7 Ways to Think About That Perfect Honeymoon Destination

Jenn hanging out in Jackson, Wyoming on our honeymoon, Sept. 1999

Your honeymoon is the first travel experience of your new family.

The wedding is over. You both are traveling together as a married couple. Excitement and hope for the future define this trip!

How do you pick that perfect destination?

Choice can be tough.

We live in a time where you can easily travel to nearly any spot on the globe. Where do you choose? How do you begin to narrow the field?

Start with the two of you.

Start thinking….

1. Think about your travel style.

Don’t start with a list of destinations, start with the two of you.

What’s your travel style?

If you’re into relaxation, if lounging on the beach is perfection for y’all then an all-inclusive Caribbean honeymoon might be perfect.

But if you can’t wait to hit the trail hiking, a cabin in the Smokies or Yellowstone might be the place. Those two are extremes, but do some travel-style brainstorming and you’ll be a step closer to the perfect destination.

Is your style more Sandals Montego Bay?

Or the Grand Tetons National Park?

2. Think about free and unstructured time during your trip.

Don’t forget you’ll want plenty of time to just enjoy each other during this trip.

Resist the temptation to schedule every day solid. Sure there will be must-dos, but don’t be too activity ambitious.

Think leisure.

3. Think about making memories.

Plan to take tons of photos and even consider keeping a small journal with some notes about what you’ve done every day.

Chronicle meals and drinks especially…there might be a particular food, or a certain beer, or an amazing cocktail that every time you have it from that point on will remind you of your honeymoon.

4. Think about packing light.

We’re (maybe I should say I’m) notorious over packers and not over packing is some of the best advice we can offer any travelers.

It’ll be liberating, we promise.

5. Think about not renting a car.

While that rental car might give you the perception of freedom and flexibility, it might also tie you down and stress you out.

Where to park?

How soon do we have to leave for the airport to return the car?

Questions like these can cut into your fun time on any trip. Grab that taxi, bus, train, or resort/hotel transportation and you might find a weight lifted off and more time for leisure.

6. Think about time.

Time is important.

If you only have a few days, or a long weekend, or even a week, do you want to spend many, many hours in a plane or in transit?

You might, but you might not.

Consider the time you are willing to spend in transit to your destination. It might focus your option in a particular area.

7. Think about value.

We all have resource limitations (read: a budget).

Sometimes those limitation don’t matter…what?! Of course they do! How could you say budgets don’t matter?!

I mean sometimes what we really want really is already within our budget.

Think about the value of those honeymoon experiences, they might come with a much lower cost than you think.

Case in point…I heard a friend joking about wining the lottery not long ago – you know, we’ve all done it, dreaming about how we’d spend that $500 million dollars when we rarely even buy a ticket.

I took this opportunity to have a little fun with my friend.

I asked her what she would really do tomorrow morning if money was no longer an issue. What exactly would you do starting tomorrow morning if money wasn’t an issue? I told her to pretend she had already gotten all the binge-spending out of her system. She’d won the powerball, and had all the self-indulgent fun every lottery winner no doubt has in the first few months after the big win.

Now, life is settling down and she’d have to figure out what to do tomorrow.

All she could come up with is that she would take her son to a local park we both know. That was her ultimate, her perfect day – a day at the park with her son.

I laughed and told her to forget about the lottery, taking her son to the park was free. An amazing value, don’t you think.

Do the same thing when planning your honeymoon.

Don’t worry about the money so much and think about what experiences would be most valuable. Think about what you really want to spend your time doing – chances are it has a lot to do with just hanging out with that new spouse of yours.

Yea, you want to do that hanging out in an amazing place. There’s tons of amazing places that will work, and many, many of them will fit perfectly into your budget.

Think about it all, and give us a call.

We’ll help you figure it out.

Just don’t forget to: