You decided to take your relationship to the next level — one that involved months of preparation, hours debating font size, countless tears (sheesh, Mom), a couple of strippers (Mom, seriously), and commenced with the words I do. So what’s next? Lots and lots of options, all around the world.
FULLY RECOUP
The Big Day had you so busy, you barely remember your own name. (Wait, did you change it?) Let the in-villa spa therapists at Legends Resort Moorea bring Tahiti’s fruit-, plant-, and earth-based remedies to you. If you can tear yourself away from the many temptations in Rajasthan, India, decamp around the private pool in your haveli at the Amanbagh for traditional healing modalities and relaxing massage. Let the ocean nurse you to back to health at Shu Uemura’s Utoco Deep Sea Therapy Center & Hotel in Shikoku, Japan. Or let Vann near Gullmar Fjord, Sweden’s first marine conservation area, help keep your head above water.
PLAY HOUSE
Home’s even sweeter when you don’t have to make the bed. Take in Napa vineyard views from your master bedroom at The Ranch on Soda Rock. Make breakfast in bed using freshly laid eggs at Providore’s charming Martinborough, New Zealand, homestay The General Store. For some Gallic charm, live like a local at one of Paris Residence Club’s smart, fully amenitized flats or settle into New Orleans’s French Quarter at 714 Gov. Nicholls Street (take the romantic Garret suite).
CRUISE ALONG
One if by air might have worked before, but now it’s the two of you by sea. Stow away on Nour El Nil’s Assouan and explore the Nile. Sail Turkey’s Turquoise Coast in your gulet, Queen of Karia. Island hop through the Galapagos on the M.V. Eclipse. Navigate the classic Caledonia from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland with Canadian Sailing Expeditions.
STEP BACK
Not ready to regain your footing in the real world? Find 18th-century Georgian elegance north of Dublin at Bellinter House (sample a few fancy pints in the well-appointed drawing room). Head south for grand hacienda living at Estancia Las Carreras in Argentina, where there’s a cheese maker on-site. Do as the Polynesians did in 400 A.D.: Find Hawaiian paradise at the new St. Regis Princeville in Kauai. Trip 160 million years down memory lane in Madagascar, with a pit stop at Anjajavy.
PARTY ON
Why should you two have all the fun? Don’t answer that. We’re just saying the private island of Ratua in the South Pacific can belong to you and your 24 closest friends. Or invite a chosen few to Pretty Beach House on Australia’s Bouddi Peninsula for hang time in the trees. Minerva, a new villa overlooking Jamaica’s Treasure Beach, might be down the road from Jake’s, but everything your small party needs is right there. Book a group for a few nights, and The House in Barbados will throw your wedding for free.
Talk about commitment.
That’s not enough? Okay, picky newlywed, we have a photo gallery and even more honeymoon ideas:
+ Sweet as Honey
+ And Now for Happily Ever After
+ Take a Vow
+ For Better or for Best
Photos: Courtesy of Amanbagh; Courtesy of 714 Gov. Nicholls Street; Courtesy of Nour El Nil; Courtesy of Gap Adventures; Courtesy of Ratua Island