Go Honeymoons:Prices are tumbling, making this a brilliant time to book your honeymoon. Joan Scaleshas lots of ideas for great romantic getaways, Cathal de Barradescribes his 12-month adventure and Sharon Ní Chonchúirreports on some honeymoon deals in Thailand
EXOTIC honeymoons have never been cheaper. Tour operators have dropped their prices by 20 to 25 per cent this year on average, and by 45 per cent in some cases. Honeymoon resorts are offering extra nights, free upgrades, free activities, cheaper spa treatments and even theme-park tickets. Some Thai resorts are not only dropping prices but offering to double your spending money as well. It’s the right time to haggle for your honeymoon.
Several factors are behind this trend, and all are working to the about-to-be-marrieds’ advantage. The lifting of the fuel surcharge has reduced the price of airfares, the recession has forced airlines and travel companies to compete more vigorously, and if anyone has saved up enough for a holiday this year, it’s honeymooners.
Some are even making weekly deposits with travel agents. Tour America reports that weekly or monthly contributions from family and friends for the honeymoon have become a fashionable pre-wedding present.
Those planning weddings and honeymoons are watching their budgets, so they are insisting on good deals. Couples are also more interested in experiences and adventure, so some are choosing to make their money stretch farther by spending, say, two weeks touring the US rather than a week in a posh Caribbean resort.
Brian McCarthy of Escape2 says: “We expect to see a significant drop in the average spend on honeymoons. Initially when we received our 2009 rates, back in spring 2008, there was an increase of 5 to 10 per cent, year on year. However, since November we have noticed considerable rate reductions and various promotions, and in the last month alone Dubai has dropped by as much as 40 per cent.”
For many brides and grooms, the very definition of a honeymoon is an all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean – and there, too, prices are being reduced. Last year Sandals offered Irish customers 25 per cent off. This year it has cut rates yet again. Ciarán Carragher of the company says: “We are offering 35 per cent discounts this year and free nights in some resorts.”
Peter Conway of Caribbean Collection points out that value for money has become the buzzword; he has seen prices drop by about 25 per cent, and hotels are offering better deals to encourage people to commit.
Hawaii, another dream honeymoon destination, is wooing couples with added value such as free nights and complimentary upgrades. Guy Tominage of Aloha Holidays has noticed that people are dropping down a category of hotel or reducing the lengths of their stays.
With their bank balances in mind, couples are not being tempted to budge from their budgets. Hugh Staunton of Trailfinders, which arranges long-haul honeymoons, says: “Previously, people may have exceeded their budget for a trip that they really liked, but now we are finding that the figure is written in stone.”
Couples are also waiting until the last minute to book, knowing that they will get a better deal. “Usually honeymoons were booked up to a year in advance; now couples are booking under six months – and even up to three weeks before the big event,” says Staunton.
There’s also the green factor. Some tour operators says couples are looking for destinations closer to home out of consideration not just for their wallets but also their carbon footprints.
In another shift, the grand European honeymoon is coming back: Abbey Travel, Topflight and Sunway all cite a shift to Italy, Portugal and the Canaries, with the emphasis on quality hotels with spa and wellness facilities. The Atlantic islands are a relatively short flight away, and when you arrive you can just relax and recover from the exertions of the wedding – a more exhausting experience than many newly-weds expect.
Cruises appeal to some honeymooners as the ultimate rest-and-relaxation holiday. They may be even more appealing this year, as they are up to 45 per cent cheaper than in 2008. Collette Brennan of eTravel, a specialist cruise company, says some major cruise lines are also offering free on-ship credit for restaurants and spas as inducements.
So if you’re planning a stroll down the aisle, this, as the offers on the next page show, is definitely your year.
West Coast US: from €1,044pps
Five nights in California and two in Las Vegas, with car hire, costs from €1,044pps, with tax. www.americanholidays.ie, 01-6733840.
Indian Ocean: from €978pps
Get two nights free when you book a honeymoon to Bali staying at the five-star Oberoi Hotel from €978pps. Or stay at the four-star Kurumba resort, in the Maldives, with prices from €1,499pps for a week. www.trailfinders.ie, 01-8814994 and 021-4648888.
Hawaii: from €1,995pps
Until the end of March Aloha Holidays is offering 10 nights on two Hawaiian islands, including flights, three-star hotel and transfers, from €1,995pps. www.aloha- holidays.ie, 01-2108391.
Caribbean all in: from €1,244pps
You could get great value from a honeymoon in the Dominican Republic, with a week in a four-star hotel, flights, transfers, water sports and all you can eat and drink from €1,244pps. www.caribbean collection.ie, 021-4635556.
Bay of Naples: from €1,689
You could spend a romantic week in Italy at Capo la Gala five-star boutique hotel, on the Bay of Naples, from €1,689. Or why not have a week in Sorrento followed by a week’s cruise with Italian line MSC Cruises from €2,183. www.topflight.ie, 1890-240170.
Med romance: from €1,599pps
A two-centre holiday, combining Cannes, Monte Carlo or San Remo, for 10 nights in four-star hotels from €1,599pps. www.abbeytravel.ie, 01-8047100.
Jamaica all in: from €1,636pps
How about an all-inclusive package to Jamaica, staying in a deluxe room at the five-star Sandals Grande Ocho Rios Beach Villa Golf Resort, with Virgin Atlantic flights? From €1,636pps. www.tropical places.ie, 01-4331029.
Fly and cruise: from €899pps
A seven-night fly-cruise of the Greek islands on Splendour of the Seas, with a night in Venice, starts at €899pps. Or consider a nine-night western Caribbean fly-cruise aboard Liberty of the Seas, also from €899pps, including a night in Miami and seven nights aboard. www.e-travel.ie, 01-4081999.
Lake Garda: from €1,358pps
Stay at the stylish four-star Color Hotel, in Bardolino on Lake Garda, for 14 nights half-board from €1,358pps, including flights and bicycle hire to explore the Italian countryside. www.inghams.ie, 1850-929021.
Mauritius: from €3,846 for 2
Ten nights in Mauritius, half-board at the five-star Legends Hotel, starts at €3,846 per couple. Or try three nights in Bangkok and 11 nights at Amari Palm Reef Resort, in Koh Samui, from €3,646 per couple. (See panel, right.) Or combine San Francisco, LA and Las Vegas for nine nights from €2,092 per couple. www.sunway.ie, 01-2886828.
Dubai savings: from €1,695pps
Save €1,405 per person on seven nights at Mina A’Salam or Jumeirah Beach hotels, in Dubai, from €1,695pps. Save €1,662 per couple in the Seychelles, staying at the Labriz Silhouette resort, from €1,659pps plus taxes. www.escape2.ie, 01-8958000.
Cyprus summer: free upgrade
Book by the end of March for a BB stay at InterContinental Aphrodite Hills Resort Hotel, in Cyprus, and you’ll be upgraded to half-board for trips between June 15th and July 15th. www. slatterys.com, 1890-200425.
Cruise and stay: from €1,499pps
A 14-night cruise-and-stay package to the Caribbean and Florida in September, with a balcony cabin and a four-star hotel, costs from €1,499pps, down from €1,899. www.tour america.ie, 01-8173535.
South Africa: from €1,650pps
Explore South Africa with a trip that includes five nights in Cape Town, four nights on the Garden Route and three nights’ safari. From €1,650pps. www. travelfocus.ie, 021-4320898.
All-inclusive: from €1,269pps
Seven nights all-inclusive at Dreams Palm Beach Punta Cana resort, in the Dominican Republic, with a honeymoon- special champagne breakfast in bed, costs from €1,269pps. 01- 4350093, www.destinations.ie.
JOAN SCALES
A burning desire to get away? A year-long honeymoon should do the trick
After Cathal de Barragot married, he and his wife, Jane, set off on a 12-month adventure through Africa and the Americas. They travelled home separately - but it's not why you think.
DID YOU HEAR about the guy who went off on his honeymoon with a blond pharmacist only to come home with a brunette barrister? Must have been quite a honeymoon. Yes. It certainly was.
As I first met Jane while skiing, perhaps it was inevitable that things would evolve as they did. Over time a vague dream became our reality: we would spend a year travelling together, on a honeymoon adventure.
We had a myriad of issues to deal with first. Planning the trip, organising our wedding, renting out our house and extracting ourselves from professional jobs – we are both in our 30s – is a fairly understated way of describing the whirlwind of our lives in the months leading up to our departure. After that, packing for 12 months away was almost an afterthought.
Our journey would take us to Africa, Central America, the Caribbean and North America – less around the world, more up and down it – and we would travel home separately, in opposite directions.
Cape Town in late September was the perfect place to unpack our bags for the first of many, many times. With so much to do in that vibrant historical city, we had to remind ourselves to slow down. After all, from now on every day would be a Saturday. It took six weeks of driving up the east coast of South Africa to find a balanced pace. It became as much about the journey as the destination.
A bus trip into neighbouring Mozambique, to visit my sister and family working there with Trócaire, was our first introduction to the "African timetable". When we asked about the timing of the trip, the driver helpfully explained that "we will leave when full" – by which he meant impossibly full – "and arrive when we get there".
Having travelled fairly extensively in the past, we were surprised at how apprehensive we felt landing in Bamako, the capital of Mali, in west Africa. We were about to step off the aircraft into the unknown, our first real taste of adventure on this trip, and it was daunting.
We journeyed up the River Niger to Mali's fabled desert town of Timbuktu. Each time the ferry docked, people poured off to set up impromptu markets, where the weekly business was condensed into no more than 30 minutes of frenetic greeting, bargaining, gesticulating, agreeing and, finally, smiling, in satisfaction at a job well done.
After three months in Africa we left behind the incredible mud mosques, colonial French towns, desert vistas and hot, arid weather of Mali and Senegal and spent the next two months in the Canadian Rockies, enjoying outdoor hot tubs and log fires to take the edge off the crisp cold – the magic of a real-winter experience.
Then it was off to the Caribbean to join my father and his pals aboard Northabout for a sailing trip. As we ploughed through surprisingly rough seas between the islands of Martinique and Antigua, we wondered where the steady winds and calm turquoise waters of the brochures were; we found shelter on Dominica, a mountainous gem of unspoilt tropical forests, and in France. Yes, France: the island of Guadeloupe is a French department, and for all we found there we could just as well have been in Brittany – albeit a tropical version.
Leaving our crewmates behind in Antigua, with the sound of the Shirley Heights steel band ringing in our ears, we flew on to Cuba, a place you can summarise quite easily: if you haven't been there and get the chance to go, do.
One of the joys of independent travel is in finding out-of-the-way places that are attractive in their simplicity. So we made our way to the backpackers' retreat of Playa del Carmen, in Mexico. At least that was what it was like when I had last visited, 17 years ago. But now that sandy one-street town is a city of more than 100,000 people, its growth fuelled by tourism. That such a dramatic change could happen in a relatively short time was sobering. Where backpackers boldly go the crowds are sure to follow.
Over the next two months, as we travelled down through Central America, we scuba-dived Mexico's freshwater limestone caverns, kayaked around Belize's tropical barrier reef, followed toucans – the Guinness birds – through Guatemala's Tikal ruins, surfed El Salvador's coast and learned Spanish in a Nicaraguan fishing village.
En route we had time to look out of the windows of buses, to lose ourselves in reverie and to imagine something different, a change.
On one of those journeys, through the Guatemalan highlands, Jane decided that when we got back to Ireland she would go back to finish what she had started several years ago: her studies to become a barrister. The world would just have to make do with one fewer pharmacists and one more lawyer.
We left Nicaragua at the end of May. The rains had just begun, and who needs that? We found ourselves in California, where Carl Roberts, the entertaining barman of the Pacific Dining Car restaurant in Santa Monica advised us to "get a GPS, not to find your way but to save your marriage". We reckon it did both, admirably.
How was it to be together 24/7? We were spending more time with each other than most married couples ever do outside, perhaps, retirement. The truth is that it was fantastic: a gift of time in each other's company. A strong mutual reliance developed, and in that we came to really appreciate each other's strengths. In managing our challenges we learned a lot about ourselves and each other, and over those months we grew closer and our friendship deepened.
Which is not to say we didn't have disagreements, but we learned to deal with them quickly and move on. We had to: there is no other way when it's just the two of you out there. A tent doesn't even have a door to slam.
Yes, a tent. With the odd exception, that was our home for the next three months on our road trip from Los Angeles to Alaska. Camping is a great and inexpensive way to see the best the US has to offer. We were impressed by the high standards of public campsites in enviable locations close to towns or deep in the backcountry of national parks. Our final adventure was our most exciting: several days sea-kayaking in an Alaskan wilderness of fjords, glaciers and grizzly bears.
For four nights we camped alone in bear country – and hardly slept a wink. There is no greater bonding experience than that found in the face of adversity.
There is a twist in this tiger's tale. Our return home coincided with Ireland's economic sea change. Jobs are not easy to come by, and the next while will likely be tough for us. We wouldn't change a thing, though, because Mark Twain was right: "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream."
We took slightly different routes home. I passed through Bali, to do a little surfing, while Jane went to Vancouver Island, to visit family.
Somewhere along her way she also took the time to change from blond to brunette. We're still happily married. The challenges of travelling together gave us a good foundation for our marriage.
Could Thailand offer honeymooners the ultimate holiday?
WITH ITS SHELTERED beaches, idyllic islands, luxurious accommodation, excellent food, fascinating culture and balmy weather, Thailand combines all the ingredients for a perfect honeymoon – and if you're getting hitched this year there's the bonus of up to 50 per cent off last year's prices at some prestigious resorts. Here are some eye-catching offers.
** Vijitt Resort (00-66-76- 363600, www.vijittresort.com), on Phuket Island, is set in tropical gardens by the Andaman Sea. Its 92 traditional-style villas are airy and light-filled. Each has a private entrance, garden, sun terrace, outdoor rain shower and bath made for two. Its deluxe villas, next to the beach, have infinity pools. You may not want to leave – and, thanks to in-villa dining and spa treatments, you won't have to, although even love-struck romantics may eventually tire of splendid seclusion and sample the food in the restaurants, which serve traditional Thai with a contemporary twist. Spicy seafood soup with lemon grass, galangal and lime juice was a particular delight. After dinner you can indulge in that most pleasurable of honeymoon clichés, admiring a spectacular sunset, as you sip a cocktail at the beachside bar. The resort organises classes in yoga, Thai cookery, dancing and local arts and crafts, or you can charter a boat for a day trip around the coast, where you'll discover uninhabited islands of interlocking sea caves, hidden lagoons and pristine beaches.
** Across the water on the mainland is Krabi Province, home to Pakasai Resort (00-66-27190740, www.pakasai.com), another favourite with honeymooners. The resort's Adora suites are its most luxurious, spacious and brightly coloured with private gardens, a balcony and a wooden deck with tub. The temptation might be to spend all your time cocooned in your suite, but if you want to venture out you'll find a freshwater infinity pool on the roof terrace, overlooking palm trees and the sea. Located within Noppharat Thara National Park, Pakasai is secluded but close enough to the beachside town of Ao Nang to let you experience the charms of Thai-style small-town life. Ao Nang's long stretch of golden sand runs alongside an eclectic variety of restaurants and shops. You could spend days browsing through local arts and crafts here, or you could use Ao Nang as a base for chartering a long-tailed boat and exploring local islands, kayaking through mangrove forests or trekking in the national park. The resort is currently offering two nights' BB, a round-trip transfer between Krabi Airport and the resort, a one-hour spa treatment and a half-day of island-hopping for 9,100 baht (about €200) per person.
** If you're interested in making your money go farther, Centara Hotels might be able to help. Lodge 10,000 baht (€220) with the resort, for example, and it will give you an additional 5,000 baht (€110) to spend while you're there. It works on a sliding scale, to a maximum of 20,000 baht (€440) when you lodge 30,000 baht (€660). The offer applies to stays completed in April, May, June, September and October this year.
** Amari Palm Reef Resort, in Koh Samui, has a deal of booking for five nights' BB but staying for 10. It costs €1,275 per person sharing, saving €338 per person. It's valid for stays completed between in May and June this year.
** If you fancy staying in Phuket, you can get a similar deal at Laguna Beach Resort. It's charging €1,279 per person sharing a superior room for BB, saving €400 per person. It applies to stays completed between April 16th and October 31st this year.
** For more Thai honeymoon packages, see www.tropicalsky.ie and
www.destinations.ie.
SHARON NÍ CHONCHÚIR
Sharon Ní Chonchúir was a guest of Escape2 and Eva Air. She flew from London Heathrow and stayed at Vijitt Resort. Seven nights in a deluxe villa, with return flights and transfers, costs from €1,449pps.
Book on 01-8958000 or see www.escape2.ie