About honeymoons

[queen_anne78]

We got married in May…We went to Hawaii (in-laws gave us frequent flyer miles…otherwise we would have gone to Rome). To keep a pilgrimage aspect, we stayed on the island of Molokai, where Blessed Damien the Leper did his thing. At first, the remoteness was romantic, but then it was just plain creepy. And the “shrine” for Blessed Damien is not a shrine but owned by the state. Disapointing, but we did get to visit some of the churches he built by hand, so that was cool.

I love Rome. Love it. There is SO much you can do, so I would pick a few major things before you go, and in order to get into a private/semi-private audience you’ll need to contact your Bishop pronto. When I visited, my friends and I got into a semi-private audience (meaning…only a thousand or so people…hahah) with Papa B in thanks to Archbishop Burke. I noticed wedding couples up in the front of the room.

IF YOU GOT TO PARIS, which I recomend, as there are many, many holy shrines there to see as well, you can stay at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Sacre Coeur…the big white church on top of the hill)…we stayed there totally by chance and it was awesome. The nuns take in pilgrims for cheap (2 Euros a night if you bring a sleeping bag…4 if you use their sheets…and you have showers and stuff). PLUS you are staying in a really old church that has had perpetual Eucharistic adoration on the high altar for 127 years. It’s not fancy like a hotel would be…but you can visit Jesus anytime you want PM me if you want the contact info of the sisters there, they like it if you let them know in advance…

In general though, just enjoy your first days together as man and wife…no matter where you go or what you see, you’ll have those first nights together that will be priceless.

 

[Nechasin]

One thing that you can do in Rome if you plan it far enough in advance is staying at monestaries or convents. However, if you do do that, you will want to make sure you check the rules for the monestary or convent. Some have curfews and require even married couples to sleep in separate rooms, some don’t have curfew, some allow married couples to be in the same room, so just check before you commit.

 

[introibo]

In Paris, may I recommend Hotel la Manufacture… it’s a little far from the “main” attractions, near Place d’Italie, but it’s lovely, well-priced and everything is just a quick Metro ride from your hotel!

 

[hasikelee]

Never ever mention honeymoon when planning or buying!

The price triples!

I was invited to attend a cook show by a friend. For sitting there for two hours and sampling some yummy food, plus going through sales pressure, I received a certificate for 7 days, 6 nights to my choice of hot spot vacationing. All inclusive. Only thing to pay is transportation and any taxes from transportation.

There are also sites where you can design a honeymoon registry. My friends actually begged us to do this as they think it is a cute idea, not like the typical gift of buying dishes. You can design fun little things to purchase, such as “one night in the bahamas” to pay for one night of the hotel stay. Dividing it up makes it fun and affordable for every one.

We’ve been planning to drive down to Florida and camp out and go to amusement parks. Then it’s only a short cruise to a vacation spot for a week!

The biggest problem is work. How in the world did you all get off from work for 2-3 weeks? Even worse because our wedding date is smack in the middle of when I am supposed to give performance reviews and hire/fire. Ha! Try getting out of that!

 

[kevinsgirl]

So my advice is 1st - don’t break the bank over a honeymoon. But if finances allow, go someplace that you wouldn’t otherwise go. Someplace that you won’t go to when you have a family.

That’s exactly why we chose a more elaborate honeymoon…if we are blessed with a family right away (God willing), I know that the traveling will have to wait until retirement…and there’s nothing like a good honeymoon to remember when you’re spending subsequent anniversaries at home with the kids.

 

[kevinsgirl]

what is your budget? ball park figure will make it easier to suggest hotels etc. to stay in while visiting these European cities.

Well, we set aside some of our savings as “honeymoon” related, so our budget isn’t too tight–we just would like to stay at a place that is nice, quaint, memorable (in a good way) and not extremely pricey. Somewhere in the $100 - $200 a night range, I suppose.

 

[kevinsgirl]

Congratulations!! If you’re going to Europe, my advice is to take it slow. Don’t plan on trying to see everything that there is to see – leave empty space in your schedule to do anything interesting that pops up. Many people make the mistake of trying to see 8 museums in one day…relax…even if you don’t go everywhere you want to go, it will all (hopefully) be there for your next visit.

Great advice, Ack!

We’ll be getting married on a Saturday, spend two nights at a plantation bed and breakfast and leave for Paris on Monday. We’ll be in Paris for two nights, and then go on to Venice where we’ll be for two more. From there we’ll move on to Rome for a week.

We know it’s going to be tight trying to see lots of stuff while enjoying married “quality time” together… We’ve decided to make a list (in order of importance) of the places we want to vist at each location. We’ll be open to dropping the end of the list if other things pop up. We’re hoping that way we’ll combine the best of both worlds.

 

[kevinsgirl]

Didn’t see any bears, but my wife almost sat on a viper. Not good.

Oh, please if there must be reptiles on my honeymoon, let it be lizards!

Or let my brave husband sit on it…

 

[kevinsgirl]

One of my friends and her husband did go to Rome and have a private audience with Pope JPII. She said it was a lot of fun running through Rome all dressed up in her wedding finery.

I can’t wait to do that! :bounce:

 

[kevinsgirl]

I love Rome. Love it. There is SO much you can do, so I would pick a few major things before you go, and in order to get into a private/semi-private audience you’ll need to contact your Bishop pronto. When I visited, my friends and I got into a semi-private audience (meaning…only a thousand or so people…hahah) with Papa B in thanks to Archbishop Burke. I noticed wedding couples up in the front of the room.

Will do, queen_anne78! Thanks!

 

[kevinsgirl]

The biggest problem is work. How in the world did you all get off from work for 2-3 weeks? Even worse because our wedding date is smack in the middle of when I am supposed to give performance reviews and hire/fire. Ha! Try getting out of that!

Haha…I know exactly what you mean! I’m saving up every bit of my annual leave (should be 2 weeks’ worth)… My fiance, on the other hand, has it easy–he gets the whole summer off…

 

[IlovemyChurch]

Oh, and if any of you happened to go to Rome, did you get an audience with the Holy Father and receive his blessing?

yep, I went to Rome, just this last summer on honeymoon.

We went to the ‘sposi novelli’ section of the Wednesday Papal Audience in our wedding clothes, and we got to meet Pope B! We held his hand, spoke with him and then kissed his hand! It was AMAZING! We then each got handed one of his Papal rosaries from his aides!

It was beautiful!

If you want to go then apply for tickets from your country’s college in Rome (the American college), and on the day arrive EARLY. I would say be there at least at 8am, for a 10:30am start, if you want to get on the front row and have any hope of holding his hand if he comes round

 

[queen_anne78]

I would say be there at least at 8am, for a 10:30am start, if you want to get on the front row and have any hope of holding his hand if he comes round

lol…if you get there at 6:30/7 am like we did…you can by-pass the generally long line down to where JP2 is entombed, and have plenty of time to pray there, and to check out all the other popes. We did this by accident actually…we meant to get in line for confession, but somehow ended up in the wrong hallway, and a Swiss guard asked us “JP2??” and of course we were like, “Yes!!!” even though we had no idea what was going on…And we ended up at his tomb.

 

[lifeisbeautiful]

Well, your plans sound great! We went on 7 day cruise for our honeymoon (Caribbean), then we stayed at a beach condo (owned by my grandparents) for a week, and then went to my in-law’s beach house in my husband’s hometown to visit and for me to meet his grandma and a few other relatives who were not at the wedding.
It was a wonderful trip!

I am so excited for you to go to Rome and hopefully have a papal audience. We got married when JPII was very ill and I was told he was not doing audiences for couples like that at the time, if not I might have persuaded my husband to a different destination for our honeymoon

I’ve been to Rome a few times (one of the times I went my sis was living there, she lived there 3 yrs) and I would suggest you get a map and information on the sub system/buses, if available, so you can make the most out of it. Many of the places you should visit are together in clusters or close to each other, so you might be able to pre-plan the trip (sort of) so you can manage your time there better. Since we were on a cruise we didn’t really have to make decisions of whether or not to sightsee more or less (we would just spend the whole time we were at port on the island and then get back on the ship when it was time to go), but I would aim towards sight seeing more, since, like you mentioned, it may not be as easy once the little ones come (though its not impossible, one of the times I went I was there for St Josemaria’s canonization and there were plenty of families with little ones )
Anyways, there are so many treasures of our Church in Rome, I would definitely try to maximize your time there (sightsee as much as you can).

One thing I did discover was that it is best to reserve some time (when you arrive in France?) to recover a bit from Jet-lag if you have any. That can affect the rest of your trip (at least it always affected me).

 

[CatholicSam]

That’s exactly why we chose a more elaborate honeymoon…if we are blessed with a family right away (God willing), I know that the traveling will have to wait until retirement…and there’s nothing like a good honeymoon to remember when you’re spending subsequent anniversaries at home with the kids.

My parents’ favorite anniversary was at home with the kids, and this last anniversary my husband and I spent doing not much, at home, with our kid. It was wonderful! We made our total consecration to Jesus through Mary (St. Montfort) in the morning and took our son to the playground in the afternoon Please don’t fall into the trap of thinking that being “stuck” at home with the kids is less favorable than being off alone somewhere. They’re both special!

I can see why you’d want to travel now while you have the opportunity (and we did too, before kids), but don’t get sucked into the idea that once you have kids to love and take care of, things will be less…perfect. It only gets better And if you’re anything like many couples I know, you’ll load the kids up *with *you to go on some great family vacations together. (I haven’t gotten that brave yet though )

Congratulations on your upcoming marriage and may God bless you with the large family you’re dreaming of

 

[ack]

The comment on jet-lag is a good point. For me, the best way to avoid jet lag has been to NOT sleep during the daylight hours during your first day in Europe. When you arrive, it will be 3AM or so at home and sleep will be what you’ll want more than anything else…but if you fall asleep during the first day, your body will not adjust to the new time zone as quickly, and you’ll be more tired throughout the rest of the trip. This means that activities that aren’t boring and don’t require much bra(name removed by moderator)ower are good for the first day.

Try as hard as you can to stay up during the first day, then go to bed when it gets dark and sleep until you’re totally rested.

Well, your plans sound great! We went on 7 day cruise for our honeymoon (Caribbean), then we stayed at a beach condo (owned by my grandparents) for a week, and then went to my in-law’s beach house in my husband’s hometown to visit and for me to meet his grandma and a few other relatives who were not at the wedding.
It was a wonderful trip!

I am so excited for you to go to Rome and hopefully have a papal audience. We got married when JPII was very ill and I was told he was not doing audiences for couples like that at the time, if not I might have persuaded my husband to a different destination for our honeymoon

I’ve been to Rome a few times (one of the times I went my sis was living there, she lived there 3 yrs) and I would suggest you get a map and information on the sub system/buses, if available, so you can make the most out of it. Many of the places you should visit are together in clusters or close to each other, so you might be able to pre-plan the trip (sort of) so you can manage your time there better. Since we were on a cruise we didn’t really have to make decisions of whether or not to sightsee more or less (we would just spend the whole time we were at port on the island and then get back on the ship when it was time to go), but I would aim towards sight seeing more, since, like you mentioned, it may not be as easy once the little ones come (though its not impossible, one of the times I went I was there for St Josemaria’s canonization and there were plenty of families with little ones )
Anyways, there are so many treasures of our Church in Rome, I would definitely try to maximize your time there (sightsee as much as you can).

One thing I did discover was that it is best to reserve some time (when you arrive in France?) to recover a bit from Jet-lag if you have any. That can affect the rest of your trip (at least it always affected me).

 

[Nechasin]

The comment on jet-lag is a good point. For me, the best way to avoid jet lag has been to NOT sleep during the daylight hours during your first day in Europe. When you arrive, it will be 3AM or so at home and sleep will be what you’ll want more than anything else…but if you fall asleep during the first day, your body will not adjust to the new time zone as quickly, and you’ll be more tired throughout the rest of the trip. This means that activities that aren’t boring and don’t require much bra(name removed by moderator)ower are good for the first day.

I agree. I have traveled several times to Europe and I have never suffered serious jet lag. I usually arrive early morning (7a or so local time). I stay up until at least 8p and then sleep. It can be hard that first day, but the second day and after I’m fine.

Another thing to be aware of is all churches we went to in Italy required that no shorts be worn, no middrif be shown and no shoulders be shown. This was just to walk inside and look at the Church. I don’t know when you will be going, but Rome can be quite hot in the summertime so you will want to be prepared as you walk around Rome in case their is a Church you want to look at.

 

[JohnnyK]

Twas a loong time ago, but let me remember

We went to the Poconos for a week & then went on a cruise to Bermuda. It was def within our budget & we had a great time. Tough going back to work though LOL!

Congrats in advance & have a great time!

 

[mrs_abbott]

We went to beautiful Colorado and stayed for four days and three nights. It cost us about $750 for everything (food, hotel, entertainment, attractions, and rentral car).

 

[Eileen_T]

Mine was the “Honeymoon from Hell.” If you want a list of don’ts I will oblige! I could probably win a prize for this one, and after 34 years this December I am still struggling to forgive my husband!

Just a Tip!

If you are totally broke, stay at home, don’t go to your inlaws!