We’re due to tie the knot 11th of May next year. If you could go away for 2-3 weeks at that time of year what would you do?

One thought was maybe something like Boulder road/mtb for a week, followed by California for a week or so. Cycling just an idea, not necessarily a requirement. Both have ridden a lot of road (although I’m less fit these days). MTB mixed abilities, but Fiancee would be happy on most blues and some reds.

Bonus points for being destinations able to get flights easily on Avios.

Was in South Africa last week, outside Cape Town near Stellenbosch, plenty of good riding and bike hire. Lots of luxury hotels and cheap to dine out as well.Do a safari as well for the full package

Cape Town is amazing, but I think I’d prefer somewhere with slightly more settled weather. If you could also wait til June then you could catch the whale mating season in Hermanus.

It’s a tricky decision – if I had 3 weeks available then I’d want to make the most of it and go to the other size of the world, such as NZ, but it’s coming into winter down there!

Thanks, hadn’t considered South Africa. Would love to go to New Zealand, but as you said, not the best time for weather. Fiancee is keen to get away near enough straight away afterwards. At least that’s outside school holidays so probably cheaper.

Might pass on Blackpool, maybe another time!

Is it a “big” wedding? Lots to organise?? Stressful ??? Has the better half had or might have a Bridezilla moment ???

If yes, maybe just do a week somewhere nice and close to chill and relaxing in each others company. Then do the “big adventure” 6 months later.

I talk from experience …. I should have been so lucky. But in OZ, directly after the wedding and where we had loads of truly wonderful experiences, there were times I wished we’d just chosen a week on a sun lounger.

Good Luck

We did a week touring around Sri Lanka – a pre-arranged tour booked through Kuoni to save the headache of having to organise it all ourselves.

Then we flew to the Maldives for a week – we stayed on Kurumathi island, which I think is one of the larger islands. We also considered transferring to a Sri Lankan beach resort instead of The Maldives, but preferred the look of the Maldivian resorts.

It was an ideal mix, to be honest. Sri Lanka was busy, loud & quite intense with lots of walking around and taking things in. Then we basically spent a week lounging around on the beach, eating too much & trying to work our way through the cocktail list.

Our honeymoon was at the end of June. We also considered South Africa, Vietnam or a fly drive either to New England or the Florida Keys in America. But, the weather at that time of year in South Africa & Vietnam looked pretty poor & I don’t think either of us really fancied 100’s of miles driving per day for our honeymoon, so the fly drives got ditched.

@stumpy01 if you were in Colombo, or one of the larger cities then Sri Lanka can be busy. If you travel a few hours from the airport then it can be idyllic bliss.

I’d suggest maybe a week in Sri Lanka (stay in the South for the beaches, the centre for the mountains. Or a bit of both. The island is small enough that you can do both in a week). A week in Nepal for some riding, and a week, or maybe 5 days in the Maldives.

If you want do some kitesurfing in SL then message me. I have a mate I can put you in touch with.

curiousyellow – we followed the tourist trail to be honest….drove up to Anuradhapura on arrival, went to Sigiriya, Kandy, Nuwara Eliya via a tea planatation, Udawale national park for an awesome safari drive, Galle and ended up back in Colombo on the last night.

My comment that it was busy had more to do with the amount of things we were doing & the moving from place to place seeing different things, rather than the busy-ness of the place itself.

I loved it there – I’d love to go back at some point and spend some time exploring more. We met some really nice people & the places & scenery were amazing. It was definitely an experience that will stay with me for life.

Here’s some pics I took for honeymoon inspiration!

View from Sigiriya Rock

[url=https://flic.kr/p/gnEqUS]13-06-27 DSC_6333[/url] by STW stumpy01, on Flickr

One of many elephants we saw at Udawale national park:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/gnEo5d]13-06-29 DSC_6806[/url] by STW stumpy01, on Flickr

Sri Lankan beach after breakfast:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/gnEWfz]13-06-30 DSCN4459[/url] by STW stumpy01, on Flickr

Beach in the Maldives:

[url=https://flic.kr/p/gtUy6S]13-07-03 DSC_7106[/url] by STW stumpy01, on Flickr

A safari in Warrington.

We went to Costa Rica. Not sporty as such, we spent a week in the cloud forest, at a volcano and on a coffee plantation, all of which were stunning, with incredible wild and bird life, lots of walking etc. We then spent a week on the Pacific Coast lying on a beach. Was a stunning country, can’t wait to take mini njee20 back when he’s old enough to appreciate it.

A European road trip. Book the ferries but nothing else as there will be no trouble finding last minute accomodation with Booking at that time of year.

Caen, St Emillion, St Jean de Luz, Zarautz, Ainsa, Pau, Moissac, Albi, Paris, Calais. Rent bikes on the Canal du Midi and MTBs in Ainsa, surf boards in Zarautz, walk in the Pyrenees near Pau, raft the Gorges du Tarn

We went to Utah. flew to Vegas with camping stuff, hired a car, drove to Moab, 4 days biking an rafting, drove back visiting national parks, hiking etc.  This was October, I reckon May would be a good time too, out of the heat of the full summer.

I would recommend going to Kuoni to get the dream package then shop around.

We did Singapore for 2 nights, Bali for 4 nights, Nusa Penida for 1 night, Seminyak for 1 night, Lombok for 4 nights.

A fair bit of travelling but we did all the busy active stuff at the start and then chilled at the last place.

I saved about 2k and ended up using Mypuretrip http://www.mypuretrip.co.uk/

For the record i’m not muslim and this had no bearing on what we did or where we stayed.

We did a round the world trip, in 4ish weeks – Hong Kong for a couple of nights to see the sights and break up the journey, New Zealand for a couple of weeks (concentrate on one island if you do this, 2 weeks isn’t enough for the whole thing), then a week on the Cook Islands before a few nights in LA to break up the journey on way home.

I cannot recommend the Cook Islands highly enough for a honeymoon, it was awesome. Might want to leave it a few weeks to make sure the rainy season has finished though.

Got to be Centre Parcs surely.

Got to be Centre Parcs surely.

Obviously, but the nice one at Woburn, not the crappy old one at Longleat.

Blimey, I was going to recommend Lake Garda but looks like more exotic destinations are par for the course.

Garda does have a lot going for it though – mtb and road biking (dolomites are close and have some spectacular climbs) plus you have rmomance and culture on hand at Verona and Venice.

Big trip might be good though as sprogs often follow nupitals and they will restrict your holiday choices for 20 odd years.

If you can look past the old people then Madeira has a lot going for it, although possibly not 3 weeks worth.  There’s some great riding to be had but plenty of opportunities for relaxing/sightseeing.

Awesome, some great ideas, thanks. Will talk through with the fiancee when back this weekend.

Ro5ey definitely hoping this is not a “big” stressful wedding, we both have enough of that in our work lives!

A honeymoon should only last 6 days, as 7 days will make a whole weak!

How about riding, walking, climbing etc  in Reunion (sp?) followed by beach at Mauritius or Seychelles?

Or… Whistler opens while you’ll be away…

One word: Montreal. Like the love child of Paris and New York, with the added bonus of being an easy drive to the Laurentians and the Townships.

seriously, be original and go there!

Unfortunately I have to go to Montreal for work fairly often, so that ruins it for me in terms of switching off from work!