BA and wine tasting over in Mendoza, depending on how many pieces you want to divide it into. We stayed at a fabulous place called Casa Glebinias in Mendoza; there are pics and more info on my blog if you search the name. God, I loved Argentina. We did hang with a Honeymooning couple on one of our vineyard tours and the wife said she was really tired and wished they weren’t trying to see so much, but I think if you did a few days down at Llao Llao first you could probably get all rested up. Oh fun!!
I’d consider the Alsace region of France (near Germany), maybe combined with a jaunt to Bavarian Germany–we did this for our honeymoon 6 years ago…combined wine country, river kayaking, biking and hiking in the Alps (the Zugspitze is near an old Olympic village), Salzburg is nearby..delicious food, you can do socialize in groups or solo, TONS of old world comfortable inns! Great times
i second argentina! their currency is pegged to the dollar, things are affordable (leather is cheap!), food and wine are EXCELLENT, and it has a very european feel without the european prices. plus, september is their spring, and the perfect time to go. you could hit patagonia for the outdoorsy stuff, mendoza for wine country, and buenos aires for cosmopolitan city/food/shopping. i love it!
Greece vote for me, specifically, Santorini. Really one of THE most beautiful places I’ve been. I did a day ferry ride to go swimming to a hot spring, donkey ride up a caldera and then a beautiful sunset. Not to mention beautiful black sand beach. And DELICIOUS food (there’s one on the edge of the caldera called La Flame I think, owned by a Greek-New Yorker)that’s very picturesque and romantic.
ok, I didn’t go, but my friends got married in September and went to Turkey for their honeymoon. They love traveling, keeping on the move, being active, blah, blah, blah. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to throw it out there.
Have you been to Hawaii? Walker and I went to the Big Island, Hawaii for our honeymoon. It was beyond awesome. You will have to rent a car. There is so much to do on that island though! Get ‘The Big Island Revealed’ to check it out.
We snorkeled, rode horses in Waipio Valley, ate at a Vanilla Bean Farm (Hawaiian Vanilla Company), Took a helicopter ride over the volacano. We went swimming in a naturally heated hotspring.
You can also kayak there. And do things like go up on the Mountain and look at stars.
We stayed on the Kona side for 7 days in a condo and then went to a Bed & Breakfast for 3 nights in Hilo. It was beautiful.
If I could do it again, I would also include staying in The Volcano House.
We also did alot of hiking around and exploring and finding beaches and hiking around in lava tubes and around the volcano, lots of things described in the book. Lots of beautiful waterfalls. SO MUCH good food!
Let me know if you want more details! 🙂 Our places we stayed were like $70 a night and the B&B was $110. That was two years ago. It is definitely worth looking in to. Lots of good advice on TripAdvisor also in the Hawaii section.
If you go to Costa Rica ~ this might be a fun & unique way to spend a few nights (also very affordable ~ so you could splurged the remaining part of your honeymoon budget)
http://www.treehousehotelcostarica.com
ARGENTINA
or CABO SAN LUCAS (so beautiful – not spring breaky)
new zealand might be interesting. gorgeous landscape, outdoorsy activities, and it’ll be summer there.
argentina would also be a wonderful option.
it depends on what you want out of a honeymoon. i’m a terrible tourist, so we ended up going to Ecuador and avoiding all the usual suspects (the Galapagos, rain forest, etc.). it worked for us, but i wouldn’t recommend it to most people.
You have a lot of good suggestions here already (I also recommend Costa Rica, or a new one, Thailand where you could do kayak, diving, etc.) Greece is great too, but go to the islands (I’ve only been to Santorini, but it was amazing).
It’s funny, I just talked with my husband about this today (we just got married 9 mo. ago) and we both agree that a cruise is the only way to go. You pay a flat rate up front, and everything is taken care of. It’s probably the lowest stress vacation you can take. Plus each destination is a new experience, and you can go to museums and do cool sighseeing in one port one day… then the next day be hiking to exotic waterfalls or going white-water rafting. Really, cruises are the only way to go.
Royal Plantation in Jamaica. We had the best time, great food, great service. Boutique hotel atmosphere. My husband is a scuba diver and he was able to do that.
Know several other people who went for honeymoons too. Everyone has the same great experience.
Also, we all recommend leaving the Monday after your wedding. Not Sunday. Makes life so much easier.
I love Greece, but I vot for the Italian coast, hike the Cinqa Terra, rent a car and drive around Tuscany… September/October/November is the BEST time to go…
OR, Francis Ford Coppola has a resort in Belize called Turtle Bay (I think). It is amazing!! They have a package where you do a few days in the mountians and a few days at the beach… best vacation EVER. Best part, airfare not too expensive and not much of a time change…. that makes a difference…
Here’s the correct link to the Tree Houses Hotel (I was curious and when I clicked it took me elsewhere…): http://www.treehouseshotelcostarica.com/
The suggestion that keeps coming to my mind is Lake Como (Italy). One way or the other, enjoy!
One of the most beautiful places I ever went was Sorrento in Italy. It just quiet and old world. Cobblestone streets and the city is right on the ocean.. the sunset are spectacular.
But I loved my honeymoon as well. We went to Victoria, Canada to Butchart Gardens.. which is heaven on earth no matter the season you visit. I recommend staying late for the water and light show. 🙂
Oh.. one other place. My good friend goes to the Dominican Republic every year.. where for not too many dollars you can live like a movie star for a week. 🙂 And, help an emerging nation and economy.
This is random but we went to Vietnam for our honeymoon. We spent the first few days in Saigon then the rest at the Six Senses Hideaway in Ninh Van Bay. The resort was beyond beautiful. Basically a private island with everything you could ask for, and after a short boat ride you could be on the back of a motorbike on your way to a bustling market.
It was a magnificent honeymoon and we wouldn’t change a thing.
http://www.sixsenses.com/Six-Senses-Hideaway-Ninh-Van-Bay/Accommodations-and-Rates.php
I’ve never been to Greece so I can’t comment on that one, but I would suggest the Amalfi Coast in Italy. September would be a great time of year, just after the high season so flights/recommendations would be less and the places would be less crowded, but the average high temp is still 80 degrees.
It is truly one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been, like something out of a postcard. You can go kayaking, hiking, exploring ancient cities, the food is to die for, and when you are tired from all of that you can sit out on the balcony of your hotel or rented house and enjoy the spectacular views.
If you want any specific information about it, feel free to email 🙂
I also recommend the Amalfi Coast. My husband and I went to Positano for our honeymoon and absolutely loved it. We flew in and out of Rome and spent some time in Rome at the beginning and end of the trip sightseeing. We explored Positano and the Amalfi Coast with trips to Capri and Pompeii as well. We stayed at Hotel Buca di Bacco and had a fabulous time. And the food was just AMAZING. I highly recommend it!
It’s always been France for us. And France loves les jeunes mariées. We honeymooned in Paris and Burgundy. If cycling through vineyards on roman roads in idyllic countryside appeals, try Les Magnolias in Mersualt. For our tenth anniversary, we returned to Burgundy, but then went north to Champagne where we stayed in the incredibly romantic Maison de Rhodes in Troyes. We also love Les Hospitaliers in Poet-Laval and if kayaking is what you want, you cannot beat the location of Residence le Castelas in Aigueze on the banks of the L’Ardeche. Best of Luck, S.
that would be Meursault (not Mersualt as above)
Though I’ve never been to Greece and it sounds so romantic, I also am going to chime in on Costa Rica! We went there for our honeymoon and it was just perfect (as long as you remember to wear sunscreen!). We stayed on the pacific side (no hurricanes) right next to Manuel Antonio national park. There is SO much to do: rainforest hikes, zipline through the forest, white water rafting among the most amazing green mountains, snorkeling (amazing!), sunset catamaran tour. And you’ve got to stay at Si Como No – it’s a “green” resort where they use only renewable materials and really try to be a part of the jungle (as much as that is possible). While we were there, I followed a troop of monkeys (babies and all) as they traversed their way across the hotel. AMAZING!!! (and pretty cheap airfare).
I’ve had friends go to Belize and loved it…however they booked their hotel themselves online and didn’t discover until they got there that their 5 star hotel had been ravaged by a hurricane the year before. If going somewhere not mainstream, I would advise using a travel agent.
Greece sounds fun.
While not exactly adventurous, I love the English lake district. We stayed at a loverly hotel on a lake, rented rowboats, visited Wordsworth’s cottage (other visited Beatrix Potter’s homestead), had the best gingerbread of my life…There would be things to do, but not a ton of stuff, you would feel like you HAD to do.
I can’t believe no one has said Alaska! We did a combo relaxing/active honeymoon of 3 days in Vancouver (hiking/kayaking/biking/eating!) then a 7 day cruise up the Inside Passage to Alaska (more hiking/kayaking/pampering) then rented an RV and did 7 days in Denali National Park. Not sure about the funky hotel situation, outside of the great British relics in Victoria. We absolutely loved it.
no matter where you go i think my best tip was not to try and shove a million and twelve things into the honeymoon … my favorite part of our honeymoon (we went on a cruise) was not having to make any more decisions, not having any stress and just relaxing with my hubby after all that planning and the big day there was nothing better than doing nothing if we didnt want to :0)
i’m going to second erica’s suggestion of new zealand, particularly the south island. will not be too cool in september and the exchange will be in your favour. we went there for our honeymoon, it’s a beautiful place with lots of great outdoor stuff to do.
My husband travels a lot for work, so he wanted a honeymoon with no air travel. After our wedding in Minneapolis, we drove to Bayfield, Wisconsin. We rented a sailboat and sailed around the Apostle Islands for a few days. Before and after sailing, we stayed in a charming, Victorian bed-and-breakfast.
It was relaxing, fun, and relatively inexpensive. It was not in the least bit exotic or glamorous. If you want people to say, “Oh, wow!” when you tell them about your honeymoon, don’t pick Wisconsin. However, it was perfect for us.
If you are thinking Greece, and don’t mind long/crazy travel the only place I can think of better to go is Croatia. Not just better but way way better. It’s beautiful, it’s historic, there are barely any Americans so you don’t feel like part of an invading horde and it’s NOT on the euro. It has a ton of islands, beautiful historic old cities, great food and the people were SO friendly.
I went as a backpacking student through France, Spain, Italy, Greece, and Croatia and everyone I was with agreed it was the coolest place we’d ever been. And this was at the end of a pretty amazing trip. Go to DUbrovnik and maybe a little island hopping if you want beachy, Zagreb and DUbrovnik for the Old WOrld European feel. And maybe a stop in Split where there is still a huge, intact roman palace.