Honeymoon Discussions

Australia Honeymoon Alternatives

Hi Knotties,

My FI and I are getting married in August, and while we were originally hoping to do an Australia or New Zealand honeymoon, the timing of our wedding does not work particularly well for those locations. We've discussed waiting until Dec/Jan for our honeymoon, but we'd really like to be able to go right after the wedding (which is also a more feasible time for us to take off work).

We are looking to take up to 2 wks off, budget would be somewhere in the $5-7K range (could be flexible for something really amazing though). We'd be flying from Boston. Open to flights of any length.

Would love something with at least a bit of a beachy vibe, but also with activities and sightseeing.

We've done cruises in the past, and while we love them, we're looking for something a bit different for our Honeymoon.

Safety is important to us, and we'd like to go somewhere where we will feel like we can get around comfortably speaking English.

We LOVE Hawaii - so looking for something very similar to that vibe. We've been twice recently to Hawaii, so we're leaning towards trying something new, though our back-up plan right now is a different Hawaii Island (we've done Oahu and Big Island in the past).

We've spent a little time in Aruba and weren't overly impressed (some nice beaches, but agree with some other posters about it seeming over-developed). Mexico has also not been our favorite (have only been to cruise ports), as we'd like to go someplace where we feel comfortable going out on our own exploring, and we didn't quite feel that way in MX.

I've enjoyed Bermuda, but not sure I'd want to spend a full 2 wks there.

Places we're considering - Costa Rica? Bali? (Not sure about safety in Bali, have heard mixed things) Somewhere random in the Carribbean? (Would want to make sure there are at least some activities though...)

Thanks!



Re: Australia Honeymoon Alternatives

  • I got married/honeymooned in Australia and we're heading to New Zealand in two weeks. Dec/Jan is summer in Australia/NZ. Plus, it's always tropical in Northern Queensland (Cairns/Port Douglas). The exchange rate is very favorable in both destinations right now, but I would recommend choosing just one to keep costs low and have time to see a lot. While northern North Island NZ is subtropical and has beaches, you will get more of that tropical vibe in Queensland. 


     







  • Thanks, Jells, for the response! 

    Yes, the fact that Dec/Jan seem to be the nicer months in Australia/NZ is what is making us reluctant to still consider that as a location for our August honeymoon. However, that is good to know about Northern Queensland being tropical in all seasons, we will check that out! 

    Have you been to Queensland area before? Is there enough in that particular area to keep busy for two weeks, or would we want to split between 2 cities, if we did end up going with something like that?
  • edited March 2016
    So, we got married in Queensland in August 2012. Queensland is the state- not a city. We started our trip in Brisbane, then went out to Heron Island and Wilson Island (I think Wilson is closed temporarily, but that is where we married). After 3 nights on Heron and 4 nights on Wilson, we went up to Cairns. We spent 1 night in Cairns on either side of the 4 nights we spent on Lizard Island. So, on the ground, we did 14 nights (plus two overnights on the plane). 

    Brisbane was cooler- around 70 during the day and sweater weather at night. Same on Heron Island. Brisbane has some sightseeing and can be a jumping off point for the Australia Zoo and the Gold Coast. Heron was slightly chilly for the beach, but we donned wet suits to snorkel and still laid out. As we understood it, there was a bit of a cold snap while we were there. So, it could be warmer. We also did a bunch of land activities, like a nature walk, star gazing, a semi submersible tour to learn about the sea life. It definitely kept us busy for 3 nights. We could have easily done 3 nights in Brisbane as well.

    Cairns is a good starting off location for the Barrier Reef. It was in the 80s every day and hardly rained. The city itself can be explored in a day as well. So, 3-4 nights there makes sense or also head up to Port Douglas as well. In addition, you can also easily head to Daintree from Northern Queensland to explore the rainforest. You could get in 2-3 nights there as well. 

    Our exact itinerary, without the wedding, was over $20k. It would be less now because of the better exchange rate. But, both Wilson and lizard are over $1k/night and we had a SkyCouch on Air New Zealand, which put our air alone at close to $5k. Heron is very reasonable, though, and we stayed at "normal" hotels in Cairns and Brisbane. So, if you leave out the big hitters, it's doable! 

     







  • Thank you!! I'm soaking this all up, it's super informative - I've been Googling for the past couple hours, and my FI is super excited that there may be some potential for us to do an Australia itinerary in August. It sounds like there may be some cool national parks in the northern part of the country - lots of possibilities to research!

    Will definitely check out all these suggestions - it sounds like weather in Cairns is pretty warm year-round!

    Did you guys drive between locations?? Or did you book a package that included transportation?

    I started Googling Lizard Island, and it looks gorgeous!  :p  The only resort I'm seeing there is in the $1K++ per night, so not sure if that will be feasible, but I can dream!! ;)

  • I loved my time in Sint Maarten, St. Barts and Saba. Beautiful and full of activities. You would be outside of hurricane season going in August and it would be hot! Beautiful resort in Sint Maarten - Sonesta Ocean Point ... made me want to live there forever. Cool little flights over to St. Barts and Saba. Lots of scuba opportunities or at least snorkel. The flight path over the beach is also really neat. You have 747 planes fly right over top of you and can stand on the beach to get blown into the water as planes take off. Absolutely fabulous...
  • Thank you!! I'm soaking this all up, it's super informative - I've been Googling for the past couple hours, and my FI is super excited that there may be some potential for us to do an Australia itinerary in August. It sounds like there may be some cool national parks in the northern part of the country - lots of possibilities to research!

    Will definitely check out all these suggestions - it sounds like weather in Cairns is pretty warm year-round!

    Did you guys drive between locations?? Or did you book a package that included transportation?

    I started Googling Lizard Island, and it looks gorgeous!  :p  The only resort I'm seeing there is in the $1K++ per night, so not sure if that will be feasible, but I can dream!! ;)


    Driving between locations would take FOREVER. I used my FF miles for all intra-Australia flights. We had connections from Brisbane-Gladstone, and Gladstone-Cairns. To get out to the islands, the resorts offered transportation that we booked as part of our room stay. We took a helicopter our to Heron and flew out to Lizard. Lizard Island only has the one resort, and yup, it's pricey!

    Heron, Wilson, and Lizard are all managed by the same company, so since we married on Wilson, I booked mostly everything directly with them to ensure my wedding went smoothly. But, booking through a well versed travel agent would be helpful for you. There are agents that specialize in Australia and/or the South Pacific. They can put together a package for that that includes rooms, transportation, and activities if you want.

     







  • Thanks so much for the suggestions! We are finding lots of exciting options in northern Queensland - this honestly made such a huge difference in us realizing that we didn't need to rule out Australia for our honeymoon!

    And thank you ernursej for the recommendations too! We will have to check that out for future vacations - sounds lovely!

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