Cool places to go for a honeymoon ?

In My Humble Opinion
21

There are some great suggestions here, and Thomas and I were discussing some of them last night and it suddenly occurred to him that we might not actually be able to leave the country because of his visa status. So he did some checking and here’s what he wrote in my morning e-mail:

Is there anyone here who’s tried this? Are we reading it correctly, that it’s really not wise to try to plan a honeymoon outside of the U.S. because they might not let him back in?

Assuming all that is true, we’ve kindof decided it might be best not to even risk it and have zeroed in on Hawaii. It’s exotic, romantic and far enough away that we’ll still feel like we’re outside the U.S., even though we’re not. So, can anyone expand any further on Hawaii honeymoon suggestions? Should we avoid the big island? Should we avoid the packages and just explore on our own, or would doing a package deal be better? Are there any “Must See” things?

Or I guess we could also go to the Bahamas. Has anyone been to the Club Med at Paradise Island?

Thanks again for all your input!

I really appreciate your consideration in avoiding stepping on my penis - Spiny Norman
[symbol][sub][sup]©[/sup][/sub][/symbol] Jeg elsker dig, Thomas [symbol][sub][sup]©[/sup][/sub][/symbol]

22

Following up on katrina’s recommendation for Fiji. I don’t know how much progress they’ve made resolving the political problems of a couple of years ago (they had a coup; the perpetrators were recently jailed), but if the country is considered safe again, you could be part of the leading curve and go there without fear of crowds. I bet it’d be even cheaper than usual, too, as their economy is largely dependent on tourism and the coup was a huge hit to the industry.

The people are extremely friendly, the countryside is lovely, there’s lots and lots to do (though you may have to drive a bit to get there), and much more. Like my beautiful and amazing wife said, we were there for ten days on a package deal found by her travel agent and spent just over $3200. Tropical paradise doesn’t get much cheaper than that.

And astorian makes an excellent point about not rushing into a huge trip right after a big wedding. If you’re as tired as we were from organizing the ceremony, you’d waste the first day or two of your honeymoon just resting. What we did, instead, was to schedule our honeymoon to start three or four days after the wedding, and we took a brief trip to the San Juan Islands with our respective families so they could get to know one another. It made a huge difference in our ability to launch ourselves into a big trip.

Oh, and if you listen to kilt wearin’ man and come here to Seattle, make sure to ask us locals what’s good. We’ll steer you away from the B.S. tourist attractions and point you to the best stuff. kw’m’s suggestions are an excellent start, but there’s plenty more to do.

23

i was thinking hawaii for vacation this year. i ended up with root canal instead.

i was checking out volcano national park on the big island. there is a town called vocano near by with very nice b&bs. also there is a hotel in the park.

http://www.nps.gov/havo/pphtml/lodging.html the island has black and green beaches. the green beach sounded neat to me. they have coffee plantations as well.

so to recap, historical hotel, live volcano, 3 different coloured beaches, kona coffee, and mauna loa nuts. not too touristy.

hawaii, along with niagara and the poconos are THE honeymoon spots for the us.

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I thanked you in the Pit thread, Cervaise, but allow me to thank you again for all your effort in posting your recommendations. I can assure you that as soon as Thomas’s visa status is such that he can freely come and go from the U.S., based on your and Katrine’s recommendation, Fiji is going to be at the top of our list of future vacation spots.

rocking chair, Thomas really loves the mountains (I do, too, but probably not as much as he does), so I googled “poconos honeymoon” and pretty much every link brought me to the Ceasar’s Poconos. I’m sure it’s beautiful there, but that champagne glass bubble bath and those heart-shaped tubs almost made me wet myself laughing. I think that’s another place that I’d love to see sometime, but stay away from the honeymoon related stuff. I’m definitely interested in the Hawaii thing, though - those beaches sound very cool (though this kindof scared me: “Volcano House is nestled on the crater rim of Kilauea, one of the world’s most active volcanoes.” Eek!)

(P.S. Sorry to hear about your root canal. I hope you’re feeling better!)

So no one’s got any feedback on the Bahamas, huh?

25

Mr. Nightingale and I hid out in a nearby bed and breakfast for two days ( the most relaxing days of our lives!) then drove to Atlanta. Like astorian said, don’t wear yourselves out. You will probably both be exhausted after the wedding, so go someplace quiet and just enjoy each other. Hubby and I watched movies, read books, went to restaurants, did, um, what married people do, and slept. It was the best vacation I’ve ever had.

If you’re interested in a bed and breakfast, here’s a great resource: www.bbonline.com You can check out b&bs by state, then link to thier individual web sites.

Good luck, and congratulations!

26

Belize. Placentia in particular. Gorgeous weather, awsome beaches, mayan ruins nearby and a lot safer than Mexico.

27

Thomas likes mountains, you say? Maui has mountains. Serious mountains.

We’re talking about an island with two ancient volcanoes, after all. The highest point overlooking the Haleakala crater is at over 10,000 feet (3000m) over sea level. And since you can look out and see the sea in question, that altitude change happens in a very short distance.

So Maui gets vertical, oh yes.

Besides the beaches, the mountains, and the dormant volcano, Maui has beautiful waterfalls (along the Hana Highway on the north side of the island), and (I’m told) great hikes along them. (Mrs. F. got sick right before we flew to Maui, and I picked up her bug right after we got there, so we didn’t do half of what we wanted to. We’re going back before too long, I think.)

Best of all, Maui isn’t very big. I think anything you’d want to see on Maui would be no more than 4-5 hours by car from wherever you were staying - and there’s no need to travel even that far unless you really want to.

And there’s great snorkeling and scuba, boat excursions to nearby islands, and a lot more that I don’t have space for here.

Others on these boards have been to Maui in the past couple of years: pldennison went there a little over a year ago, IIRC, and PurpleCrackwhore over on Fathom has been over there twice in the past year and a half, I think, with her SO. Go to Fathom, do a search for “Maui” and PurpleCrackwhore’s username, and you ought to turn up her threads about her trips (and the links to her Maui pix).

I also strongly recommend the guide Maui Revealed, which can be found at the usual online booksellers. Purp recommended it to me, and it was the best $14 we’ve spent recently. (There are guides in the same series for the other islands, but other than to change planes on Oahu and briefly look around there, we spent all our time on Maui.)

Feel free to email me. :slight_smile:

28

I’ve been to Kauai and Big Island. Both have pretty scenery to look at and good snorkeling and swimming.

Kauai has the park with the rainiest spot on earth; there is a constant mist there and at least one rainbow is usually visible. And it has masses of flowers. But that’s about it.

Big Island has Volcano National Park, which I thought was really cool. There was active lava flow when we went there, and I bet it’s still going. If you want to see this, plan on being there around sunset; you may not be able to get close enough to see the lava flowing during daylight, but when it gets dark you can see the orange glow. Also, Big Island has a green sand beach which is a real trek. But the sand is really green - theres a malachite formation just offshore which is being pounded into sand. As for snorkelling, there is a public beach in one of the big towns on the Kona coast which has really spoiled rotten fish. It’s a sea mammal preserve, but the fish are unprotected. People feed the fish all the time (they apparently like green peas) so it’s like underwater squirrels. :slight_smile: I had a couple of huumuus swim up to me; realize I had nothing for them; huff; and swim away. And I saw several sea turtles and many different tropical fish here. And like I said, it’s the Kona coast where they grow the only coffee grown in the U.S.
The mountains are of the rounded, not visually impressive type even if they are over 10,000 ft at the top. There is a day trip to the observatory at the top that is supposed to be neat.

Can you tell I liked Big Island better?

29

Undead Dude and I went to San Francisco for ours… it was wonderful :slight_smile:

30

FWIW, today’s Washington Post travel section featured Hawaii. It’s got pieces on all the different islands.

Fortunately, most of the articles aim at giving the reader a sense of what they’d enjoy about visiting that island, so overall, the articles are a worthwhile read.

The article on Maui was an exception to this, though. It was about renting a dog for a drive down the Hana Highway, which will only be relevant to a minuscule proportion of visitors to the island. :rolleyes:

31

Shayna and Spiny -

As you may know, before I moved to Ireland I worked as a paralegal in an American immigration law firm. Green cards were my specialty.

It used to be the case that the INS would only issue the I-131 in an emergency situation. But that hasn’t been the case for many years. The INS still gives you those warnings because they want you to know that they could prevent you from re-entering the country. But the chances of them actually doing so, if all your papers are in order, are miniscule.

With every green card application I filed - and I filed hundreds of them - I always simultaneously filed an I-131. Not once was it rejected. Not once was a client refused re-entry with the Advance Parole (well OK one was once, but that was over a mere technicality, i.e. a missing signature on the document).

You can (and probably should) verify this with an actual immigration attorney, of course. And I realise you’ve already made alternate plans. But keep it in mind for future reference.

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  • we really appreciate the info.

We’re currently trying to decide between Hawaii and Bahamas (now, why can’t life present you with more choices like that ?), currently the easy choice is the Bahamas, bur Hawaii is sounding better and better.

ruadh, thank you - it’s not every day you hear from people who know what’s what with emigration. We’re not going to risk it, though - mainly because we’re ever-so-slightly fed up with waiting for the INS , I guess. Still, the input is appreciated. I hope you have a great St. Patrick’s!

There’s a lot of stuff added to our agenda, that’s for sure.

Thanks again!

S. Norman

33

DeathLlama and I honeymooned at a Sandals resort in Jamaica, and we loved it. Sandals is all-inclusive, and there’s no exception to that. There’s no tipping (if someone is caught accepting a tip, they’re fired), unlimited alcoholic drinks (although no shots, but we’re not into that anyway), tons of food, and puh-lenty of things to do: snorkeling, wind surfing, scuba diving, glass-bottom boats, volleyball, billiards, several swimming pools…the list goes on.

Plus, they have a bunch of activities for the guests, like karaoke night, talent show night, “The Newlywed Game” (we were 2nd), Gestures, and a mini-Olympics night. You can win all kinds of prizes by gathering points participating in any of these.

Then, of course, it’s Jamaica–gorgeous warm weather (but a bit windy in the afternoons), crystal clear warm water, large coral reef, sandy beaches, etc. And this particular resort is couples-only, so no kids running around (they have their Beaches resorts for families), and plus they have all these romantic basket swings, hammocks, etc around the resort for you to cuddle in while watching the surf.

We loved it!

This was Sandals Royal Carribbean–very important point of note because another one (I forgot off hand what it was called) had “Easy airport access.” Turned out you could SEE the landing strip from the main entrance, and you could practically hit landing aircrat with a rock as they passed. Sandals has a “pay for one, play at all” policy–you can visit other resorts in the area by taking a ubs they provide–so this is how we discovered it.

Congratulations again! Hope this helped!

34

Goodness, you guys are tempting me strongly with this Hawaii idea. Thanks for the link RTFirefly. I read the article(s) and it sure does sound gorgeous!

Hi Ruffian! I think I just fell in love with Jamaica! Unfortunatly, last I checked it wasn’t in the U.S. :frowning: But… you did inspire me to check out the Sandals resort in Nassau, and it looks fantastic. We’ve been leaning a little towards Club Med in Paradise Island because of its all-inclusive nature (and I’ve been to a couple of Club Meds and I LOVED them! Too bad they don’t have any in Hawaii, dadgummit!).

However, after checking the Sandals website and comparing, it seems they’re actually more all-inclusive than Club Med (bar drinks and excursions, for example), not to mention a little more luxurious. That also makes them a little more expensive, though (airfare isn’t included in their rates, either). Decisions, decisions. Hmmmm

Thanks again for all this great input, everyone!

35

I could recommend Tenerife in the Canary Islands, where there are beautiful beaches, but so much more to do. However, that is not in keeping with your above specs.

The ideas of Las Vegas, Big Sur, Disneyland, etc. are very much in keeping, as most likely is Santa Fe (never been there). I just returned from Nassau and was not very impressed. If beaches aren’t your thing I’d be rather hesitant to recommend it. We parked at Club Med to walk to Atlantis, the fancy hotel everyone says you must see. Everything in Nassau is expensive, so the all inclusive is good. If you go to town to shop, eat at Lum’s Iguana, which is very nice w/ the best prices on the island.

My suggestion is The Big Easy. There are so many things to do there and like San Francisco everyone should go there once in their life.

36

Ok, do I have egg all over my face, or what???

Actually, what I am is just extremely stressed from all this wedding planning and not thinking clearly. Either that, or someone hit me over the head with the stupid stick. <sigh>

Apparently I’ve been operating under the false idea that the Bahama Islands were a U.S. protectorate (or whatever you call it). I was wrong – they’re British. Sheesh.

I guess what I was thinking of was the U.S. VIRGIN Islands. Gah!

Ok, so now let’s add St. Thomas, St. Croix & St. John to the list of possibilities. Has anyone been to any of those islands?

Thank you, kniz for your input about the Bahamas, though. We aren’t “lay on the beach and bake” kind of people, but we do like the idea of a tropical, romantic island kind of honeymoon. And the water activities (snorkeling, boating, etc.) do sound fun to us, so that’s why we’re not excluding “beachy” type places from our list.

Thanks again to everyone for their helpful input. (Anyone want to plan this wedding for me so I can just show up in my dress & say “I do”? ;))

[sub]I’m so embarrassed.[/sub]

37

We honeymooned locally, that is when we lived in South Florida and it was very nice to be near home. But Hotel Place St. Michel in Coral Gables was like staying in a quaint European Inn. We spent a day at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens; the evening in Coconut Grove partying and people watching (beautiful freaks are everywhere) and then hopped in the car for a quick trip to the upper Keys for sunning, snorkeling and stone crab claws. It was a fabulous time!

38

In the US Virgin Islands, St. John is small and a lot of it is locked away into parkland :slight_smile: ; St, Thomas is really touristy and I’ve never been to St Croix. I think all of them get inundated by waves of tourists doing ports of call from their cruise ships. This is less true of St John because there’s not as much there.

Mrs Payne and I waited a year to take a honeymoon, both for peace of mind and because we needed to save our shekels for a trip to Australia and New Zealand. 4 days in Sydney, 3 days on an island (Heron) which was part of the Great Barrier Reef, 4 days in Tasmania, and 9 days in New Zealand (mostly on the South Island). We fell in love with Tasmania, and hope to take our daughter back there with us for our tenth anniversary.

39

now that we have you almost sold on hawaii, could i interest you in alaska?

lots of mountains, lots of water, the only baking involves ice cream.

juneau is very nice and has a glacier that you can visit. lots of hiking trails. in town there are shops, museums, and rather good restaurants. juneau is warmer than you would think.

denali park is fantastic. i don’t think there is a bad view here or in the entire state.

i would move to alaska in a new york minute if i could.

40

Well, along the lines of rocking chair’s very un-tropical suggestion:

We honeymooned in McCall, Idaho. Mountains, rivers, hiking, biking, canoeing…we had a blast. We couldn’t have picked a better spot.