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Once
you've mortgaged the rest of your life for the dress and the ceremony, made all
sorts of promises in front of everyone you know and danced with your long-lost
fifth cousin twice removed, you deserve a little time off to recuperate. It's
called a honeymoon.
Your honeymoon is that
wonderful period of grace between the fantasy of your wedding and the reality of
simply being an old married couple. It's a time for the two of you to get to
know each other as well as two people who are going to spend the next couple of
days alone with only each other for company can. But not so alone that you can't
ring for room service when you need it.
According to a recent
survey by
Modern Bride magazine, newlyweds are certainly not loathe to shell out
when it comes to spending up on their honeymoon - on average, newlyweds spend
$3,700 on their honeymoon. For the average wage earner, that's almost 10% of
their annual income.
Honeymoon spending is
high for a number of reasons. Firstly, for most of us it's a once-in-a-lifetime
chance to live it up, favoring luxurious resorts and exotic cruises over a
two-star just-off-the-highway motel. And the honeymoon is generally not the time
for going to stay with mad old Aunty Gladys who you haven't seen since you were
five. No, honeymooners want their day in the sun, a time to luxuriate in the
newness of coupledom and they are usually looking for something special. So if
that means ordering that second bottle of champagne, or deciding on the lobster
for dinner, most honeymooners don't give it a second thought.
To compile their list of
Top 10 honeymoon destinations, the Modern Bride survey factored in romance,
ambience, affordability, seclusion, culture and adventure amongst its list of
important qualities. Here are the results for overall excellence:
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Hawaii
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Jamaica
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Mexico
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Tahiti
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St Lucia
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Italy
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US Virgin Islands
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Aruba
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Las Vegas
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Bermuda
While there are no real
surprises on the list, the surprise is that there are not more distant,
out-of-the-way places in the Top 10. Which only goes to prove that even
honeymooners want value for money and the chance to explore new territory - but
not too far from home. Of course, Italy is the one exception, but who couldn't
imagine romantic visions of strolling through vineyards in Tuscany, or sipping
grappa in a trattoria in Venice?
If your honeymoon is
still in the planning phase, or even if you've already got your heart set on an
exotic honeymoon destination, it's worth visiting
Romantic Honeymoon Destinations.
Although most of the destinations we've included are in the "let's max out the
Amex card" type honeymoon, we've also included plenty of useful information for
the more budget conscious "we smashed open the piggy bank to pay for this"
honeymoon traveler in our
Honeymoon Tips guide.
Just don't forget, it's
YOUR honeymoon and one of the few chances most of us get to indulge a little. So
whether that's the little village down the road you always wanted to visit or
some exotic location, the most important honeymoon tip I can give you is HAVE
FUN!
Bon voyage!
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