Let's talk HONEYMOONS!

[Malbec54]

As my own honeymoon is quickly approaching (34 days away!), I find myself getting beyond excited and not sure how I'll get through the next month without bursting! As such, I'd love to hear all about the honeymoons of my fellow PSers!

Where did you go (if anywhere), and for how long? What'd you do while you were there? Did you go right after the wedding, or did you wait awhile? What was your favorite part of the trip?

And for ladies who haven't yet gone on their honeymoon - Where are your honeymoon plans? If you haven't planned it yet, what is your dream honeymoon?


FI and I will be going to Fiji for 8 days/7 nights. We're scuba divers and Fiji has some of the best diving in the world, so we absolutely cannot wait!! We have 12ish dives planned for the time we're there, plus a hike to a nearby waterfall, and then some relaxing spa treatments (couples massage, etc). We live in the Bay Area but will be flying in/out of LA because it was way cheaper than flying from San Francisco, so when we get back from Fiji we're going to stay in LA for an extra couple of days and extend the honeymoon to Disneyland and Universal Studios. I'm sure we're going to be exhausted by the time all is said and done, but that's ok. We want to make the most of this once in a lifetime opportunity!

How exciting. The countdown begins for you.
It's been a dream of mine to vacation in an over water bungalow ---we almost considered this for our wedding/honeymoon, but neither of us scuba or are big snorkelers. Instead we are spending a few days in Cape Town, South Africa and then on to getting married at a Safari camp. I really wanted to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, but it's too far away and would take too long (we live outside of Washington, D.C.)

 

[chloeishere]

We were thinking of forgoing one too, you know, because weddings cost enough! But maybe we'll see if we can do a short one on the cheap somehow...

DO NOT SKIP YOUR HONEYMOON. I know several people who didn't go immediately/hadn't made plans for relatively soon after the wedding, and several years later, they still haven't gone and DEEPLY regret it. Behind photography it was the #2 thing on my "wedding must-haves" list!

Even if you just take a staycation! Be a tourist in your own town...stay at a local B&B or hotel for a few nights, take the time off work, take in some museums or special events. Since you're already in Florida, you should be able to take a 3 night cruise super cheap since you don't have to worry about airfare (and they may give FL resident discounts)! Just a few days...it doesn't have to be a week...or longer...or extravagant. It just needs to be time with your DH where other people worry about cleaning your room and prepping the food!

This is exactly the advice we got from the married couples I know-- the predominate advice was that if you put it off, you'll end up doing something not very special and calling it your honeymoon, and most people tend to regret not making the time. Also, it's good to get away after all the stress and planning around the wedding, and just relax and enjoy being married. This was when I was talking about how expensive the wedding was and how I didn't know if we should spend the money, especially because my fiance wasn't getting as much time off work as we'd hoped (he works sort of shifts, as a police officer, and his "weekends" didn't line up well around the wedding-- we had to plan before we'd known his schedule for the next year).

So, if our wedding is 55 days away, that means our honeymoon is 56 days away!

We were originally planning on going to Hawaii, but decide the long flights (we live in the Midwest) was too much since we only had 7 days total for the honeymoon before my fiance had to be back at work-- spending 2 days flying, and probably 2 days feeling jet lagged and exhausted from flying, didn't seem like a good trade off, since we wanted to RELAX, by a beach, in the warmth. There are lots of places where we can do that, and they aren't all a long flight. I'm hoping in 4 or 5 years we'll be able to get a couple weeks off work and go to Hawaii for one of our anniversaries (we've been together for 6 years, so our 10 year total anniversary would be a good time, or maybe our 5 year marriage anniversary. I love planning vacations, can you tell?).

For the honeymoon, we're going to a resort in Florida, the Gulf coast (St. Petersburg area). Hopefully the weather works out-- we just want to lounge on the beach and relax in the warmth. I promised I was only going to bring bikinis for swimwear, so it's additional incentive to step up my workouts after the holidays! Normally we like to do stuff and explore on vacation, but this time I think relaxation and enjoying the start of our married lives are just the ticket.

I'm so excited to go on the honeymoon and also, be done with all the planning. Can't come soon enough!

 

[vc10um]

For the honeymoon, we're going to a resort in Florida, the Gulf coast (St. Petersburg area). Hopefully the weather works out-- we just want to lounge on the beach and relax in the warmth. I promised I was only going to bring bikinis for swimwear, so it's additional incentive to step up my workouts after the holidays! Normally we like to do stuff and explore on vacation, but this time I think relaxation and enjoying the start of our married lives are just the ticket.

I'm so excited to go on the honeymoon and also, be done with all the planning. Can't come soon enough!

Chloe, I did the same thing for our honeymoon: bikinis only! HUGE motivator, for sure!

Also, since you'll be down in the Tampa/St. Pete area, I suggest visiting Siesta Key for the day (or overnight if you haven't yet booked your accommodations)...the sand there is just fabulous and there are cute little bars and restaurants. A girlfriend and I went for a getaway a few years ago and had a blast. Watch out if you go to Daquiri Deck, though...the drinks are stronger than you think...ESPECIALLY the ones topped with the Everclear floater...

 

[zoebartlett]

I'd actually like a do-over for my honeymoon. We met 9 years ago and our first mini-vacation was a trip to Quebec City for NYE. Neither one of us had been there and we had an amazing time. QC's Old Town is beautiful, and we loved our trip. When we were planning our wedding four years ago, we originally had planned on going to Portugal for honeymoon, but then decided to save $ and return to QC. We had been talking about going back someday anyway, and we thought it would be romantic to go to the place where we had our first vacation. It ended up being a very tense week or so, and I learned that I would have MUCH preferred a slower-paced destination after all the running around we did before our wedding. We still LOVE QC but if we had a do-over, we'd go someplace tropical and relax.

ETA: We delayed the start of our honeymoon by 2 days because we were having so much fun hanging out with family and friends the day after our wedding. Once we arrived in QC, we spent most of our time walking around Old Town. We took a few trips around the area, too. Our favorite part of the trip was probably checking out the various restaurants and seeing the beautiful architecture of the buildings. We had an amazing brunch at the Chateau Frontenac on our last day that my husband still talks about. It's a beautiful place. Although I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for a honeymoon, I'd love to go back.

Thanks for sharing, Zoe! QC sounds amazing, I'd love to go there someday! Sorry your honeymoon ended up being tense - maybe you can do a fun anniversary trip as a honeymoon do-over?

We'll also be leaving for our honeymoon a few days after the wedding. Our guest list is so small (only 16) and a good chunk of them have to travel to get here, so we want to spend as much time as we can with our nearest and dearest who are flying in just for our wedding.

We're SO glad we waited an extra day to leave for our honeymoon. It was totally worth cutting our honeymoon a bit short, since my extended family traveled from all over the country to attend our wedding. I'd highly recommend going to QC one day, and if you stay in Old Town, you'll love it. It's fun strolling in and out of shops and restaurants, and it's so pretty.

 

[KyleenJeanette]

We're getting married April 13th but won't be taking our honeymoon until Christmas time this year. We've decided on New Zealand! We plan on spending approximately ten days there with the possibility of a few days in Sydney, Australia! I just started a new job that lets us use our own credit card for travel expenses so I've been diligently been racking up airline miles and hotel points Honestly at this point I'm almost more excited about the honeymoon than I am the wedding

 

[princesss]

We're getting married April 13th but won't be taking our honeymoon until Christmas time this year. We've decided on New Zealand! We plan on spending approximately ten days there with the possibility of a few days in Sydney, Australia! I just started a new job that lets us use our own credit card for travel expenses so I've been diligently been racking up airline miles and hotel points Honestly at this point I'm almost more excited about the honeymoon than I am the wedding

NEW ZEALAND IS AMAZING!!!!!

Sorry, not a bride, not planning a honeymoon or anything, but it was hands down my favourite trip. Gorgeous scenery, so much to do, two thumbs way, way up.

 

[Chewbacca]

We're getting married April 13th but won't be taking our honeymoon until Christmas time this year. We've decided on New Zealand! We plan on spending approximately ten days there with the possibility of a few days in Sydney, Australia! I just started a new job that lets us use our own credit card for travel expenses so I've been diligently been racking up airline miles and hotel points Honestly at this point I'm almost more excited about the honeymoon than I am the wedding

NEW ZEALAND IS AMAZING!!!!!

Sorry, not a bride, not planning a honeymoon or anything, but it was hands down my favourite trip. Gorgeous scenery, so much to do, two thumbs way, way up.

 

[mandasand]

We are getting married 9/21/13 and have been talking about going to Kaui. My mom's client has a condo that we can rent for $125 a night. If we fly out of Oakland instead of Sacramento, the flight would be about $700. Or, we can try to get a military standby to Honolulu for free, but its a gamble. I really want to go on a trip but I think my fiancé is concerned about the money since we are paying for the wedding ourselves.