Walter Lang and I are going to be getting hitched and we’re planning on a honeymoon. We’re having a bit of trouble deciding - currently in the running:
Belize
London
New Orleans
Cruise to the Bahamas
Hawaii
San Francisco
We’ll be going for about 10 days I think. Neither of us has been to Belize, Hawaii, San Francisco or on a Cruise. Does anyone have any input or other ideas?
Thanks!
I had a great time in Belize, but you need to be careful about the season. My cousin and his wife went in June and it was really hot with lots of mosquitos. We went in January and it was amazing.
San Francisco is a great city, one of my favorite in the world (yes, I lived there for 24 years or so, so I’m a little biased 
) that said, I don’t really see it as being a honey moon spot. The weather’s often a bit cold (60-70 degress) especially with the wind coming in off the bay.
Also I’d stay away from teh cruise cause you guys will probably be wanting to do your own thing as opposed to having to stick to a schedule constantly. At least, that’s what always turned me off from cruises.
Hawaii is an obvious choice, and I hear great things about belize (admittedly from my friend who is Belizian and my otehr friend who went to belize for 6 months and then came back married to said first friend 
)
You ever think about Guam? They speak english, it’s in the asian pacific so it’ll be warm/hot, and I hear a lot of good things from my students. Thailand is also great
I stayed HEREfor my honeymoon!
It’s in the Azores (Açores) , a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean well off the coast of Portugal.
Santa Rosa is located on the main island in the Açores called São Miguel, near the city of Ponta Delgada and the airport.
Of those, I’d pick Hawaii, because I’ve never been there, then San Francisco, then London. But then I’m a landscape, bridge, and architecture kind of person.
I got back from Belize a few weeks ago. It was a great relaxing romantic getaway. We stayed on Ambergris the whole time and flew back for activities. Is there anything in particular you are very interested in? I would not describe it as a foodie location and there’s no Four Seasons (I don’t say that snarkily, my boyfriend was heartbroken at the lack of Four Seasons). It’s a lot like Costa Rica in that it’s an adventure/eco-tourism type location but with a more Caribbean feel (esp. on Ambergris).
Here are my photographs:
I want to be Queen of Belize. Beautiful country, wonderful mountains, cool Mayan temples, great diving, beautiful beaches, great food and cheap rum.
We went to New Orleans on our honeymoon, we only had 4 days, but it was absolutely fantastic. Unless you’ve been, you have no clue how extraordinarily good virtually all the food is every where. There is plenty of touristy things like ghost tours (was fun), cemetery tours (loved it), garden district tours (sigh). Not to mention, the local “flavor” and well, lots and lots of liquor. There is/was a casino there. I’m not sure how much Katrina changed things, but damn, they could use the business.
For tropical, Hawaii wins hands down, IF you can afford it. Places like Thailand are simply too hot. Hawaii has A Perfect Climate. When I lived there, I was told the temperature had never reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit since they started keeping records. Whether that’s true or not, it’s certainly not brutally oppressive.
And you could do a brief stop in San Francisco on the way there or back.
I would definitely include a trip to the Winchester house if in the SF area. I haven’t been, but it’s on my list.
We went to Aruba and loved it – tropical island with no annoying insects to speak of and a beach with water as warm as a bath. (Actually, away from the beaches Aruba resembles a chunk of Utah desert dropped into the Caribbean, red sandstone, cactus, goats, and all. It doesn’t feel Caribbean at all.)
Of course, friends of mine honeymooned in Toronto. In January. They were students on a budget – but they didn’t have a problem with Mosquitos.
I had a friend who always vacations in Belize. She said it’s the best bang for your buck, in addition to being an all-around great trip.
When we were planning our 25th anniversary, we thought of a Hawaiian cruise.
Our travel agent told us a Hawaiian cruise was a bad idea and just go to Hawaii and stay on one or two islands, traveling only by plane.
Her comment:
“All of the cruise ships in Hawaii have fully American staff. No offense, but we Americans are the worst staff you can have on a cruise ship - inattentive and horrible service; only friendly on the last day for tips.”
I was surprised, but mentioned this to a few friends who had taken many cruises and most had never thought of that before, but agreed it was mostly true in their experience. They said that ships with international crews were far more friendly and attentive.
Get the right hotel, one connected to the subway and the Underground City, and you can stay inside all week and still visit things!
Sorry if this is (a) stating the blinkin’ obvious (b) something you’ve thought of before and/or © not applicable in any way, but whatever you do plan, I’d advise you to think carefully about what you want out of the honeymoon. (Well, yeah, apart from all that stuff…) If you’re following your wedding pretty quickly, you might well be a bit wiped out by all the wedding type stuff, either physically or emotionally or both. We normally go for sightseeing, fairly active type holidays but we both found that for the honeymoon we deliberately toned it down a bit and took things at a slower pace than normal, and we were very grateful for it. We just concentrated on the relaxing and the spending time with each other bits. I guess that jibes with the comment about being very scheduled on a cruise. YMMVdramatically of course.
Of course, we went to Iceland, which was glorious but doesn’t sound anything like any of your options, so I got nothing there…
(Why did everything in my first paragraph sound full of innuendo?)
This is great feedback! I think currently New Orleans and Belize are the front runners. I have no idea how we’re going to decide.
Walter Lang liked the Belize pictues linked above. I’m leaning a bit towards New Orleans because I loved it last time it was there - he thought it might be cool to go somwhere neither of us has been so Belize wins on that front. However, New Orleans could really use the business.
The debate continues…
We took our first cruise on our honeymoon. Carnaval. It was cheap.
Wouldn’t recommend it. All the stops were at extreme tourist towns where everything was in English and the currency used was dollars and all the restaurants were Sysco-ish and all the goods were tourist crap; I never felt like I left America.
The food on the cruise itself was terrible and it seemed that any fun activity on the cruise cost extra $$.