June honeymoon help?
November 24, 2016 8:20 PM Subscribe
We need to decide on our June honeymoon location, but can't seem to make a decision. Help!
We are planning a June 2017 honeymoon. We can't decide on a location and would love some guidance. Here are our requirements:
- We only have approximately one week, so no more than a 9ish hour flight from Denver.
- Our budget is $3,000, not including flights.
- We want somewhere we can relax for at least a few days: a beach, a country bed and breakfast, just somewhere we can laze around with a bottle of wine and do nothing.
- It is also important to us that interesting historic sites are nearby. (One of us really wants to see some castles, but it's not a requirement.)
- Outdoors activities would be great - anything from snorkeling or hiking or horseback riding.
- In our dream world, we would spend the morning at the beach then go visit a castle then have a romantic dinner or bring wine and cheese back to our room or get in a hot tub or something like that.
- We want to avoid the generic all inclusive Sandals resorts of the world...although if there was a beach we could order drinks at, that would be awesome.
- Warm is good, but excessive heat and humidity is bad.
Basically, one of us (me) wants a beachy honeymoon and the other wants culture and we're not sure how to combine the two. I'm sure there are wonderful islands in the Caribbean or elsewhere that would fit the bill but we are worried about the heat and hurricane season, so I'm a little lost. (And I am willing to compromise on the beach, if need be.)
We've looked at Scotland - I studied abroad there and would love to do a deeper dive - and Hawaii, but neither of us are super excited about the option (expensive and still American? I guess?) - but nothing yet has struck a chord with both of us.
Help!
We are planning a June 2017 honeymoon. We can't decide on a location and would love some guidance. Here are our requirements:
- We only have approximately one week, so no more than a 9ish hour flight from Denver.
- Our budget is $3,000, not including flights.
- We want somewhere we can relax for at least a few days: a beach, a country bed and breakfast, just somewhere we can laze around with a bottle of wine and do nothing.
- It is also important to us that interesting historic sites are nearby. (One of us really wants to see some castles, but it's not a requirement.)
- Outdoors activities would be great - anything from snorkeling or hiking or horseback riding.
- In our dream world, we would spend the morning at the beach then go visit a castle then have a romantic dinner or bring wine and cheese back to our room or get in a hot tub or something like that.
- We want to avoid the generic all inclusive Sandals resorts of the world...although if there was a beach we could order drinks at, that would be awesome.
- Warm is good, but excessive heat and humidity is bad.
Basically, one of us (me) wants a beachy honeymoon and the other wants culture and we're not sure how to combine the two. I'm sure there are wonderful islands in the Caribbean or elsewhere that would fit the bill but we are worried about the heat and hurricane season, so I'm a little lost. (And I am willing to compromise on the beach, if need be.)
We've looked at Scotland - I studied abroad there and would love to do a deeper dive - and Hawaii, but neither of us are super excited about the option (expensive and still American? I guess?) - but nothing yet has struck a chord with both of us.
Help!
Portugal.
posted by humboldt32 at 8:46 PM on November 24, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by humboldt32 at 8:46 PM on November 24, 2016 [3 favorites]
June is a wonderful time to holiday. What about Bordeaux?
To be honest I haven't been there myself - I've been in the countryside nearby. But you have culture, nature, beaches. You can go to Spain if you are really energetic.
My parents went there with friends, and lived in something like a palace that they rented, where they could cook for themselves when they wanted - much cheaper than a hotel. They kept on telling about how they went out on a tour with a fisher to catch oysters.
posted by mumimor at 8:47 PM on November 24, 2016
To be honest I haven't been there myself - I've been in the countryside nearby. But you have culture, nature, beaches. You can go to Spain if you are really energetic.
My parents went there with friends, and lived in something like a palace that they rented, where they could cook for themselves when they wanted - much cheaper than a hotel. They kept on telling about how they went out on a tour with a fisher to catch oysters.
posted by mumimor at 8:47 PM on November 24, 2016
Check out Martha's Vineyard. Very American but you'll save money on the flight and full of nooks and crannies that fit your other criteria.
posted by vrakatar at 9:15 PM on November 24, 2016
posted by vrakatar at 9:15 PM on November 24, 2016
Hmmm, castles plus warm beaches screams "south of France" to me. That's a little more than a 9 hour flight, but it fits everything else perfectly.
One of the Croatian islands like Vis would also fit your needs, but again, it's a longer flight.
If you do go to the Caribbean, Tulum has a good mix of beaches and castle-ish ruins, and shouldn't be too hot in June. Hurricanes don't pick up til August at the earliest, so don't worry about that!
posted by ananci at 9:24 PM on November 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
One of the Croatian islands like Vis would also fit your needs, but again, it's a longer flight.
If you do go to the Caribbean, Tulum has a good mix of beaches and castle-ish ruins, and shouldn't be too hot in June. Hurricanes don't pick up til August at the earliest, so don't worry about that!
posted by ananci at 9:24 PM on November 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
Greek islands, always. Relaxing, beachy, great food, loads of walks, lots of cultural stuff. Our (quite cheap) hotel on Santorini did have a hot tub :)
posted by goodbyewaffles at 9:27 PM on November 24, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by goodbyewaffles at 9:27 PM on November 24, 2016 [3 favorites]
Just a vote to say that you prob won't regret leaning toward beach / BB / wine and chill.
We took a culture vulture Spanish road trip with lots of fun food and other adventures and it was AMAZING but I wish we had just cheesed it up and joined the beach masses pina colada and crap novel in hand. FWIW.
posted by athirstforsalt at 3:32 AM on November 25, 2016
We took a culture vulture Spanish road trip with lots of fun food and other adventures and it was AMAZING but I wish we had just cheesed it up and joined the beach masses pina colada and crap novel in hand. FWIW.
posted by athirstforsalt at 3:32 AM on November 25, 2016
Seconding Tulum. There's tons of awesome historic/cultural sites for day trips, but you can also spend some time lounging on the beach. June seems very early to me re hurricanes; August-October is the real danger zone. It will likely be hot but not miserably so —all the more reason to take a dip in the ocean! There's definitely been some AskMes about Tulum. You could dig into the archives to see if it's appealing.
posted by katie at 6:05 AM on November 25, 2016
posted by katie at 6:05 AM on November 25, 2016
Lake Ontario; from Niagara Falls to Boldt Castle there's pretty much everything on your list.
posted by zinon at 6:47 AM on November 25, 2016
posted by zinon at 6:47 AM on November 25, 2016
Just want to throw in a left field recommendation for Cumberland Island, GA. It's a national park. You fill a giant cooler with booze and steaks and take a ferry over and stay in a private-ish camp site for a few days. Horses running on the beach, giant ruins of a Carnegie mansion to explore, miles of white sand beach [effectively] all to yourself. It was a massive dose of relaxation after our wedding stress.
Much rougher than what you mentioned, will be hot as balls in June.
posted by ftm at 7:43 AM on November 25, 2016
Much rougher than what you mentioned, will be hot as balls in June.
posted by ftm at 7:43 AM on November 25, 2016
Portugal.
This. We went on our honeymoon in Portugal and Seville about a month ago and it was a very nice combination of cultural stuff and chill-out time (though we spent a lot of time just wandering around and eating, which is kind of in-between the two).
With about a week, you could fly to Lisbon, spend a few days in the city, then go somewhere along the coast. I've heard good things about Cascais and Parque Natural de Arrabida, although we had a little more time and were also going to Seville, so we went further down on the Atlantic coast. Cascais is accessible to Lisbon via train, but for Arrabida you may want to rent a car.
(If I was going to pick one place nearish to Lisbon, personally, I'd go to the Alentejo region, but although parts of the Alentejo are coastal I liked the inland areas more. It's still super laid-back, though it's not the beach.)
posted by breakin' the law at 1:22 PM on November 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
This. We went on our honeymoon in Portugal and Seville about a month ago and it was a very nice combination of cultural stuff and chill-out time (though we spent a lot of time just wandering around and eating, which is kind of in-between the two).
With about a week, you could fly to Lisbon, spend a few days in the city, then go somewhere along the coast. I've heard good things about Cascais and Parque Natural de Arrabida, although we had a little more time and were also going to Seville, so we went further down on the Atlantic coast. Cascais is accessible to Lisbon via train, but for Arrabida you may want to rent a car.
(If I was going to pick one place nearish to Lisbon, personally, I'd go to the Alentejo region, but although parts of the Alentejo are coastal I liked the inland areas more. It's still super laid-back, though it's not the beach.)
posted by breakin' the law at 1:22 PM on November 28, 2016 [1 favorite]
« Older What can you tell me about my little ceramic whale... | Ecuador and Pacific coast of Colombia Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
Have fun!
posted by it must be bunnies at 8:25 PM on November 24, 2016