Honeymoon Heaven

I hope you and your loved ones had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!! After spending time with my loving husband on a romantic vacation to sunny and warm St. Lucia and then coming back and spending time with family and friends, I feel very blessed.  I have been married for almost 4 years now and Greg and I plan on having a honeymoon every year so today's topic is: honeymoons!!  When planning your honeymoon, the first thing I suggest is to not over plan it with activites. The weeks and days leading up to your wedding will be filled with activites and stress and you need some time on your honeymoon to just enjoy each other and relax. Maybe warm tropical beaches is not your idea of paradise but let me share with you my thougths and you can translate them to your destination, wherever that might be.

I am a huge fan of  "all inclusive resorts". You have just planned the biggest event of your life and hosted a party for many of your friends and family. Now it is time to let someone take care of you! The top of my list is the Sandals resort experience. Their all inclusive packages include all the food AND drink for your stay (note that most cruise ships include food but not drinks and your bar bill when you get set to get off the ship can be mind-blowing!) I loved that fact that none of the restaurants had prices on the menus. You could order anything you wanted because it was already all paid for. The tips are also included with the Sandals packages so when you are done eating there is no reason to wait for the waiter or waitress, you just get up and leave! There are also many activities poolside and beachside to participate in during the day or in the evening so you can be as active - partying and meeting people as you want to be. Or you can choose to lay by the pool and occasionally swim over to the bar in the pool to quench your thirst and relax the day away! The staff at Sandals is incredible and there to serve you. They truly understand and are the epitome of customer service!

Another hint for a great honeymoon - use a great honeymoom specialist/travel agent. It is easy to look at a travel brochure or look on line and get excited about the incredible pictures. But to book a honeymoon takes more knowledge than pictures. A good honeymoon specialist has been to the various properties and can tell you where the best rooms are at that resort. Which ones have a "view" of the ocean through the trees and over the highway and which rooms are actually on the beach. She can share which resorts best fit what you are looking for in a honeymoon. Let me share with you my honeymoon booking story - When we had been married a year, I decided to take Greg on a second honeymoon and wanted to take him to a tropical island to get warm and away from the Indiana winter. I got in touch with a local honeymoon specialist and told her my plans. Kim asked " What do you like to do - scuba, deep sea fishing, or what?" I told her that I don't swim so the watersports were not my thing but my husband and I love to golf. She immediately said, "Then you need to go to the Grande in St. Lucia because it has a golf course included in the resort property." There is no way we would have known that without Kim's help but with her expertise we arrived and were taken care of in style by our own butler who made our dinner reservations, brought us drinks and food (at all hours of the day and night!) and took incredible care of us. It was a vacation to remember and we will be taking many more in the future thanks to Kim's knowledge and expertise.

Many couples think that travel agents are expensive and they can find better deals on line but travel agents can many times find you better deals on flights, accomodations and excursions than you can find, and without you having to spend hours looking. You also will know what you are getting for your money and will not be disappointed showing up to a place that doesn't "look like the picture". Another tip is that you don't need to have all the money up front to book a honeymoon. For a nominal deposit you can reserve your trip and then pay it over time up until a couple of month before the wedding. So book early for the best deals!!!

So here is my bonus to my readers today. If you are looking for a fantastic Sandals honeymoon specifically chosen for the two of you and what you like to do, I am sharing my incredible honeymoon specialist with you. You can contact her at: kim4honeymoons@aol.com and tell her Linda sent you. She is loads of fun and you will have a new friend for life.  Have a fun, relaxing time and drink a Margarita for me!!!

P.S. Send me pictures and tell my about your honeymoon experiences!!!