Honeymoon destinations

S

Stefanmuller

Expert Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2008
Messages
2,924
Reaction score
128
Location
Durbanville
Hi

I got some really good ideas on weekend aways on this forum, so I thought of asking about honeymoon destinations. I'm getting married in June, and am looking for a destination for the honeymoon.

We would like to go out of the country, but are looking at budget places. I know for Zanzibar and Thailand you can get packages for around R10 000 that includes flights, a meal, local drinks. Something in the line of that would be what we are looking for. I will obviously add spending money to that too. Although this is a honeymoon, the focus is more on us going away together, rather than being pampered the whole day or live in luxury. Mozambique and Madagaskar, or Kenia will also be an option, in fact, anything outside of the country, whether it is tropical beaches or not. What is the cheapest foreign destinations for South African these days, that are safe and interesting?

Any ideas on places or travel agencies that you guys can recommend?

Oh, and should things not work out for overseas, we will consider local destinations as well, like Knysna/Drakensberg/Wild Coast etc. Just not sure if it will be a lot cheaper or not? I would rather go somewhere abroad than local if it costs about the same.

Thanks
 
Zanzibar is awesome if you are into snorkelling and diving or just want to laze around the pool, not much else worth seeing although a walk round Stone Town looking at the doors is interesting, and a trip to one of the spice farms is fun, but that's about it. Went there on honeymoon and we loved it, 1 Time usually have some good offers.
 
Mauritius is also awesome if you want the tropical beach vibe...
 
Spent 2 weeks in the Kruger on honeymoon; covered the park from end to end. Wouldn't change it even if I could, but I realise it's not everyone's cup of tea.

I just always wonder why people are so keen to go overseas when they've probably not seen 5% of their own country. If you can easily afford it, go for it, but don't break the bank just for a stamp in a passport.
 
We've been to Zanzibar, Mauritius and Vic Falls.

If you just want to get away from it all, Vic Falls is great as there's nothing to really do but laze around the pool.
The falls themselves are spectacular and will definitely be memorable..

Mauritius is great for all the touristy stuff. Snorkeling, diving, para sailing, cruising on larnie yachts, great souvenirs.
Some really nice hotels there too and the whole island is geared towards to tourism.

Zanzibar is stunning in it's own right. It's a very poor country, but it's safe, clean and very cheap.
Water is much clearer than Mauritius for snorkeling/diving.
Food was really good - we had a lobster that was bigger than the average plate for like R200. (My arteries still haven't forgiven me :))
Stone Town and the spice tour are great, but they can both be done in a day.

Enjoy.
 
I was discussing this with my g/f recently...
Neither of us would like to do the beach/island thing...

We want to do a tourist activity thing! Sitting on a beach all day sounds boring....
Something like going to states and seeing their museums, theme parks etc is more where we would be inclined to go. Its not typical honeymoon stuff, but its an idea?

obviously states is pricey, but maybe find another country a little cheaper, and go tour it, instead of sitting on the beach all day
 
tau1z said:
I was discussing this with my g/f recently...
Neither of us would like to do the beach/island thing...

We want to do a tourist activity thing! Sitting on a beach all day sounds boring....
Something like going to states and seeing their museums, theme parks etc is more where we would be inclined to go. Its not typical honeymoon stuff, but its an idea?

obviously states is pricey, but maybe find another country a little cheaper, and go tour it, instead of sitting on the beach all day
Click to expand...

Yeah, I hear what you are saying. But London/UK/Europe/USA is just too expensive. Even the plane ticket is more than what a holiday to Zanzibar/Phuket is. That is kind of why I favour Thailand above Zanzibar, because apart from the beach, you can stay a few nights on an island, and still go tour a bit through Thailand and do some shopping. Zanzibar seems a bit "island only".

Also thought of Kruger park, and SA, but is it really that much cheaper considering my budget? Also, I'm in Cape Town, so I also dont want to travel most of my holiday time, and if I choose to fly it is also expensive. But this is exactly why I asked in the first place, to know how much things cost.
 
tau1z said:
We want to do a tourist activity thing! Sitting on a beach all day sounds boring....
Click to expand...
It is your honeymoon, you should not be leaving the house at all.

The best thing about my honeymoon was that we had very little to do.

My advice would be to find a calm holiday destination. Spend some time with your new wife. Spend some time with her while not doing anything else. You can take the exciting holiday next time.

enigma243 said:
I just always wonder why people are so keen to go overseas when they've probably not seen 5% of their own country. If you can easily afford it, go for it, but don't break the bank just for a stamp in a passport.
Click to expand...
this
viven said:
If you just want to get away from it all, Vic Falls is great as there's nothing to really do but laze around the pool.
Click to expand...
and this
 
It's so heavily dependent on what you as a couple want out of the experience, and aligning that with your budget, though. Obviously we spent a lot of time in the car, but then I don't mind driving at all & it implied that we were necessarily almost permanently removed from other people. It worked for us, but you might be wanting something completely different.
 
Stefanmuller said:
Yeah, I hear what you are saying. But London/UK/Europe/USA is just too expensive. Even the plane ticket is more than what a holiday to Zanzibar/Phuket is. That is kind of why I favour Thailand above Zanzibar, because apart from the beach, you can stay a few nights on an island, and still go tour a bit through Thailand and do some shopping. Zanzibar seems a bit "island only".

Also thought of Kruger park, and SA, but is it really that much cheaper considering my budget? Also, I'm in Cape Town, so I also dont want to travel most of my holiday time, and if I choose to fly it is also expensive. But this is exactly why I asked in the first place, to know how much things cost.
Click to expand...

thailand sounds awesome...I have heard cool things about it!!! Definitely would be an experience, and should have enough to keep you occupied!

uFiS said:
It is your honeymoon, you should not be leaving the house at all.

The best thing about my honeymoon was that we had very little to do.

My advice would be to find a calm holiday destination. Spend some time with your new wife. Spend some time with her while not doing anything else. You can take the exciting holiday next time.
Click to expand...

Most couples now days live together before marriage, so a honeymoon is not really what it used to be! You have usually spent a lot of time with her etc
The exciting holiday might have the opportunity to come round again (especially in my case, after marriage it will most certainly be saving for kids, and then kids.) And you cant do some of the cool tourist stuff with kids until they are much older...and the price starts to climb..

I say get the cool stuff done now, whilst you are young, just married and can afford it before the little swines burn a hole in your pocket!
 
We are going to Thailand in Apr-May 12 Nights

4 nights - bangkok
8 nights - phuket

All accomdation/breakfast/hotel transfers/flights (international+domestic) included

just over 11K per person

Pentravel - Tygervalley
 
there's a reason mauritious is one of the worlds top honeymoon destinations. its cheap, and it is very pleasing on the eye. i can't speak for other people, but for my wife and i, the honeymoon in mauritious was one of the founding pillars of our relationship (which has been exquisite to date). we spent 7 nights and 8 days on a hotel on the eastern side of the island. it was around 20k (we got it as a gift from my dad), but it was a 4 star hotel. there are more cost effective options.

we went quad biking, rented a car for teh day and drove around the island. there's a number of excellent touristy spots and activities. we spent time in the water, snorkelling, sub scuba diving and so on.

to be honest, we spent a lot of time in the room 'getting to know each other' - this was also important because everything is different (better) with the ring on. what we found is a wonderful balance between things to do and time to relax and unwind.

the highlight of our trip was a morning spent walking through the bush with 2 x 18 month old lion cubs. we took some of the most amazing pictures ever, and being up close and personal with the force of nature that is a lion is astonishing.

we had 3 days of enjoyment and running around doing the tourist stuff, and 4 days spending top quality time with each other.

if you think mauritious is boring, then you're very mistaken. we still had at least 10 more activities we want to do on our next trip.

theme parks, museums? could be fun, but i'd recommend that for your first anniversary holiday.

good luck!
 
Boodah said:
/snip/
theme parks, museums? could be fun, but i'd recommend that for your first anniversary holiday.

good luck!
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good honeymoon!!!
If you are going to do activities then awesome!!! I am just against sitting around and "relaxing".....

The theme park/museum thing was just an idea, i could have just as easily said quad biking and cage diving! The just of the matter is, do something, sitting around for 8 days relaxing has to get boring eventually...
 
Thailand seems to be at war, so prices should drop soon
 
roadtrip! We spent 10 days driving a hire car from cape town to durban along the coast - cpl of nights on a houseboat in knysna was stunning- went large on 5 star hotel at start and end of trip..in between we visited smaller off the beaten track places..worked out under 20k.
anyways - congrats..hope married life is a long holiday for you guys.
 
What about a cruise to Mauritius? I think that there are options to fly there and cruise back, cruise there and fly back, or cruise there and back. I'm sure a travel agent could help you sort out a package.
 
we did thailand for 3 weeks.

epic.

year before that we did mauritius.

epic.

Year before that, we did Bali. Not as good as Thailand, but still decent.

You obviously want to go to Thailand, so do it. It's brilliant, just brilliant.

(We stayed at Club Med for all three trips, we love it, its not everyone's cup of tea, but you know what you're gonna get).
 
Can get some good packages to the Maldives if I'm not mistaken.

If you are considering Madagascar don't go to the mainland but pick one of the offshore islands.
 
Space_Cowboy said:
We are going to Thailand in Apr-May 12 Nights

4 nights - bangkok
8 nights - phuket

All accomdation/breakfast/hotel transfers/flights (international+domestic) included

just over 11K per person

Pentravel - Tygervalley
Click to expand...

Cool, I will check that out. And Pentravel is well known, and it Tygervalley. I always thought Travel Agencies are like jewellers....in that they are more expensive when they are well known and in big shopping centres. Thats why I was wondering which to use....your big name or the small travel agents.

I agree with the previous posters by rather doing the fun stuff now. We don't really have the money to go big, but then again, you only have a honeymoon once, and secondly, although we maight save a bit of money by not going, the next step is kids and a new house and what not, so in the end there will never really be a better time to do it.

Also, we've been living together for a year and a half now, and been together for 11 years, so yeah, so maybe a mix between lying on a beach and doing some travelling might be ideal.
 
luxe said:
we did thailand for 3 weeks.

epic.

year before that we did mauritius.

epic.

Year before that, we did Bali. Not as good as Thailand, but still decent.

You obviously want to go to Thailand, so do it. It's brilliant, just brilliant.

(We stayed at Club Med for all three trips, we love it, its not everyone's cup of tea, but you know what you're gonna get).
Click to expand...

OK, just to get my bearing straight: Phuket is in Thailand and Bali is in Indonesia?
I like weird, interesting and different things, so I think Thailand will be more suited than Zanzibar?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X