How did you pick your HM location? Was it a fantasy destination you'd always wanted to go?

anssett · December 2012

Just curious about whether other folks are using their HM as a chance to take a general dream vacation, or aiming for a trip they think is specifically their idea of an HM.

HobokensFury · December 2012

I really wanted to go to Ireland but we just couldn't afford it. Then I decided that I wanted to go somewhere warm and we had to do it over spring break. DH's family from Puerto Rico was not able to come to the wedding so we decided to go visit them there and take a cruise.

MoonlightSilver · December 2012

DH and I considered our budget, what type of location we were going for (beach? theme park? forest? Hot or cold?) and what we wanted to do (swim, hike, horse back ride, etc). Then we looked at what locations fit that description that we could afford.

We picked a general area (Mexico / Cancun) and then I went on TripAdvisor and read tons and tons and tons of reviews for different resorts in the area. Found 3-4 that I liked, told DH (then FI of course) about them, and we picked one out together.

JaneAustensGhost · December 2012

One of the first conversations I ever had with FI was about Paris. I had never been, he'd been plenty of times (he is English and it isn't a big deal to go across the channel.) He asked me where I'd go for a honeymoon if I were to ever get married and I said, "Paris. No question." So when we got engaged, Paris was just the most natural destination in the world.

acaponi87 · December 2012

We picked our HM because it "felt" right. It's somewhere we probably wouldn't have gone for any other trip. We've never (and probably will never again) go to an AI.

Figure out what you value in a honeymoon. Do you want romantic? Fun? It doesn't have to be your only big trip in your life.

Jells2dot0 · December 2012

I was extremely fortunate to not really have a budget for either of my HMs (I've been married twice) so it was just what felt right and what was high on the must see list. Unfortunately, I've always been restricted by time because of our vacation time allottments with work. I've always dreamed of going to the Maldives, but it was a stretch with 2 days worth of travel time each way. For my first HM. I went to French Polynesia (Tahiti, Taha'a, Bora Bora). My ex only had a week's worth of vacation time, but he got special permission to take an extra few days, so going to FP for 10 nights is what we ended up with. This time, we combined our DW with our HM in Australia. We chose based on the wedding first, then decided to HM on Lizard Island. We were away for 2.5 weeks, so not much of a time restriction per se, but not enough to get married in Australia then trek to the Maldives. I guess it was more of a legality thing, since we knew we wanted to get married while were were away, but you can't legally marry in the Maldives. So, it sounds like we're trying to plan for the Maldives on our 5th anniversary and combine it with Abu Dhabi and the Seychelles (which was my other dream destination, but I could get to a bit easier, so I've been already).

jemali_2003 · December 2012

My husband and I knew we wanted to go somewhere beachy and living in California the most logical location would have been Hawaii. After researching different hotels and what we wanted, we realized that we wanted more seclusion and something that wasn't too touristy. I have also dreamed of staying in an overwater bungalow, so when we found a great deal for one in Moorea we knew that's where we wanted to go. We figured that we should go somewhere that we wouldn't go with a family later on. We do not regret our decision and got exactly what we wanted in Tahiti and Moorea. And...we went to Maui this past year with some friends and it will definitely be a place where we take our children.

AdeleDazeem · December 2012

My husband and I have a list a mile long of places we want to visit. I'm not altogether sure that Bermuda - where we honeymooned - was ever on it.

However, we knew we wanted a destination wedding where we would honeymoon in the same place after. We chose Bermuda because of how easy it was to get to and from the east coast of the US for us and our guests. It was an awesome trip!

Had we done a more traditional honeymoon, we would've gone to Europe, I think. We wouldn't have treated it as a "trip of a lifetime" or anything, but certainly used it as an excuse to spend a little more.

hoffse · December 2012

We're going somewhere we can afford where we can relax and not have to worry about it. Weddings are so expensive, and we are on a budget until after it's over. We decided to go AI because we were able to know the price beforehand, and any add-ons are just add-ons that we don't need so can add at the last minute if it fits in our budget. It's not like showing up and realizing we would have to charge things like food, KWIM? We've never done an AI and we may never do an AI again (depends on how it goes), but the peace of mind of knowing the cost in advance was totally worth it.

We are budding lawyers, so we will be able to have the vacation of a lifetime later in our careers when budget isn't such an issue. We figured that with the stress of planning a wedding, finishing law school (him), and starting a job (me) we just wanted to chill on a beach anyway. We could pay another several thousand dollars with at leaset 2 full days of travel and go do that in Hawaii, or we could stay in the same time zone, take a 2.5 hr flight, and do it in Jamaica. Guess what we chose?

fallbride1109 · December 2012

It was always my dream to go to Hawaii so when DH proposed he told me that was the HM he was planning. Hawaii just said honeymoon to both of us.

Summer2011Bride · December 2012

H and I had always wanted to go to Hawaii. We didn't think we could afford it, so we started looking into Jamaica. Then his parents let us know that, for our wedding gift, they wanted to pay for our flight and hotel stay. We were so thankful; we could afford to go then. It was an amazing trip!

cnf2013 · December 2012

FI and I are not sit around the beach kind of people. We like to explore and adventure, so we're driving across country, down the Pacific coast, then back across the country and up the east coast. We have a number of cities we plan on playing tourist in. We also have a National Parks Passport that we're nuts about collecting stamps in, so we'll go to as many NP's as possible. It was an easy decision for us. We've done two other long road trips like this and are pumped to do the whole country. It's very "us".

MissRutig · December 2012

We were very blessed. After our engagement we received a card from one of his aunts. She has a lot of time shares and offered to pay for us to stay at any of her allotted places. We only had to pay for airfare.
I let my FI plan with his aunt. He has never traveled outside the state and I figured since he was giving me most of the say with the wedding, it would be nice for him to decide our HM location. Once he picked a tropical location we checked out flights. Based on that and what the timeshare locations were like, we settled on a wonderful AI in Cancun. We are very excited.

franklissa · December 2012

We had always wanted to go on a cruise so that is how we picked our honeymoon.

Smooch711 · December 2012

I always thought my HM would be tropical. Then I realized I get bored after 20 minutes on the beach. There's no way I could do 7 days! Plus I burn easily, so tropical was definitely out. H is outdoorsy. I try to be. . . and I love taking pictures on trips. We also wanted a place where we might never be able to go back to and where we'd never take our (future) kids. After seeing pictures of the Canadian Rockies, I brought it up to FI. He ran with it and we never looked back. We did a 10-day trip and saw parts of four Canadian National Parks. We loved it, and did it rather cheaply too. Of course, now we want to go back!

Maggie0829 · December 2012

Our dream HM would have been to tour Europe, but seeing as neither of us had the means to take 2 months off work and afford the whole shabang we knew we had to come back down to reality.

We then considered Hawaii for awhile, but then we bought a house so much of our HM fund went to a downpayment on our home.

Finally we decided to head to Key West. Neither or us has a passport (rectifying that now) and when we decided on our ultimate location we only had about 3 months to plan and book so getting a passport to go to a tropical island would have been difficult.

In the end, was it our "dream" HM? No. But did we have an amazing time? Heck yes. A HM (like any vacation) is what you make it. I think brides tend to build up the idea of a HM a lot. In reality it is just another vacation with your SO. If you can't afford your dream vacation now then go somewhere that you can afford and start saving for that dream later down the road.

alithebride · December 2012

dh and i wanted to just go and relax somewhere for a few weeks-so we went to mexico and did exactly that. we travel a lot (before we were married too) so the dream destination had nothing to do with it as our 'dream' list is so long that we couldn't possibly decide. since then we've hit a few of our dream places (married jsut over 7 years).

hz80408 · December 2012

We based on HM decision (Secrets Maroma Beach, Riveria Maya) on:
-amount of vacation time we had (and amount of time to travel to HM vs. amount of time we'd get to actually spend there)
-budget
-we wanted something low-key were we could be lazy and relax
-tropical

To us, our HM didn't have to be a fantasy destination or a trip of a lifetime, because we'd have our whole-life together to do those kind of trips together. We wanted somewhere where we could relax and focus on us being married, not sight-seeing. (FWIW, we dated 10 yrs before getting married too).

We've been married 2 years now and this past year we visited Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, London, and Ireland. We're starting to make our travel dreams come true now :O)

WinstonsGirl · December 2012

Ours was a choice to do a bigger trip. We got married in Hawaii, so didn't feel the need for a tropical/beachy HM. We spent 3 weeks on the eastern Med., part cruise, part travelling. We started in Venice, picked up the boat and did Croatia, Greece, Israel, Egypt and Turkey and ended in Athens. We then flew to Istanbul cos we thought the cruise was lacking a little in not going there, and it was close and cheap to get there from Athens.

We had looked at 2 other destinations (Spain, Portugal, Morocco or Scandanavia/the Baltics) before deciding. We've never cruised before and the idea of getting into some of those countries (and out again quick) was appealing due to the poitical climate in that region, and we got a great sale on the cruise, so it sealed that trip as our choice. We'll do the other trips eventually. We both want to travel everywhere, and this trip had a nice mix of relaxing days (at sea days) and touristy travel stuff to mix it up. As well, I've been to Venice and Athens, but no where else and DH hadn't been to any of the places we hit, so it was a lot of new places for both of us. We are lucky enough that while we had a budget, it wasn't so tight as to limit our HM choices.

lovesclimbing · December 2012

We picked our location because it was cheap. That was the first criteria because we don't have a lot of money to blow on an ideal dream honeymoon. That, we're going to save for either our one year anniversary or a celebration when I graduate with my BA. And then after we found a good relatively cheap place, we started looking for stuff to do and found all this amazing stuff that lines up with our interests!

How did you pick your HM location? Was it a fantasy destination you'd always wanted to go?

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