Living in Europe, where the history comes from (thank you, Eddie), we’ve found picking a honeymoon destination has presented different opportunities than if we lived in my native California, or Canada (somewhere we’ve considered moving), or anywhere else in the world. Both being full-time grad students for the past year has also presented financial challenges. If circumstances were different, we might have had Hawaii, the Caribbean, Mexico or the American South-West as potential hot spots for our days of getting amorous post wedded-bliss. As it is, we live in London, the flight gateway into Europe, and our honeymoon savings thus far have literally been my tip jar at home.
Like much of our wedding decisions, picking where to have our gay honeymoon required the consideration of many factors: ease of planning, responsible travel, limited budget, and personal meaning.
From the start of our discussions, we knew that if we couldn’t get there by boat or train, we wanted the flight to be short. A shorter flight meant similar times zones which meant no jet lag. Eco-conscious, the closer we honeymooned to where we live also meant less time in a carbon-spouting jet plane, i.e. the lesser of two evils, we’d settle for a 4 hour plane ride versus an 18 hour long haul.
Following on from the earth-friendly options, we did a few internet searches for eco-holidays and came across ResposibleTravel.com. This set off the idea of a honeymoon in Southern France, some little B&B, farmhouse or apartment all to ourselves. France was close by, cheap to get to, and had great options from all-organic stays to re-purposed buildings for accommodation. Equally, Greece & Crete were quite appealing from listings on the same site as they paired the eco-friendly vibe with a gay friendly scene in many locations. Plus, Alex’s sister and her partner had honeymooned in Crete just last summer. Still, France, Greece and Crete didn’t quite have enough connection for us to really get into the idea of it for our honeymoon.
Next, we considered Ireland. I had lived there for a year, loved it, and promised to take Alex there as soon as we were able. Her mum is Irish by birth, and Alex has also been drawn to visit there since we got together. The west of Ireland was definitely a possibility in my head: County Galway is gorgeous and Connemara and the Aran Islands are a stone’s throw away, and County Kerry is absolutely stunning as it has the mountains and the beaches. However, while the flights would be cheap, the rest would not be in our budget with Ireland not the most budget saavy of countries. Plus, I didn’t really want to guarantee rain for our honeymoon.
So, where else to go? Well, during my previous travels, I had gone to Dubrovnik, Croatia, on a whim (my mom’s family is Croatian and I at least wanted to set my toe in the country!) and absolutely fell in love with the city. My time there was one of the first travel stories I had told Alex when we got together, and it was actually her that suggested it as a honeymoon destination! Knowing the lay-out and culture of the city, I knew we could easily rent an apartment for the week, fly directly into Dubrovnik, eat at any one of the many cafes and spend time at an apartment, on the beach, and historic Old Town.
Ease of planning seemed a given with Dubrovnik and it was just a short plane ride away. Once we were there, we could walk everywhere and eat locally. As for a gay scene, we haven’t heard of anything prominent one way or the other, and after checking trusty Wikipedia on gay rights, Croatia is about even with the US, and their gays can serve openly in the military! Budget-wise, given the cost of my previous trip, and what we found out online through our research, we knew could buy our plane tickets from the honeymoon jar and have some left over already! And the personal meaning, it seemed to happen by magic. I had gone there previously, but when Alex and I talked about Dubrovnik, the city took on a misty, rose-colored quality–the stuff honeymoon destinations are made of!
With our gay honeymoon destination decided, the trip planning began–bring with it all sorts of interesting twists so far! I’ll get into those later so for now, enjoy the views:
-
- Photos by Erica
Ooh, I’m excited to read about your trip planning! Croatia is one of the places that my partner and I have discussed for our honeymoon, but since we’re planning to take our honeymoon well after the wedding in November, we haven’t done much research yet.
[...] lovers dancing.” The postcard in the bottom right is of the walled city of Dubrovnik, our gay honeymoon destination, and an image I bought suddenly on my trip and have kept tucked away ever since. In the bottom left [...]
Becky! That’s so cool you’re thinking of Croatia as well. We just checked out 2 travels books from the library today to continue our research! Good luck with your honeymoon research.
[...] once we’d picked our gay honeymoon destination with care and consideration for just about everything we could think of, then came the time to [...]