Finally decided on the FL Keys trip for our honeymoon. 6 nights, 3 at Cheeca Lodge in Islamorada and 3 at Southernmost on the Beach in Key West. It's going to be more expensive than we originally thought, and probably more than the all-inclusive than we were looking at (Excellence Playa Mujeres, as Secrets Maroma had no vacancy at the time we were going). We'll be lucky to stay under $6K all said and done, just the rooms (plus taxes/resort fees) are something like $3200 for the week. One of our main concerns was dining though; we'd heard way too many lukewarm reviews of the food at all-inclusives, whereas the Keys are full of good restaurants. Plus there should be a lot more things to do, particularly in Key West, whereas Islamorada should be good for relaxing on the beach (yes, they do have one on the property).

The flight was surprisingly cheap; $185/per person round trip, and that's with a nonstop on the way down. Thank you Southwest! Flying into Fort Lauderdale and then renting a convertible to drive the rest of the way. I'm pretty excited about it!

4/30/2013 12:46:23 PM

^Southernmost is a very nice place. good choice.

You are also a few blocks away from El Siboney. Great cuban food. as recommended by elkaybie to me. I now recommend to you, highly.

4/30/2013 12:51:12 PM

^^Good Luck in the Keys! I've heard wonderful things about that place. My wife and I did our honeymoon on a Royal Caribbean 7 day cruise back in September. Had a wonderful time and got out of it on the cheaper end(after all said and done, prolly around $3500-$4000).

5/1/2013 5:52:47 AM

Update...Belize was awesome. Well...Ambergris Caye off the coast of Belize was awesome. I think there are good vacation spots in Belize (apparently there are some great resorts in the mountains/rainforest/jungle/whatever), but we wanted to be on the beach and next to the water.

We didn't know it beforehand (don't know how I missed it), but we were there at the tail end of the rainy season. Apparently it rained for about three straight weeks before we got there. But the sun gods smiled on us and all we got were a few early morning and late night rains...full sun for the rest of the trip. Snorkeling was awesome (sea turtles, 8 foot nurse sharks, gigantic sting rays, etc), ziplining and cave tubing was awesome (day trip back into Belize for that), and the food was phenomenal. We've unfortunately become food snobs living in Charleston and working in the industry, and we're normally let down by food when we go on vacation...not the case this time. The Mestizo/Mayan style of food was delicious. We were there at the tail end of lobster season as well and probably had at least one lobster meal a day (on the cheap!). Some of the best meals were from street food on the side of the road...just grilling lobster kabobs and chicken to go along with beans and coconut rice.

I think we stayed at the nicest resort on the island...Victoria House. The max capacity there is 80, and even though they said it was full, I felt like there was never anyone there and we almost had the resort to ourselves. Since the area has great fishing/snorkeling/scuba, everyone is always off on excursions. It seemed like staff outnumbered us 2 to 1, so we were basically waited on hand and foot. The wifey wanted to be pampered, and she got pampered. I wanted to get some of the local culture...and we got that by not staying at the resort for every meal and exploring the town (San Pedro) and the island by bike and golf cart.

I'm kind of obsessed and have been looking at real estate on the island every since we got back.

11/12/2013 7:36:11 AM

Any good places to stay or do stuff in Hawaii? We'll be spending a week on the big island for a wedding, then have another week where we can go do what we want. Will probably be the closest thing to a honeymoon I will ever get, so I want to make it count.

This is in January, so it's going to be too cold for me to enjoy the water without a wetsuit. Might get one so I can go snorkeling, but stuff that's not in the water is good too.

[Edited on November 12, 2013 at 9:55 AM. Reason : ...]

11/12/2013 9:52:22 AM

See if you can find an affordable place to stay on Kuaui...it's the most beautiful and least touristy of all the islands. Great hiking/trail walking and snorkeling there as well.

I also think the water temperature should be warm enough to swim in. I doubt it gets below the mid-70s.

And will this be the honeymoon before the divorce?

[Edited on November 12, 2013 at 9:59 AM. Reason : .]

11/12/2013 9:57:16 AM

glad you had a good trip, bud. and congratulations. post some pics when you get the chance.

11/12/2013 10:00:57 AM

Ask and ye shall receive (I was going to post these at some point):

Casita we stayed in:







View from our infinity pool:



Palapa Bar where the bartender lowers a bucket of beers into the water where you are floating in an inner tube:







At the chicken drop (just like cow chip bingo)...where we got hammered and my wife wanted to handle all of the chickens. They started calling her the chicken whisperer:







Snorkeling with sea turtles, nurse sharks, and sting-rays:









Ziplining and cave tubing in the jungle:









Ridiculous lionfish dish:



And one of the 50 lobster meals we had during the trip:



Dinner at the resort:



[Edited on November 12, 2013 at 10:57 AM. Reason : .]

11/12/2013 10:46:38 AM

That looks so awesome.

11/12/2013 12:12:48 PM

Looks like a great time. I'll see if he's interested in Kauai instead of Honolulu (I lived in Honolulu for 3 months but never explored the other islands, so relaxing on Kauai sounds better to me).

11/12/2013 1:26:29 PM

dude, that chicken drop guy looks fucked up.


did you spend any time on the big island, lewoods? seems like renting a jeep and driving it to the top of mauna kea might be your style. definitely on my bucket list of 'if i ever go back...'

11/12/2013 2:06:53 PM

^^^^ how much was your flight per person if you dont mind me asking?

[Edited on November 12, 2013 at 2:14 PM. Reason : .]

11/12/2013 2:14:21 PM

I'm honestly not sure...we booked a whole package that ended up being $3,600 for the whole thing (airfare, transfer fees, and resort stay). I want to say that it was looking to be about $700 per person, roundtrip of course.

We definitely went all out with food and drink (no cooking or grocery buying) and had a few excursions....and I think we spent an extra $1,500-$2,000 overall. Which isn't too bad considering that I had $10,000 as my original limit and was really hoping to keep it below $7k. Our resort was probably one of the nicest if not the nicest on the island. There are some good deals to be had on Ambergris Caye...especially during the "rainy season." Dining out was much cheaper than when I went to Aruba with her family this year (2 belize dollars for every 1 US dollar)...and the food was exponentially better.

I'm having crazy vacation/honeymoon hangover. Really want to go back.

11/12/2013 2:48:49 PM

Dude, that looks awesome. I'd never heard of cave tubing. Also, I'm jealous of the copious amounts of lobster. I love shellfish

11/12/2013 5:19:37 PM

Trying to plan our honeymoon in October. We have three different ideas so far, but are definitely open for suggestions.

So far:

1 - (probably the front runner): Spend about a week driving around in England or France, and then take a 14 day repositioning cruise on Celebrity from London to Portugal, Portugal to Bermuda, and then on to Florida .

2- spend a week driving around Italy, then a 2 week cruise in the Mediterranean.

3- We have also thought about buying a sailboat and cruising up the outer banks and Virginia coast for a while. That way we have something (the boat) left when all is said and done.

[Edited on February 13, 2014 at 3:56 PM. Reason : v]

2/13/2014 3:56:31 PM

you sound like you're made of time and money. what good would TWW advice be?

2/13/2014 5:20:01 PM

I'd probably pick #2.
#1 sounds cool but a lot of that time you'll just be chilling on the ship in the Atlantic.
Plus you can easily go to Bermuda or Florida whenever.

[Edited on February 14, 2014 at 9:04 AM. Reason : ]

2/14/2014 9:04:10 AM

For a rich dude...why all the cruises?? If I had three weeks and a ton of money (which it sounds like you do)...I'd do the Italy thing, and instead of cruising, I'd just hit up some bad-ass Mediterranean spots. Do the Croatian Cost, Southern France, Greek Islands...etc.

Or maybe do Southeast Asia, New Zealand, Fiji, etc.

[Edited on February 14, 2014 at 9:22 AM. Reason : .]

2/14/2014 9:22:14 AM

re: Hawai'i -- we stayed in a few diff spots when we went... best place for people wanting to chill and enjoy time with your spouse was hands down Maui. we stayed at a small place close to the coast and it was awesome.

http://www.hooilohouse.com/

privately owned... the family lives in a house beside this place. they do fresh juice/muffins and mess every day. they have an orchard out back you can pick/eat what you want. very relaxing. you can get massages and your room/lanai, etc.

2/14/2014 10:00:25 AM

Hawaii varies a lot by the island. Honolulu/Oahu has lots more to do, but the big island was less commercial. After a week on the big island we were ready to leave because you have to drive everywhere and it's all winding roads so it takes forever. There aren't any grocery stores near Volcano, HI so we had to stop at a grocery store near the airport on the way in to get stuff to take hiking with us and eat for breakfast.

Haven't been to Maui. Have friends living there, but I don't want to go back anytime soon becaue my allergies were HORRIBLE the whole time I was there. Seriously, if you have seasonal allergies take all the meds with you because tropical shit blooms all year long.

2/14/2014 11:26:02 AM

Looking into the honeymoon now and wanted to get some more current info.

Were thinking more of a beach/ relaxing trip at an all inclusive.

Secrets is actually opening up a new resort in Playa Mujeres this November: http://www.secretsresorts.com/playa-mujeres

They are running some huge discounts right now because it's brand new, I can book 7 nights all inclusive for $1,491 + Flights (~$900), so about $2,391 total.

We would be going in April so they would have some time to get things worked out

5/22/2014 11:36:11 AM