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So here's my question: do you want to go to a new country, or a new location?
I know you have Honduras on that list of "outs", but if you are willing to see a different side (Carribean island life, supposed to be culturally pretty different from the mainland), I may be going to your perfect place, check it out: http://www.utilarental.com/
I totally get you, though, we were all over the place on Honeymoons.
What we ended up doing is just surfing for HOURS on vrbo.com and found a private house. There were also a ton of neat places in Panama, and that's where we would probably be going if we hadn't stumbled upon the perfect place for us (see above).
In Mexico, I think your best bet would be a private house rental in Zihuatanejo. It is right next to Ixtapa, a giant resort town, but Zihuat is a real town that still maintains a lot of authenticity. This is where we stay when we go: http://www.casaazul-zihuatanejo.com/. The trip would come in way under $6000 in Zihuat, more like $2500.
Have you thought about staying within the US? That would probably cut down on costs. What about California or Florida?
I was just coming here to suggest Zihuatenejo as well! Perfect for what you are looking for.
In the Caribbean, I really like Anguilla, and have heard that Dominica is nice and not too touristy.
If you are more adventurous, how about Cartagena? It is at the top of FI and my lists.
we would prefer to go to a new country, we like different cultures. we've thought about staying in the U.S., but we are big travelers, so we kind of wanted to go somewhere that was a little more exotic (seriously we've travelled too much in our lives!).
we actually haven't been to honduras, that was our first choice! problem is, we cant get a flight IN or OUT of the country on mondays without it taking 30 hours BOTH WAYS. we can't leave on sunday morning, and don't want to delay the honeymoon, so we need to leave either sunday night or monday morning. i was shocked about the flights to honduras, and really disappointed.
i'll have to look at those suggestions for mexico..panama was on our list of places to check out--did you find a specific town you liked there?
ooh Cartagena? i immediately like it because i've never heard of it =p
Zihuatenejo is a place i'm going to have to check out since two of you have mentioned it. :)
@cakegal--have you been to anguilla? i saw it on a travel show the other day and had never heard of it before. do you have any hotel recs there?
Have you looked at Continental's direct flight into Tegucigalpa from Houston? We are leaving Sacramento at 12:30 am Sunday night (Monday morning) and catching the 6 am (or 6:30 am or something) Monday morning flight from Houston to Teguc. We are then catching a flight with a little rinky dink operation called Aerolineas SOSA (Spanish only website, cross fingers for me!) to Utila, but they fly all over the country, and there are more options if you want to try Roatan.
I can't remember where in particular we liked in Panama, but we looked at the Pacific coast and the Pearl Islands.
What about Brazil or Argentina? Also awesome honeymoon locations. If memory serves, things are super cheap once you get there. You just need to find cheap flights.
Another thought: if you want to go super adventurous (only in the sense that it is illegal though you don't really get in trouble), you could fly to Mexico City or something and catch a flight to Cuba. We looked into that, but the planning was a bit of a pain. You've got lots of time, so you could look into that.
Cartagena is in Colombia, which i know might scare people off. But it is on the caribbean, and seems to have a sophisticated, old world feel to it with great architecture, restaurants and night life.
Zihuatenejo is just really laid back, and it is also easy to get too. There are non stop flights between Houston(and probably other cities) and Ixtapa which is 10 minutes away. It was probably the most relaxing vacation I have ever taken, and didn't feel completely disconnected from Mexico as you might in more of a resort town.
Anguilla is a gorgeous island-amazing beaches. It has upscale resorts, but still has a very relaxed feeling. My friend has a house there so i have'nt stayed at a hotel. You can fly into Anguilla or St Martin and take a short ferry ride.
what about brazil?
we are going to curacao and i am super excited.. they have a breezes but really thats the only big, all inclusive on the island. we are staying at the lodge location of this place: www.kurahulanda.com
my cousin just went to an island off mexico and loooved it.. sounds right for you.. um what was the name?? i thiiiink it was isla holbox. she said it was amazing.
we had also been looking into st. lucia but we are going in october so we were afraid of hurricanes. but that island is supposed to be gorgeous.
i second key west if you want to stay in US.. you can hit up all the keys.
what about somewhere in Asia? you might lose a day traveling but it's a great time of the year to check out India or Thailand, for example. Even if you end up spending about 2K on flights, you would be living really really luxuriously on 4K for one week! (to give you some perspective- mid range hotel, plus big meals, tours etc. in India is about 40 USD/ day for 2 people)
I'd consider Chile, Argentina or Brazil. I've been looking into all three for our honeymoon (we want to be non-resort) and all have a good mix of options for city life and outdoorsy stuff. We're hoping to do a wine tour, some hiking, and explore a new city.
She only has 7-8 days-I would say Asia is out, and I would avoid going too deep into S America.
I'm biased, but how about Brazil? You can go to Rio if you want to relax/sightsee, or head over to the north of Brazil for more quieter beaches.
February is summer in Brazil, so you have guaranteed good weather (north of Brazil is actually is summer year round).
If you want to go to the north of Brazil, places like Salvador, Porto Seguro, Porto de Galinhas, Maranhao, Maceio, Natal are awesome places.
The island of Fernando de Noronha would definitely fit your dream location (no resorts, only B&B's, they have a tourist quota since it's a preserved area, so it will never be too crowded, paradisiac location), but it's quite expensive to get there -- $6,000 is probably enough though. (That's my dream honeymoon location, but our budget was $3,000... I went there when I was 4, and still have vivid memories of the place. It's incredible.)
Hahaha, finally read everyone else's posts and other people have recommended Brazil! Feel free to send me a private message if you have any questions on it. We're staying here for our honeymoon, but it's a standard resort, nothing small: http://www.salinas.com.br/maragogi/pt/home/home.php
@ccsr do you think you need to know spanish to go to that resort? i would love to go to brazil, but i basically know how to ask to go to the bathroom and ask for queso and thats about it in spanish =p
Check into Hawaii - Feb would be the off season so you can get flights and hotel, etc cheaper. My mom and I did a planning tour there in January - airfare was 600 something a person and we went on the week long cruise for 659 a person.
We're doing a combo trip to the Galapagos Islands (Ecuador) and Machu Picchu (Peru) for our honeymoon. You can definitely do one or the other for a week for under $6,000 total. Check out www.latinamerica4less.com they have great deals all over Central and South America.
Good luck!
we LOVED our peaceful, quaint, quiet, private little resort in Negril, Jamaica. LOVED it.
I've posted about it on the Bee before:
http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/can-i-go-back-to-my-honeymoon-le-sigh
We went to Curacao and it seems to fit your needs - we stayed at the Lodge Kura Hulanda and it was very secluded. Definitely not Americanized/touristy in my opinion (most of the other guests were from Europe or South America), and with an all-inclusive option + flights, it was around that price. We were definitely left alone - no weird activities, and we pretty much only talked to waitstaff + bartenders.
We're going to the original Sandals Resort (The Carlyle Inn) in Montego Bay, Jamaica. It's super small - they compare it to a bed and breakfast - and we paid under 3K for 7 days (including airfare. and it's all inclusive) The best part is that we can eat at and use the amenities at the bigger resorts nearby, but we're staying in a smaller resort.
Brazil's language is Portuguese, not Spanish, so definitely no on that question :) With English you can get around in big cities, like Rio, and most hotels should have staff that speak it. So you're probably ok with the resort as well.
I've been to this other resort years ago: http://www.transamerica.com.br/default.aspx?pageid=4706A53AA70AA58A5A58AA69A -- they definitely know enough English there. It was a bit more expensive than Salinas, which is why we didn't go with it, but the hotel it's on its own private island, and you can get bungalows right by the beach. It's gorgeous, and the food is incredible (it's not all inclusive, if I remember correctly, breakfast and dinner was included, but not everything else).
Since the only thing on the island is the hotel, you can have as much quiet as you want, since it's their own private beach.
I would totally go to Margarita Island, Venezuela. Not far from Aruba an its supposed to be beuuuutiful!
I highly recommend the The Tides in Zihuatanejo. We are doing Hawaii and was pleasantly surprised on how reasonable it could be based on hotels and islands. Starwood has some great deals right now worth checking out and if you are a member on Gilt, their Jetsetter program has amazing deals but you have to check in daily which may not work for you based on when you want to book by.
Peru- Lake Titicaca and the Inca ruins in Cuzco even if you don't make it to Machu Picchu (they had troubles last year on the Urubamba). It's an amazing country.
thanks everyone! we looked at kula hulanda lodge last night and WOW..that looks like something that would be right up our alley. my fiance was in love! it would only cost us $500 each to fly there too..sometimes i cant even get places in the states for that price from austin! we are also still going to look into Zihuatanejo to see what they have to offer.
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so we've started looking at places to go for our honeymoon and this is proving to be the most difficult decision out there. i'm hoping for some suggestion from the 'bees :)
okay, so we want to go somewhere for 7-8 days. needs to be warm, as our wedding is in february. and heres the difficult part---we want to go somewhere neither of us has ever been, and we've both been a lot of places. trying to keep the total cost, including food and flights, under $6k. we also are not fans of big resorts. smaller resorts are fine, but we want to be left alone, in peace, for most of our trip.
here's whats already out: belize, guatemala, costa rica, honduras, ecuador, puetro rico, st. thomas & st. martins, and the dominican republic.
i'm not thrilled on mexico, but would consider if it the resort was small and quaint. we also like things that aren't overly americanized. is there anywhere LEFT for our budget?
i love how this decision is more difficult than the ring, our venue, and the dress.