Help me! I am Crowdsourcing My Honeymoon.
Santorini, Greece – Photo: Pedro Szekely | FlickrCC
I am going to be a bit selfish here, but I think for good reason!
I recently got married (yay) and we wanted to wait a bit to plan our honeymoon; we didn’t want to be planning a wedding AND a trip at the same time. My new bride and I both want to go some place we’ve never been before. While we think we are set on a destination, there are so many fun options to get there and different things to do; I thought I would try to see if any of you had some swell ideas.
I’ve never done something like this before, so I’m not sure if it will work. But it can’t hurt! My idea is to give you all some of my thoughts so far, and see what you think. Maybe I will get 0 comments and be sad, or maybe I will be overwhelmed and no better off, but I am hoping to get a gem or two out of this little experiment! Here we go:
The Big Picture
- We plan to spend the majority of our time in Santorini, Greece. It’s place she has wanted to visit and neither of us have been.
- We are not fans of places with a million tourists.
- Being native Washingtonians, we don’t like hot weather.
- Shooting for late April to mid May, but would do late September to early October if needed.
- Wanting to do about 10 days total, but would expand up to 14, if it made sense.
- Being this is our honeymoon, we are cool spending a bit more on where we stay, the food, etc, if it has a good ROIOF (return of investment on fun — acronyms are fun!). Obviously we have a reasonable budget, but I don’t want it to hold back any ideas.
There is the Santorini Airport – Photo: Andres Alvarado | FlickrCC
Getting to/from Santorini
- We will be departing out of Seattle. Unless it is a big enough difference, we don’t really want to go to YVR or PDX. (Editor’s note: what about PAE?)
- Getting there, I am looking at getting creative. Maybe do something like flying into London, Paris, or Rome and take trains/ferries down to Athens for the final ferry to Santorini? Maybe stop for a night once or twice on the way down? Been reading up on options, but wonder if it would be more of a pain than it is worth.
- Coming back, I think we would just want to fly as quick and cheap as possible, but not more than 18 hours for a total trip. Looks like some airlines like Condor and Norwegian have options, but not every day, so need to play with dates.
- Even after 10 years of writing this site, I am still a miles noob. As I write this I have 35,000 Alaska miles. After a basic search, that can get me a one-way ticket to LHR or FRA. Not a requirement to use, but that would save a few $.
- Since we have our miles with Alaska, it would be nice to earn miles with them on tickets that we pay for.
- My awesome wife is game for me doing a story or two out of our adventures, so if there is a unique airline/aircraft type or if I can pitch an airline for a story/experience, that is a bonus. That said, she wouldn’t be game taking 36hrs, flying the wrong way across the globe to try a bunch of different airlines.
Santorini… the beauty, the height, the water – Photo: Wolfgang Manousek | FlickrCC
While we are in Santorini
- I end up spending more time figuring out how to get to/from a place, the flights, the boats, the trains, etc., and sometimes I forget about planning what to do once I arrive. Guessing maybe some of you can relate? I normally like to have some ideas of things to do, but not all the days scheduled.
- Once there, I’m looking at probably renting a car. Looks like there are taxis and buses, but not the best, plus we always have fun adventures with driving around on our trips.
- Looking at things like boat or jetski tour, the hot springs, taking the car to explore the island, relaxing.
- Want to stay on the Caldera side. Guessing a few nights in one of the nice hotels with amazing views, and a few in a more reasonably priced hotel. Just depends.
Okay, so this ended up being longer than I expected, but there are a lot of moving pieces. Please leave your suggestions/questions in the comments and let’s see what happens. Thank you!
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