9 Readers Share Their Honeymoon Snapshots
Today we’re in a schmoopy mood, so we want to ask: if you’re married, did you go on a honeymoon? Here, nine readers share their photos, and every trip looked like a blast…
“We took a seven-day cruise around the Greek islands and Croatia. It was such a fun trip and gave us time to slow down and decompress after a whirlwind of a wedding, plus the discouragement I faced from some family members leading up to that day. Now, years later, we’re hoping to do that same trip again, this time with our two children.” — Aveena, St. Paul, Minnesota
“My husband and I are huge cinephiles, so we went to the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. The mountain town is absolutely gorgeous, and we saw tons of actors and directors we love. Most notable: Colin Farrell eating a huge bucket of popcorn, and Andrew Scott walking right by me during lunch (can confirm, he’s even better looking in person).” — Laura, Los Angeles
“We stayed a few days in Rosarito, Mexico, a town my husband grew up visiting with his family. It’s a 20-minute drive from a seaside town called Puerto Nuevo, known for its amazing lobsters, served with soft tortillas and creamy refried beans. It was the best.” — Jannelle (my own honeymoon:), San Francisco Bay Area
“For our honeymoon, we actually moved cross-country from New York to Los Angeles, along with our dog and all of our earthly possessions. We stopped in Philadelphia, Charlotte, Austin, Marfa, and White Sands National Park, before landing in California. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see a big swath of the country, fueled by Subway’s ‘veggie delight’ sandwiches and gas station ice creams.” — Kelsy, Long Beach, California
“We explored rural England (the Cotswolds) on foot. We stayed at the totally amazing Barnsley House (if you find a reason to splurge, stay here!) where we ate well, slept well, and spent our days walking through farms, pastures and woods, befriending locals and sheep. We ate pub food (and drank ‘real ale’) and had porridge with whiskey for breakfast (brilliant). It was a beautiful time, and I can’t wait to go back.” — Tim, Chicago
“When we got married, our daughter wasn’t yet one, so we brought her with us to Kauai. We hung by the beach, sipped mai tais, and soaked in the Hawaiian vistas and farmland. It was so quiet and magical, even with a baby in tow.” — Angela, San Francisco
“We went to Kenya — five days at a safari camp and then Giraffe Manor (which I first read about on Cup of Jo!). The best part was not having to decide anything. We just showed up, ate delicious food, and went on adventures.” — Sarah, New York City
“We camped in national parks and forests in the Western U.S. Turns out nothing spells romance like spending days without a shower in a tiny tent with the love of your life. At some point, our tent started leaking pretty badly — the only thing we could do was laugh and learn to sleep in a nice layer of water. But it’s one of my favorite memories from the trip. It gave me confidence that we can face anything, as long as we’re together.” — Heidi, Los Angeles
“My partner and I wanted to go somewhere we had visited several times before so we’d feel zero FOMO and could actually relax. We ended up visiting New Orleans! We walked through the Sazerac House, had dinner at Mosquito Supper Club, and took in the view at Bacchanal Wine. For us, it was the perfect mix of old haunts, new discoveries, and good music. Highly recommend.” — Cyndi, Chicago
Where did you go on your honeymoon? What was your favorite part of your trip? We want to know everythingggg.
P.S. Seven City Hall weddings, and a genius packing tip for your honeymoon.
Tags: reader comments, reader outfits
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96 commentsWe live in NYC and wanted to have our honeymoon be to a place with a long flight where we wouldn’t easily be able to go otherwise, so we chose Thailand. One week in Chiang Mai (Na Nirand was the perfect resort) and one week in Koh Samui. Booked right before White Lotus but went right after it aired! Every minute was amazing, such a wonderful country. Though the flights were expensive once we were there everything was inexpensive but amazing quality – best restaurants and massages!
What a great list of travel spots and adventures! I am taking lots of notes… Thank you!
Perfectly timed, I’m just catching up on Cup of Jo, because I was just on my honeymoon for the last 2 weeks!! :) we went to Greece and loved every second. It was a delayed honeymoon, our wedding was earlier this year. Highly recommend doing a honeymoon a bit later than the wedding. We were exhausted from wedding planning and delaying it gave us time to get excited about planning something again. We went to Athens, Naxos and Crete. I already want to go back!
These were all so fun to read over! My boyfriend and I are almost a year and a half into a long-distance relationship. I’m guessing that we’ll get engaged soon….we’ve talked about it… but in the meantime, does anyone have advice on making a ldr less depressing and more fun?? We’re working around my busy schedule (teaching) and everything feels sad and a little blah right now because we just don’t get to see each other that often :(
No idea if you already do this, but I lived with a friend who was long distance with her partner (East Coast and Hawaii). They would face team each other at the same time to watch The Walking Dead haha or, just Face Time as they went about their day, doing things around the house. Sometimes they weren’t even talking, just washing dishes or other tasks, maybe reading a book, but it seemed to work for them.
We went to Banff 😍 wanted to go somewhere cooler & beautiful, plus somewhere that could be a special return for big milestone anniversaries. We hiked by day, Ted Lasso-ed by night. It was absolutely glorious. Since then, several of our friends & family have gone to visit. Absolutely worth it & a pretty easy easy plane ride to get there from the U.S.
“I wanted to go somewhere we had visited several times before so we’d feel zero FOMO and could actually relax.” Honestly, a genius idea.
We flew to Sardinia to rock climb staying in a small town called Cala Gonone on the sea, and threw in Paris at the end. It was perfect, except that our luggage got lost on the way. Luckily for us, the climbing gear made it. I washed my clothes in the sink and bought cheap shorts and a swimsuit to live in from the grocery store in town. I still have the tablecloth we bought as our beach blanket and it makes me smile every time I see it.
We went to French Polynesia for three weeks! Flying from the UK, we had to completely replan it two weeks before we were originally due to leave because of COVID regulations. But it was incredible. We stayed on a luxury private island lodge in Tikehau (just us, the owners, their four dogs and cat) for the first few days – a tiny little island in a tiny atoll in a collection of atolls in a far flung place, where we had the most incredible food and wine. Daily adventures included swimming with manta rays and sharks, amazing coral, looking for coconut crabs. We moved to Rangiroa for the next few days for more manta rays and dolphins and wine tasting on the world’s only coral vineyard, then onto Moorea for jungle hikes, horseriding through pineapple plantations, swimming with humpback whales! We’re not big resort people so avoided the big set ups, choosing smaller stays and even a Vrbo with a wraparound veranda and view over the misty mountains and the bays (and we didn’t go to Bora Bora) and at times it felt like it was just the two of us in the world. It’s been literally five years this week and we are desperate to go back but wrangling a wriggly 21 month old on a 24 hour+ flight journey is staving us off for the time being! (If anyone is tempted by French Polynesia, I wholeheartedly recommend it and you don’t have to spend a bazillion bucks in Bora Bora to have an amazing time – although you can if you want to!)
We went to Lake Como and stayed in the most perfect Airbnb-villa in Bellagio. Some of the best 9ish days of my life !
We went to Asheville! Visited the Biltmore and had an amazing dinner, went horseback riding, saw some music, and went to a TON of breweries. It was really fun at the time, but we would do it so differently now, mostly because my husband no longer drinks alcohol. This spring we will be doing a fancy music festival in Florida with a hotel right on the beach for our 15 year anniversary. Not quite an all-inclusive event, but pretty close to it!
Currently reading this at the airport flying back from our three-week honeymoon in Japan! We explored and indulged in so much this beautiful country has to offer and can’t wait to come back in the future. HOT TIP for all future honeymooners: every chance you get to make note that you are on your honeymoon, mention it! Most of our hotels and the restaurant reservations we made were so sweet about adding little touches and gifts to celebrate our trip. Now I’m just counting down the seconds until we are reunited with our rambunctious dog River. No better sign than a perfect trip than when you are ready and excited to jump back into regular life!
We drove the Dalmatian Coast for two weeks ~ it’ll be ten years (and four babies!) this November! I wrapped a different piece of lingerie in tissue paper for every night of the trip…highly recommend :)
We had planned to go to Iceland but a few months before our wedding my husband injured his knee and had to have surgery! The wedding carried on, but we figured Iceland was not the right place to travel to if you can’t hike. So we postponed for a year. Fast forward a year and the volcano erupted!!! We figured the universe did not want us to go to Iceland, so we changed plans and went to Palm Springs and Joshua Tree. Great place for chic poolside vibes, modern architecture touring, and insanely beautiful desert hikes and stargazing.
We did 3 weeks in Greece, Turkey, and Israel. I got food poisoning in Greece and basically couldn’t eat for a week afterwards but we still had so much fun. We rented a four wheeler on Mykonos and on Santorini and explored different beaches. It was such a fun and carefree time! We ended in Israel to catch Rosh Hashanah in Jerusalem – also such a unique experience. We spent one night in Tel Aviv when there were horrible dust storms and our air conditioner was broken but our lovely airbnb host fixed it right away. We spent Rosh Hashanah in Jerusalem and went to a synagogue where the prayer services started at 7 am and did not end until 1:30 pm with no food served and I did not bring any snacks so was totally unprepared for that … nothing like traveling the world to bond you for life.
We spent ten days in Cuba. It was not very honeymoon-y, but it was an epic trip. We saw the original Buena Vista Social Club play! We were also there when Hurricane Sandy ripped through. Side note: As we visited Ernest Hemingway’s old haunts, we thought about how much we loved the name “Santiago.” Now, our twelve-year-old Santiago is currently reading The Old Man and the Sea.
Ah our anniversary is on Saturday so a perfect time to reminisce!! My Husband’s family is in Peru and my family is scattered around the South in the US. I never wanted to plan a big wedding and I always wanted to elope so this gave us the perfect reason to do just that and not have to pick between Peru and the United States and run the risk of having some family members feel left out! We eloped in Madrid, Spain! It was a magical day with just us and a photographer perusing around the city taking beautiful photos and then ending in the royal gardens where we said our vows. The best thing about eloping in a beautiful country is that you have endless (cheaper) places to hop over to for the honeymoon. We chose Mallorca, took a quick little flight to the island, and spent our days eating, relaxing, beaching, and cruising around the island. It was the best memory, if I give anyone advice it is to ELOPE. It was so much cheaper, stress free, and zero opinions from others ;)
I wanted to elope, but my husband thought we would regret it, so we had a wedding. We will be ten years married this November and I still wish we had eloped :)
We eloped in Sedona and then went to the Grand Canyon and Vegas so our honeymoon was sort of also our wedding. My husband deployed a few months after our wedding so upon his return we did a proper trip to Hawaii which was absolutely amazing. We can’t wait to go back next year!
My husband and I got married in October 2022, and we’d booked a trip to Sanibel Island, FL for our honeymoon. Heartbreakingly for anyone with ties to the areas affected, Hurricane Ian tore through so much of the country a week before our wedding day. We decided to drive up to Mackinaw Island… we live in Michigan and had both been there before, so I absolutely agree with Cyndi about visiting a beloved location. We got to skip most of the touristy things and instead, enjoyed being on the island at the end of the season with STUNNING fall colors and nonexistent crowds. We traded bathing suits and beaches for hiking boots and the lingering scent of horse manure & fudge… as loved it so much anyway <3
Italy!! We were on such a tight budget, and did almost everything ourselves for our wedding, but we LOVE to travel, so the honeymoon was non-negotiable for me. It felt so important to get away immediately after all the stress of the wedding planning, and I’m so glad we did it. We did 10 days in Rome, Florence, and Cinque Terre, and it was magical. We ate insane amounts of pasta and gelato, walked 11 miles a day, and I brought new lingerie for every night of the trip — bow wow wow. We vowed to go back every five years, but now it’s been 10 and we’ve yet to return! Dreaming about a trip, maybe with — but maybe without — our toddler.
I highly recommend Italy with a toddler—gelato/pasta/pizza culture is definitely my toddler’s preferred lifestyle and she lived it UP there—but I ALSO suggest Italy with some backup friends or family members who can watch your toddler while you have some date nights!
After the intensity and excitement of our wedding, we tucked ourselves away for a week in the most beautiful cabin on the beach cliffs in Cornwall. It was the absolutely perfect place to settle into each other, giggle about the wedding shenanigans and read all the beautiful cards and well-wishes fro our guests. The way I could describe it was like being in a cocoon to crystallize into our married partnership. I still think of those days and dream of going back. https://boutique-retreats.co.uk/luxury-cottages-cornwall/whitsand-bay/cabin-on-the-cliff-289.html
We went to Cornwall too! My husb. planned the honeymoon and the destination was a surprise (which was a treat, not having to plan anything myself). We were watching “Doc Martin” every week back then and he took me to Port Isaac (“Port Wenn” in the show) and we stayed in the loveliest inn there. Twelve years later I still drool thinking about their fish dishes and incredible Liege waffles. The inn was the schoolhouse in “Doc.” I hope we can go back some day!
A close friend and mentor gifted us the use of some of his many accumulated airline miles for our honeymoon (such an amazing gift!). My husband and I chose Rio de Janeiro so we could go somewhere warm after our January wedding. Unfortunately, we didn’t take proximity to the equator into account and my husband didn’t apply much sunscreen before our first beach visit. He ended up getting HORRIBLY sunburned on every surface except the area covered by his swim trunks. It was painful for him to put on clothes – and not in a fun, sexy, honeymoon-y kind of way. We did some sightseeing, enjoyed some wonderful meals, but also spent more time than I’d like to admit in bed with room service watching dubbed episodes of ER with English subtitles. It was honestly exactly what we needed after the stress of the previous few months. We learned something that has been true for the 22 years we’ve been married: our favorite way to relax is to just be together, doing simple things. No need to be fancy – we can just be us! Thankfully, we’ve had many opportunities to have adventures together in all kinds of cool places too. And we have been diligent about sunscreen ever since!!
Omg the equatorial EV is no joke! I made the same mistake in Rio when it was cloudy. Even the sunburn looks worse than “normal” somehow
We lived in South Africa when we got married, and got married there, so we went to Cape Town for our honeymoon. For a South African, that’s a pretty low-key honeymoon but that’s why we loved it. We didn’t feel pressure to sight see since we both had been there so many times. It’s was the perfect balance of doing a couple activities and just lounging on the beach and by the pool.
My husband and I went to Madrid, Spain for our honeymoon! We ate so much amazing food (tapas! churros!), visited the town I studied abroad in back in college (and there just happened to be a festival in the town square on the day we visited), saw beautiful architecture, and just relaxed. We were there for a week and it was so magical!
Went to a small indoor waterpark right after the wedding to just be goofy and then to San Francisco the next year. I’d been there before but it was amazing to see through Hubs’ eyes and teach him the BART.
My husband and I took an epic trip to Australia. We saw cities and spent time in nature. We saved for forever and then splurged on everything…no regrets! It was the perfect adventurous, collaborate start to our adventurous, collaborative life.
We didn’t think we’d need a honeymoon, but the day after we got home from our wedding, my husband tilted a platter of grilled eggplant and we both just stared absently at it as it hit the floor, too tired to know how to pivot. An hour later, I looked up the cheapest flights I could find that left the next day. We ended up flying to San Diego, walking across the border to rent a car, and exploring Baja for a week. I knew it would either be the best decision or the worst decision, and thankfully it was the best.
We are taking ours next month (only 20 years delayed) to Japan! If anyone has any local design, architecture, biking, only in Japan or food recs for these places, I am all ears: 1. Tokyo 2. Utsunomiya 3. Kii peninsula (Tanabe, Hongu, Shingu, Nachi and Katsuura) 4. Kyoto 5. Matsuyama, Imabari, Yuge/Kagashima 6. Shikoku 7. Kyushu–Fukuoka, Nagasaki, Hiroshima
Anon, as someone who got married this spring and does not currently have the leftover cash for the honeymoon my partner and I would like to take, the thought of a twenty year-late honeymoon is buoying me :) good things to look forward to! Especially a trip to Japan, that would be my dream destination. No personal recommendations, but an acquaintance runs a house wear/design shop in NZ and has a couple of Japan guides on her website, I trust her eye for design, architecture, etc: https://klay.co.nz/no/blog/hannahs-kyoto-tips https://klay.co.nz/no/blog/hannahs-tokyo-tips Have a wonderful time!
We got married in September 2020, so we had a teeny tiny 9 person backyard wedding and had to wait for the world to reopen for our honeymoon — then in 2022 we sort of guilted/asked our parents very nicely to help us pay for an all inclusive Phish festival at a resort in Mexico. Then we tacked on a few extra days in Mexico City and it was perfectly “us.”
After 10 months of dating, I traveled to Hawaii for a week with my boyfriend’s family this summer. We all stayed on a beautiful estate and he and I drove around seeing the sights and relaxing on a couple of sandy beaches, and having sneaky shower sex every afternoon. It felt like my honeymoon and I cried when we had to leave! Fingers crossed for a real honeymoon in the next year or so! I bet it would be a nice mix of beautiful nature, a little beach time for me, and sightseeing together.
No money and no time for honeymoon after our DIY wedding in Brooklyn. But my dream destination was Tahiti. We may go one day, maybe with our 2 kids, or maybe without them!
We went to Paris and Normandy for almost 2 weeks. I was about 22 weeks preggo and after losing almost 10 pounds in my first trimester with morning sickness, I was finally eating again and it was magical. Walk a few blocks – pop into a gorgeous bakery, a few more a grab baguette, then cheese…. I think you are getting the idea. My new hubby did a great job finding recommendations on where to find a great version of specific dishes – steak frites, coq au vin etc. so we based our dinners around checking off the dishes we wanted to it.
Pisgah inn for a week of a lot of resting, board games and reading on our room’s deck, and watching the rainstorms roll in at the highest peak of the blue ridge parkway. it was so peaceful and relaxing. I have been going to Pisgah inn since I was a tiny child bribed on hikes with m&ms (it was the 80s) but we never stayed for a full week and it was just the best. I cannot wait to take our toddler back one day!
This sounds amazing! My fiance and I looked into the Pigsah Inn, but ultimately ended up booking what looks to be a super romantic secluded airbnb cabin on top of a mountainous road in the blowing rock/boone area for our honeymoon next March! So sweet that Pigsah Inn will become a multi generational destination for your family!
Shelby, that sounds perfect! Blowing Rock and Boone, such goodness. If you can, roll down the parkway and have lunch at Pisgah, I think reservations are still required, but it is worth it if you can swing it, great food and views! (and if you want a little off the beaten path cutie of a tiny place, Little Switzerland, great cafe, bookstore, and the Mineral Museum!)
We went to an all-inclusive (shoutout to Excellence resorts!) in Playa Mujeres. We had been together for 11 years when we got married and had never been on a trip together! We are not big “activity” people so we wanted something super relaxed and easy. I packed 6 books!!! It ended up being a good choice also because we both caught miserable colds the day we flew out. It was still the best, loveliest week we could have asked for. Now we have a toddler and another baby on the way and we’re like, let’s go back and bring the whole messy group!!!
We had big plans to go to PEI or maybe Montreal but then planning a honeymoon while also planning our very DIY wedding became too much. My aunt offered us her timeshare in the Berkshires just a couple hours from where we live, and it ended up being the perfect thing to just be alone and relax after such a hectic time. We hiked, went to great restaurants, museums, and bookstores, and mostly just relaxed.
We spent 3 days in Nice and 3 days in Paris. My brand-new husband and I got into a massive fight in Nice over sunscreen, of all things — he didn’t want to pay the exorbitant prices in town for a new bottle, and I didn’t want to interrupt our evening walk to go back to our hotel and retrieve the one we already owned. So very romantic! /s The other most memorable moment was having to spend a fortune in data fees because our wedding preview photos arrived while we were on a day tour of Monaco, and our internet phone plan didn’t cover the principality. But of course I couldn’t wait until we were back on hotel wi-fi to see them. No regrets! We saw the first pictures of our big day right outside the Monte Carlo casino.
My father in law did the most amazing thing, which was handing us an envelope with a few hundred dollars to relax and enjoy our honeymoon. We were young, in our early 20s, with no real savings to speak of, and it made the biggest difference in enjoying ourselves and feeling taken care of. We treated ourselves to a few special things and experiences that I still smile about 20+ years later. Including a thank you gift for my in-laws!
wow I love this! Reminds me when I took a high school band trip back in the day and my mom surprised me with $100 in traveller’s checks (yup. that old.) I totally forgot about that, but now going to keep this idea stored for my kids.
My dad did this for us too. When we moved cross country almost 4 years ago I found his card while going through some boxes. I hung it up in our house here. He wrote ” add this to your honeymoon and have a ball ” He was an older dad, 47 when I was born, so 75 when I got married at 27. He signed the card with his 3 initials which he often did. Now when my friends back East text me telling me about their plans, I say ” Have a ball ! ” As an ode to my dad. Our honeymoon was 2 days in Rehoboth Beach DE. We had to be at work Monday. Our 40th anniversary was this past June.
PNW Grateful, I got unexpectedly emotional reading your comment! I love the sentiment of having a ball (fun, relaxed!), and how sweet that note from your dad was. My partner and I are hoping to start a family, but he is about ten years older than me and I sometimes wonder what being an older dad will be like for him, if we are lucky enough to have children. So – this made me smile. Thank you!
We got married the summer between college graduation and starting grad school, so money was tight. We spent a week camping in Northern Minnesota and Canada. My favorite part was our walk in campsite and the lovely hiking at Tettegouche State Park.
We did our “mini-moon” in a remote cabin in the Pyrénées mountains on the border of France and Spain straight after our wedding in the south west of France, then we saved the real honeymoon for a few months later as a campervan trip in New Zealand’s South Island, which was spectacular. I’m so glad we waited for a few months after the wedding to do the big adventure, we didn’t want to jump on a plane straight after our wedding, it was so nice to drive somewhere nearby to chill out and reminisce for a few days, then have something to look forward to months later when we were sad the wedding was over!
We were really young when we got married and didn’t have much money, so we drove from our home in Los Angeles to Napa Valley. We picnicked a lot and visited a few wineries. It’s such a beautiful area, and we loved exploring together. We went back for our 25th anniversary and visited a few of the same wineries!
I remember being so moved by Aveena and Alissa’s wedding story on CoJ! So happy to see them again and wishing them so much joy.
agree, agree!
Me too! Lovely to see them again xx
We spent the month of August 2000 in Crete. My partner was an actor at the National Theatre of Greece and he had to do a tour in Crete playing in different ancient theatres during our engagement. We didnt want to be married, so we remained engaged (we did a little celebration by ourselves in an old byzantine church in the village where El Greco was born and then dinner and dance to a seataverna with all the other members of the theatre). We lived together till his death 16 years after. The honeymoon was wonderful, three times a week playing in ancient theatres and the other days we explored Crete with an old motorbike like young lovers 199. We were then 53 and 46 years old but immensely in love for ever and ever.
This is so beautiful. Thank you for sharing, Maria!
Long (LONG!) before I was ever even close to being married, I had a dream of going to the Club Med in Bora Bora, Tahiti (we’re talking decades before). Once I finally met the guy, and the date was in place, there was no question where we would go! Thanks to our friends and family, (and an extremely generous boss of mine, who I’ve dressed for decades) that is exactly where we went, for a week, and then another week on Moorea! It was unbelievably beautiful. The water is crazyily psychedelic of all the colors possible that water can be. The club med itself was very simple, and completely wonderful, very French, amazing food, the setting divine, and the Club med people, are, of course, delightful. My guy is a 9to5 suit and tie financial guy (a 180 from me), and can find it hard to relax. But that time in paradise together, given that we were already mid lifers, got engaged and married within a year, gave us a beautiful start together. That Club Med has since closed, which is really a heartbreak, it was a favorite of thousands, for DECADES! We met people there who had been every year, over and over. Very sad to lose that spot. It was18 years ago, as of last Monday. The road has not been easy. But we can still connect over the time we were in a lagoon, together, with our loved ones blessings and well wishes. My dream came true!
Honeymoons are so dreamy! We got married on March 14, 2020 (yep – right before the world shut down!), so our honeymoon plans were dashed. Instead, we made a baby, and a year later on March 14, 2021, I was two weeks postpartum, eating my husband’s homemade dinner by candlelight in our dining room. (We did eventually do a real honeymoon to California where we started in LA, drove up the 1, and stayed in Carmel, which felt like a foggy magic trick of a place.)
Road trip around Slovenia!! The people were so friendly and excited to welcome us tourists. My fave: the Logar Valley, a beautiful lush valley surrounded by mountains – one of the most peaceful places I’ve ever been. His fave: the Skocjan Caves, very Lord of the Rings!
Our actual wedding weekend was a staycation. It was a gift to ourselves to have zero plans or pressure and just chill. I remember visiting our neighborhood cafe the morning after our wedding and the owner toasting to us in front of everyone there. But! after saving for 2 years, we took a 2-year anniversary trip to a place we never would’ve found if not for you, Joanna! You had shared your trip to Sugar Beach in St. Lucia and it just seemed so dreamy. And wow it was!! Our flight arrived late and I remember driving down a winding road into Sugar Beach in the dark with trees overhead with twinkling lights and huge mangos hanging down from them, and the sounds of the ocean rolling in and out. The tiny crabs on the beach in the morning and cats walking around the patio of the restaurant at night. The air that smelled like tropical flowers. Rainbows everyday. Swimming in a sun shower. Being nestled beside the mountain. I cried when we left, I just wanted to stay forever!
From PA to Maine for a week of cabin and hiking, we loved it
Zanzibar. We’d heard Lynne Rossetto Kasper talking about spice tours there on The Splendid Table, did a minimum amount of research, and decided it sounded romantic. It was, though the 48 hours and 6 flights it took to get there, being slathered in deet and sunscreen, and feeling a little weird from malaria meds were slightly less so. One night, the hotel arranged a private dinner on the beach for us. They wove an arch out of palm fronds over the table. It was very dark, and we had to use our phone flashlights to see that giant millipedes were what had plopped onto the white tablecloth from the palm arch. They also set up a mattress on the beach with rose petals. We assume we were supposed to consummate our marriage there, but we’d seen so many little crabs scuttling by that we just messed up the bedding a little so the staff wouldn’t be disappointed.
We got married last New Year’s Eve (NYE was also the night of our first date and the night he proposed with a note tucked into a holiday cracker he kept from our first date). We were supposed to go to an all inclusive resort in Antigua, excited to get away from winter weather. We landed in Miami and found out that all flights to the Caribbean had been cancelled. I shed a few tears in the airport, a group of women next to me told me to get a marg ASAP when I told them it was supposed to be our honeymoon. We spent hours (and hours and hours) trying to get our bags returned to us while we figured out how to pivot (our wedding venue had also been destroyed in a tornado so we had already been accustomed to pivoting!). We ended up going to Asheville and had the most lovely time. We found a cozy Airbnb on a hiking trial, made nachos and drank margs, listened to Japanese jazz fusion on repeat, played many games of gin and completed so many crosswords. Our bag made it to Antigua and we have the tag on our fridge. We will go to the original resort for our anniversary but wow my heart is so full thinking of us wearing the same clothes for two days straight, drinking margs in an airport, pivoting again, and being so deliriously happy that we were married.
Omg! And that last line!! 💘
We visited Turks & Caicos for our honeymoon in 2024 and stayed at Rock House. We found an amazing black friday deal (highly recommend) and were able to swing it. It’s truly the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. We swam in turquoise water off remote sandbars, ate so much jerk chicken (Chinsons!), and rented a car to drive to some more remote beaches throughout the week. It was a dream and I can’t wait to go back someday.
We went to Turks & Caicos for our honeymoon in 2007. It was a dream! We stayed at the cutest little boutique hotel Point Grace. The sand and water is the prettiest I’ve ever seen. We might need a repeat visit in 2027 for our 20th!
Giraffe Manor! I’m obsessed. Did you like the Safari Camp you went to?
Yes, we loved it so much. We stay at Sasaab and Sala’s Camp. Super comfortable “tents” and everything is completely taken care of and the staff are amazing.
Two days after our Florida wedding (my home state) we were on a flight to his (soon to be ours) home in Amsterdam. My wedding dress was in one of the suitcases. We spent the night at our apartment and headed in the car to Switzerland for a week, staying a few nights in Germany on the way. At the hotel in Germany we were suffering from jetlag, it was hot so the windows were open, and the fountain outside our window sounded like a man peeing. All night long. We laughed about it and stayed up talking. We didn’t have tons of money so once we arrived in Switzerland we shopped at Swiss grocery stores and stayed in the little chateau of friends. that used to be a chicken house. It was sweet and nice to be together, but after fourteen years of marriage its the stories we’ve built together and the real, nitty gritty version of him I’ve fallen in love with.
19 years ago my husband and I rented a car and drove from Philly to California. We drove through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, stayed over in St. Louis Mo. We took our time driving through Kansas since I wanted to stop and take so many portraits of us and stop at all the unusual roadside attractions. We carried on through Colorado (Colorado Springs), across to Utah (Bryce Canyon), down to Arizona where we took a helicopter ride over Grand Canyon and woke up super early to photograph the sunrise. We switched our rental sedan for a convertible once we got to Vegas and made our way to California. Our last stop was San Francisco where we spent the most time and then flew back home from there. It took a lot of convincing to get my husband to take off of work for 2.5 weeks. Friends and my father in law made us mix CDs for our long drives and we used AAA maps and a tom tom gps. Neither of us had a smart phone so I would call my friend and ask if she could look up a hotel in a certain area for us whenever we decided to stop earlier or drive further than planned.
We eloped to Joshua Tree National Park in California, hitting up the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, NM, and an adorable highway diner in Kansas. We talk frequently about how glad we are to have gotten married on our own terms, and can’t wait to redo the trip with our new baby one day.
Reading along and gathering ideas :)
After returning from our big fat Indian wedding, my husband and I parted at JFK, me to my lower east side studio and him to his grad school in Indiana. We had our honeymoon two years later after he graduated and went to the Half Moon Bay resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica. It was amazing! They made other all-inclusives look like cheap motels. Also we found out it was Jackie Kennedy’s favorite place to stay and the only will she ever wrote was on the hotel’s stationery; they had displayed pictures of her and the will all over!
Joe planned our honeymoon and knew that I, an international-relations junkie who’d worn out two briefcases in Model UN, had always wanted to go to Belfast – so, uh, that’s where we went! It was both fascinating and stressful, as both of us apparently looked more like locals than like tourists, and at one point when I was napping at the hotel Joe went out to watch a parade that turned out to be a loyalist march (this was August of 2006) and was confronted by guys who thought he was IRA. My favorite absurd memory is of the afternoon we took a break from history and politics and saw SNAKES ON A PLANE at a local movie theater, which felt in retrospect like peak 2006.
We eloped in NYC and honeymooned in Canada. The timing was such that we missed every single event by mere days. Salmon run? a few dead fish on the banks. The bear sanctuary? closed for maintenence between seasons. Lake Louise? most the chateau was closed. It became our running joke. You can have love but you can’t have everything, kids! So for that trip, our best spot? Niagara Falls. It was my husband’s choice and I had reluctantly let him choose it (marriage is a partnership or something) but I was not looking forward to it. But I loved it, the falls were enormous, the maid in the mist boats as seen on The Nanny were wonderful, silly fun – the photos of me in a giant pink garbage bag poncho are some of the happiest there are of me, my smile deeply etched around to the sides of my skull. The wax museum was hilariously bad and don’t get me started on Ripley’s. That trip cemented for me what I already knew about my love, there is no one else on earth I have such a good time having a bad time with than him. Saw little of Canada’s finest attractions, 10/10 honeymoon.
For our honeymoon my husband and I went to Florence, Italy. Neither of us had been and we both love food and art so it felt perfect. One of my favorite memories was heading back to the apartment we rented every afternoon for some time in bed (!) followed by espressos from the apartment’s machine and cannolis we’d picked up (so dreamy!) Also just holding his hand as we looked at beautiful renaissance art together—we had started trying to have a baby just before our wedding and I remember getting teary-eyed looking at annunciation paintings and hoping that I would be able to have a child—turns out I was, shortly after we returned I got the positive test. Nap trapped under my baby as I type this. *all the feels*
Love these stories, and Heidi’s reminded me of our adventurous start! We got married in June 2024, and during the wedding ceremony, a friend read the beautiful poem “Mouthful of Forevers” by Clementine von Radics. It ends with the lines, “I will love you when you are a still day. I will love you when you are a hurricane.” Flash forward one week, about six days into our honeymoon on the beautiful south Caribbean island of Canouan, and that’s exactly where we found ourselves: directly in the path of Hurricane Beryl, a Category 5 monster and the first hurricane ever to hit the island directly. We spent the day of the hurricane watching waves crash against our second-floor balcony (!!) as overwater villas blew away in the wind and boats washed ashore, and we could hear the sounds of glass breaking and roof tiles being ripped away. Amidst the fear, there was also something so quietly sexy about watching my new husband draw on his Army officer roots and click into action, first taking care of us and then helping everyone around him. It was like watching everything I loved about him, and everything we had promised each other in our vows, come to life right away. We spent the next week waiting for a rescue flight, and helping the hotel’s wonderful crew clean up the beaches, listening to their stories of hiding in cupboards while their homes blew away around them. Yet there they were, offering us food and water and asking if we were okay. We left them everything we could from our suitcases, and are still in touch with many of them today. It was a profound brush with the best of humanity that we will never forget, and quite the wild start to our marriage!
Okay, this comment wins! What an epic honeymoon!
Wow! Thanks for sharing a great story.
Ok, this is incredible.
This is incredible. What a story that you will hold with you for life.
Sanibel, Florida! Went on a dolphin sighting cruise, drank a ton of rose, and saw lots of dolphins no one else saw…:)
I got married in May of 2020 so it was not the large, elaborate wedding I had been planning and travel was not really an option. We live in Portland, OR so we booked a last minute stay in the Willamette Valley wine country. We stayed in an Airbnb directly above the tasting room of a small family-owned vineyard and strolled through the vines drinking our coffee in the mornings. My husband had gone to a speciality grocery store and brought the best little snacks and incredible breakfast items and I felt so spoiled. It wasn’t the weeklong Hawaiian getaway we’d planned but it felt special, intimate and memorable in the best way.
We delayed our honeymoon a few months and went to Haiti. This was 18 years ago. My husband (a white Canadian) speaks Haitian Kreyol and he spent a week translating for a group of physicians and physiotherapists before I flew and met him there. I suppose you could say we went to an all-inclusive hotel (it probably had fewer than 15 units) and we were the only guests there during part of the time. It was beautiful, unique, had incredible food and service, and we relaxed on the beach and went on some little adventures like horseback riding and sailing. I got to visit again (a different part of the island) 8 years later and it was just as incredible! I hope it will one day be safe enough for us to visit again <3
Love this! Also hope it gets safe enough for people to go back and visit again.
We also went to Greece. We had planned a big three week trip with adventures all over, but we landed and realized after the first day that after all the wedding hubbub we actually just wanted to chill. So we literally walked into a travel agency we saw on the street and asked for suggestions. We ended up spending a week in Santorini and the other two weeks in Crete, mostly just hanging out at a park/beach in Chania but also doing day trips including to a pink sand beach on the south coast. A highlight was renting a four-wheeler on Santorini. I thought it was ridiculous, but my husband talked me into it. We had so much time tooling around!
I was a true pandemic bride so we didn’t have an after-wedding honeymoon. And then we had a baby a year later, so the honeymoon was postponed indefinitely. Now, six years in and with a second baby, a honeymoon still feels like a daydream. I can barely imagine a week alone with just my spouse, haha. I haven’t given up on it though, so maybe it will be a ten-year anniversary honeymoon!
Lauren – we couldn’t afford a honeymoon when we got married (celebrated 22 years last week!) but we saved and at our 10 year anniversary (after 2 kids), we were able to go to Kailua, Hawaii for 10 years. It was still amazing, and our first trip alone after having kids and in some ways maybe, at least for us, better because we really knew each other and it was a good time to celebrate our marriage and the work we had put in!!! Any trip to celebrate your marriage at any time is a bonus in my mind!!!
Our honeymoon fell through the cracks in the context of my husband’s medical training (2 fellowships!?) and then 2 children. We just took our “honeymoon” a month before our ten year anniversary, this year. Honestly, in the course of life with kids- this timing felt the best. Our children were at the perfect age to enjoy “cousin camp” for a week. And traveling with my partner now reaffirmed several things about our relationship after a tumultuous decade.
Um, does Jo have some news??? Quite the theme today!
Had the SAME thought! :)
I eloped and we got married and honeymooned all at the same time in Alaska, mixing camping and hotels. It was great! The only issue was that the sun didn’t go down until maybe midnight and we saw a lot of moose and surprisingly fast bears which made sleeping in a tent a wee bit stressful.
My husband and I just had our honeymoon this past summer in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. It was 90% great but halfway through the trip the night before our four hour drive to Charlottetown, I fainted and knocked out my front tooth! Fortunately, Halifax has a great oral surgery clinic and they were able to pop it back in with a splint. No concussion, no broken nose, and still able to eat oysters. (Did have to get three root canals but the tooth seems to be sticking so far).
Sedona! I was in residency with limited time off and a somewhat limited budget. It rained nearly the entire time we were there – we joke it was karma because we had perfect weather for our outdoor wedding with no real backup. We went on rain soaked hikes and planned a spontaneous trip to Grand Canyon and did a 7 mile hike that day. We had to stop in Flagstaff on the way to buy my husband pants (it was colder than expected) and all they had were tear away track pants. He tore them away halfway into our hike and I laughed so hard it hurt. He still makes me laugh that hard 11 years in :)
My husband and I went to Oaxaca. Every single meal was 10/10, from the street food to high end restaurants. We went to rural mezcalerias, saw the entire process, and drank mezcal with the families that made it. We found out about this local passport all the local woodcut and print studios made to encourage folks to visit them all. So we went on a quest to fill up the passport and saw some incredible art in the process. We ended up buying prints for all our thank you gifts. We stayed in boutique hotels and even did a traditional temescal (underground sweat ceremony). I wouldn’t change a single moment – even the 7.1 earthquake that woke us up 3 nights into our 7 day vacation!
we also did Oaxaca! started with a week at the beach and then a week in the city. it was so great, also loved that it wasn’t too far from NYC so no jet lag.
we got married in april 2020 and planned to head to london just after (where my husband is from) for a party and then two weeks in italy. that trip got cancelled, obviously, but we still got married, and we did get to london and italy the next summer — with our 6-month-old baby in tow!