Beaches + Ruins + McDonalds = Honeymoon!

March 4, 2011 2:22 PM

My fiance and I are looking for recommendations for our honeymoon. We will be departing from New York City. We don't necessarily need to go on a "traditional" honeymoon -- i.e. one of those beachy Caribbean things, but we're not opposed to it either. (Yes, we've perused the past similar questions and answers on Ask MeFi) Our criteria are the following:

Places we've been and liked:

· Paris
· Rome
· Cancun

Places we've been and didn't like:

· Jamaica
· London

We enjoy:

· beaches
· nice accommodations
· large beds
· major foreign walkable cities that we can "figure out"
· anonymity
· ruins
· foreign McDonalds

· We'd like to depart sometime the week of Monday, July 18th.
· We'd like to lay out for airfare, transfers, hotels, etc., something in the area of $3000.
· We'd like to go some where (or to multiple somewheres) for approximately 6-7 nights.

What he's arbitrarily opposed to:

· Africa

What we don't enjoy:

· seafood
· driving abroad
· overly attentive service - it gives us the creeps
· the crappy feeling of having a good time while being "poverty adjacent"
· roughing it

(Asked on behalf of a friend, who'll be watching the thread.)

posted by Jonathan Harford to Travel & Transportation (18 answers total)

I really liked Zurich.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:27 PM on March 4, 2011

What about Spain? Barcelona is a great city. There are also gorgeous coasts nearby, easily reached by public transportation.
posted by egeanin at 2:28 PM on March 4, 2011

michu picchu!
posted by kristymcj at 2:29 PM on March 4, 2011

Lisbon! Lisbon is a lovely walkable city, good public transit (elevators! funiculars! and excellent subway) with easy direct flights from Newark. A day trip from Lisbon to Sintra to see some recent (and freaky) castles and a ruined Moorish one. An easy train trip down to the Algarve for the beach.

I did not look for a McDonalds in Lisbon but I imagine there are one or two there.
posted by ambrosia at 2:35 PM on March 4, 2011

The Otter Bar!
posted by outsider at 2:36 PM on March 4, 2011

Go to Athens and then a Greek island.
posted by BibiRose at 2:36 PM on March 4, 2011

What was it in particular you didn't like about Jamaica and London?
posted by cooker girl at 2:41 PM on March 4, 2011

Portugal - Lisbon, specifically? It is a major foreign city, walkable, beautiful, and warm. The south coast is reachable by 2hr train and has gorgeous beaches, adorable little towns, delicious food, and friendly people! You are not "poverty adjacent" and you aren't roughing it. They do eat a lot of seafood though that can be avoided if necessary. Also the Portuguese aren't so big on consumer culture so service in stores/hotels/etc is certainly not overly attentive.
posted by hepta at 2:43 PM on March 4, 2011

shoulda-hit-preview: I see I am seconding ambrosia. We make many similar points! Feel free to MeMail me if you want more specific Algarve destinations, I just went there for 10 days.
posted by hepta at 2:44 PM on March 4, 2011

Prague?
posted by rmd1023 at 3:11 PM on March 4, 2011

Consider Prague. We went there for our honeymoon and had a great time. The central tourist area of the city is well-kept, interesting and very walkable. You can figure it out very easily given a map and some basic tour-book info. They don't have any ruins in the city, but some buildings are very old. No beaches though.
posted by demiurge at 3:27 PM on March 4, 2011

I was also going to suggest Prague. It's highly walkable (and public transit-able), and I found the people and the service to be fine - not too nice, but certainly nice enough. It's got lots of amazing history, though not ruins. I didn't stay in a nice hotel, but I'm sure they have them!
posted by just_ducky at 4:22 PM on March 4, 2011

I also liked Prague. You can use public transportation and still feel like you're getting everywhere. I have been to the McDonalds there and they are indeed forgign. I've been meaning to go back and stay in one of the Boat Hotels. I don't know if they're fancy enough for what you're looking for, but I've always been intrigued.
posted by jessamyn at 6:40 PM on March 4, 2011

Maui, foreign without leaving the US. If you stay at a legal B & B, it can be affordable.
posted by fifilaru at 11:08 PM on March 4, 2011

I second Barcelona! Meets pretty much all your criteria and I think is definitely honeymoon-worthy romantic. Also, it's got a little bit of everything - beaches, clubbing, culture, etc. - it's really whatever kind of vacation you want it to be.
posted by naoko at 12:32 AM on March 5, 2011

The Netherlands. It has beaches, every large city is walkable and has nice hotels, 99% of the country is accessible by public transportation, McDonald's serves McKrokets and ChickenSaté burgers, and Dutch service is generally not what one would call attentive.
posted by neushoorn at 12:46 AM on March 5, 2011

Nthing Barcelona. The beaches are nothing to write home about, but the city has beautiful churches, museums, and you can spend days walking around. And the restaurants I visited were content to let me, a single woman, sit at her table uninterrupted.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 7:36 AM on March 5, 2011

My friends are definitely leaning Prague, thanks largely to the comments here!
posted by Jonathan Harford at 10:34 AM on March 5, 2011