When/where are you honeymooning, and why?

rojacobs · June 2012

I'm sure this has gone through the August board at some point, and I posted it on my local board as well.

It's time for me to buckle down and figure out our honeymoon, and I'm curious where other newly weds are going, when are you going (directly after the wedding, or waiting a while), and why you picked your honeymoon spot.

I'm trying to balance location, price, weather, and travel time. So many options, there isn't a clear winner for us and that is making things difficult!

DeClue82 · June 2012

We have gone back and forth, and for a few reasons decided to wait. We were planning on delaying until the beginning of December, but FI's request for vacation was denied until the end of December... when everything gets either really cold overseas, or really pricey in the Caribbean. So as of right now, I'm just hoping that we end up taking a honeymoon at all... sometime next spring or summer... We would both like to see Europe, & Ireland. So fingers crossed it will be in the budget to do that next year...

I'd recommend looking on Travel Zoo and Cheap Caribbean if you're on a budget... There have been some amazing deals on there that I wish I could snatch up!

VNEluvsAJB · June 2012

We're travelling to St.Lucia immediately after the wedding. The timing was important to us because I'm still in law school so I don't have time to travel other than when I'm not in class and we didn't even have the option to delay until next summer because I'll be doing bar prep so immediately after was our only choice. Now, I'm glad that's when we're going because at the end of all of this planning it'll be nice to have a week to enjoy being together with nothing that we have to do. We chose the location because it was a good mix of the adventure he wants (mountains to climb, good diving spots, ziplining, volcanoes to climb) and the relaxation that I wanted (beaches, spa, fruity umbrella drinks). Also, because we booked a year out we got a great deal so that sealed the deal for us.

Just to give you another idea, our runner up location was Costa Rica. It's much less expensive than St. Lucia and is supposed to be amazing.

mbatzlaff · June 2012

We are staying at a nice hotel a couple hours away from our home the weekend after the wedding. We won't be able to afford a big getaway, but it will be a nice little trip.

StephyD216 · June 2012

We're leaving for Hawaii the Monday after our Saturday wedding, and we'll be there for 9 days! Timing didn't have any impact on us, so we had no reason to wait. We picked Hawaii because most of the Caribbean was out due to the hurricane risk (not that Hawaii wasn't one of our top choices) and because August is actually Hawaii's slow season. We'll be spending most of our time on Maui, and then our last day at Pearl Harbor & Waikiki Beach.

We originally planned on St. Lucia, but I was super nervous about hurricane season. I'm just a worry wart though, many people have gone and weather was perfect. We also were very fortunate to be in a better position financially when it came time to book our honeymoon in that we could afford Hawaii vs. St. Lucia. Hawaii is DEFINITELY not cheap!

Good luck with planning!

i2012do · June 2012

We went back and forth on this. Original;ly we were going to wait and take a big trip and do greece and italy or turkey in February.

However, after all the planning ,we decided that the Monday or Tues after our wedding we didn't want to go back to work and back to the grind...and feel like our wedding was another thing to do on the weekend- so we wanted to make it all one big event, and come back refreshed and having had had a break---since we both work full time, he's in school and i work long hours- it felt like we were overdue for a well deserved break anyway.

Originally, I had wanted to go someplace a bit less "ordinary" than going to Jamicia or Aruba. so we started looking specifically at smaller carribean islands. I travel a lot and I'm a bit of a travel snob so I wanted to pick a nice hotel on an off the beaten path island like St. Barths, St Croix etc.
The airfare to go to the carribean even from the East Coast was outrageous. We were finding flights to aruba, barabos and St Barths to be upwards of $750+ pp round trip. We could go to europe for a few hundred dollars more.

I was totally anti-mexico because I had been and I didn't want to do a cliche honeymoon
but the more i thought of it, the more all i wanted to do was lay on a beach and sizzle witha margarita in my hand. and it didint matter if we spent and arm an a leg to go to Barbados or if we laid on a beach in mexico.
My fiance really wanted to go t mexico for the luxury, because you really cant get the kind of luxury you can there in the carribean with out spending substaintally more.

anyway- we are going to Playa Del Carmen and staying at secrets maroma and it cost us literally not a lot at all.

and we are planning a trip to peru in february now

Lobsters25 · June 2012

We're cruising to Bermuda two days after the wedding for seven days.

Reasons?
-Cruise is out of a port about an hour from us, so didn't have to pay for airfare.
-I basically don't have to plan anything. So. Sick. Of. Planning.
-FI hasn't been outside the country aside from Canada, so I wanted to start with an english-speaking, relatively safe location to ease him into the wonderful world of traveling

smilesavy · June 2012

We are headed to St. Lucia immediately after the wedding. Ours wasn't an isuse of money or timing it was an issue of conveience. We live in Minnesota but are getting married in philadelphia. It is not easy to get from Minneapolis to the Carribean so we are leaving right from Philly.

[Deleted User] · June 2012

We're doing a Mediterranean cruise at the end of September. Right after the wedding (in Baltimore) we have to fly back to where we live (London) and we both will have master's dissertations to hand in/defend mid-September. As soon as that deadline passes, we're off for a week before the start of the next school year! The timing just worked out well, and we figured that we'd never be able to do a mediterranean cruise when we're back in the US, it would be too expensive with flights from the US. But from London, our flights are 75 pounds round trip!

m tulli · June 2012

Fi couldn't get the following week off so we are going in sept. we are going to spend thsun in Orlando, Fl then hop on a cruise to the Bahamas sunth. we are on a budget but both wanted a honeymoon so this fit into our budget.

rungirl12 · June 2012

We are going to Portugal & Spain with stops in Andorra & Morocco. FI was open to going anywhere and left it up to me. We are leaving immediately after the wedding on Sunday for 2 weeks. We both have professional jobs, so vacation time of year or length wasn't much of an issue.

Originally we thought about going to Alaska for a week and then Hawaii for a week, but I had decided it would be easy to do those as separate trips and not worry about taking a 2 week span of vacation. Since we had decided to go for 2 weeks, I thought we should use that to our advantage and do a long flight somewhere we couldn't do all in 1 week.

I never have "yearned" to visit these countries, rather it just popped in my head one day and I mentioned it to FI who was onboard. It has beaches, but also offers activities, sightseeing, and the opportunity to see another culture.

The flights did surprise me in price as they were about $2100 total.

iriscarmendiaz · June 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_august-2012-weddings_whenwhere-are-you-honeymooning-and-why?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:1fb748ee-7a4e-40eb-b4b4-e553486f4cacDiscussion:b1b1f264-a129-49b3-806b-484d13624612Post:4414dbc2-40f1-4c2a-9b4f-4b6f840b7477">When/where are you honeymooning, and why?</a>:
[QUOTE]I'm sure this has gone through the August board at some point, and I posted it on my local board as well. It's time for me to buckle down and figure out our honeymoon, and I'm curious where other newly weds are going, when are you going (directly after the wedding, or waiting a while), and why you picked your honeymoon spot. I'm trying to balance location, price, weather, and travel time. So many options, there isn't a clear winner for us and that is making things difficult!
Posted by rojacobs[/QUOTE]

Not having a honeymoon. Too much up in the air right now.

But I'm not really worried. Before things were "up in the air" we traveled about twice year to SOMEWHERE, and we don't plan on stopping doing that. So I figured a formal honeymoon isn't as necessary, since we plan on continuing to travel after life settles down a bit. :-)

eseney82 · June 2012

We are going to St Maarten, and leaving the day after the wedding @ 7am! Ugh, my fiance decided he would rather do this and come back the following Sunday; we will have that Monday after off for Labor Day.

Honestly, I would look into getting trips from places like Groupon, and LivingSocial. A coworker of mine just got an all-inclusive trip to Cancun, w/ airfare, for around $600. You cant even get a flight for that. They have all different places to go to, they have the Dominican, Costa Rica, Ive seen an Ireland trip too.

Ajoyd · June 2012

Our wedding is on the 25th and we are leaving on the 27th for two weeks in Italy. I've never spent much time there and it is a place I've always wanted to explore. FI is not a beach person so I didn't want to go somewhere he would be bored. I feel like Italy offers the perfect blend of tourism, adventure, and relaxation to make our honeymoon the trip of a lifetime. We both figured we're doing this once so we may as well splurge.

Also, hope this isn't TMI but we plan to try to get pregnant right away. So this trip may well be our last big hurrah before parenthood!

spazticrexe · June 2012

We're going to Europe for 2 weeks the day after the wedding - visiting Paris and Berlin. I went to Paris in college and really want to show FI around, besides, it's a crazy romantic city. Berlin FI wanted to go to since he's a film buff. We really enjoy history and museums so both cities are right up our alley.

dawnp917 · June 2012

We are going a month after the wedding to Yellowstone and The Tetons. We wanted to go someplace neither of us had been. We also wanted to maximize the amount of time were were on the honeymoon and not travelling. We had talked about French Polynesia but those flights were 14 hours, Europe was the same thing. In the end we decided staying closer to home and seeing some National Parks was a good idea.

FI is doing most of the planning for the honeymoon so that isn't something I am worrying about.

Lena2317 · June 2012

We are cruising to the Bahammas because cruises are awesome and then returning and spending a few days in Orlando as well because we are big kids and there is just so much fun stuff in Orlando!

Kris012 · June 2012

We live near San Francisco and are driving to Lake Tahoe, about a 3 hour drive. I wanted something simple that didn't require a lot of work or planning. Lake Tahoe is a resort community with lots to do, and we can be as busy or laid back as we like. Plus, we've never been there together before.

libby2483 · June 2012

We are going to the Dominican Republic for a week. We are getting married on August 18 and we are leaving for the honeymoon early in the morning on the 20th. I've gone on several vacations in the past that required an itinerary or lots of planning, so we wanted a vacation where we could just relax on the beach at an all-inclusive resort. We are going right after the wedding because we both start the school year soon after that, and we don't get any vacation days during the school year.

rungirl12 · June 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_august-2012-weddings_whenwhere-are-you-honeymooning-and-why?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:1fb748ee-7a4e-40eb-b4b4-e553486f4cacDiscussion:b1b1f264-a129-49b3-806b-484d13624612Post:806901f3-a162-4298-a1ab-c55512b663bb">Re: When/where are you honeymooning, and why?</a>:
[QUOTE]We are going a month after the wedding to Yellowstone and The Tetons. We wanted to go someplace neither of us had been. We also wanted to maximize the amount of time were were on the honeymoon and not travelling. We had talked about French Polynesia but those flights were 14 hours, Europe was the same thing. In the end we decided staying closer to home and seeing some National Parks was a good idea. FI is doing most of the planning for the honeymoon so that isn't something I am worrying about.
Posted by dawnp917[/QUOTE]<div>
</div><div>This sounds wonderful!

</div>

orangemell2012 · June 2012

We leave for Thailand 2 weeks after the wedding for a 15 day trip. The first thing we decided when we got engaged was small wedding and amazing honeymoon. Travel is so much of who we are I want that true honeymoon experience.

orangemell2012 · June 2012

$2100 isn't bad for summer! We were in Portugal and Spain in November and spent $1300 a person for flights.

Enjoy your trip, I loved every minute of it.

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_august-2012-weddings_whenwhere-are-you-honeymooning-and-why?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:1fb748ee-7a4e-40eb-b4b4-e553486f4cacDiscussion:b1b1f264-a129-49b3-806b-484d13624612Post:bff8b901-aa6f-4bcd-a755-ae708330bf2f">Re: When/where are you honeymooning, and why?</a>:
[QUOTE]We are going to Portugal & Spain with stops in Andorra & Morocco. FI was open to going anywhere and left it up to me. We are leaving immediately after the wedding on Sunday for 2 weeks. We both have professional jobs, so vacation time of year or length wasn't much of an issue. Originally we thought about going to Alaska for a week and then Hawaii for a week, but I had decided it would be easy to do those as separate trips and not worry about taking a 2 week span of vacation. Since we had decided to go for 2 weeks, I thought we should use that to our advantage and do a long flight somewhere we couldn't do all in 1 week. I never have "yearned" to visit these countries, rather it just popped in my head one day and I mentioned it to FI who was onboard. It has beaches, but also offers activities, sightseeing, and the opportunity to see another culture. The flights did surprise me in price as they were about $2100 total.
Posted by rungirl12[/QUOTE]

Britt0412 · June 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_august-2012-weddings_whenwhere-are-you-honeymooning-and-why?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:1fb748ee-7a4e-40eb-b4b4-e553486f4cacDiscussion:b1b1f264-a129-49b3-806b-484d13624612Post:024abf94-0b20-4a3c-a6e3-d6535081b95e">Re: When/where are you honeymooning, and why?</a>:
[QUOTE]We went back and forth on this. Original;ly we were going to wait and take a big trip and do greece and italy or turkey in February. However, after all the planning ,we decided that the Monday or Tues after our wedding we didn't want to go back to work and back to the grind...and feel like our wedding was another thing to do on the weekend- so we wanted to make it all one big event, and come back refreshed and having had had a break---since we both work full time, he's in school and i work long hours- it felt like we were overdue for a well deserved break anyway. Originally, I had wanted to go someplace a bit less "ordinary" than going to Jamicia or Aruba. so we started looking specifically at smaller carribean islands. I travel a lot and I'm a bit of a travel snob so I wanted to pick a nice hotel on an off the beaten path island like St. Barths, St Croix etc. The airfare to go to the carribean even from the East Coast was outrageous. We were finding flights to aruba, barabos and St Barths to be upwards of $750+ pp round trip. We could go to europe for a few hundred dollars more. <strong>I was totally anti-mexico because I had been and I didn't want to do a cliche honeymoon but the more i thought of it, the more all i wanted to do was lay on a beach and sizzle witha margarita in my hand. and it didint matter if we spent and arm an a leg to go to Barbados or if we laid on a beach in mexico. My fiance really wanted to go t mexico for the luxury, because you really cant get the kind of luxury you can there in the carribean with out spending substaintally more. anyway- we are going to Playa Del Carmen and staying at secrets maroma </strong>and it cost us literally not a lot at all. and we are planning a trip to peru in february now
Posted by i2012do[/QUOTE]<div>
</div><div>This is us EXACTLY! Debated Hawaii, Greece, Curacao, St. Lucia...in the end, we wanted luxury, a beach, and margaritas. Secrets Maroma it is! 11 nights, swim-out room, preferred club -- all for much less than the same level of luxury at the other places.

</div>

Britt0412 · June 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-club-boards_august-2012-weddings_whenwhere-are-you-honeymooning-and-why?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20Club%20BoardsForum:1fb748ee-7a4e-40eb-b4b4-e553486f4cacDiscussion:b1b1f264-a129-49b3-806b-484d13624612Post:024abf94-0b20-4a3c-a6e3-d6535081b95e">Re: When/where are you honeymooning, and why?</a>:
[QUOTE]We went back and forth on this. Original;ly we were going to wait and take a big trip and do greece and italy or turkey in February. However, after all the planning ,we decided that the Monday or Tues after our wedding we didn't want to go back to work and back to the grind...and feel like our wedding was another thing to do on the weekend- so we wanted to make it all one big event, and come back refreshed and having had had a break---since we both work full time, he's in school and i work long hours- it felt like we were overdue for a well deserved break anyway. Originally, I had wanted to go someplace a bit less "ordinary" than going to Jamicia or Aruba. so we started looking specifically at smaller carribean islands. I travel a lot and I'm a bit of a travel snob so I wanted to pick a nice hotel on an off the beaten path island like St. Barths, St Croix etc. The airfare to go to the carribean even from the East Coast was outrageous. We were finding flights to aruba, barabos and St Barths to be upwards of $750+ pp round trip. We could go to europe for a few hundred dollars more. <strong>I was totally anti-mexico because I had been and I didn't want to do a cliche honeymoon but the more i thought of it, the more all i wanted to do was lay on a beach and sizzle witha margarita in my hand. and it didint matter if we spent and arm an a leg to go to Barbados or if we laid on a beach in mexico. My fiance really wanted to go t mexico for the luxury, because you really cant get the kind of luxury you can there in the carribean with out spending substaintally more. anyway- we are going to Playa Del Carmen and staying at secrets maroma </strong>and it cost us literally not a lot at all. and we are planning a trip to peru in february now
Posted by i2012do[/QUOTE]<div>
</div><div>This is us EXACTLY! Debated Hawaii, Greece, Curacao, St. Lucia...in the end, we wanted luxury, a beach, and margaritas. Secrets Maroma it is! 11 nights, swim-out room, preferred club -- all for much less than the same level of luxury at the other places.

</div>

albionbrits · June 2012

We are going to Napa/Sonoma for our honeymoon. We recently moved to southern California from Michigan and still haven't had a lot of time to explore CA. Napa/Sonoma is a 8 hour trip from where we live so we are able to drive up. We both love wine and wanted something different than the trips we've taken in the past.

We're planning an international trip for our 1 year anniversary to a TBD location. Again, like the others have said, we're sick of planning and wanted something easy and romantic. We will save the planning for our big trip next year!

unicorntrees · June 2012

We're going to San Diego the day after we get married, and we had several different reasons for both the location and timing.

The location is not far (we're in MA), so we won't be spending 10+ hours on a plane, which FI does not enjoy. We also won't have to worry about any language barriers, so there is no stress about getting around or finding our way around. I wanted to go somewhere we both hadn't been to before. There is also a variety of options for us there (beach, city attractions, etc.). I briefly looked into traveling to Ireland, but it's SO expensive. We decided that we would save that trip for another year when we aren't dropping so much money on a wedding.

As for timing, I wanted to go off asap because I have always had this idea that that is what you do after you get married, lol. I would have been kind of bummed to get married and then go to work the next day (our wedding is a Sunday). Also, back in January when we set the date, there was a possibility that I could start school again in September, and I didn't want to wait several months to go on our honeymoon. And lucky us when we decided where we wanted to stay, the hotel was having a flash one day sale on their hotel rates. So we're staying in a suite for the week.

saraschilling88 · June 2012

We are getting married August 18th. We leave on our honeymoon November 2nd.

We went back and forth between Hawaii and Florida, and we ended up going with Florida because it was more within our budget. We are able to spend a week in Florida going to amusement parks, and on the weekend before we leave we'll be at either Coco Beach or Clearwater Beach (haven't decided which yet, need to decide soon) for a relax time.

We waited until November so we would be "clear" of hurricane season, and because in MN it will be cold so the warm weather will be appreciated

When/where are you honeymooning, and why?

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