We'll be getting married at the end of September 2015, but as I'm a teacher, I think it makes the most sense to delay our honeymoon to winter break (late December/early January - I'd say we'd like our trip to be about a week). We're forgoing a formal wedding, so we're planning on putting the money we're saving there toward our honeymoon; I'm not aiming for anything extravagant, but we're not on a tight budget by any means, either (maybe looking at about $5k? I think that's about average). Below are some considerations that we're using to try to choose a location:
- We're currently planning on going to Europe in the summer of 2015 (Sweden and Germany for certain, but maybe some other places, i.e. Prague), so we'd like to go somewhere with a different vibe
- Weather: I'd like to not expect to have to wear a coat wherever it is I'm going; temps in at LEAST the 60s (Fahrenheit) or above would be preferable, as would a low chance of rain. Again, we'll be going in late December to early January.
- I want to go somewhere with history/culture, but I'd also like to be able to do active/adventurous things. Somewhere I can, for example, explore ancient ruins or medieval architecture or historical monuments, but also hike, bike, and/or paddle would be ideal.
- It doesn't need to be primarily English-speaking, but it does need to be somewhere I can easily get by speaking English (or limited, atrophied from years of disuse, Spanish)
- I have a severe milk allergy, so it also needs to be somewhere where it's reasonably easy to find food made without dairy and/or where I can easily communicate my dietary restrictions to others. We'll probably eat out most of the time.
- The continental US is off limits, as is Canada. For reference, we'll be traveling from Chicago.
Where would you suggest we go? I have so many places that I WANT to go that I'm feeling completely overwhelmed, and I'm not quite sure what places best fit the criteria I'm looking at for this particular trip, anyway. Any suggestions would be very appreciated!