U.S. Honeymoon

sparkellyy

My FI has a serious fear of leaving the country, so we decided to stay within the US for our honeymoon.

I am not sure of what destination will work best for us - We want a beachy, quiet, lazy feel. I've searched the message board to find locations, but I am not sure what is best.. Key West, Panama City Beach, Anna Maria, Siesta Key, St. Augustine, etc. I've only ever been to Orlando.

Does anyone have any resort recommendations? (Doesn't have to be one of the locations I listed)

BrittneyRN

Have you though about the Outer Banks? August should give you good weather down there. It's very quiet. We go almost every year. We rent a house for the week that often has it's own pool, hot tub etc. It'd be a relaxing honeymoon.

meganb1977

We enjoyed the Keys but liked the middle part of the Keys around Marathon better than Key West, it was more laid back and less of a tourist trap.  If you have a car you could stay around there and do Key West as a day trip since it's less than a two hour drive.

Vitalidol

Sanibel IS beautiful! I lived out in Fort Myers, FL for a while and would go there often

cadamus

If you want to go in late August or Early September you should try doing the Napa Valley. That is when the smell of grapes is in the air. It is wonderful! I know a bunch of people who do that for a couple of days and then go to San Fransisco and make it a week trip, that way you have the beach as well

kjordan0914

My FH and I went to Little Gasparilla Island (in Florida) for my birthday. It was FANTASTIC. I wanted to live there forever. There are no roads or businesses on the entire island (though I think there was a hotel on the very far end from where we were, large island.) You have to talk a boat out there and you travel by walking or golf carts. I think you can rent all of these but I'm not sure, the beach house we rented had a golf cart and we already had a boat. There are no police, everyone is polite, and it was just all around perfect. We had a bbq with the neighbors, had a party on the beach and drank cocktails in the ocean on floaties...seriously I can't say enough. I brought home a coconut. We frequently saw dolphins, at least 4 or 5 times. You can cruise around on the boat and then stop at the sand bars to get GIGANTIC conch shells. You can catch crabs running around at night. It was so relaxing. You have abosolutely no responsibilities, don't even have to put gas in the car! It was so romantic and he actually proposed here! I'll insert pics.

Island from the boat

the beach with the "parking lot" for golf carts

house we rented-one of the less-nice ones but was sufficient

a tortoise!

kjordan0914

Oh but please note that you can't easily get furniture out there, so in pretty much every rental home there is very retro furniture. If you're looking for a lush 5 star hotel this may not do it, but if you want a relaxed beach house this is it.

 

sparkellyy

Thank you so much for all of the great suggestions!!!

hoffse

I LOVE seaside, FL - a friend of ours has a family beach house there that FI and I get to use a lot, and it's amazing.  Ever seen Truman Show?  It was filmed there, and it actually looks like that.

Panama City is pretty overrun with college kids looking for the "wild" spring break thing - lots of airbrushing and tie-dying there.  Destin is a bit better, but it has similar issues.  It tends to attract high school and college kids looking to vacation in a large group.  Seaside is in between the two, but it's much nicer because it's a good bit more expensive - so the college kids rarely land there unless somebody's family already has a house there.  There are also very few (if any) hotels, so you really have to rent a house/condo.

Sanibel is also nice, and so are the keys.  Seaside is my favorite, though.  The beach is private (if you rent the right condo/house), the water is warm, and the food is delicious - like, just caught from the ocean delicious.  I've literally never seen more than 12 people on that beach at that beach house we go to, and neither has my fiance.  He's been going since he was 10.  Just my $0.02.