A week in the Maldives can sound heavenly or mildly horrifying depending on how long you can sit still (can’t relate, personally), just as a museum-heavy trip through Italy is only romantic if you actually enjoy spending your afternoon looking at frescoes. Which is why choosing a honeymoon destination is really more about knowing what kind of trip you actually want to take. Maybe that means a very culture-packed European tour. Maybe it means getting up before sunrise for a safari. And for some, maybe the entire point is to go somewhere beautiful with very little on the agenda. So to make finding the right one a little easier, we’ve curated six honeymoon ideas for six very different kinds of couples, each with a destination to match.
For the Culturally Curious
If your idea of a good trip involves museums, old cities, and knowing the story behind what you’re looking at, a grand European tour almost writes itself. Start in Paris, where you can give yourself a few days for the Louvre or Musée d’Orsay, but leave enough room for the parts of the city that require absolutely no planning at all. Then board the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express to Venice, because if there were ever a trip that justified travelling by lacquered train carriage while dressed slightly better than necessary, it is probably your honeymoon. Once in Venice, lean into the fact that the city itself is basically the attraction. From there, take the train down to Florence, where an afternoon at the Uffizi can quite easily turn into a very long Tuscan dinner afterwards. Finish in Rome, which gives you ancient history almost everywhere you look, but also the extremely important business of pasta. By the time you reach Rome, you’ve seen a lot, eaten very well, and are probably a lot more well-versed in art history than when you left.
For the Wildlife Lovers:
An Adventurous African Safari
A safari gives you the thrill of being out in the wild, but with a level of luxury that makes it feel especially right for a honeymoon. You are still waking up before sunrise and heading out hoping to see animals you have only ever seen on a screen, but you can also come back to some seriously beautiful camps and lodges. Belmond’s Savute Elephant Lodge in Botswana is one, and Singita has incredible properties across South Africa and Tanzania, so this is hardly a roughing-it situation.
Kenya and Tanzania are the obvious classics, while Botswana or South Africa can make just as much sense depending on how remote you want to go. Botswana, in particular, has some amazing options, including another Belmond property, Eagle Island Lodge, which makes a fairly convincing argument for staying a little longer. The days start early, but spotting elephants before breakfast does make 5 a.m. feel slightly less offensive. And if you want to stretch the trip, adding a few beach days afterwards is a pretty ideal way to come down from it all.
For the Food & Wine Lover
For couples who plan trips around reservations, wine country is the obvious answer, and the options go far beyond Napa. You could spend the entire honeymoon in Tuscany, moving between vineyards and very good hotels, with Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco high on the list. There is something especially appealing about being able to settle in for a few days, drink Brunello where it is made, and not have to do much beyond deciding where lunch is happening.
If Bordeaux blends are more your thing, well, there is an obvious place to go. Bordeaux in southwestern France does exactly what you would hope it does, with days built around tastings and very good meals. And if you are already in France, you may as well head to Champagne afterwards. Ending a honeymoon with a few days devoted to Champagne feels almost suspiciously appropriate. Cheers!
For the Couple Who Wants to
Do Absolutely Nothing
There is a very specific kind of honeymooner who doesn’t want a packed itinerary. Which, if we’re going by the traditional definition of a honeymoon, feels pretty on brand. The Maldives is the obvious answer here, and for good reason. Pick the right resort and the day can quite happily revolve around a swim, lunch, maybe a spa treatment if you feel ambitious, then deciding whether dinner requires shoes.
If flying quite that far feels like more effort than the brief allows, Anguilla makes a very good case for keeping things Caribbean. It has the same polished, do-very-little energy, but with beautiful hotels and beaches that make staying put feel less like laziness and more like excellent judgment. Either way, this is the honeymoon for couples who want the location to do most of the work.
For the True Adventurers
Patagonia is for the couple who wants the honeymoon to feel genuinely far away from normal life. The scale of it is part of the appeal: huge stretches of landscape, very little around you, and the kind of days that are built around hiking rather than reservations. You can base yourself in a lodge on either the Chilean or Argentine side and make the trip as active as you want, from full-day treks to something a little more civilized with a very good dinner waiting at the end.
And then there is Antarctica, which is obviously taking the brief several steps further. The easiest way to do it is by expedition cruise, usually departing from Ushuaia, Argentina, so the journey itself becomes a big part of the honeymoon. It is cold, remote, slightly absurd, and very much the sort of trip you will still be talking about years later. For the couple who hears “end of the world” and thinks, perfect, this is probably the one.
For the Wellness Devotee
Bali has been in the wellness conversation for so long that it almost feels too obvious, but there is a reason people keep going back. You can spend a few days in Ubud doing the full reset, with yoga in the morning and enough spa treatments to make you forget what your shoulders felt like before the wedding. And if you still want your green juice with a side of serious luxury, this is Bali, after all. Aman alone has three properties on the island, so nobody is asking you to suffer for your wellness. Spend a few days inland, then head toward the coast once you are ready to loosen the grip on self-improvement slightly. Nobody said the reset had to last the entire honeymoon.
