Honeymoon suggestions - where did you go?

[AreYouThinkingWhatImThinking]

Ok so i just got married on Saturday just gone, and now we're thinking about our honeymoon...thinking we could book it for next year to coincide with our 1st wedding anniversary....

BUT we are stuck for ideas!

We want to make it count, we want it to be memorable, as we don't get to go away very often and our lovely wedding guests were generous enough to give is enough money as a good starting point for a decent holiday.

Amy suggestions for a good place to honeymoon? Where did you go?

(We'd like to avoid areas of political unrest or terrorist threats please!)

Oh my gosh, I forgot - Italy's Cinque Terre is fantastic, as is Venice and, perhaps surprisingly, the Isle of Man!

Pisa, Rome and the Italian coast. Gorgeous!

San francisco, then drove to las vegas/ grand canyon via yosemite, ended with new york. So good..natural and manmade wonders, spectacular.

We went to Hawaii - had always been a dream destination of mine and DH didn't take much persuading. We did a 5 days each on 3 of the islands (Big Island, Kauai and Maui). All of them were so different and there's loads to do from hiking/surfing etc to just bumming around by the pool or beach. Lovely, friendly people and interesting culture/food - doesn't feel like the USA at all (though apparently Oahu island is a lot more US-like. The residents of the other Islands refer to the capital as Hono-zulu!, but if you want more city nightlife etc that's there in spades!)

Kenya - beach & safari

Italy. We had a wonderful travel rep who talked us through all the destinations for this time of year. Her opinion was stick to the med but upgrade on everything.

Costa Rica. We eloped and got married here. Did a rainforest tour, stayed on a working ranch, did horse riding through the forest, zip lining, white water tubing etc followed by a couple of weeks in lovely hotel on the coast. It was amazing.

Mauritius and Dubai. Time of year probably wasn't the best for Mauritius but it was gorgeous, hotel was amazing and DH had always said that it was his honeymoon destination.

What carcerdun said, I was a travel agent for years and always wanted to do Mauritius for my honeymoon. Went there and hated it, bloody rained all the time (went in June) and picked the wrong hotel (too snooty, we were used to the chilled out feel of the Caribbean). Middle East too hot, Maldives a bit unpredictable weather-wise so yep, Italy - Lakes (room with full lake view) or Sorrento (sea view room, land view rooms sometimes back onto a noisy road). Caribbean is nice though, can highly recommend Sandals Grande St Lucian and Halcyon in St Lucia (with a helicopter transfer-amazing) or Sandals Whitehouse, best hotel in Jamaica in my humble opinion if budget allows. Congratulations by the way.

10 days in Barbados. It was fantastic!

We did 5 days in Hong Kong, 12 days in Bali and then 2 days in Singapore.

Loved loved loved HK and Bali would go back in a second. Wasn't so keen on Singapore but it was nice.

Atlantis in the Bahamas for 2 weeks it was amazing.
The thunderstorm that we flew back in caused me to be unable to fly without the aid of diazepan for a while but still....amazing!

Barbados 2 weeks it was fab.

We started in Vegas & then headed to Antigua. It was amazing!

LA, Las Vegas (with a trip to the Grand Canyon) and San Francisco- 5 days in each. Loved all of it

Another vote for Barbados. Absolutely beautiful island and everybody so laid back and friendly.

Las Vegas. Loved it. We're not really beachy types so we went to shows, had fantastic meals, visited Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam, gambled and partied! Have been back twice since!

Duvet Caterpillar the IOM is amazing, would suggest it to anyone doing a UK based honeymoon.

We hired a campervan & did the NW coast of California & Washington State. Spending nights in very rural campsites by lakes. Amazing. We also loved having a campervan not a tent when it rained ;)

25 years ago this coming Christmas we went to Hong Kong (still British ruled at that time) for 4 days, to Phuket for 2 weeks and to Bangkok for 3 nights - it was fantastic.

Is there somewhere both of you have always wanted to visit? I travelled a lot with my job so we decided we wanted to go somewhere neither of us had been. Congratulations on your marriage and enjoy wherever you decide.

Ooh, lots of suggestions!

Both DH and I would love to visit any one (or multiple) of either Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka... but we will be limited by how long we can take our honeymoon for.

We only have MIL, who's a nursery nurse, to babysit DS while we're away and she keeps making the point that she'll only have him for one week during her scheduled school holidays. So we're going to have to try to convince another relative to take a week off work too for, babysitting duties.

We thought about just taking DS with us so we don't have to consider childminding as well, and then we don't have to go in school holidays either (DS is not in full time education yet, he's only 2). But then we'd have to totally reconsider the destination to somewhere child friendly...

We went to Japan - Tokyo and Kyoto - and dos the whole foodie / city break thing. Then we decided to do a week of something as different as possible - Papua New Guinea diving. You might not fancy going so far but I'd def recommend doing a week of city and a week of beach.

If I was you I'd take my DS with me. I lived in Far East as a child and IME a lot of Asia is very child-friendly.

We didn't have a honeymoon, but we were living in Turkey at the time.

If we could have a honeymoon now I think we would choose Venice.

I'd take ds if I were you. The far east is exceptionally child friendly, we've been taking dd since she was 7 months old and she loves it. We went to Malaysia for our honeymoon but can also recommend Bali, Lombok, HK and Singapore. In Bali we had a regular babysitter so we could go out to eat in the evening. It's very easy to find a reputable local sitter who will be happy to take a weeks evening work, meaning you get to enjoy the days as a family and spend romantic evenings as a couple.

I just can't imagine taking a very active 3 yr old on a long haul flight - he would be playing up within half an hour and the cabin crew would be opening the hatch to throw us all out within the hour!

Plus I don't think he'd enjoy the jabs, the foreign cuisine, the heat, the lack of any cbeebies / softplay centres etc.

DH and I would like to go off the beaten track, do something a bit adventurous... such as treks, diving, touring etc. I just don't think we could do that with a 3 yr old who is not in the slightest bit interested by sightseeing. I could only accurately predict lots and LOTS of tantrums. We'd want to get lots of photos and really immerse ourselves...

If we took DS away it would have to involve mainly child-orientated activities in order to prevent boredom and screaming as he's a very demanding child who needs lots of age-appropriate stimulation

And I'm really not comfortable leaving him with babysitters. I've only ever left him with relatives 3 times since he was born. I wouldn'tbe able to relax leaving him with a total stranger in a foreign country... sorry, he's my pfb!