Portugal, Southern Spain, or Italy May honeymoon

Knottie1465131319

I know it's pretty vague but we have no idea where to go for our honeymoon! We live in Miami so don't want a beach/tropic honeymoon. We have never been out of the country so are really new to traveling over there. We're foodies who enjoy drinking so honestly the food is our deciding factor! Looking to spend about $8-$10k and going for 7 days. Any suggestions to help narrow our decision would be super helpful! 

charlotte989875

We went to Malaga in southern Spain and it was fantastic. It's a pretty popular destination for British tourists (from what we could tell), and it has historic churches, a fort, and ancient theatre, also great art museums (we honestly didn't spend much time at), so there was a lot to do outside of the beach (which was also great). The food was amazing, and everything was fairly reasonably priced. It was great because it's a smaller city so we could wander and explore without it being too busy, but we still found a lot to do. 

Happy to answer any questions!

ETA: we were not looking for much night life; we went out to a few bars after late dinners, but mostly we were exhausted by that point, so I can't comment on that scene. We did hear about some clubs/bars that were supposed to be pretty fun, but not really our thing. 

redwoodoriginal

charlotte989875 said:

We went to Malaga in southern Spain and it was fantastic. It's a pretty popular destination for British tourists (from what we could tell), and it has historic churches, a fort, and ancient theatre, also great art museums (we honestly didn't spend much time at), so there was a lot to do outside of the beach (which was also great). The food was amazing, and everything was fairly reasonably priced. It was great because it's a smaller city so we could wander and explore without it being too busy, but we still found a lot to do. 

Happy to answer any questions!

ETA: we were not looking for much night life; we went out to a few bars after late dinners, but mostly we were exhausted by that point, so I can't comment on that scene. We did hear about some clubs/bars that were supposed to be pretty fun, but not really our thing. 

How many days did you spend there? 

charlotte989875

We spent 4 days in Madrid, then 5 in Malaga, and we definitely could have spent a few more there. 

STARMOON44

I would go to Spain. I love Portugal, but for your first trip Spain. Barcelona, Granada, Córdoba. I also liked Malaga but thought a day there was plenty. 

climbingsingle

We did a Mediterranean cruise back in 2013 and it was fantastic. It was a 10 day on the QE2 and we made stops in:
Lisbon
Gibraltar 
Barcelona
Cartagena, Spain (beach area)  
Marseilles
Monaco (we did a day trip to Nice and then Monte Carlo)
Livorno, Italy (day trip to Florence and then a winery)
Rome 

I seriously can't recommend this enough. It was so much fun, and a great way to experience a lot of European countries we hadn't been to yet. We flew into London and the ship left from Southampton. We also did Tours by Locals in Barcelona, Monaco and Italy instead of the guided tours the ship offered. We had our own car/driver and got to see and do a lot more. 

CMGragain

What kind of travel experience are you looking for?
If you want to see lots of different things, eat good food, and have things all set up for you, a cruise would suit your budget.  Trad the sticky I wrote about xruises at the top of this forum.  Cruise lines that do the Mediterranean and cater to Americans include Princess, Celebrity, and Norwegian, among others.  If this interests you, you should talk to a travel agent to get a better idea of what to expect.  On a cruise, most of your food is included in the fare price.  You can always try local food on your own when ashore.
My DH stresses out with European train travel, but he does have a lot of anxiety about traveling overseas, even though we do it fairly often.  Italy is a good place to experience local culture.  Read a copy of Rick Steves European guides.  He gives practical advice for budget minded people.  Traveling on your own in doable, but you need to do a lot of planning in advance and to know what you want.

climbingsingle

Italy also is definitely doable. You'll just need to research which part you'd like to spend your time in. For our HM, we did 10 days with Florence being our home base. Florence is an awesome city. We rented an apartment on Airbnb and also rented a car. We drove to Pisa, Lucca and Cinque Terre. We took the train to Venice as well. 

Next September we're going back to do a hiking trip through the lakes region. We'll start off in Milan and end in Lake Como. Obviously we love Italy! 

charlotte989875

I agree with everyone above and would suggest thinking first if you would prefer to see a lot of places in the week you have, or stay in one place (or have a home base like @climbingwife did) and do day trips. My H really wanted to stay in one place, which meant we got to really experience one place, do more local stuff, take some day trips, rented bikes and just wander through the city, etc. But, I also had spent a bunch of time in Spain and had seen Barcelona, Sevilla, Madrid, and southern Portugal so I wasn't bummed about not seeing more things. 

Id say if you're having trouble deciding maybe think about seeing a bunch of cities; a cruise, train, or by car are all good options. Think about what kind of trip you want and what's important to you (seeing a bunch of stuff, traveling around, different things to do every day, having the same place to come back to, relaxing without a lot of set plans, really good food, ability to cook on your own) then start narrowing down location options. 

Knottie1465131319

All of these are so helpful and amazing! Thank you everybody. I am going to start looking into cruises. If not a cruise, then still deciding between Spain and Italy! I foresee a lot of research in my future!  

CMGragain

Knottie1465131319 said:

All of these are so helpful and amazing! Thank you everybody. I am going to start looking into cruises. If not a cruise, then still deciding between Spain and Italy! I foresee a lot of research in my future!  

You should really talk to a travel agent who specializes in cruises.  When will you be traveling?  That makes a huge difference in Europe!

kahluakoala

May. CMGragain said:

Knottie1465131319 said:

All of these are so helpful and amazing! Thank you everybody. I am going to start looking into cruises. If not a cruise, then still deciding between Spain and Italy! I foresee a lot of research in my future!  

You should really talk to a travel agent who specializes in cruises.  When will you be traveling?  That makes a huge difference in Europe!

May. it is in the thread title.

CMGragain

KahluaKoala said:

May. CMGragain said:

Knottie1465131319 said:

All of these are so helpful and amazing! Thank you everybody. I am going to start looking into cruises. If not a cruise, then still deciding between Spain and Italy! I foresee a lot of research in my future!  

You should really talk to a travel agent who specializes in cruises.  When will you be traveling?  That makes a huge difference in Europe!

May. it is in the thread title.

Thank you! 
OP, here are some cruises that might interest you.  This site is my favorite one for cruise shopping, and they won't bother you.

http://www.vacationstogo.com/fastdeal.cfm?deal=35501
http://www.vacationstogo.com/fastdeal.cfm?deal=19920
http://www.vacationstogo.com/fastdeal.cfm?deal=13762
http://www.vacationstogo.com/fastdeal.cfm?deal=20421

This is just a sample.  I, personally, like the last Princess itinerary best.  I think destination is more important than the ship.  All the ships are beautiful!  My own travel agent (I will share if you PM me.) does not like to recommend Costa unless you speak fluent Italian.  It also caters to European families more than singles.

ernursej

Italy is fantastic. We are doing a 10 day itinerary in May 2017 and spending 3 days in Rome, 3 days in Florence and 3 days in Venice. The 'highlights' trip. I'm sure there would be a travel company that puts on something similar but we do all our own arranging.

If you haven't been to Europe before, consider sticking to bigger cities. You will have a ton of information on them and more people that speak English. We went to a small community in Switzerland and no one spoke any English. It was great that H speaks German but his German was not exactly the same as their German.

CMGragain

ernursej said:

Italy is fantastic. We are doing a 10 day itinerary in May 2017 and spending 3 days in Rome, 3 days in Florence and 3 days in Venice. The 'highlights' trip. I'm sure there would be a travel company that puts on something similar but we do all our own arranging.

If you haven't been to Europe before, consider sticking to bigger cities. You will have a ton of information on them and more people that speak English. We went to a small community in Switzerland and no one spoke any English. It was great that H speaks German but his German was not exactly the same as their German.

Ha!  I remember being able to communicate fairly easily in Germany, but as soon as we crossed the border into Switzerland or Austria, the language became unintelligible to me.
Did you know that when Arnold Schwarzenegger's films are shown in Europe, they are dubbed in German by someone other than Arnold?  His country Austrian accent is so strong that film makers decided they had better get someone else to do the dubbing!

SwissMs

ernursej said:

Italy is fantastic. We are doing a 10 day itinerary in May 2017 and spending 3 days in Rome, 3 days in Florence and 3 days in Venice. The 'highlights' trip. I'm sure there would be a travel company that puts on something similar but we do all our own arranging.

If you haven't been to Europe before, consider sticking to bigger cities. You will have a ton of information on them and more people that speak English. We went to a small community in Switzerland and no one spoke any English. It was great that H speaks German but his German was not exactly the same as their German.

Haha.  I actually live in Switzerland.  Not only do they not speak High German, but the Swiss they speak from valley to valley can be totally different - I get on well enough where I live, but have to use English any where else!  But unless you are very patient, and very adventurous, sticking to cities is going to be easier.  Also, you find more English speakers in small countries with their own languages. So, for instance, most people in Switzlerand can speak English, even in the middle of nowhere (sometimes they aren't comfortable speaking it, but they understand). Everyone in cities like Belgrade (Serbia) and Dubrovnik (Croatia) will generally also speak English, whereas I've had to use hand signals in parts of France.