Tag: wedding

The search for the perfect honeymoon (part 3)

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In earlier posts about my upcoming wedding and honeymoon, I have written about looking for a destination. After a thorough brainstorm and research we landed on Australia as the perfect place to spend some quality time together after our wedding. But, 2021 wouldn’t be 2021 if covid wouldn’t interfere. Australia is closed off to tourists and we’re afraid the country won’t open in time. Also, a honeymoon should be, in our opinion, a time to rest and spend time together, and not a constant worry about having to quarantine and wondering if we will be able to get in or out of the country.

So sadly, the Australia trip is yet another one we have to postpone. I was really looking forward to it, but the stress of it all is just not worth it. Planning a wedding in covid times is stressful enough as it is.

But what then?

We started googling honeymoons – again, and though we would love to find a destination far away, it’s just not smart at this time. So we wanted something closer to home, but still something that we wouldn’t ordinarily do for a regular vacation. It needed to be something special. Something exclusive. And we found something that is absolutely perfect…

We’re going on a cruise!

If you want to do something exclusive and luxurious, a cruise is perfect, if you ask me. I’ve never done something like this before (which is very understandable if you find out what this costs…). But it’s perfect. You have the thrill of traveling to different places, without the downside of public transportation and carrying your luggage around. You just take your bed, bath and restaurants with you!

It sounds amazing. The ship has several restaurants and bars with live music, a spa, a casino and a swimming pool (a swimming pool on a boat is something that my brain can’t quite capture…). If anything is luxurious, it’s this.

I for one, can’t wait. Have you ever done a cruise before?

The search for the perfect honeymoon (part 2)

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In an earlier post I told you about our wedding plans and the first search for our honeymoon. When asked the question: if you had a million euros to spend on your wedding, what would you spend it on, my answer came quickly: a trip around the world for a honeymoon. Of course, we don’t have that kind of money so it’s not an option, but it did put things into perspective. The honeymoon will be an important part of our wedding. I am not surprised. Traveling the world has always been my dream and what better excuse to fly to the other side of the world than to celebrate our love?

We did a lot of searching for the perfect location. I bought Lonely Planet’s Honeymoon Handbook which came in very handy, as we had absolutely no idea of where we’d wanted to go, only places we didn’t want to. But I read the entire book, jotted down the places that sounded most interesting and then gave the book to my fiancé, so he could read it too. He just looked at my list and narrowed it down to three locations:

  • New Zealand
  • The Galapagos Islands
  • Australia

Firstly, we decided we wanted to go to New Zealand. We hadn’t made the decision official but every time we thought about it, New Zealand seemed perfect. I have already done a thorough search of authors from the area and books that are set there as well.

But then a colleague of mine told me that if we wanted to go in may, it would be autumn in New Zealand. And when we googled what the weather would be like, we saw that it would be a meager 10 degrees celcius. Yikes. I want to spend time on the beach, swimming, enjoying the sun and with this weather, that was just not gonna happen.

So, we crossed out New Zealand and then there were two. We googled for a bit but it wasn’t a hard decision. One just sounds way more appealing.

We’re going to Australia!

Now the actual planning can finally begin. We will go for about three weeks so we really have to cut down what we wanna see. I already asked the question on my Instagram what I should definitely see, and got some amazing responses, such as Whitsunday Islands and the Red Center. It all looks so dreamy! I am currently going through my own books to see what the best spots for Australia are. I’ve made an excel sheet of all the areas and now I’m jotting down the amazing sights we wanna see. Hopefully, one or two areas will stand out and we can make our choice. For now, the Whitsunday Islands took my breath away, so I’m thinking starting there, in Queensland, see the great barrier reef, renting a camper to drive along the coast, visit the Koala Hospital from which I adopted a koala bear last year with the heavy forest fires and then drive towards Sydney, learn to surf at Bondi Beach and see the sunrise and the Opera House.

I cannot wait!