Honeymoon choices...

I would do the safari, it is something I've always wanted to do but my husband had no interest so it was a no-go for us. A lady I work with is into safaris and swears by Jules Verne Voyages, she has gone a few trips with them. I don't know if they have a shop, but their website is excellent and their brochures are really informative, you can order them online.

Hey date twin!

We originally wanted safari but realised quite soon that Mauritius is not very hot and the Seychelles which is a warmer alternative is not easy to get to from South Africa.

Our next option, which we have gone for, was a self-drive around california. So we are flying into Vegas and doing the grand canyon, then go on to: Death Valley, Yosemite, San Fransisco, Route 1 coastal drive over a few days and Los Angeles. Then we wanted to go to finish Hawaii but this would mean the flight home would be 24 hours and thought we would be better doing this torturous trip for a trip where we stay in Hawaii for 2 weeks, whereas we only wanted this last section of the holiday to be 5ish days. The entire trip will be 4 weeks.

We will be doing it all DIY but popping into trailfinders to get as much info as we can at some point over the next couple of months.

Thanks for the safari tip, I will check them out.

Hi date twin! That sounds like an amazing honeymoon. I have already been on a very similar trip around five years ago with my friends and it was brilliant. We flew into San Francisco, then hired a convertible and drove to Yosemite, stayed at a lodge in the Grand Canyon for two nights, went to Lake Havasu, then Vegas then finished up in LA (I can't remember the exact schedule we did). It was amazing! You will have a great time x

Our current plan is a few weeks in Japan and Vietnam. In Japan, we're going to Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, Nikko, Yokohama, Osaka, Takarazuka and Miyajima, including a stay in a temple, honeymoon photoshoot, cookery course, climbing Mt Fuji, and meeting a geisha. In Vietnam, we're going to Ho Chi Minh/Saigon, Hue, Hoi An, and Halong Bay. My current budget is more than the wedding, once we add in spending money!

We're going for slightly cheaper hotels in Japan, to make it more affordable, then having pure luxury in Vietnam.

This is what we did, just came back last week and it was amazing:

San Francisco for 3 nights

Waikiki for 3 nights

Maui for 7 nights

Overnight flight to NYC

1 night in NYC

Overnight flight to the UK

All in all 16 nights (2 of them are overnight flights).

It was amazing. Hawaii is fantastic, although Maui is certainly more relaxed than Waikiki - we absolutely loved Maui, the weather was amazing, and there is so much to do and see even though it's a fairly small island (even places with a completely different climate - all you do is drive 30 minutes and you go from sunshine to tropical rainforest with rain). Beaches are fantastic too and we loved our resort, Makena Beach and Golf Resort. It was fairly laid back and felt very relaxed and private. There were some children but not many at all.

We also loved that HI is part of the US which means the roads are great, it's safe & clean, no snakes, no horrible spiders, everyone speaks English, ...

We booked our honeymoon with Dial A Flight: http://www.dialaflight.com/

2 weeks today (yay!) we'll be jetting off to Centara Grand in the Maldives. We've booked an overwater ocean pool villa for 9 nights. The resort is premium all-inclusive and we've also paid extra to use the Island Club facilities. We get $100 each per day to spend in the spa and also 5 excursions included. There's multiple bars and restaurants as well as the obligatory water sports/diving (they have a house reef where there's also a boat wreck).

Very happy to report back in 3.5 weeks to let you know what we thought!

Wow your honeymoons all sound amazing, thanks for sharing.

Kinky Bride, I saw that package and thought it looked really good. Did you book through trail finders? I would love to know how it goes if you don't mind. Have a lovely time! X

We've booked ours - a week in Mauritius followed by 4 nights in Dubai in May.

We've got an amazing hotel in Mauritius and looking forward to complete relaxation there and then off to the glitz and luxury of Dubai.

We booked through Miles Morgan Travel. Really helpful and have tailored it to exactly what we want, booking all the private airport transfers and hopefully giving us a completely stress free honeymoon.

No, we went with Kenwood Travel in the end. While they weren't necessarily the cheapest; we got the best 'feel' from them and also their reviews were better. We were aware that family members had experienced issues with Trailfinders before so although we considered them, their reviews let them down.

Will def report back!

the fly-drive is what I have my heart set on and we have talked about it our whole relationship but I know how stressed he gets driving on foreign roads so weather it will happen ☹️

We have a while to go yet, but were thinking of asking for Trailfinders vouchers rather than presents from anyone who really wants to gift us anything - then we can book Virgin flights through them to somewhere as we have enough points to upgrade to Upper return.

However this might limit our choice of destination somewhat, so need to pop in to Trailfinders before we make that final decision I think.

We've talked about a Sri Lanka / Maldives twin centre holiday (although this is H2B's 2nd marriage & he honeymooned in the Maldives first time round, so feels a bit odd to me!), or a US fly-drive, but I have done the West Coast before with friends, so again it wouldn't be anything new for one of us. We're torn between an action packed honeymoon because that's the type of holiday we usually take, or a completely relaxing break because we're unlikely to ever do anything similar again, knowing us!

Driving in the States is fairly easy, wide lanes and roads (wider than in the UK) and probably less busy as well (except big cities).

And not he really doesn't want to drive pick certain cities and travel coach from one to the other.

I'm going to Dubai for 5 nights and then to the Maldives for 10 nights for my honeymoon.

We were worried we'd get bored in the Maldives so chose to do Dubai first and then split the last 10 nights between 2 different islands in the Maldives. Chosen hotels with lots of activities, bars and restaurants.
Can't wait!

xx

Aww sorry to hear that Sorbet. Does he know that USA driving is regarded as fairly easy? The road signs are in English, wide lanes, quiet roads etc (except in the cities of course) but he could do the easier parts?

My OH has a licence but hasn't had a car or insurance since he passed 10 years ago. He is now insured on my car and every now and then does some driving but not a lot and I still need to be alert as it is like I am teaching him to drive all over again, he hasn't got that fluidity that you learn only after you pass your test. So I am a little stressed about the driving aspect of it but we have agreed that we will do 50:50. Closer to the time I may suggest he does a bit more practice here in the UK to build some confidence for the trip. I wouldn't not do the trip because of this though.

They sound like fantastic choices!!

When OH proposed we were on holiday and did a week in Miami for an active holiday, lots of touring around Miami are, down Florida keys also, nightlife and a bit of beach relaxation, followed by a week in Barbados to chill out. We hired a car in both. It was fab! Returned to Barbados for our honeymoon.

We are doing 3 nights in Singapore then flying to Bali for 3 nights in Seminyak, 4 nights in Ubud, 3 nights on Gili Air then 7 nights back in Bali in Nusa Dua for a nice chill before returning home. 20 nights but away for 22 nights with flights. We chose Bali because of the weather and chance to do a variety of location types as my OH gets bored quite easy! Hope we have the right mix of city, trendy, jungle, paradise and luxury...in that order! Can't wait!!! We booked with trailfinders and have found them fine so far, touch wood. I couldn't do it much cheaper myself and they have got us a few free upgrades, meals etc plus we can pay in installments x

These honeymoons sound great and I am getting some good inspiration here!

Moonbeam, when did you go on honeymoon?

I have booked an appointment with virgin on Saturday to see where would be good to go and to get some quotes so that I can get a good idea. I like the sound of their premium economy too if we can't stretch to upper class flights! X

The only thing I would recommend about the Carribbean is to do a google search of "which island is best for me" and investigate all the options. The Bahamas is very touristy but there are a lot of smaller islands that are very romantic (Anguilla, Martinique, Turks and Caicos) or more adventurous. You can even island hop depending on the route you choose.

All these honeymoons sound amazing! We are off to the US for 2.5 weeks. We are spending 4 nights in New York, 1 night in Washington, 5 nights in Orlando, 2 nights in San Francisco and then driving to Las Vegas for 4 nights, stopping for a night in Yosemite and a night in Death Valley. Cant wait!

I wouldn't go to Dubai in July. It's hot......very hot so unless you want to spend all your time in the malls/hotel it certainly isn't worth it. I lived there for 2 years and know what it's like. The Maldives would be ok. We had a girls long weekend there staying at Centara Ras Fushi and it was lovely. It wasn't a particularly romantic resort so you might want to look at one of the others and maybe combine it with Sri Lanka.

Safaris are good but remember that you'll only be allowed very limited luggage if you're flying in to the camp. An option could be safari in one or two of the parks in Tanzania and then onto Zanzibar/pemba for the beach.

What is important to you? Weather? Staying on the beach? Culture? Shopping? Africa is great... maybe somewhere like Botswana or Mozambique. Cape Town is also lovely but cooler. If the heat isn't a problem (40+ degrees) then Oman would be a possibility. .... same weather as Dubai but much nicer and less commercialised. Less to do indoors though.

Then of course there is the whole of Asia to explore. A friend of mine did a cruise....could that be an option?

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I think I have ruined things for myself by going to too many amazing places!

I have been to most places in the Caribbean, hence why we are considering the Bahamas, Antigua or St Lucia. I need somewhere where the OH can be kept amused though so the Virgin rep suggested Jamaica. I have been to Jamaica before but that was in 2009 and I only stayed for a week so I wouldn't mind going again.

Hot weather is really important to us hence why we have ruled out South Africa, Thailand, Australia etc. We also want luxury and relaxation mixed with being able to do nice trips.

That's good point about Dubai as it was suggested to us to do four nights in Dubai at the Atlantis Palm and then ten nights in Mauritius.

We have ruled out the Maldives now as I think it will be too quiet for the OH.

I'm doing some research now on what hotels I like and will go from there x

We are going to Jamaica. We've been before. Look at The couples hotels they are lovely and there is plenty to see in Jamaica. We've been to Mauritus and it's lovely but July might be unpredictable with the weather as its there winter.

How hot are you aiming for? July is a great time to visit the Kimberley as it's dry and warm (low-30C), and there is some good luxury accommodation, heaps to do, etc.

We went to Exmouth in July last year on a whim and it was 30C+ and did some snorkeling (the reef comes up a few meters from the beach) and hanging out for the weekend.

We are going a bit rogue and are off to Ecuador and the Galapagos on ours. However I've been to Tanzania in July and the weather was lovely- Zanzibar was great for the beaches and diving and you can safari on the mainland.

X

Serious honeymoon envy here! Considering I've never had a passport and the state of our finances even with a year to go, I think ours will be a caravan weekend in Rhyl... haha! I do love reading about other people's travels though and I may be convinced to venture out of the UK. All of these sound amazing :-)

Thanks for the tips everyone. So we have now ruled out Mauritius as it will only be in the low to mid twenties. We want high twenties weather.

we've found a lovely resort in the Maldives which has lots of water sports and restaurants, bars, spa etc and OH seems happy with this. So we will probably combine this with Dubai and brave the heat! I still haven't ruled out the Caribbean though so we could change our minds!

We really want to do a safari but have decided to do that the year after the wedding when we can pick the best time of the year to go x

We are also off to Galapagos and Ecuador NoIdea!!

Costing almost as much as the wedding itself, but we figured if we don't go now, we probably never will! I think we're looking forward to that more than the wedding! So. damn.Excited!

We're doing 2 nights at a cloud forest in Ecuador, then an 8 day cruise on the Beagle around the west and north islands and then 2 days at the Angermeyer Waterfront hotel. Then a LONG 3 x flights journey home...

We go at the very end of august so most of the time away is in September. We struggled to know where to go as away from Europe that time of year isn't the best weather wise for a lot of places but Bali looks to be pretty rain free at that time so fingers crossed!

I went to Zanzibar for a month (longest holiday i'be ever had!). It was stunning with white sandy beaches as well as the Historic Stone Town. They have luxuary hotels but also charming apartments in the north of the island which was my fave place to stay. I also liked the name of the island!!!