Surprise Honeymoon

I'd choose America. I did a surprise Boston- NYC- Maine trip for his birthday last year and it was one best holidays we've had.

Tell him it's a taster for the main one in a few years time!

Personally I would avoid America so you can do it all exactly how you have planned when you have saved enough. That's just me though, I'd want to 'save up all the excitement' for the BIG road trip rather than feeling like "well we came here already on honeymoon". I also think it would be extremely hard to plan something like that as a complete surprise, since you'll need to sort out visas etc. I'd look at doing something within the EU instead as it'll be a lot less hassle.

Agree with Saisi, save America and do it properly, as you've always wanted to.

Also, if you were to go to America, you'd need to tell him in advance to apply for his ESTA (visa). Then he'd know.

It mght also be worth mentioning it to someone (MIL or something) in case he's having exactly the same idea as you!

Ah I hadn't thought about visas and guess you can't do them secretly?!

thanks!

I just asked about this as my H2B is booking our honeymoon and I don't know about it. I think it's Vegas though and about 3 weeks ago he asked for all of my passport details so maybe it can be done on someones behalf? The travel agent will know for sure.

I'd agree with the others that you should save America, not only so you can 'do it properly' at a later date also because it's a really long flight for just 5 days.

He isn't booking anything - we can't afford it (he thinks!)

Sounds a lovely idea, don't forget to check with his boss about his time off & let them know he won't be at work!

But you know you're going somewhere... I think the real difficulty would lie in the fact that Lyla's OH doesn't have a clue that they're going anywhere! Plus I believe the USA may have more restrictive conditions, although I'm not 100% on those.

I still think the easiest option is within the EU as then no visas are required and he could just go with his passport or driver's licence.

You know your OH of course, and we don't, but two thoughts... maybe because these are how I would react to this, if my OH surprised me on the day!

1. Not keen on surprises... would rather know in advance so I can enjoy looking forward to it (half the fun), prepare and pack appropriately etc! I might feel a bit taken aback and wrong-footed.

2. It sounds as if he is the one who is more keen on buying the house first, rather than spending it on a honeymoon... if he knew you had been secretly saving, will he maybe be a bit annoyed, or feel that money should really go towards buying the house?

Sorry I don't mean to sound negative - it is totally amazing that you have been working hard to save whatever you can, and that you want to give him a lovely surprise on the day!

We are off to NYC for 4 days after the wedding I know where we are going but do not know what we are doing there as H2B is making it all a surprise. From what I can tell you don't need an actual visa any more it is called something else now (he just found out by looking it up on the net) and cost about 30 quid each, don't know what details you need but suspect it will be passport number DOB etc which im guessing you can get all secretly? Either way you will probably need his passport details if you plan to do your boarding passes on line etc.

Yeah his passport is in a drawer with mine so I can easily get at that. We've already decided to take some time off after the wedding to spend time together so I'm hoping to book it in that week... and he loves surprises. I bought him a PS3 last year when he moved in with me and he nearly had a fit. I have thought about whether he'd rather the money go to a house but he LOVES holidays and he even said the other night he was gutted we wouldnt be going away again for a while!

Do you need to apply in advance for a visa to go to the States? Not been in ages, but I seem to remember just filling in an entry visa on the plane (maybe that's different if you're not EU nationals?)

Whatever, I'd still be tempted to go with Egypt instead because of what the others have said - you might just want to collapse after the energy expended on the wedding, plus it saves it up for a big holiday, whereas you might find you do the short trip and then say "done that, let's do something else" instead of having your dream trip.