Grecian Honeymooning

After recently mentioning our honeymoon to Greece on a blog post about Honeymoons, we recieved a lot of feedback & searches requesting more information, especially on Santorini. As S mentioned in her previous honeymoon post, it is important to make sure that you and your future husband agree on the type of honeymoon you want to have prior to choosing a destination. For us it was pretty easy both knowing we wanted to go somewhere we could relax, be secluded and get some sun. We made a list of our top three and I have to give credit where credit is due, it was JT's final decision to choose Greece.

We began our honeymoon in Florence, visiting my younger sis who was conveniently studying abroad. We had both been before, but what better way to kick off a honeymoon then in one of the most romantic cities in the world. There are so many locales in Italy to choose from that would be perfect for a honeymoon destination. If you are looking for relaxation and beaches like Jt & I, I would strongly encourage checking out Cinque Terre or the Amalfi Coast.

The remainder of our trip was spent in Greece. We began in Athens where we stayed two nights. It wasn't our favorite part of the trip, but definately a necessity when hitting the country. We did most of the site seeing in a one day period, so if you aren't major history buffs it can definately be done within one day & overnight.

After that we flew to Santorini, which was by far our favorite locale. We splurged on our hotel here having gotten numerous recommendations from others. We knew we wanted to stay here so our travel agent helped us pick out hotels that could keep us within budget while still being able to stay here. I am SO grateful for that. It was called the Astra Apartments (http://www.astra-apartments.com/) I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who is headed that way. It was on the cliff side of the island and our room was overlooking the sea and volcano. We were served private breakfast on the balcony each morning and the sunset from our room was nothing that I had seen before. A lot of people talk about going to Oia to watch the sunset in Santorini, but if you stay at this hotel, you get the same view right from your balcony. The the owner of the hotel, George, was so personal and made our stay so pleasurable. He helped plan out our time there and made sure we knew how to get around. We ended up renting a car one day to tour the island. We were able to see the vineyards, as well as the red and black beaches. These are truly magnificient sites to see. The time we spent here was truly everything one dreams of when they think the word honeymoon.

Our last leg of the trip was taking the hydrofoil (basically a large ferry) to Mykonos. Here our hotel was more of a resort like hotel, still beautiful, but definately less secluded. The nightlife in Mykonos is much more vibrant so it is a good place to go out and dance as husband and wife. The restaurants here were also fabulous.

I guess it is pretty easy to sense that I have never been on such a magical vacation iand while it definately burnt a little hole in our pocket, it was well worth every penny. We knew that there would be no other time when we could splurge and get away without worrying about things such as a house or children. Life after wedding planning and weddings does unfortunately happen.

Budget Tip:With the Euro exchange rate in our favor right now, its a great time to book and exchange some of your cash! Getting a credit card with flight miles is also another option to spend a little less. You can accumulate lots of points while purchasing things for the wedding (be sure to still have the cash in the bank before you swipe so this doesnt equal debt!) and then use those points to fly to bliss.

What locales are on the top of your list? Where are your favorite places in Greece? We'd love to hear ..