Way more confused!

DirtyWater

I went to a honeymoon/vacation expo tonight and came home completely confused.
We ruled out land tours, because they don't seem honeymoon-ish enough and kind of stressful.

We're back to cruises, and we know we want Italy.  FI, picked a 12 day Grand Med. cruise.  Which is fine, but we're not crazy about the excursions for a few stops.  It kind of makes me not want to go to Greece at all now and just focus on France and Italy. 

Not to mention these excursions are ridiculous!  If we did an excursion at each port it would cost us about $1,600 extra.

I never thought the honeymoon would be the toughest part of planning.

SCogs18

I am staying out of honeymoon planning.  I am planning the whole wedding and booked the honeymoon.  My FI is in charge of planning our activities while we are there. 

bridezillatobe2009

honeymoon is way harder for me too. Originally we wanted Italy for 10 days and less than $5K. Soon realized that almost an entire 18 hours of flying and hotels/meals aren't cheap and FI and I aren't the most adventuresome so that got ruled out. 

Then we decided Hawaii because it's a good mix of exploring and being busy and lazy beach days. But then I wanted luxury and pampering (room service, spa, wait staff at the pool/beach) and we defiantly can't afford that in Hawaii.

So then we thought Mexico/Jamaica/Dominican because we could fit a luxury all inclusive in the budget but it's the end of mosquito season, it's hurricane season and we're most likely going on a family trip that same winter.

Then we thought cruise, but I don't like that you have to pay for booze (we like to drink) and your activities are dictated by the port schedule and that it's hard to explore independently.

So now we're back to Hawaii, seems the best fit for what I want versus what he wants. And it CAN be budget friendly if we go for 5 days instead of 7 and stay at a higher end condo and really watch how often we eat out.

mamameech

Yup I agree. We haven't searched hard core seeing as we're going next January but I find it very expensive. I mean we can go on a nice getaway for a super last minute deal for a fraction of the cost of a "honeymoon". And figuring out where to go is a PITA! The one place I'd LOVE to go is way out of our league

celticmyss

If you want to do Italy and France i would suggest just going your own way and traveling by train. We're doing that for our honeymoon and I have done it in Europe before. I am kind of anti-cruise in general though, so you can take what I say with a grain of salt. 

I would suggest grabbing a guidebook and asking around to decide what cities interest you. Then you can see how much time you have and how many days you want to stay in each place. You can either book separate train trips between cities or get a Eurail pass. The pass may or may not save you money, but it will make things very easy. traveling by train is super easy and can be very scenic unless you're traveling through a mountain. I went from Zurich to Kandersteg, Switzerland then to Milan, Rome, Venice and Vienna with no problems at all. 

You can either plan your hotels and such yourself or you can use a travel agent. Friends (and people on TK) have also suggested europeandestinations.com The site lets you choose where you want to be for however many days and finds you good deals on decent hotels and flights too if you choose. We may or may not use them, I am trying to see if I can find cheaper options. 

DirtyWater

Thank you for that website. We'll look into it tonight to see if anything fits what we're looking for.

 FI, wants to feel like he's on some rich vacation and be able to do a lot of things that we normally wouldn't if we stayed in hotels and had to worry about transportation on our own.  He also doesn't want to lug around our luggage the whole time.  That is why the land cruises are out.

I think for me I just want to feel like we're on a honeymoon and I want it to be stress free.  I did look at VRBO, and found beautiful apartments for little money, but its the getting to and from part that was confusing me. 

celticmyss

I personally feel like the cruise is what keeps you from really experiencing a country. Your shuttled around like from place to place and rushed through, only scratching the bare surface of the place. You're also on someone else's time schedule the whole time and won't be able to explore what you want. They are also the exact opposite of romantic to me, too crowded and the rooms are so small I wouldn't want to spend any time in it.

You would want to pack a bit lighter if you're going from place to place but depending on your budget it isn't that hard to go from hotel to train station back to next hotel by cab. getting from one city to the other is really easy if you're sticking with semi-major cities. I know we never had to change trains. That website I linked will also figure out most trains for you too.

Like I said though, I am really biased. 

if you do want to do a cruise still you could consider a small boat cruise. They're a bit more intimate and seem less hectic. I have heard good things about http://www.vikingrivercruises.com/

lbarr088

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_september-2012-weddings_way-confused?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:a464c18c-2e4d-469b-8eae-3865079cb9cfDiscussion:97e9cef3-0ea3-4c63-8ed8-8adadddfeb44Post:5b66611e-3cc4-449f-b04d-54d2169e26d0">Re: Way more confused!</a>:
[QUOTE]Yup I agree. We haven't searched hard core seeing as we're going next January but I find it very expensive. I mean we can go on a nice getaway for a super last minute deal for a fraction of the cost of a "honeymoon". And figuring out where to go is a PITA! The one place I'd LOVE to go is way out of our league :(
Posted by mamameech[/QUOTE]

<div>I feel like this is where we are at now.  We are probably just going to go on a cruise to the Bahamas since neither of us has ever cruised and other types of cruises seem WAY too pricey.  Also, FI is dead set on going a week after the wedding... hello hurricanes?  Thank goodness there is such a thing as trip insurance.  When we do plan I will be sure to get the insurance.</div>

DirtyWater

I seen a presentation for Viking River, last night.  It looks pretty awesome.  It's over our budget by a few thousand.  We're both looking for second jobs so we can have a little more to play with. 

With them I would wait until 2013, so we could do their new Portugal tour.  I'm very impressed with them though.

celticmyss

Yeah, that Portugal tour caught my attention for sure. 

beckyboo27

I have to say, I'm a little jealous of all your honeymoon plans.  We're not taking our honeymoon until early next year, so we have no plans at all.  My fiance said he wants to go somewhere warm and tropical, but we don't have any ideas set in stone yet.