Soon after Cinnamon Buns proposed, we tossed around a few ideas for our honeymoon. We knew we’d both have time off in the summer to go places, as theatres tend not to run during the summer, thus putting us artsy types out of our regular work. At this point, we could book our honeymoon any time in July and August and not have any conflicts. Sadly, we can’t afford to go anywhere for two months, as I need some time to come back and temp in some office to pay for it!
My original criteria were that I wanted the beach, sunshine, and people to bring me drinks with umbrellas in them all day long. He thought that sounded fun, but was also thinking much bigger than I was. What about somewhere we’d always wanted to go? Make it a huge trip? Egypt! Or Japan! Then the year went on, and we decided that maybe we should wait until Egypt settles down a bit and Japan gets back on its feet.
I was happily researching all-inclusives in Jamaica, Mexico, and Costa Rica when Cinnamon Buns said, “What about New Zealand?”
I laughed and said, “I’d drag you on a hobbit tour or 12!” He said he knew that any trip to New Zealand with me would include hobbit tours (my geekiness has even been documented on Weddingbee). 
So for a while I forgot about sun and sand and started looking at hotels like this:
Image via Lord of the Rings Tours
We were really excited about this option for a while and I was completely ready to give up my visions of beaches and drink umbrellas for hobbitses and elves, but then I realised that our wedding (and time off) is in the summer. Here. Summer here is winter there. We get so little summer here anyway that missing our summer in favour of winter elsewhere was silly. New Zealand is also a much longer flight than Cinnamon Buns realised. Like, travel for 20+ hours far away, and $2000+ each for flights. It’s sad, but I put the idea of New Zealand on the back burner. (And a month later, New Zealand was hit by a quake…I’m starting to wonder if I have terrible, terrible superpowers?)
For a while I tried to convince him that our own private island was the way to go:
Image from the Royal Belize
Seriously, you get the whole island! To just lounge and eat and read and soak up the sun in our swimsuits! But that option was too expensive, and I think Mr CB thought it’d be a little too low-key. He’s much more social than I am, where I could very easily hole up on an island paradise and not care about not seeing other people for two weeks. Sadly, this option was also too expensive.
Then the fabulous Miss (now Mrs!) Brooch posted about her honeymoon, and how they were considering Oxygen Jungle Villas. I fell head-over-heels in love with Oxygen, and so did Cinnamon Buns. It was the right amount of reclusive and relaxing and active and social. We could lounge on our own balcony, or by the pool, but we could eat in a restaurant with other people. Not to mention all the zip lining and hiking and other stuff you can do in Costa Rica!
Then I found out that sloths are native to Costa Rica (well, not this one). I joked that I wanted to go to a sloth petting zoo. Then, while Googling “sloth petting zoo,” I found the Slothpital. It is really called the Sloth Sanctuary, but they have a slothpital onsite for little injured sloths. Talk about cute overload! It was now our goal to go to Costa Rica, laze at Oxygen for a week or so, and make sure to visit the sloths before we left. We were so in love with the place we actually went out and bought the Moon guide to Costa Rica before booking anything. I did some research and found out that June/July is considered rainy season in CR. I didn’t mind the idea of going in the rainy season, because most websites claimed it wasn’t that bad, and would only rain later in the day. I also thought rainy season meant that I would find great deals on flights.
I thought wrong. It was March, and travel agents were offering $500 deals to Costa Rica for the next month, yet when I tried to find flights in June/July, flights were twice that (or more) and always included more layovers. Apparently rainy season doesn’t mean cheap flights, it means less flights. Easier/cheaper flights to places like that is something that makes me rather jealous of Americans. Although, I suppose I can get to Cuba easier. That doesn’t make it up in my mind, though.
All those trials and tribulations, plus I already had plans for a trip (by myself!) in summer of 2011 before we got engaged! All that, and our (semi)-final decisions next.
How hard was it to choose your honeymoon destination?
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