Honeymoon ideas

[EternalOptimist]

anyone have any ideas for an African safari location whereby you aren't sat in a convoy of trucks stuffed full of american "ohh my gaaaaad" tourists hearded around like sheep?

no, but I heard about 'railway carriage' holidays in Canada and the US. Basically they drop you off in the wilderness for a week, in a real bona fide railway caboose

[realityhack]

For a better class of safari excursions, see Rainbow Tours. My dad booked with them and had a properly 5 star holiday around Africa. No gawping tourist hordes.

[darmstadt]

We've been looking at the marriage thing (well for nearly 20 years now actually) and its getting closer. So far the number 1 choice is to fly to Vegas with a load of friends, do the 'Hangover' thing followed by an Elvis wedding (her idea.) The honeymoon bit hasn't really been discussed much but the old man has a villa in Trinidad and Tobago so might use that for a week of naked frolicking

[b0redom]

hmm ideas so far include:
PARADISE ISLANDS
- French Polynesian Islands (i.e Bora Bora)

Tahiti (main island) is a tuliphole, and has black volcanic sand - not nice. Moorea 12 mins away, and Bora Bora are nice (if you're staying on Bora Bora go for a hotel on one of the atols. If you pick up a RTW ticket and are flying west, you can stop on Easter Island for a day/few days. That place is really mental.

- Carribean (i.e British Virgin islands, St Barths)

Antigua is lovely - when I was there (March) there was a 50/50 split between Europeans and Canadian/North Americans though. It's way more developed than French Polynesia.

- Indian Ocean (i.e Mauritius, Maldives, Seychelles)

Seychelles is nice, but it's a bit isolated. In terms of development and such it's probably in between Moorea and Antigua.

CULTURAL
- Zanzibar where Africa, India and Arabia meet in "a melting pot of culture"

You will NOT want to stay in Stone Town for any period of time. It's nice to visit and see the market, but a bit stressy. I guess what I imagine Morocco to be like. Ras Nungwi is nice though.

ADVENTURE
- Belize for some of the worlds best diving

Belize is fantastic, but again Belize City is a dump. Somewhere like Caye Caulker, Belize - Location and Map of Caye Caulker, Belize has lovely beaches, good food, and warm weather, and there's manatees. Very clear water too. Oh, and they deliver crates of cold beer by tractor if you call up the brewery.

If diving is your bag you could also consider the Galapagos. Mr and the Mrs went on this boat:

Eclipse

and then stayed on the main island for a bit. This is where we did our PADI course too. The wild life has literally no fear. I was sitting in the shallows and a turtle bobbed past within a few centimeters of me. If you're out snorkelling seals will come and swim around you and blow bubbles at you etc....

Damn, want to quit and go traveling again!

[chef]

cheers boredom, lots of useful information, if you were to choose where would you go for Honeymoon given that you've travelled so much

[b0redom]

Depends on what you want to do? Feet up on a beach? Diving? City break? Bit of mix + match? and also how much time you're spending.

One year we did:

LHR-> LA (went to Disneyland, Beverly Hills, Walkway of the stars etc)
From LA we hired a convertable and drove to Vegas and spent a 3 or so nights being plastic fantasticed
Then we drove back to LA and got the 'plane down to French Polynesia for a couple of weeks and then flew back.

That was a pretty nice mix, although you could swap LA for Yosemite National Park depending on time of year - it's pretty awesome in spring with the waterfalls and bears waking up.

Doing it in reverse, so sitting on a beach for a couple of weeks, followed by transiting back through the US probably makes more sense though as you'll be stressed from the wedding I guess.

[Lockhouse]

I got married in Florence and spent two weeks in Tuscany on honeymoon.

[chef]

I have to ask, what do you do to afford so much free time to travel to such exotic locations?

[sasguru]

As an OP has noted, Tanzania is better for safaris than Kenya. This is because Kenya has the better infrastructure so attracts the wealthier Americans who you want to avoid.
I would base myself at a 5-star in Mombasa or Malindi, from that base you can arrange a safari in Tanzania and a visit to Zanzibar or a visit (by small plane) to Lake Turkana up north or to see the flamingoes at Lake Naivasha.

East Africa is highly recommended for honeymoon, if money is no object.

The alternative the Maldives/Seychelles route but if you're not into diving/watersports there's not much to do there. Depends if you like chilled hilidays or slightly more activity.

[alreadypacked]

You may need to take Dubai of the list.


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