How do you decide?

Pammie1983

We're getting married December 27th of this year and we have no clue where to go for our honeymoon. 

I am a self admitted Disney freak, but I don't know if that is really the most appropriate location for a honeymoon.  I am also Irish/Scottish, so the sun and I are not super best friends... Fiance is kind of indifferent. 

How did you two end up deciding on where to go?  What elements of your chosen location made up your decision?

I know this is a very vague post, but I appreciate any advice or help in advance!

Thank you!
Pam

monkeysip

I think Disneyworld/land (depending on where you're going) can make for a great honeymoon.  Florida especially has great weather in the wintertime.  When I went, it was around New Years, and it was around 70-75 degrees the whole time.

HOWEVER, I would seriously recommend that you wait until at least January 8th or so to go.  Winterbreak is one of the high seasons for Disneyworld/land.  It will be packed.  Late January and February are slow, so it'd be perfect time to go.

For us, it was a few different factors.

A.  Budget.  Originally, we wanted Italy, but we couldn't do our dream Italy trip on our budget

B.  Activities.  What do you like to do?

C.  What "feels right"?  What fits your personality?  When we decided against Italy, we started thinking about other alternatives.  California just got us excited and felt right (and fit the budget and activities we wanted).

If you don't want to do Disney, tell us what kinds of things you like, and your budget, and we can give you ideas.

Jells2dot0

I agree with monkey- it can be a variety of factors and those factors will vary from person to person, as interests, time available, and budget is different for everyone. We had a DW, so we wanted to HM in the same area as our wedding. However, we did not want to stay at the resort that we were married at. So, I did some further research on luxury tropical resorts along the Great Barrier Reef, since we were married in Queensland on an island on the Reef and really wanted to keep it tropical and knew the weather would be right since we had already scoped that our for our wedding. Budget did not play a role in my decision, but rather the location of the resort, the seclusion of it, and what type of experience the resort offered. Obviously, travel time did not play a role, since I was already there for my wedding, but some people do not want to fly more than a few hours, or fly at all! One idea is to create a spreadsheet of a few areas that you think are interesting and include estimated cost, pros and cons. Once you have everything laid out, a decision may be very clear.

winelover123

Our decision went by budget, then what we wanted to do, then how far away it is. We originally planned on Turkey, though FI really wanted Hawaii. He gave into Turkey - which is what I wanted - because we have a deal: every year on our anniversary we will take a trip. Since I chose the HM, he got to choose the 1st anniversary trip. Well, my parents offered us their timeshare and we could afford Hawaii, so we switched our destination. Now I get to decide where to go on our 1st anniversary :-) That's how we compromised.

You could also do a Disney cruise if you don't want to do Disney world. They get pricey though.

MayDay513

My FSIL and her husband went to Disneyworld and had a blast. I love Disneyland we've gone the last two President's Day weekend. If you love disney you should do one of the theme parks or maybe a disney cruise?

alithebride

i think a few tthings need to be considered: budget, time of year, how long your 'to visit' list is, how frequently you do/will travel, what your interests are, what you hate, how far or close it is and how long you have for the trip.

and fwiw i'm english and irish and have mastered the art of sunscreen application. dont avoid sunny locations because you're fair.. that's what reapplying spf 30 is for.

but alos keep in mind it's not the last vacation of your life.

JMalettas

 A friend of mine went to Disney with her husband last year for their honeymoon, & loved it! I personally don't think it would be the most romantic place, but it all depends on what you're looking for! Regardless, it would definitely be fun!

 My fiance and I based our honeymoon search on somewhere all inclusive, hot, and a destination neither of us had been. We're both outdoorsy people, & wanted a place that we could incorporate that into excursion wise, as well as be able to safely explore the town/local life. We narrowed our search down to Aruba or Costa Rica, and went with Costa Rica as it was the less expensive of the two, and had the amazing rain forests etc. We're definitely excited, and have started our countown on the fridge already! Lol.  

jsquared62009

We considered when we were going, how long we wanted to be gone for, the budget, and then what we wanted to do (sightsee/relax/or both). Then we kind of narrowed it down from there. We picked a Med. cruise because we can relax on the fun days on the ship, sightsee, and don't have to worry about traveling from place to place or unpacking/repacking from hotel to hotel. GL!

anssett

In my opinion traveling, and planning travel, are among the most fun things in life. Our to-see list is nearly infinite. I intend to visit every continent (and space). 

My sweetie and I talked about what we were willing to spend and where our top 3-5 locations were in that budget. Then we researched two in moderate detail and ruled it down based on what we wanted to do.

I really wanted to hit a continent that was new for both of us (S. America). We looked at Peru first, then ended up picking Colombia & Venezuela. It has hiking to ruins (but with MANY fewer tourists than Machu Picchu). It has crazy lightening storms (very appearling to my sweetie and I). Then there's the week on a beach and SCUBA diving. It's perfect. We leave in 2 weeks!

Good luck. Have fun. That's the point!

dazyabbey

Do itttt!

Katred08

We had a really hard time deciding.  For awhile I wanted a "once in a lifetime" trip....Thailand and South Africa were my two big ones.  We talked it over, and FI said that he'd prefer something more relaxing for a honeymoon.  If we did Thailand, we'd feel like we had to go and see and do, when we might just want to loaf around and relax without pressure (self imposed pressure, but still) to sightsee.   I wanted a two week trip since I'd never done that before, but knew that two weeks of a beachy location was going to get realllly boring for us, so we did a multi part trip.  We also knew that we wanted to hit Vegas either at the beginning or end of the trip (we love Vegas), so we knew we wanted to go west (vs. caribbean)...we live on the East Coast, so a Caribbean trip is relatively easy for a long weekend anytime. 

Eventually we decided on 5 days in Cabo at a reallly nice resort for the relaxing and "honeymoonish" part of the trip, then flew to California, rented a car and drove to Vegas, with a stop in Palm Spring for a few days on our way.  We like road trips, so it was really fun, and it was neat to see three totally different places in the same trip.  We got married in January, so weather was also a factor...I wanted warm!!   I think FI ended up being right.  We were TIRED after the wedding, and I was sick (just a cold/sore throat, but i was sick for the two weeks before the wedding and into the first days of the HM), so I was so glad we didn't try for an action packed trip.  The first three days we just sat in our plunge pool in Cabo and drank room service margaritas and it was fabulous. 

erinlin25

we knew we wanted to go somewhere tropical; so we figured out what our budget was and what time of year we would be going.  we are business owners so had to plan around the wedding and when we could take more time off to go on a trip.  We were torn between Carribeban & Hawaii.  we figured we would go anytime between July-September.... which turned out to be Hurricane season in the Carriebean, so Hawaii it is!  And our family got us a great deal in Kauai first week of September, so we were sold. 

pinkshorts27

I like lists, so I love what my friend did with her hubby. They each made 3 lists: what they were looking for in a honeymoon (relaxing, adventurous, etc.), places they wanted to go, and places they absolutely did not want to go (ie my friend did not want to go to Paris-been too many times I guess).   Then, consulting their lists and budget they narrowed down to Hawaii so they could be adventurous (what he wanted to do) and have some relax time (what she wanted to do).

HobokensFury

For us it can down to time and money.  Since we are both teachers we were limited to the 9 days of spring break because I didn't want to wait until later on to take a HM. 3 weeks later was long enough for us. I really wanted to go to Ireland but we felt it was too expensive/far to travel for such a short amount of time.  Once Ireland was out of the way we decided to do a tropical HM.  I couldn't decide between St. Lucia and Barbados and DH really wanted to go to PR to see some family.  As luck would have it we found a cruise that left PR and went to both St. Lucia and Barbados along with St. Thomas, St. Kitts and St. Maarten.

dalm0m

DH is not a beach person so I autoamtically knew sun & surf destinations were out.  We had a pretty decent budget & 2 weeks so that gave us some flexibility.  We had gotten engaged on a cruise so that didn't feel special enough to us; similarly, Disney doesn't feel all that special to me. 

We're both Irish & neither of us had been so it was pretty easy decision.  DH ended up booking the wrong tour; what he selcted was too short so we had some extra time.  I found some dirt cheap flights to Paris so we thought why not go to the Romance capital of the world since we were already practically there.  We joke that it was our 1st marital compromise since he's a Guiness lover & I'm a wino.  It worked out beautifully.   FWIW after I booked the tickets I found out just how expensive hotels in Paris are; thank heavens for priceline!

pends123

I know of a lot of couples who went to Disneyworld for their HM and they all had a great time.  It's such a magical place   I went between Christmas and New Years a few years ago and it was unpleasantly chilly!  I agree with the PP who advised to wait until January.

We live in Ohio and plan on taking a road trip out west to LA, stopping at the Grand Canyon, Mt Rushmore, Las Vegas, etc. on the way.  Whatever you do will be special because it will be just the two of you.

Swazzle

My dream trip has always been an African safari. We didn't even look into going there originally because I assumed it was way out of our budget. We booked Mexico. My coworker went on her HM to South Africa last fall and her pictures were unbelieveable. We discussed it and agreed to look into how much Africa would end up costing us and it wasn't too far out of our budget so we ended up cancelling Mexico and booking South Africa. We've been on a lot of relaxing/beach vacations so I was glad we mixed it up a bit for our HM. It was the best trip of my life!

Smooch711

Originally, I thought we would always do a tropical HM. However, I burn very easily & get bored very easily on the beach. We had casually talked about a dream trip to Banff and Jasper National Parks along the Canadian Rocky Mountains in Alberta. H researched and believed it was definitely doable budget wise. We also found out that September is one of the best months to visit there, so we then decided on a wedding date!

I would take a look at budget, time of year, how much time off you have & decide what type of HM you want. Also, you don't have to go right after you're married. Good luck!

SuMmErKuTiE

I love Disney World, but like others have mentioned it wouldn't be the ideal HM to me. Going to Disney is exhausting to say the least. You're on your feet in the heat all day, waiting in lines, listening to screaming/whining kids, and dodging strollers all day. It's a lot of fun, but after our wedding we were looking to relax. We were so exhausted after our wedding that we were so happy to escape to a quiet island and just relax on the beach and be pampered.

We had been on a lot of cruises and to a few AI's in the Caribbean and Mexico so we were looking to do something different but still a tropical relaxing beach vacation. We considered Hawaii and French Polynesia and ended up going to Fiji. We made a list of what was important to us and our budget and went from there. We went to a travel agent who ended up not being very helpful and of course kept trying to push Sandals resorts on us, and then never contacted us again. So, we researched on our own and ended up booking through South Seas Adventures.