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Serious honeymoon travel help here?

Future Honeymooners In Search of Honeymoon

  • Honeymoon Filter: Help! We’re getting married this September and need help picking out a honeymoon destination. We had something planned, but the wonderful people at BP have created some complications. We were planning on taking a road trip across the American South (driving from Northwest Arkansas to Rosemary Beach, FL; Savannah, GA; Jekyll Island, GA; Charleston, SC; the Outer Banks). In light of the recent oil spill in Louisiana, we’re afraid that recent projections showing the spill hitting the East coast may come true, in addition to the impact on the Florida gulf beaches. We need more ideas. We are now thinking of the following: a road trip through the American West; a two week visit to the UK (London, Oxford, Cotswolds, Lake District, Scotland); going to the UK for a few days, then hopping over to the continent to visit Austria, Switzerland, etc.; and/or visiting an island in the Caribbean (Turks & Caicos, Virgin Islands). Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Pacific Rim are not on the list for this trip. Here’s the lowdown: We have been generously promised $10,000 for our honeymoon. We don’t have to spend it all at once so ideally we could break up the money into two or three trips, i.e. a nice honeymoon, followed by one or two subsequent trips in the next couple of years. We can travel for up to two weeks. We both like national parks and historic sites. We would like to go somewhere new so that we can share the experience. Together we’ve been to Yosemite and the Grand Canyon. She's been to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. That leaves Glacier/Zion/Arches/Crater Lake/etc. With London, however, it’s been a long time since either of us have been there. We would enjoy going back to together. As far as the island/beach idea: I've been to the Caymans, Mexico, and the Bahamas on family trips. She does not like the water, so while she might like sitting on the beach or collecting shells, she will not be going off to snorkel, scuba, or feed any stingrays. In sum: We will probably never again have $10,000 to spend on travel. We only speak English and a smattering of Japanese. We’re both young and in decent physical shape. We can get around the UK just fine, but we are unsure of how easy it is to get around the continent on one’s own (visas/trains/etc). As far as money goes, we’d like to break up the money into two or three trips, so Europe might be out because of expense eating up most of the budget (price of tickets – air and rail/lodging). Thank you in advance!

  • Answer:

    At the risk of sounding teaching, I would suggest sticking with the original plan. The vacation industries in all those areas will, assuming worse comes to worst, need all the help they can get. One does not go to Savannah or Charleston (beautiful cities both, well worth the visit) for the beaches anyway. As for the Outer Banks, who knows that the Atlantic side might well not get the worst of things?

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I'm a Colorado native too, but I'm going to suggest something completely different. Go to Europe. Specifically, southern Europe. Continental Europe is ridiculously easy to get around in. If you are US citizens, visas are not an issue for two weeks in the EU. And don't let the language hold you back; English is understood throughout Western Europe, and if you have managed to pick up a smattering of Japanese you can easily pick up a half-dozen key phrases in any European language. Don't let a perceived language barrier intimidate you. For a September honeymoon, think about Spain or Italy. The summer tourist crowds are gone, but the weather is still pleasant. There are some incredibly romantic honeymoon-worthy destinations-- http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=PEk&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=Venice&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=! Sevilla/Granada - the http://www.google.com/images?q=Alhambra&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=gt4&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=ibm&source=lnms&tbs=isch:1&ei=I0kYTNfhGIv0NYXzxdAL&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&ved=0CBUQ_AU is spectacular. Tuscany. Cinque Terre. I could go on, but I won't. Rick Steves puts out terrific guidebooks with listings for hotels in a range of prices but all having good value, so you can get the most out of your travel budget.

ambrosia

Colorado! I'm a native. You can chew up two weeks in Colorado easily. Get a "Lonely Planet" book and go nuts! Colorado has more "14ers" (52) than any other state (that's a mountain over 14,000 ft high--I've climbed a handful). The best time to go is in the Winter or the Summer. You're getting married in September (not a show stopper) but if you can wait until ski season opens you can have a skiing honeymoon (if you don't know you can learn). $10,000 will by a lot of ski passes, lessons, fine dining, top rate hotels etc. If you want to wait until Summer you have tons of camping, hiking, and mountain biking possibilities. Colorado is made for outdoor people. Good cities no matter what the season are Denver, Boulder (gorgeous college town), Colorado Springs, Golden (take the Coors tour), and Cripple Creek (if you like gambling).

Lord Fancy Pants

I live in colorado as well, and I would also say come out, but stay away from the front range and go to the western slope! Check out Durango, crested butte, telluride, etc. The front range is one big city from south to north and it, to me, isn't very exciting or different.

TheBones

Colorado addition: September might not be TOO late for summer time fun but regardless you should be prepared for cold weather. I was just there last week (I live in CA) for fishing at Taylor Lake just west of the Continental Divide and we ran into snow driving over the Divide. A day earlier it was 80 deg on the lake and we got a little sun burned. You can seriously have all four seasons in one day.

Lord Fancy Pants

UK + the continent (France, Italy, Spain, Morocco) is what we did on a bit less money than you guys have, and we went for five weeks. In western Europe everyone seems to know English in the cities (even off the tourist path tons of people speak English) so you should be fine. I imagine Austria and Switzerland are full of English speakers as well. We had no problems booking trains and planes and accommodation on the fly using only internet cafes - we're not the types who are good at planning. With $10k I would suggest socking some of it away for next time - if you decide to go overseas, you could probably take 2 2-week trips to Europe if you watch plane tickets closely and aren't concerned about traveling in luxury.

funfetti

Hubby and I did Scotland and then hopped over to Ireland. Probably one of the best trips we've ever taken. England actually has awesome places to go, so it's worth a pit-stop to London at least.

arishaun

My husband and I went to Europe for a month on $10k. Germany, Czech Republic, Austria and Istanbul (cheap flights from Stuttgart!). It was the trip of a lifetime! The first thought that occurred to me about breaking the money up into multiple trips is that something is going to come up that will have you spending the next vacation's savings on something besides the trip. I would advise taking an awesome, all-in-one trip right now.

wwartorff

The Costwolds are spectacularly beautiful. There's this gorgeous local yellow stone that a lot of things are built from, and really, when you see it you'll notice that the bucolic images of England so many people have could very easily come from there. Broadway, which is where I spent a week on vacation as a child, is just gorgeous. Beautiful. Lots of rights-of-way for walkers across fields and such, and plenty of places nearby to rent a horse for the day and go out for a hack.

dirtynumbangelboy

Come to Maui...

Muirwylde

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