Recommendations for Honeymoon PLEASE

I've been talking with my travel agent about going to Moorea which is absolutely breath taking (from what I've seen). But it's going to be too much over my budget. The plane tickets alone are $2,000/pp.

I'm setting aside $7,000 for bottom line/total expense. About $2,000 of that is for spending money...that leaves about $5,000 for hotel + airfare. We would like to stay at least 8 nights.

I wanted somewhere that had really nice beaches cuz we love to soak up the sun, but also had lots of other things to do like sightseeing, hiking, biking (we're pretty active ppl too). We prefer not to do an all inclusive resort bc we feel like we would be tied down too much in order to get our money's worth.

I don't want a location that is too city like (hawaii for example...my travel agent said that there are a ton of malls there and large building, lots of ppl, etc.)

Since we like to walk around a lot, it's got to be a place that isn't too dangerous (I heard Jamaica was nice, but dangerous)

And one other thing...I've already been to st. thomas (in the USVI) and mexico and would like to go somewhere different.

if anyone has any suggestions, please help!


TIA

we did the Sandals Regency in St. Lucia and absolutely loved it!! It's a very lush island..SO beautiful! and you can't beat all inclusive...the only thing we paid for the entire vacay were our souveniers definetly look into it..we had such a great time :) i've heard excellent things about the Divi resorts in Aruba as well. also all-inclusive.

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Posted by jtgarsik

we did the Sandals Regency in St. Lucia and absolutely loved it!! It's a very lush island..SO beautiful! and you can't beat all inclusive...the only thing we paid for the entire vacay were our souveniers definetly look into it..we had such a great time :) i've heard excellent things about the Divi resorts in Aruba as well. also all-inclusive.

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It IS tempting to get an all inclusive because of the price, but did you guys mostly stay in the hotel and enjoy the things they had to offer there, or did you mostly go out?

sounds like costa rica would be nice for you. Lots to see. What about another part of Mexico? It is so different from place to place and lots to see.

There is not much to do in Aruba.

We love the Dominican Republic, there is lots to do there.

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Posted by JenBill61210

i went to aruba and i loved it!

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me too! didn't want to have to worry about hurricanes in late july

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Posted by jtgarsik

we did the Sandals Regency in St. Lucia and absolutely loved it!! It's a very lush island..SO beautiful! and you can't beat all inclusive...the only thing we paid for the entire vacay were our souveniers

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We stayed here too. LOVED IT!!!

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Posted by StacyJill2009


There is not much to do in Aruba.

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so not true. there's plenty to do in aruba.

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Posted by vicky1125

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Posted by StacyJill2009


There is not much to do in Aruba.

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so not true. there's plenty to do in aruba.

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i was curious about this too, dh and i arent big beach people and well obviously this wouldnt be for a hm since i already went on mine but thinking of a summer trip and we were considering aruba bc some of his friends also want to do aruba and thought we'd all go together. We both were ok with aruba bc we heard theres more to do there than other islands. Many other islands we wouldnt even be able to do.

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Posted by Espo22

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Posted by vicky1125

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Posted by StacyJill2009


There is not much to do in Aruba.

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so not true. there's plenty to do in aruba.

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i was curious about this too, dh and i arent big beach people and well obviously this wouldnt be for a hm since i already went on mine but thinking of a summer trip and we were considering aruba bc some of his friends also want to do aruba and thought we'd all go together. We both were ok with aruba bc we heard theres more to do there than other islands. Many other islands we wouldnt even be able to do.

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well there's the usual water activites you can do like all the other islands. but you can also rent atv's or jeeps and go off roading which it is a lot of fun if you don't mind getting dirty. we did that with a bunch of us and went to see the natural pool and the natural bridge. fh went shark fishing with the boys. i would have gone but i would have been the only girl and didn't want to ruin their fun. you can walk around downtown where the marina is just to hang out. you can go to de palm island which is a little island off of aruba where they feed you hotdogs and burgers and drinks and you can tan and go snorkeling and they have a water park there. they're also building a water park in aruba which should be done by next year. at night you can go out for dinner or a bar and if you're into gambling there's plenty of that. we went snorkeling on the catamaran which was fun.

there's also a butterfly farm and ostrich farm which we haven't been to but i'd like to go next time we're there. i don't think there's much to do in the area of seeing any ruins although while we were on the jeeps we saw the bushiribana ruins but there wasn't much to it.

ETA: my review of the trip to aruba this past summer. i only put the restuarants in.

http://www.liweddings.com/chat/topic.aspx?ID=545521&Highlight=aruba

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Posted by vicky1125

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Posted by Espo22

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Posted by vicky1125

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Posted by StacyJill2009


There is not much to do in Aruba.

---

so not true. there's plenty to do in aruba.

---

i was curious about this too, dh and i arent big beach people and well obviously this wouldnt be for a hm since i already went on mine but thinking of a summer trip and we were considering aruba bc some of his friends also want to do aruba and thought we'd all go together. We both were ok with aruba bc we heard theres more to do there than other islands. Many other islands we wouldnt even be able to do.

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well there's the usual water activites you can do like all the other islands. but you can also rent atv's or jeeps and go off roading which it is a lot of fun if you don't mind getting dirty. we did that with a bunch of us and went to see the natural pool and the natural bridge. fh went shark fishing with the boys. i would have gone but i would have been the only girl and didn't want to ruin their fun. you can walk around downtown where the marina is just to hang out. you can go to de palm island which is a little island off of aruba where they feed you hotdogs and burgers and drinks and you can tan and go snorkeling and they have a water park there. they're also building a water park in aruba which should be done by next year. at night you can go out for dinner or a bar and if you're into gambling there's plenty of that. we went snorkeling on the catamaran which was fun.

there's also a butterfly farm and ostrich farm which we haven't been to but i'd like to go next time we're there. i don't think there's much to do in the area of seeing any ruins although while we were on the jeeps we saw the bushiribana ruins but there wasn't much to it.

ETA: my review of the trip to aruba this past summer. i only put the restuarants in.

http://www.liweddings.com/chat/topic.aspx?ID=545521&Highlight=aruba

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Hey thanks for the info! I'm definately going to look into it. My fiance would love the off road part. He's a rugged kind of man lol.

Riviera Maya, Mexico

I stayed at Excellence. It was beautiful and in your budget.

We stayed at Sandals Regency in St Lucia for 5 nights and at Ladera for 2 and honestly all inclusive is the way to go. There are several restaurants to choose from plus you can shuttle to the other resorts and dine at their restaurants and use their facilities. We had enough to do that we only left the resort when it rained (1 day-all day) so we took a cab into Castries and did some shopping. We paid extra for Zip-lining and souviners.

At Ladera which was not all inclusive, we spent about $125.00 for dinner (no appetizer, no drinks) and aprox $50.00 for lunch everyday. Ladera was super expensive b/c of the location. The package was approx $6500.00 (including airfare)

On another note there is not much to do on the island of St Lucia though.

Would you consider Paradise Island? Bahamas????

Me and FH are doing that, and we paid under $4,000 for 5 nights and 6 days.

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Posted by vicky1125

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Posted by Espo22

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Posted by vicky1125

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Posted by StacyJill2009


There is not much to do in Aruba.

---

so not true. there's plenty to do in aruba.

---

i was curious about this too, dh and i arent big beach people and well obviously this wouldnt be for a hm since i already went on mine but thinking of a summer trip and we were considering aruba bc some of his friends also want to do aruba and thought we'd all go together. We both were ok with aruba bc we heard theres more to do there than other islands. Many other islands we wouldnt even be able to do.

---

well there's the usual water activites you can do like all the other islands. but you can also rent atv's or jeeps and go off roading which it is a lot of fun if you don't mind getting dirty. we did that with a bunch of us and went to see the natural pool and the natural bridge. fh went shark fishing with the boys. i would have gone but i would have been the only girl and didn't want to ruin their fun. you can walk around downtown where the marina is just to hang out. you can go to de palm island which is a little island off of aruba where they feed you hotdogs and burgers and drinks and you can tan and go snorkeling and they have a water park there. they're also building a water park in aruba which should be done by next year. at night you can go out for dinner or a bar and if you're into gambling there's plenty of that. we went snorkeling on the catamaran which was fun.

there's also a butterfly farm and ostrich farm which we haven't been to but i'd like to go next time we're there. i don't think there's much to do in the area of seeing any ruins although while we were on the jeeps we saw the bushiribana ruins but there wasn't much to it.

ETA: my review of the trip to aruba this past summer. i only put the restuarants in.

http://www.liweddings.com/chat/topic.aspx?ID=545521&Highlight=aruba

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YES a casino is key for us hahaha, we actually look for that. Thank you for all the info

don't rule out hawaii!!!
Sure, in Honolulu and Maui there are city-like areas,
but ...
Kauai was the most beautiful place I have ever seen. The farthest thing from a city possible. I didn't want to leave!
And, there was a lot to do. We went kayaking, horseback riding on the beach, ziplining, drove around the whole island in a convertable. The most breath taking views.
I highly recommend it!