Where we're NOT going

Ok, so we talked about the requirements: no shots, no long flights, no repeat vacations, nothing in the hurricane belt. Where did this leave us? Pretty much, Colonial Williamsburg.



source

I'll give a shout out to my boy Paul Revere (geographically inaccurate, but a a fun reference), but say that this was not what I had in mind. I was thinking sun, sand, romance, and something with more of a once-in-a-lifetime feel.

This led us to Costa Rica. I was initially drawn to Costa Rica because of the rain forest. One of my dreams has always been to go on safari (but...shots...ahhh!) and the idea of seeing rain forest wildlife was almost as good. The photos of various Costa Rican resorts confirmed that los animales were plentiful.



Hola! [Costa Rican Coati]

Don't you want to squeeze his little face? And the beaches were nothing to sneeze at, either.


source

I talked to friends who honeymooned there, researched hotels and flights, and I thought we were set. This was gonna rock! However, I neglected to check the weather. Oops. September/October is part of the "rainy season" in Costa Rica. This was literally the last piece of information I uncovered. Not because it was hidden, but because I tend to get ahead of myself. While it's not fatal to a vacation, I didn't want to take the chance that our planned tours and daytrips would fall prey to the rain. Plus, what I read indicated that Costa Rica's roads are not all well-paved and that they can be very hard to travel in a heavy rain. I didn't want to chance it.

However, I did learn a few things from this experience: (1) read Fodor's or a similar travel site for the basics before delving deep into a certain destination, and (2) Costa Rica will make an excellent future vacation destination.

I promise I'll tell you all about where we decided to go in the next entry. When we finally made the decision, it was as much excitement as relief. We were so tired of the constant up and down of finding a place, thinking it was great, then finding a fatal flaw. Or worse, throwing around the idea of destinations that just didn't seem exciting, just to be done.

I think there's a certain pressure to make your honeymoon a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and, while that can be great, it makes the planning seem enormous. Also, I feel like everyone asks where you're going, and has an opinion. (Ok, that can be said for almost everything, wedding-related or not.) That can add a certain pressure too. Add the cost factor in, and it can get pretty overwhelming - here you are shelling out for a wedding, and, on top of that, you've got pressure to plan and pay for a week-long vacation on top of it, all in one relatively short period of time.

This is why a lot of couples plan a mini-moon and then a honeymoon for later. In our case, it would have solved the rainy season problem for Costa Rica and the hurricane season problem for the Caribbean. I think it's a great idea in general, but it didn't work for us, unfortunately.

Did you feel a pressure to make your honeymoon unique and/or extravagant?