Summer Honeymoon

IlliniJen

My fiance and I have a dilemma. We want to go somewhere warm, relaxing, with stuff to do. We both agree that if we went somewhere with just beaches, we would get really bored quickly (and burnt, too!). We both love the idea of doing two weeks in Italy and London and traveling around, but I'm worried it would be too stressful. I know I would want to plan things, since I'm a "planner" and I don't want to have to worry about anything. All we want to do is relax and enjoy time somewhere that has great places for sightseeing or walking around, but nothing where it's too tempting to need to plan more travel arrangements and make sure we don't miss out on things!

For once, I don't want to be caught up in planning and making reservations, etc. I just want to enjoy our together time. Any suggestions please?!

dazyabbey

You sound like me! Haha. I always say I am not going to overplan but then I end up doing it. I am better then I used to be though.

What is your budget? And also what kind of things do you want to do besides hanging out on the beach? Are you interested in going somewhere like Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. There is a ton of things to do down there and it is super safe, very affordable and very relaxing. If you went somewhere in Europe it would take much more planning because food/travel/everything wouldn't be included.

JoanE2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_honeymoon_summer-honeymoon?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:11Discussion:5833c755-ff7c-41d6-ac1a-5778a2175108Post:e327b5d4-a422-41d3-9d80-5a8e37e8fe42">Summer Honeymoon</a>:
[QUOTE]My fiance and I have a dilemma. We want to go somewhere warm, relaxing, with stuff to do. We both agree that if we went somewhere with just beaches, we would get really bored quickly (and burnt, too!). We both love the idea of doing two weeks in Italy and London and traveling around, but I'm worried it would be too stressful. I know I would want to plan things, since I'm a "planner" and I don't want to have to worry about anything. All we want to do is relax and enjoy time somewhere that has great places for sightseeing or walking around, but nothing where it's too tempting to need to plan more travel arrangements and make sure we don't miss out on things! For once, I don't want to be caught up in planning and making reservations, etc. I just want to enjoy our together time. :) Any suggestions please?!
Posted by IlliniJen[/QUOTE]

We did a 12 day tour of Italy.  It was our first guided tour and we were not sure if we were going to like it but we loved it!  There were 2 honeymooning couples on our trip.  Everything was done for us....excursions booked (no waiting in lines because we were part of a group!), lots of meals (and wine!) provided, transportation provided between cities.....even our bags were brought from the bus to our hotel rooms.....we never had to carry them. 

We found plenty of free time to have meals by ourselves and see sights on our own, but it was fantastic not having to worry about a darn thing on this trip!  Just a thought.

ETA: We've also done southern Spain.  We booked our hotel and air through Expedia.  The hotel was right on the beach (the beaches were beautiful!).  We could walk to lots of restaurants and shops.  We then went to a local travel agency and booked day trips to Gibraltar, Morocco, Seville, etc.  It's the best of both worlds.....beachy and sightseeing.  Perhaps one of my all time favorite vacations.

hz80408

You sound similar to us.  We got married in Oct '10 and went the beach route; Secrets Maroma Beach in Riveria Maya, MX.  It was the perfect careful and relaxing HM we wanted.

1.5 yrs later, we saved up and did our first Europe trip. 18 days and 4 cities.  It was fun, more expensive than our HM, but it was exhausting.  We were pretty much non-stop 10a-10p.  We both agreed that while we loved the trip; we were glad we'd waited and NOT done Europe for our HM. 

But that's just the type of people we are and what we wanted. We weren't believers that the HM had to be the trip of a lifetime because we knew we'd have our whole lives to travel together as we wanted. Thus, we did the HM we could afford at the time

Summer2011Bride

Hawaii might be a good place for you. You decide how relaxing/active you want it to be and there is a great mixture of both. We spent 9 days on Oahu alone and half our time was spent by the infinity pool/beach and the other half was spent hiking, taking tours, swimming with dolphins, etc. You could even split your trip between two islands.

hoffse

I was going to suggest the med cruise idea also - if your budget will allow it, you can basically be carted from place to place on the boat, get all the food, etc. you want, and pre-book your shore excursions (which will be very reliable and safe) without having to figure out the best tour places to use, logistics of getting there and back, etc.  I think that gives you the best of both worlds: it's relaxing, but you will have 5-8 hours each day to just explore the European port cities.  You will also probably have a day or two at sea where you can do the spa treatment thing, laze by the pool. etc.

If you go that route, I recommend choosing a departure/return city that you want to explore a little longer than one day.  The one thing about med cruises that I'm not a fan of is that a lot of them go to places where you want more time (barcelona, rome, etc)... but there are definitely ones out there that basically let you hit the islands or small port towns and then have you leave and return to a larger city that you need more time in.

FI and I don't have the budget for it, but if we did this is definitely what we would do.  We're thinking of doing something along these lines for our one-year, after we've had some additional time to save.

MrsGandthebeag

I wouldn't consider a med cruise relaxing either.  We enjoyed ours a lot for our hm for the aspect of seeing a lot.  We didn't enjoy the actual cruising part at sea as that was super boring.  When you get off at each city if you've planned a tour you're constantly going.