Honeymoons today are as varied as the places in the world. Couples are less bound by tradition and more inclined to follow their dream.
“Your honeymoon is a holiday to look back on all your life,” says Lucy Hone in her new book, “The Good Honeymoon Guide” (Trailblazer Publications).
“It is your chance, after all the hectic wedding preparations, to spend some time close together, a time to enjoy one another and experience something together as a married couple. This holiday should be special.”
Accordingly, you two get to decide what is special.
“Perhaps you like the idea of a traditional honeymoon at a beautiful resort with candlelit champagne dinners, breakfast in bed and long romantic walks on the beach,” says Suzanne Rodriguez-Hunter in her book “Checklist for a Perfect Honeymoon” (Doubleday).
“Or maybe you think the perfect honeymoon would be two weeks of backpacking in the Rockies, or a month of island-hopping in Indonesia, or simply spending the weekend in a hotel across town,” says Rodriguez-Hunter. “Each of those is the perfect honeymoon…if it’s what y ou want.”
Decide first of all on your honeymoon budget: How much can you spend, how far can you afford to travel, how long can you stay? Then make a list of dream trips together, and hone the list according to both of your desires and budget constraints. While some traditionalists still believe it’s the man’s job alone to plan a honeymoon, most people today would discourage such a tactic.
Planning a honeymoon together may prove a good time to start to learn to compromise. And follow the one golden rule of honeymoons, according to Hone: Go somewhere neither of you has been to before, “as there’s nothing more tedious than being given a blow-by-blow account of a holiday one of you enjoyed, or didn’t enjoy, with someone else.”
Once you have a wish-list, gather information from tourist bureaus, guidebooks, travel magazines or travel agents. Here are some ideas to get that list started.
Rodriguez-Hunter’s book separates her dream chapters into: Pampered Getaways such as luxury resorts or couples-only resorts; Getaways for Just the Two of You, such as camping, renting a cabin, or chartering a boat; City Getaways; Beach Getaways; Recreational Sports Getaways; Historical Getaways; Getaways for Art, Theater and Music Lovers; Getaways for Food and Wine Lovers; Adventure Getaways.
Hone’s book, considered one of the most comprehensive honeymoon guides on the market today, covers more than 500 hotels in 45 countries, including listings on cruise ships, resorts on the world’s greatest beaches, French villas, Italian hideaways, Scottish and Irish castles, African safaris and ski resorts.
If your budget both in money and time is tight, go somewhere wonderful close to home. Consider staying in your city’s most elegant or historic hotel or most charming bed and breakfast or inn. You might feel as though you’re elsewhere, simply because you’ve never spent the night downtown where you can stroll to great restaurants or dance spots. A certain place might become an easy favorite you can return to whenever you seek a revival in your romance.
Plan activities you never seem to have time for, and become a tourist in your own town.
Imagine strolling the tree-lined boulevards of Paris, hand in hand, exploring exceptional art, cuisine and the essence of romance day and night. Some of the world’s most fabulous hotels are in Paris, as are those legendary Left Bank pensions.
Or consider Istanbul, one of the world’s most intensely intriguing cities, where shopping bazaars are teeming with colors and exotic wares, and where luxury hotels line the Bosporus just as they have since the days of the sultans.
Perhaps New Orleans is your style, the most bohemian of cities that seems to combine elements of Europe with the Caribbean in its architecture as well as its restaurants, where jazz romances you at night.
Los Angeles makes a living at fantasy.
You might stay at the incomparable Hotel Bel-Air, a 1920s landmark where several buildings house exquisite, private rooms and suites with wonderful gardens. And from there you’re only minutes away to Sunset Strip, home to such night-life meccas as the House of Blues, the Viper Room and the Whiskey a Go Go, as well as such recently lauded hotels as the Mondrian and Chateau Marmont.
Paradise is always a good honeymoon destination.
The epitome of paradise might be Bora Bora, one of Tahiti’s most beautiful islands. James Michener once called it the most beautiful island in the world.
At the Bora Bora Lagoon Resort, individual palm-thatched huts sit on stilts over the island’s crystal-clear lagoon, where you can snorkel to your heart’s desire or feed tropical fish from your glass-topped coffee table inside. A special honeymoon touch is breakfast delivered to your room by outrigger.
Also in Tahiti are several secluded motus (tiny islands) where couples can be whisked away for a day with no one else on that island but the two of them.
Such uninhabited islands abound as well in the Bahamas.
Jamaica may be the most popular honeymoon destination in the Caribbean, whether you choose to lie on a beach, hike through fern forests, raft on the Rio Grande or windsurf. Jamaica accommodations range from all-inclusive, couples-only resorts and luxurious villas, to small, intimate inns.
You might opt for the Concordia Eco-Tents on St. John, the least-developed of the U.S. Virgin Islands. These beachfront “Eco-Tents” are located near two national parks.
Maui may be the most fun of the Hawaiian islands, with its lively Lahaina for night life. But you’ll also find in this particular paradise spectacular resorts, condos for rent, beaches, golf, surfing, snorkeling, the old-world Hawaii of Hana, and even the dormant Haleakala volcano.
Then there are Bermuda, Fiji, Puerto Rico, Florida, Baja’s Los Cabos, Antigua, St. Kitts, Thailand’s Ko Samui or Phuket, France’s Cote d’Azur, the Aegean islands of Greece…
It’s your honeymoon.