As with everything else about our wedding, we are on a tight budget for the Honeymoon. We still feel very strongly about going away together for at least a few days following the wedding, so instead of doing something extravagant that we probably would really prefer, we have agreed to stay in the states. Rose put it perfectly over dinner the other night: “Let’s save the money we would spend and move into the townhouse we really want. And buy some new furniture.” Can you see why I married this woman, folks?
Ken & Ken at the beach from Jon Olav’s Flickr Photostream.
We had to break ourselves away from the idea that a Honeymoon must be somewhere tropical or overseas. Once we did that, it was much easier to accept our choices and get really excited about going away. I found it really helpful to give ourselves some realistic checkpoints to help us decide where we want to go. This is just a list of things we’d want to experience in any given area. For example, you can ask yourselves “Do we want to relax or focus on adventure?” “What kind of weather would we enjoy?” and “What do we always wish we could take the time to do at home but are limited by work/location/time commitments, etc.?” Personally, we kept our checklist broad so that we were left with lots of options, but still narrowed it down enough to give us an idea of what we agree that we expect from our trip. Also, as a gay couple, we want to be very happy with the spot we choose because we want to feel as comfortable as possible there while celebrating being newlyweds.
Our Honeymoon destination criteria:
- As affordable as possible
- Gay-friendly area
- Warmer weather than we would have in Maryland in October (it’s not a real Honeymoon in my eyes unless I come back with a tan!)
- Some type of water access – whether pool or beach
- Not too overrun with tourists
- Lots of new places to explore (preferably art galleries & shopping), but only when we feel like it
- A nice view from the room
- Somewhere nearby to see a show
- A fancy restaurant and some good local eats
After mulling things over, we are pretty sure we have set our sights on a California honeymoon. It’s not too expensive to fly there and we could get a good deal on a nice hotel (Hello, Living Social Escapes packages!). Also, most destinations in CA seem to fit all or most of our criteria, with the added bonus of having some of the most well-known vineyards for these two wine-lovers to try out. The trouble is now choosing between all those great spots!
I did find a list of the “Top 10 Gay California Honeymoon Destinations” on this Orbitz Gay Travel Blog. They include:
- Lake Tahoe
- San Diego
- Santa Barbara
- San Francisco
- Palm Springs
- Russian River
- Big Sur
- San Luis Obispo
- Laguna Beach
- West Hollywood
Neither of us has been on a vacation to California, so it would be such a fun opportunity to travel to a new place. Some of my favorite vacations with Rose have been to the simplest local spots, like Luray Caverns, VA and New Hope, PA. We created so many memories just exploring new places together. So although we do have dreams of going to Hawaii and Greece and cruises to the tropics someday… we want to be realistic for the present. As long as we fit the criteria, I know we will have the time of our lives. Besides, who could ask for more than a comfy hotel room, good food and a beach nearby?
We took our "Mini-moon" in a chilly month in a tiny town, but had a blast enjoying waterviews, antiques, people watching, duck feeding and ice cream!
Honeymoon planning is quite exciting because we don’t know much about California. It will certainly be an adventure, but it’s also a challenge to decide where to go. Although we feel like we have narrowed things down, there are still so many options to choose from! Any Californians or fellow Honeymooners that can offer recommendations for areas?
If you go to Big Sur, we loved Treebones resort (google it) – a yurt with an incredibly comfortable bed and a deck with a too good to be true view of the Pacific to drink wine on.
We went to NYC for our honeymoon–we love all the hustle and bustle of it all!! The shows, the food, the celeb sightings, etc.
We did, however, spend some time in San Fran a few years ago. Love that city!! If you head to that area and like nature, Muir Woods is an awesome morning or afternoon trek. We took a guided tour that lasted about 5 hours, it’s one of the most intriguing natural scapes I’ve ever been to.
Happy Honeymooning!!!
If you guys head to SF, it’s definitely gay-friendly and allows you to hit a few places on the list. You can spend a few days exploring SF, rent a car to drive down to Big Sur (2-3 days would be fine), and then head north for another 2 days in wine country. I lived a year out there and the day trips were a HUGE plus. Have fun wherever you end up!
Awww welcome to California! We love living in San Diego. My wife is from here but I’m from PA (ironically just south of New Hope in Yardley). Just a word to the wise…Cali is not as warm as some might think. In fall our days vary from upper 60′s to low 70′s (much like our spring) and nights are pretty chilly because there’s no moisture in the air. Sometimes we get an awesome heat wave in the 90′s that’ll last about a week! Track the weather in the weeks before you come out. What’s great is that San Diego is close to LA and Palm Desert for day trips! Disneyland is like an hour away too!! If you go north of LA (San Fran, etc) it’s gonna be cooler. And be prepared for the ocean to be way colder than on the east coast. Honestly I’ve only dipped my toes in. I prefer the pool lol.
Let us know if you choose San Diego and I’ll share some info on things to do!
I grew up near Lake Tahoe — it is beautiful, lots of things to do both for shopping and outdoorsy with good wineries in nearby towns (Napaville, Sierraville etc). However, consistently warm it is not. Your best bet for sun is to go in August but the waters of Lake Tahoe are very cold, lots of snow melt!, and the sand is from granite so it’s a little coarse. But if you’re looking for a plethora of things to do from shopping to gambling to wine tasting, it is a good spot. Good luck! :)
We live in San Francisco, and definitely recommend it if you want more of am urban vacation. If you’re looking for more relaxation, I definitely recommend going to the Russian River for at least a part of the vacation. We go up for weekends of camping and exploring quite frequently (Schoolhouse Canyon Campground is absolutely the best, if you’re looking for camping!). Guerneville in particular is so unexpectedly gay for such a small town, and the tiny town of Duncan’s Mill is amazing, too. There are about 50 people who live there, about half of whom seem to be retired, artsy gay men who own antique shops and the like.
There is also the Sonoma coast right there with stunning ocean views and beaches, and Bodega Bay, the tiny town where The Birds was filmed, is a blast. Tons of really fantastic vineyards to visit, some very upscale dining and spas, plus you miss out on all touristy, overpriced stuff that happens in Napa county. (Sonoma is generally thought of by “locals” as “real wine country.”)
I will second what Tami says above about California not being as warm as people expect–the Bay Area stays around 70 year-round, with Sonoma county getting warmer in the summer, up to about 85 on a warmer day.
Feel free to email for any more information you might want! We live in Oakland now–and spend a ton of time across the bridge in SF where we both work, and love fine dining and being smart with money, so we might have all sorts of useful tips for you! amorganmathis at gmail.
Ditto on what everyone said about CA! It can be sunny, but if you’re by the coast it will more likely be chilly rather than warm. (And definitely bring a sweater for the evenings, no matter how hot it gets during the day!)
I live right outside of LA and I loooove it, but if you two are wine-lovers then I definitely recommend the Santa Barbara area. The town is cute to walk around in (and go to Trattoria Vittoria, which is such a delicious Italian restaurant, omg), close to the ocean (and has a botanical garden, which I’ve never been to), and close to all sorts of great wineries up in Los Olivos/Santa Ynez. (About 45 minutes away from Santa Barbara, and a really scenic drive.) In that area, you’re close to mountains AND the ocean, so you can have scenic drives of all types. You’re also close to an OSTRICH FARM, where you can buy little pans of food and feed ostriches and emus! And Solvang is a little Danish town right nearby where you can get delicious breakfast and Danish cookies! Nom!
And you’re about 2 hours away from LA, or you can take the Pacific Coast Highway up the coast, which is a totally gorgeous drive. Let me know if you have any more questions!!
California!!!! My home sweet home…
If you go to San Fran/Big Sur area then Santa Cruz is halfway between the two–it’s where Alex and I went to college and we love it there!! Small town feel with exploring to do, boardwalk, lighthouses (including a lighthouse hostel on Hwy 1), really good eats, and gay-friendly. If you end up picking that area, let me know and I’ll recommend some restaurants, etc!
We grabbed a living social escape for our October “mini-moon” to VT. We watched deals for a few weeks to see if any grabbed our interest. We’re saving any trip that involves airfare for our 1-year.
Consider Key West. It’s cheap to get to and in the States but super gay friendly.
ditto what Lindsey said. I’m born and raised Santa Barbara and I will tell you October is not hot. It will definitely be less crowded than in the summer which is definitely a good thing. School is back in session so if you’re on a budget check out UCSB or SBCC theater/music programs which are both pretty amazing in my opinion. Things I love about Santa Barbara: it is pretty gay-family friendly, used to be a hippy/beach/college town, now more touristy but still beautiful. It is only 40 minutes to wine country Los Olivos/Solvang/Santa Ynez and about an hour and a half to two hours from LA so you could visit West Hollywood. Or what I usually do is fly into LAX hang out in LA for a little while, then get tired of all the people and drive up the coast to Santa Barbara. If you want small local wine tours/restaurants/stuff to do let me know and I hope you enjoy your honeymoon wherever it leads you.
1. my wife’s and my favorite stop on the coast of California when we drove down route 1 was Big Sur – it’s absolutely gorgeous.
2. ….but that said, I put in another plug for Key West! if you want that “tropical paradise” experience, it’s an unbelievably beautiful option right here in the U.S.! with all the little white buildings glinting in the sun, it looks like a village on a greek island. i don’t know if it’s pricey to fly directly in, but it’s not bad at all to rent a car in southern florida and do the drive down over the beautiful long bridges, watching the water turn a tropical turquoise as you go. (plus then you can stop in the everglades on the way there, and see some gators! ;) )
3. we recently got back from our own honeymoon to New Orleans, which I also recommend as a perfect spot. The city is gay-friendly, there are tons of cute and affordable B&Bs, the weather in October is PERFECT, there’s cheap-to-free live music every night of the week, and it’s got some of the best food in the states! If you want water access, you just have to pick a place with a pool…tons of places have small pools in beautiful rear courtyards. (From there you can also drive out to the Mississippi coast for a couple days to spend some time on the white sand beaches of the gulf, which is another way to satisfy that beachy urge.)
Have an amazing time no matter what you choose!!
Money always matter in planing of any kind of a trip . SO i really want to thank you for the related post .
By far go to Santa Barbara. Such a nice city with a ton of fun things for couples to do. Gay friendly for sure as well. The weather is always spectacular as well as the wine. So if you do come, wine tasting is a must. There are shows going on all the time, shopping is phenomenal and you’re about an hour or so away from LA if you want to go explore a really big city. A great hotel to look into is the South Coast Inn (www.santa-barbara-hotel.com). Elegant yet affordable and the location is really good!