Non-touristy Honeymoon spots in Asia.

November 25, 2014 2:45 PM

Our honeymoon is going to be next August, we want to go someplace in Asia, but we'd like to go a bit off the beaten track -- here's our criteria:

1. We're experienced budget-conscious travelers, so we absolutely do not want to stay in an all inclusive or do any sorted of hand-held, heavily scripted vacation like that.
2. While we met on the backpacker trail, I think for our honeymoon that we'd prefer not to go to backpacker/party hot-spots like Phuket, unless its very easy to avoid the crowds of obnoxious backpackers.
3. We don't mind 'rainy-season' locations as long as it's the sort of rainy-season where you get a storm for an hour in the afternoon and its mostly sunny the rest of the time.
4. We're more 'culture and food' travelers, but we'd also like some time on the beach at some point.
5. We'd like to get up close with some elephants, ideally at some place where they treat them humanely.
6. I think we'd just like to rent a house via airbnb for two weeks somewhere and visit attractions near there, rather than switch from hotel to hotel around the country -- we'd rather not spend alot of time on buses and trains, if possible

Neither one of us has ever been to Asia, so we're open to going pretty much anywhere from India to Korea -- we're also fairly immune to culture shock, so even places that are way off the beaten track are fine, as long as its possible to get around with english and a phrase book.

posted by empath to Travel & Transportation (10 answers total)

We had lunch yesterday with a couple who honeymooned last year in Sri Lanka. Apparently Trincomalee on the eastern, quieter area of Sri Lanka offers what you're looking for, I think.
posted by angiep at 3:12 PM on November 25, 2014

I've traveled a bit in East and Southeast Asia, and my favorite place so far has been Cambodia. It's less touristy than Thailand, has a ton of historical sites (modern and pre-modern) and has both elephants and beaches. (Though the beach I visited, Otres Beach in Sihanoukville, was merely nice, not gorgeous.) You would have to move around a bit to see everything (the ancient temples are in northerly Siem Reap, Phnom Penh is further south, and the beaches are on the coast), but the country is small enough that the amount of travel wouldn't be onerous.

I've heard again and again that Phuket was a lot different 10 years ago, but one place that still has natural island beauty is Palawan, in the Philippines. (Weird coincidence, but HuffPo just called it the most beautiful island in the world yesterday) I haven't been there, so IDK if they have elephants, but it's definitely off-the-beaten-path and I've heard it's a great place for beaches and nature (for now).
posted by charlemangy at 3:46 PM on November 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

I think the island of Borneo (shared by Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia) will have you covered. It has Borneo pygmy elephants, great beaches and diving (the islands of Mabul and Sipadan are right off its coast--don't be scared off by the kidnappings earlier this year. I was there a few weeks ago and the place was crawling with military and marine police.), jungles in the interior, orangutan sanctuary, Mount Kinabalu to climb, and not that many backpackers. It's also the site of the Sandakan death marches that happened during World War 2, though not sure if you want that during your honeymooon (I think only something like 6 people survived).
posted by astapasta24 at 6:35 PM on November 25, 2014

Cambodia has a lot to offer in terms of culture and food and architecture/ancient sites. It can be quite a confronting place to visit though. The aftermath of the Khmer Rouge violence and poverty is very visible. I wouldn't want to go there on a honeymoon I don't think? Having said that, Angkor Wat is truly amazing.

Northern Thailand does elephants, as does Angkor Wat. I don't know about the ethics of either place. Laos is fun and interesting and northern Laos has some great animal refuge places.

I think your parameters could be met at dozens of places in Asia, to be honest. I think you're just going to get random recommendations based on ppl's experiences because there are so many places that are like that in Asia. I would recommend doing a bit more research of your own on something like the lonely planet site and then narrowing it down and asking for more specific reccomendations. With the caveat that I'm not sure about finding an ethical elephant place. A lot of ppl would argue that getting up close with elephants is going to be inhumane by definition....
posted by jojobobo at 6:36 PM on November 25, 2014

The elephants sanctuary part will be tough - you need to research that it's a serious place and not a tourist-driven exploitation. A serious place will have very limited guided access unless you can volunteer a longer time. The wildlife park-zoo in Phnom Penh (outside the city) has a good bear conservation group that takes volunteers. Borneo has at least one decent orang utan reserve, but you need to research ahead.

The airbnb in Cambodia is not that great and the hotels are cheap for the quality so I would stay in a nice hotel. Northern Cambodia is wild and beautiful and will vanish rapidly due to development. Laos is amazing and I've never heard someone regret a holiday there.
posted by viggorlijah at 7:32 PM on November 25, 2014

Response by poster: At this point, I'm happy to have random recommendations based on personal experience. I know that Asia ia a big place, that's why I'm trying to narrow down the choices in a somewhat arbitrary way.
posted by empath at 7:59 PM on November 25, 2014

It's been years and years since I've been there, but you might want to add Penang in Malaysia to your list of possibilities.
posted by Leontine at 8:20 PM on November 25, 2014

Not beach-proximate, but I would recommend visiting Northern Thailand, specifically Chiang Dao district. It's gorgeous, surrounded by mountains, home to many hill tribes, and has few tourists. I stayed in a bungalow at Chiang Dao Nest for a few days and went on one pretty easy overnight hike. The hotel has good food to boot. It's close to Chiang Mai, so you could go there as well. There weren't too many tourists when I last went (about 6? years ago), but things may have changed. Rachamankah hotel there is very nice and had a great restaurant.
posted by waninggibbon at 8:26 PM on November 25, 2014

I'll second astapasta24's recommendation of Borneo, and recommend a couple of other places in Indonesia (which I have a notorious tendency to do IRL as well) with the caveat my information is probably quite out of date (I left Indonesia in 2007). I can't help at all with the elephants, I'm afraid!

In general, it can be hard to really get off the beaten track without making pretty major investments in travel time to get there; and food, accommodation, and English speakers can be in rather short supply when you do. If access to local culture is particularly important to you, you'll find it more easily in the places that are better set up for tourists. In most places, some sort of local knowledge (which might mean some kind of organised excursion) is essential. That said, I don't think it's any worse in this respect than elsewhere in SE Asia.

Ubud is arguably the cultural capital of Bali and used to have excellent food. It's also a fairly major tourist destination, and it has probably seen a substantial increase in visitors since the publication of Eat, Pray, Love (the last third of the book takes place there), but in my experience the scene is much more yoga-matter than backpacker. TripAdvisor lists a lot of holiday rental properties there so of the places on this list, it's probably the easiest if you want to go the airbnb route (although I have no idea what airbnb penetration in Indonesia is like). You'd be a couple of hours' drive from any of the island's beaches. In general, Bali offers an excellent balance between amenities and local culture; it gets a bit of a bum rap from independent travellers because of the the Kuta-Seminyak stretch that starts at the airport and gets most of the tourists, but that misrepresents (strongly, I think) the rest of the island.

On Java, while Yogyakarta is a university city with a strong tradition of music, dance, and wayang kulit puppetry, it's also Java's most popular tourist destination. Solo (officially called Surakarta) is Yogya's less-visited, more interesting cousin; it's not far from Yogya so you could base yourself there and see the same stuff. Both cities are close to Borobudur, the world's largest Buddhist temple, and the drive from Yogya takes you past Merapi, one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes.

The Tana Toraja, in central Sulawesi, has to be seen to be believed. Torajan culture is centred around its funerals, which are huge, week-long affairs (Wiki). You'd need a guide to escort you around, which might feel like hand-holding, but there are some cultural norms to observe (such as offerings for a funeral, if you visit one) and having a guide helps. An extremely long trek from the sea, though!

Starting to distance yourself from the best-trodden parts of the tourist trail, you would want to look at Lombok and points east. (Sumatra is full of fascinating places to go but is a real nightmare to get around). You might want to avoid Sengiggi and the Gili Islands; the Gilis are probably the closest that Indonesia gets to full-on backpackerdom and Sengiggi is not much better. The south-west of the island (Gili Nanggu and thereabouts) is absolutely beautiful but not exactly a cultural hotspot.

This is already an extremely long answer (sorry) so I'll stop here, but please feel free to memail me for details!
posted by Zeinab Badawi's Twenty Hotels at 8:25 AM on November 26, 2014

I think Indonesia is a good recommendation, but something to bear in mind is that going from island-to-island might not suit your requirement to stay put in an Airbnb for two weeks and travel around minimally. So the trick may be finding one spot in the country that can keep you interested for the entire time. While Bali is very touristy, there is no shortage to see or do. It's also possible to stay somewhere off the beaten track and do your own thing. In my opinion, getting a rental property somewhere outside the village of Ubud would be ideal. Traveling around the island on motorbike is a breeze there. As mentioned above, Sulawesi (and Tana Toraja) are very nice, but expect a lot more travel. Also, keep in mind that the roads are generally a lot worse outside of Java/Bali. Java is great too. Far less touristy than Bali but larger to navigate. I agree with the above that Yogya or Solo would be good choices.

Outside of Indonesia, you may wish to consider Vietnam (maybe Hanoi or nearby in the north) or Kerala, in south India.
posted by ageispolis at 7:39 PM on November 26, 2014 [1 favorite]