My fiance and I are getting married in Sept. As a wedding gift, her Aunt is giving us a timeshare vacation for our honeymoon. We have to arrange transportation, but our accomodations are taken care of.
The problem is there are so many choices. Having not traveled outside of the US much, we are really having trouble deciding. So, I turn to the wordly Dopers for advice. Here’s the choices that we’ve narrowed down:
Aruba
Jamaica (ooh I wanna take ya)
Barbados
Saint Thomas U.S.V.I.
Taihiti
Waikiki, HI
Costa Rica
San Juan
Please share any experiences (good or bad) if you’ve been to any of these places. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I went to Costa Rica for my honeymoon 8 years ago. I wanted something just a little more exotic than usual and we got it. The whole country is basically one living nature preserve so, if you love that, Costa Rica is the place to go. The locales are friendly and genetically seem to love Americans. That is good because there are lot of Americans around and speaking English is rarely a problem if there are enough people around. Things can be every cheap and you can usually pay in $USD if you want to. The country is small and you can go from the Caribbean side in a nice bus to the Pacific in a few hours. Taxi fares are usually extremely cheap and you can use them for long-distance travel as well (One 4 hour ride in the middle of the night cost my wife and I about $60 for example).
The coolest place I have yet to see in Costa Rica is a resort at the base of the very active Arenal Volcano. Hot water flows down from the mountain and you can just swim and swim in hot streams with waterfalls and everything. The volcano was belching with earthquakes about every half hour. I enjoyed all as I got a massage in a jungle hut.
I also know St. Thomas because my family has a house on the bigger island of St. Croix. St. Thomas is very busy and touristy and some people like that while others don’t. St. Croix is a place where you can have some things to see and do and yet have access to as many pristine white beaches as you want, any time you want. The third USVI, St. John is almost completely pristine and most of it is a nature preserve. If you want absolute tranquility, go there although the few hotels and restaurants that serve it can be pricey.
I offer no opinion on the destinations themselves- I merely point out that a wedding tends to be a pretty exhausting affair all by itself. If you have to follow it with a LONG trip to get to your honeymoon destination, it can be a real drag.
So, while I know Hawaii is a wonderful place, and I’m prepared to believe Tahiti is too, ask yourself if you really want to travel all the way around the world right after the wedding. It MAY be more hassle than it’s worth. You MAY want to save those destinations for another time, when you have the time and energy to enjoy them at your leisure.
Do you like to sightsee or to lie in the sun? Do you prefer looking at museums or getting into physical activity (yeah, I know nudge nudge wink wink - didn’t mean that )
How long will you be away? I’d suggest picking a closer destination if you won’t be there long.
You also might want to pop into Tripadvisor.com and check the forums for each place.
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