Honeymoons!!!

larrygaga · October 2014

themuffinman16's thread. Where did you guys go/where are you planning on going?

We oringally wanted to take a trip to Italy/Spain/Greece, but we decided we would rather save that trip and have some friends tag along. That seems more of an active sight seeing trip. We want our honeymoon to be full of booze and laziness (and other things).

We are trying to decide which island in the Caribbean or wherever to go. We are big into nature, and we will probably be swimming/snorkeling/water activity the whole time. We don't want to go to a big party island. Any suggestions?

EDIT: I know there's a honeymoon board but I don't really care where people over there went.

theartistformerlyknownas · October 2014

If you want boozy laziness and like rum slushies or 5 beers for 5E with 5 free shots, I recommend St Maarten (the Dutch side). (ETA but I don't know if it's a big party island at night; we only spent a day there on our cruise last year.)

esstee33 · October 2014

My XH and I went to Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and stayed at Sandals. I spent literally the entire week drinking rum and lounging by the beach. There are also water-related things to do there, and it's a great budget destination (or, at least, it was 8 years ago when I went). Ocho Rios is cool also because there's a huge waterfall (Dunn's River Falls) nearby and off-resort excursions (http://www.visitjamaica.com/things-to-do/active-and-relaxing/adventure - go here & sort by Ocho Rios!).

sarawifenow · October 2014

My FI and I will be taking a mini-moon in Santa Fe for a few days and then will finish out our week off from work lounging around our apartment with our dog. Super excited! We are planning a trip to Paris in the next few years, though.

penguin44 · October 2014

We went to Punta Cana, Domican Republic.

It was great, but all of the excursions for snorkeling/scuba are on the other side of the island. We went on a little one near our resort. I wasn't super impressed, but I have been spoiled with things like that before. Most of the activities near Punta Cana were party boat type things.

We loved laying around and swimming in the ocean most of the week.

All of that to say, I would research what is available near your resort. I let DH plan the honeymoon, and he isn't really in to that type of thing, so he didn't think about it. I knew he wouldn't want to take an all day trip for snorkeling, so that wasn't an option for us.

JennyColada · October 2014

We went to Puerto Vallarta Mexico and stayed in the Grand Velas at Riviera Nayirit (sp?). It's an AI and the first time either of us have done AI and we had a great time!

pinkcow13 · October 2014

penguin44 described. It is also really touristy compared to other areas of the Dominican Republic, IMO. I would suggest Puerto Plata, DR which I think is less touristy. DR has amazing beaches, and there are many places and tours that will take you snorkeling.

Have you guys considered Costa Rica? It is gorgeous, there. There is so much to do, but you can also just chill out and lay in the sun all day. When I went, we went to 2 different areas. We started out in Arenal, which is by the San Jose airport. This is where we did a lot of the adventurous things such as white water rafting, waterfall rapelling, hiked a volcano. There is also zip lining, rain forest tours, and a lot more. There are many hotels that have access to natural hot springs as well, which is lovely.

After a few days there, we went to Guanacaste, which is on the coast. It's here where we just relaxed the rest of the trip. We soaked up the sun, and hung out at the beach (and I got the best tan of my life here), and in both areas, we were able to go out in the town. The food is amazing, the people are friendly, and the country is gorgeous. Soooo much natural beauty, so if you are both into nature, Costa Rica would be a great option. Also - there are sloth everywhere!

mrsmagicgeek · October 2014

We are going to st martin (staying in the French side) in 9 days. I can't wait! We decided to forego the typical resort and instead rented a condo right on the beach. Lots of rum, wine, and coffee in my future!

lurkergirl · October 2014

esstee33 said:

My XH and I went to Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and stayed at Sandals. I spent literally the entire week drinking rum and lounging by the beach. There are also water-related things to do there, and it's a great budget destination (or, at least, it was 8 years ago when I went). Ocho Rios is cool also because there's a huge waterfall (Dunn's River Falls) nearby and off-resort excursions (http://www.visitjamaica.com/things-to-do/active-and-relaxing/adventure - go here & sort by Ocho Rios!).

This is actually our plan. We haven't booked yet, but we're planning on Sandals Grande Riviera (which is at Ocho Rios--I think they just combined 3 of their resorts in to one or something).

iloveotters2014 · October 2014

we went to St. Martin. We technically stayed on the dutch side but we were on the border of the dutch and french side. The dutch side is super touristy (good for shopping) but we LOVED the french side. It was way more low key and the food was so amazing.

My absolute favorite part of the entire trip was when we visited Loterie farms. I'm serious....go here! Make a day of it.

They have a natural spring fed stone pool where you can get a cabana and relax at all day. They have hiking and zip lining, and they have these 2 restaurants in a tree house with phinominal food. We went to both restaurants haha. The first restuarant is drinks and tapas where you sit in the tree house in like loungey couches and then we went over to the main restuarant and had an awesome dinner. My H got ahi tuna and he said he has never had any fresher fish in his life. I cannot say enough good things about that place!

Another great place for food is Grand Case. We ate at like 5 restaurants there haha and every single one was fantastic.

I would definitely go back to St. Martin!

jenna8984 · October 2014

We were the same way- we have spent several vacations walking around cities so we wanted to just lay in the ocean and do nothing. We went to Negril, Jamaica and it was awesome. My parents paid so it was a resort that I could not have otherwise afforded. Because of this it had everything included- not just food and drink, but snorkel, kayak, sunset cruise, golf, ect.

Husband actually said he preferred the cheaper place we stayed at in Cancun. We are more "casual" people, we prefer to grab a hot dog in our bathing suits, and the expensive resort my parents chose was more collared shirt for a sit down dinner. Which was really nice but we would have liked another option some nights.

raissyrais · October 2014

I don't know how far you're willing to travel, but since our wedding will be there already and it's a great honeymoon destination, we will have our mini moon in Mauritius itself.

theartistformerlyknownas · October 2014

iloveotters2014 said:

we went to St. Martin. We technically stayed on the dutch side but we were on the border of the dutch and french side. The dutch side is super touristy (good for shopping) but we LOVED the french side. It was way more low key and the food was so amazing.

My absolute favorite part of the entire trip was when we visited Loterie farms. I'm serious....go here! Make a day of it.

They have a natural spring fed stone pool where you can get a cabana and relax at all day. They have hiking and zip lining, and they have these 2 restaurants in a tree house with phinominal food. We went to both restaurants haha. The first restuarant is drinks and tapas where you sit in the tree house in like loungey couches and then we went over to the main restuarant and had an awesome dinner. My H got ahi tuna and he said he has never had any fresher fish in his life. I cannot say enough good things about that place!

Another great place for food is Grand Case. We ate at like 5 restaurants there haha and every single one was fantastic.

I would definitely go back to St. Martin!

We wanted to enjoy the food on the French side... smelled the MOST AMAZING chicken cooking while we were walking around over there. Finally found the creole restaurant where it was coming from (saw it on the menu posted outside) and came back at lunch time. Say our polite "bonjour!" and try to order, and the waitress says "No chicken. Red snapper?" Um, the red snapper is 3x the price of the chicken, the most expensive thing on the menu, and I don't want to drop that kind of cash on lunch. Tried like four other options. Just kept shaking her head and saying "No chicken. Red snapper?" Ugh fine, now I'm starving, gimme the damn red snapper.

No joke, it takes nearly an hour to get our damn fish. We wondered if they had to go catch it. When she brings it out, it's the WHOLE THING, seasoned and thrown into the deep fryer. Fins, eyes, scary snarling teeth. I swear the thing was staring at me. I was so grossed out because I don't eat food that still looks like an animal. Meanwhile, 30 seconds later she sets a giant plate of chicken down in front of another lady. Grrrr.

iloveotters2014 · October 2014

lolo883 said:

iloveotters2014 said:

we went to St. Martin. We technically stayed on the dutch side but we were on the border of the dutch and french side. The dutch side is super touristy (good for shopping) but we LOVED the french side. It was way more low key and the food was so amazing.

My absolute favorite part of the entire trip was when we visited Loterie farms. I'm serious....go here! Make a day of it.

They have a natural spring fed stone pool where you can get a cabana and relax at all day. They have hiking and zip lining, and they have these 2 restaurants in a tree house with phinominal food. We went to both restaurants haha. The first restuarant is drinks and tapas where you sit in the tree house in like loungey couches and then we went over to the main restuarant and had an awesome dinner. My H got ahi tuna and he said he has never had any fresher fish in his life. I cannot say enough good things about that place!

Another great place for food is Grand Case. We ate at like 5 restaurants there haha and every single one was fantastic.

I would definitely go back to St. Martin!

We wanted to enjoy the food on the French side... smelled the MOST AMAZING chicken cooking while we were walking around over there. Finally found the creole restaurant where it was coming from (saw it on the menu posted outside) and came back at lunch time. Say our polite "bonjour!" and try to order, and the waitress says "No chicken. Red snapper?" Um, the red snapper is 3x the price of the chicken, the most expensive thing on the menu, and I don't want to drop that kind of cash on lunch. Tried like four other options. Just kept shaking her head and saying "No chicken. Red snapper?" Ugh fine, now I'm starving, gimme the damn red snapper.

No joke, it takes nearly an hour to get our damn fish. We wondered if they had to go catch it. When she brings it out, it's the WHOLE THING, seasoned and thrown into the deep fryer. Fins, eyes, scary snarling teeth. I swear the thing was staring at me. I was so grossed out because I don't eat food that still looks like an animal. Meanwhile, 30 seconds later she sets a giant plate of chicken down in front of another lady. Grrrr.

hahah oh my gosh! i can't even imagine. My H is really into researching the best places to go, so he had a map of the places for us to eat before we even arrived. Most of the french restaurants we went to were like real sit down places and just about all of them had pastry chefs on staff. This one place we went in Marigot called Tropicana I think? Had the BEST almond cake with fresh fruit and sorbet. Oh my gosh I want that again.

I did hear about those chicken stands but we never really ventured over to those hahah now I'm glad I didnt!

lyndausvi · October 2014

We went to Amsterdam, J'berg, safari for 5 nights here. Then a few nights in Paris. 2 nights at my sister's in Philly (okay, more like returning from overseas and she had my wedding dress and all the checks). Then we continued up to his mom's for a 3 nights (okay, really it was to go to the last home game at the old Yankee stadium). Then went back to St Thomas.

All total (including the wedding and all the travel we were gone 3.5 weeks).

I like St Martin. Both sides. I'm flying into St Martin in a few weeks, but staying on Anguilla. I lived in St John and St Thomas so of course I like those. I LOVE the British Virgin Islands. Very, very low key. Here is one of my favorite places (clicky). Virgin Gorda is amazing also.

Simky906 · October 2014

I will fourth/fifth the motion for St Martin! Great beaches, good food and plenty of activities to do too. I'm not a big chilling on the beach type person but I still really love that place! @lyndausvi‌ Do the planes on St Martin still do that really low approach over the beach? I thought that was very cool.

FutureMrsN3312 · October 2014

We went to Aruba. Our resort sucked but the island itself was amazing. The weather was perfect every day. Sunny not to hot and a nice breeze. It rained one morning for literally 2 mins. It was more of a sun shower to me then anything but the natives called that rain.

theartistformerlyknownas · October 2014

Simky906 said:

I will fourth/fifth the motion for St Martin! Great beaches, good food and plenty of activities to do too. I'm not a big chilling on the beach type person but I still really love that place! @lyndausvi‌ Do the planes on St Martin still do that really low approach over the beach? I thought that was very cool.

They did when I was there but IIRC the cab driver said the airport was under construction so that might be changing. It was terrifying, lol!

iloveotters2014 · October 2014

lolo883 said:

Simky906 said:

I will fourth/fifth the motion for St Martin! Great beaches, good food and plenty of activities to do too. I'm not a big chilling on the beach type person but I still really love that place! @lyndausvi‌ Do the planes on St Martin still do that really low approach over the beach? I thought that was very cool.

They did when I was there but IIRC the cab driver said the airport was under construction so that might be changing. It was terrifying, lol!

Yes they do! We had a rental car and no cell service and got lost on our way to the hotel and ended up on the road next to that beach.....and a plane was coming in and I seriously thought our little tiny mini car was going to blow away! it was terrifying!! but also hilarious.

mrsb53 · October 2014

We just got back from our honeymoon in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and it was incredible! We stayed at the Jewel Dunn's River AI resort. It was a very casual place, but they still had a couple fancier restaurants on-site. They have endless delicious rum concoctions that you can sip at the pool bar or on the beach. Most excursions are less than a 30-minute drive from the resort. I highly recommend this place!

lyndausvi · October 2014

Yep. Maho Beach. Go to the Sunset Beach Bar. They have a list of when the flights come in.

ElcaB · October 2014

We are going to Punta Cana, DR & staying at Excellence. I've heard rave reviews & we got an awesome deal through Southwest Vacations!

Simky906 · October 2014

lolo883 said:

Simky906 said:

I will fourth/fifth the motion for St Martin! Great beaches, good food and plenty of activities to do too. I'm not a big chilling on the beach type person but I still really love that place! @lyndausvi‌ Do the planes on St Martin still do that really low approach over the beach? I thought that was very cool.

They did when I was there but IIRC the cab driver said the airport was under construction so that might be changing. It was terrifying, lol!

I love flying so I thought it was fantastic and had my face glued to the window as we landed. (One of my uncles is an airline pilot and we bonded over things like that when I was young, though neither of my siblings enjoy flying.) My sister had her eyes squeezed shut and was gripping my hand so hard I almost lost circulation. Which I think is probably the more normal reaction to that scenario.

lyndausvi · October 2014

Simky906 · October 2014

lyndausvi said:

Yep. Maho Beach. Go to the Sunset Beach Bar. They have a list of when the flights come in.

So cool! Love those pics!

penguin44 · October 2014

ElcaB said:

We are going to Punta Cana, DR & staying at Excellence. I've heard rave reviews & we got an awesome deal through Southwest Vacations!

That's where we went. We loved it! Make sure to go to the special dinners on the beach. Those were way better than the restaurants at the resort.

The beach is amazing!

themuffinman16 · October 2014

St. Lucia in the Caribbean. It was awesome! We went on a private catamaran tour, snorkeling, scuba diving, took volcanic mud baths and hiked the pitons (volcanic mountains). We, also, went ziplining through the rainforest. Even though I am TERRIFIED of heights... it was one of the most fun and beautiful memories of my trip. We stayed at the Calabash Cove. Which is a private boutique hotel and PERFECT for couples who want to swim up to the bar and relax by the infinity edge pool over the Caribbean Sea. The water is very tranquil. I would definitely go there again! When we weren't hiking and sightseeing, we were enjoying the drinks and the.... um.... room. lol

Jells2dot0 · October 2014

I love to talk travel!

I went to French Polynesia for my first HM. I fell in love with the islands more so than my X! Lol I've been back there many times since.

Since we got married in Australia, we HMed there, too. We spent a few days on Wilson Island after our wedding then went too Cairns and Lizard Island.

For the Caribbean, my favorite islands there are St. John and Anguilla. I'm a total beach bum and loved the beaches on these two islands.

Once i'm well, we're heading to Punta Mita, Mexico for 5 nights and then the Riviera Maya for our anniversary.

mschristie123 · October 2014

ElcaB said:

We are going to Punta Cana, DR & staying at Excellence. I've heard rave reviews & we got an awesome deal through Southwest Vacations!

@ElcaB- that's where we went for our honeymoon in June and we absolutely loved it!! You and your H are gonna have a blast! I wish we could go back.

I would absolutely recommend Punta Cana as an amazing honeymoon location. It is very quick to get to from the States, something that was really important to us when booking our honeymoon. I think Southwest does nonstop flights from Chicago now, which makes it even easier! We did snorkeling (meh) and zip lining (amazing!) in Punta Cana. It was great to get out of the resort and do some more interesting things a couple days while we were there.

themuffinman16 · October 2014

St. Lucia. Quiet, peaceful, but full of adventure... And a swim up bar. Mudbaths + sunburn= top three layers of skin hating you.

esstee33 · October 2014

lurkergirl said:

esstee33 said:

My XH and I went to Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and stayed at Sandals. I spent literally the entire week drinking rum and lounging by the beach. There are also water-related things to do there, and it's a great budget destination (or, at least, it was 8 years ago when I went). Ocho Rios is cool also because there's a huge waterfall (Dunn's River Falls) nearby and off-resort excursions (http://www.visitjamaica.com/things-to-do/active-and-relaxing/adventure - go here & sort by Ocho Rios!).

This is actually our plan. We haven't booked yet, but we're planning on Sandals Grande Riviera (which is at Ocho Rios--I think they just combined 3 of their resorts in to one or something).

Grande Riviera is where we stayed. The resort is a little strange because it's split in two -- the beach side and the, uh, other side. I remember it having a name but I don't remember what. Anyway, they have shuttles going back and forth, since you'd have to cross a road to walk between them, and drivers there are absolutely insane. Everything they have on one side they have on the other, though, with the obvious exception that the beach is only on the beach side, haha. But lots of restaurants and bars on both sides. Traveling between the two sides is NBD.

ETA: Royal Plantation (the other Ocho Rios one) is all oceanfront butler suites, and, as far as I remember, isn't connected to GR. It's been a long time and things may have changed, though, so YMMV.

Honeymoons!!!

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