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Honeymooning Here, Thereand Everywhere

Whether island or city hopping, multiple-locale honeymoons offer
the best of many worlds.

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If you honeymoon at a little cabin in Fiji, you will always remember that little cabin in Fiji. But if you honeymoon in Paris, Lisbon, Scotland, Munich and Rome, you’ll remember half of Europe. That’s one reason why some couples visit several places on their honeymoons.“

People who travel to more than one destination tend to enjoy it more, because they’ve seen more of the world and culture,” says Thomas Bui, who’s been planning weddings through Thomas Bui Lifestyle for more than 10 years. He adds that these are clients who are usually well-traveled to begin with. They’ve already seen a lot of the world and they want something extra special.

It may not be for everyone, of course. After a year of planning your wedding, taking in the whirlwind of rehearsals and reception arrangements, seeing long-lost relatives and too often feeling rushed, many couples just want to plunk down on a beach for a while and stay there. But, for the adventurous world traveler, after stopping off somewhere for a breather, many people pick right up and keep going.

The multi-destination honeymoon is, after all, the right fit for couples who want a wide range of options and an individualized take on their honeymoon. And while more destinations may mean more planning in the midst of already organizing a wedding, these honeymoons definitely mean more things to see, and are arguably more memorable.

By Sea

The natural fit for a multi-destination honeymoon is by sea, particularly since so many people are drawn to tropical islands for honeymoons. And with countless yacht charter companies offering smaller, specialized cruises, such as island hopping between the more than 100 islands in French Polynesia, it’s the perfect way to take in the lagoons and barrier reefs of Tahiti and Bora Bora.

In such a case, you’ll be traveling with other well-traveled people, with up to 48 guests on each yacht—or as few as just the two of you and the crew. Kleon Howe, a travel consultant who owns The Art of Travel, says clients tend to prefer small yachts so the group can decide among themselves where and for how long they want to stop. A couple who has the yacht all to themselves obviously has even greater leeway.

A large draw to a multi-destination honeymoon by sea is that it lends itself so easily to patterning the itinerary around the honeymooners. Packages combining Fiji with Australia may be common enough, as are trips to the Cook Islands and New Zealand, but “with honeymoons, you want to stamp something unique on that trip,” Howe says. And getting that unique stamp is a natural fit on a private charter yacht. For example, servants could deliver breakfast to clients on the beach, Howe says.

But what seems to interest people the most is that they can go to really remote, deserted beaches, says Roy Oftedal, manager of the vacations department at Balboa Travel. “They want to go where no one else was,” he says. They can explore, they can enjoy the quiet or—and this comes up frequently, Oftedal says—they can disrobe on the beach, in total privacy.

But even if they do choose a large cruise ship package over a private yacht, the trip can certainly be unique and private. For example, a client of Oftedal’s plans to rent the owner’s suite for their cruise to the Mediterranean. And, while owner’s suites differ from one ship to the next, they are usually around 1,500 square feet—as big as a house, with all that a house offers: full living room, dining room, bathroom with a whirlpool, kitchen, bedroom with a king-size mattress, maybe even a guest room with its own shower. Another couple who went to the Cook Islands and New Zealand were both golfers. So Howe arranged a picnic at the Cape Kidnappers Golf Course in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, on one of the cliffs overlooking the sea. Yet another couple wanted to swim with dolphins. So Howe went a step further and set them up to swim with baby whales. It’s a tricky arrangement, Howe says. The whales must be young enough not to have barnacles, but old enough that their mothers aren’t too nervous about them.

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