My wife and I were married last November. The costs of getting married coupled with the fact that we had just bought a house in September meant that we didn’t have the moolah to take an official honeymoon. We stayed one night in a hotel and took a week’s vacation from work and just kind of went “underground” (didn’t see any family or friends) and played tourist here in Chicago all week. We had a blast and did all sorts stuff we normally never do.
I have recently been thinking that it would be fun to take a late honeymoon this fall/winter. We are not thrilled with the idea of a tropical vacation (each of us has spent a lot of time in places like that) or cruises. We are both (barely – for me) under 30.
A couple of questions:
Where did you go on your honeymoon/vacation with your SO?
Do you have any suggestions for us – preferably something unusual/different (and not too expensive).
When Mrs. HeyHomie and I got married we were all kinds of broke. We scrimped and saved and stretched here and there, and managed to pull off a nice wedding, with many contributions from family.
Anyway, we spent a day in St. Louis and saw a Cardinals game, and then headed to Chicago for a coupld of days. Saw a Cubs game.
Now that we’re doing better we go to Disneywolrd every year. I highly reccomend it, but if that’s not what you’re into, then I can’t really be of any help.
I didn’t have much vacation time to spare when we got married (I’d just started a new job a few months before), so we went to Washington, DC for a couple days. Later on, we took a trip to London as our official honeymoom and had a really good time.
Likewise, as the bills rolled in for our wedding, so did our honeymoon plans get scaled back. Originally we were thinking the carribean. St. Lucia, Guadaloupe, something like that. We ended up going to Santa Fe, NM and had a great time. We stayed at La Fonda on the plaza, spent some time up near Taos, visited some friends from Colorado. A nice, not too expensive trip.
We went to New Orleans for a week and stayed at a bed and breakfast. Lots of things to see and do there: casinos, walking tours, nightclubs, beaches, etc. We had a great time.
I am also a big fan of Disney World, but I know that isn’t everyone’s cup of (very expensive) tea.
The wife and I waited until my Spring Break to take our honeymoon, and spent the week in the Santa Ynez Valley just north of Santa Barbara, doing the wine thing.
We got married in Jacksonville, spent our wedding night in a motel right across the street from the ocean, about 40 miles south of Jax (and, as we discovered, about 30 miles in any direction from food), and came back to Tallahassee to start being married. We couldn’t afford to go anywhere yet. I suppose you could call the trip to Los Angeles two years later a nice, belated honeymoon. But officially, I guess we didn’t have one.
We were living in the SF Bay Area at the time. We drove down to Carmel and spent a couple nights at a B&B, and spent the day wandering around on the boardwalk, going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium (we saw the Star Trek IV exhibit there; this was the week after the movie came out, and they had neat stuff about the use of the aquarium for filming the whale scenes).
Mrs. D and I took a 4 day cruise from L.A. to Ensenada, Mexico and back, with a stop at Catalina Island. After that we rounded out the week by driving to San Diego where we spent 3 days there seeing the zoo and the sights.
We spent a week in Savannah, GA. It was GREAT. We stayed in a great B&B, and wandered around the city, eating the amazing Southern food and looking at the beautiful homes.
We used frequent flyer miles to get there (flew into Jacksonville, FL, from Seattle), and got a good rate at the B&B because we stayed 7 nights. Once we got there, we didn’t have to spend too much – a hearty breakfast was included in our (beautiful) suite, and there was a fridge, so we bought lunch stuff at the grocery store. We went out for dinner, and went to a couple of museums, and went on a “Haunted Savannah” tour (it was the week before Halloween, so why not?) and just had a good time.
One of the best things about Savannah is that there’s plenty to do if you want to be busy, but you won’t feel like you’re wasting your time there or missing out on stuff if you want a relaxing time. I don’t think we left our room before noon any day we were there, and we saw everything we wanted to see.
If you go, I highly recommend that you read or listen to the book on tape of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Mr. Gazer hadn’t read it before we went (the movie is crap, don’t bother), so we bought it on tape and listened to it as we drove up from Jax, and as we drove around the city. It really made it more interesting and lots of fun.
A week in Hawaii, the Big Island and Oahu. I do recommend getting away from familiar surroundings, so that you have a true “getting away from it all” feeling and that the two of you are truly alone by yourselves. JMO.
We booked a string of bed & breakfasts, rented a car, and did our own little driving tour of Nova Scotia & Prince Edward Island. It was September, so not to crowded, and it was beautiful (and fantastic seafood everywhere you went).
We took the ferry from Maine to Yarmouth, NS; spent some time in Digby, drove up the Bay of Fundy, crossed the bridge to PEI, spent a few days in a resort on the north shore of the Island, came back down through Halifax, Peggy’s cove and then back to Yarmouth and back over to Maine on the ferry. It took about two weeks.
When our tenth anniversary comes, we’d like to go back.
San Francisco. Like it so much we moved there. After a couple of years, we got pregnant and needed to buy a house, so we had to leave. Wish we could go back!
My husband and I were married on July 4, 1980. We told all our friends and family that we were going to take a honeymoon trip to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, but at the last minute we decided not to go, but to hole up in our house and have a private celebration. We went to a fireworks stand and bought some sparklers and firecrackers. We set 'em off on the patio, in violation of a city ordinance against explosive devices. We stayed home and enjoyed each other immensely for a few days, without interruptions from the outside world.
Five years later, we took our honeymoon trip to Eureka Springs. It was wonderful. I wish we could go there again on our 25th anniversary, this coming July, but we won’t be able to afford a trip.
St. John, USVI. We went back on our 5th anniversary. We were going to go this year, our 10th, but our beautiful baby daughter (our 3rd) kind of put those plans on hold. We’re definitely going back.
The snorkeling and beaches are superb, it’s fun driving jeeps on the wrong side of the road, and rum is dirt cheap. Not too much rum and driving, mind you…
Savannah and New Orleans both sound fantastic. I have never been to either place and have always wanted to go. Other places such as Hawaii, San Francisco and San Diego would be hard to do because we have friends and family there respectively and couldn’t politely ignore them.
Has anyone done any type of minor “adventure” type of vacation? I was thinking about horse trekking or Jeep off-roading. If it was not too touristy that is.
My perfect plan would be to go backpacking or camping out west, but she is not thrilled with that idea.
