Honeymoon Destination Ideas

Lifestyle Wedding, Fashion & Beauty
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Ok guys, she’s coming in my life (rukhsati) inshAllah in may in Pakistan. I am planning on going on a honeymoon to some nice place. I have widely travelled all across the world but mostly in europe. My personal opinion is that while there are some great places to see in europe, but I’d rather not for the following reasons. Nightmarish and probabilistic visa process, huge expenses to stay and travel and long tiring flights to and from pakistan.

I am planning on a couple of options for which visa is easy and the cost is not sky high and preferably a muslims country. The following are some options, could you please give me some suggestions:

  • Malaysia
  • Maldives

Althought I have never been to malaysia but I am leaning towards itbecause it offers diversity e.g. big cities for shopping and fast life as well as calm islands and plus the price is not high and the food is always halal. Any ideas ?

  • Plus, can anyone please give me the websites of some good travel agents who can organize a honeymoon trip

  • Also, it is better to organize the trip yourself i.e. tickets, hotels etc or take a deal ?

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Re: Honeymoon Destination Ideas

Maldive Islands ... you cannot go wrong and it is super romantic.

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Re: Honeymoon Destination Ideas

Maldives is lovely, infact I think both those places u mentioned are nicer than Europe anyway :)

I've always preferred Thailand to Malaysia tho..

TripAdvisor has tons of info on hotels, stuff to see etc and other practical stuff, I would always check there first before booking hotels..

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Re: Honeymoon Destination Ideas

Maldives is a good option but also Hawaii

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Re: Honeymoon Destination Ideas

I think you should go for Malaysia if you are already veering towards it as it offer diversity.

That's the same reason I was considering. I do want the whole beach thing but I also want shopping, sightseeing etc etc.

It's also a LOT cheaper so you can stay for 3-4 weeks. Instead of like 10 days.

I have a Malaysian colleague and taught a Malaysian undergrad and they both filled me in on so much. Planning everything separately didn't seem like a nightmare either. You can stay in a 5 star hotel in KL (best rooms) for like £80 a night. Hire a car and drive to the east coast in 3 hours and there are SO many islands you can get a ferry to from there.

I was not 'wow'ed by some of the photos of the island I was told I should go to, in comparison to what you seen in holiday websites for the Maldives. But my cousin and his wife went to the Maldives and seeing their 'real' pictures, it looked exactly the same! And they spent so much more.

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Re: Honeymoon Destination Ideas

I was going to start a thread too on this. Hubz and I will be going on our honeymoon too. what are some good places in the US?? I love beaches and hot/warm weather. And its going to be in April.

For the OP, Maldives is good. My friend went there.. very beautiful.

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Re: Honeymoon Destination Ideas

Spiral - what about Hawaii????? If you luv beaches and hot/warm weather.. that is def the way to go in the US :D Most gorgeous location!

California would be great too ofcourse... places like Santa Barbara ...

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Re: Honeymoon Destination Ideas

So you guys are saying Maldives is more expensive then malaysia, Im in the process of debating Honeymoon Options. We have to get back to North America soon due to jobs, so we dont have time. And we are planning n doing Umrah after the wedding Inshallah. So im a little confused. I really want a honeymoon, i wanna relax in white sandy beahces, sip a nice peach mango drink, take a swim. Be all warm and pampered but not break the bank either.

I could come back and go to Hawaii but my husband will have visa issues and I do not want to go to the US at all. I was thinking Bahamas, but its still expensive. So i'm confused. :(

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Re: Honeymoon Destination Ideas

Malaysia sounds really nice. I've never been but it's beautiful and best of all - halal food! Indonesia could be an option too.

For U.S. I think Hawaii is probably on top of the list. Otherwise there's tons of beaches in California and Florida. Maybe even someplace in Mexico... like Cancun. Sandals is known for its resorts in areas like Jamaica and Bahamas.

MSN had an article on beaches too but it won't let me link it! :(

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Re: Honeymoon Destination Ideas

Oh I almost forgot... one of my friend's honeymooned at Niagara Falls. She said it was amazing. I think they spent a few days in New York too.

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Have you considered Bali or another Indonesian honeymoon spot? It would be different and definitely not as expensive as Maldives.

I would argue the cost of a Maldives honeymoon actually IS sky-high... but sometimes you get what you pay for.

Also, I'd recommend planning the trip yourself....its more fun that way, I really enjoying planning out my honeymoon with my husband.

Agreed....Malaysia does have more diversity in activity. Maldives for example would not have huge shopping centers in comparison to Malaysia. My husband and I did mostly water sports, cruises, relaxing, swimming, and spa stuff. If you want something more 'busy' then Maldives wouldnt be for you.

As far as the length of the trip goes, I dont know how someone based in the West could afford to take 3-4 weeks off of work anyway. Youre one of the lucky ones, I think most people, regardless of the price of the location, can only go on their honeymoon for about a week.

I havent seen a lot of pictures of Malaysia honeymoons and I'm sure there are tons of possible options there, but my friends pictures were sort of "ehh." At least, it seemed like there was a big difference between my maldives honeymoon and their malaysia one, but then again, it might largely depend on how nice the resort is. A five star in Malaysia would obviously be better than a so-so hotel in Maldives, and with the prices you mentioned, Malaysia sounds like a steal :)

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Wow mashaAllah, thats awesome you're going on Umrah. What a nice way to start off your marriage :)

Have you considered Puerto Rico? it might not be as expensive, but its still not quite "US" and its supposed to be really beautiful with lots to do.

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Well, I haven't actually been yet but my helpers showed me all the good spots. There's a lot more to do than just shopping.

There is a wonderful little island (one of many, it's all about the time of year if you want blue, blue seas), it just has a handful of water villas and a honeymoon package (including spa treatments, snorkeling etc etc) only sets you back £100 per day. This is if you stay away from the one's that are geared towards western tourists and resorts.

And actually, in the UK we get 20-25 days paid holiday per year, that's 4-5 weeks. People aren't averse to taking an extra unpaid week for wedding and honeymoon either.

Sure, if you've got the money and want that kind of experience, go for Maldives or even French Polynesia.

Most people I know go to Seychelles or Maldives and they had a great time but it didn't seem unique to the place.

Also, I mentioned in another thread that if you can splash out now and think this might be your only opportunity to go for such a place as the Maldives, you might regret it if you don't go for it.
Malaysia will always be there and it's cheap enough that it won't be difficult to holiday there later.

i'A I will still be going to Malaysia this year but my dream place is now somewhere else where I can have the island experience, mountains, skiiing, ancient buildings... except it's really expensive which i hadn't anticipated. anyone want to guess!

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Re: Honeymoon Destination Ideas

Ok, here's what I think:

  • My wife is not a great fan of beaches and water. Besides, being desis, I don't think we can enjoy the whole clad in chaddi, sun-bathing stuff. Personally I love water sports laikin khair. So going to a destination with just beaches is probably not the ideal honeymoon for us.

  • I think we'd like to explore both megapolitans like Kuala Lumpur and then go to the north-west. I have always noticed that people spend a lot of money to visit places that are over-crowded and over-priced while leaving behind the gems. For example, while exploring destinations in Malaysia, everyone's going to beaches and stuff. I came across the Cameron Highlands.... vast lush green fields with honey bee famrs, strawberry farms etc etc. I think these kinda places are very nice and perhaps even better than the typical over-crowded and over-priced touristy destinations.

  • Malaysia does have some nice beahces especially the Lungkawi. So we have metro/meg politan city, beaches AND lush green areas as well. I think thats a nice combination.

  • As far as duration is concerned, I think I could probably spend about 2 weeks since after that the hotel costs factor in way too much.

@Stoppit have you heard about the Cameron Highlands. If not then do ask your friends about it. Also, I would like to know the name of the small island you mentioned. Thanks :)

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Re: Honeymoon Destination Ideas

snowy - yes! great idea (Cameron Highlands) this is why we wanted to hire a car, so we could travel around freely. my friend's family has a farm in the north :)

I was told to stay away from such places as Langkawi.

I will pm you about the small island. It is very secluded!

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Thanks stoppit... looking forward for the PM.

I think I'd stay in Kuala Lumpur, then visit Cameron Highlands. I was also thinking about renting a car. It really ruins half the fun if you are waiting for buses/taxis half the time. I noticed on forums that car rental is not available in places like Cameron Highlands. For renting a car, apparently Ipoh seems the logical choice as I don't wanna drive all the way from KL. Laikin khair, I am not even sure if they'd accept pakistani or international drivin license in MY.

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Re: Honeymoon Destination Ideas

Puerto Rico, sounds nice. I am also thinking of malaysia, Indonesia or Bali. I didn't think maldives would be expensive cuz technically its drowning and wont be around 2025 or so, I'm weird to think that lol.

I wanna go to the beach and relax :) I dont want to go shopping or even hiking.. Just water sports, snorkeling, jet ski's. Diving of a cliff. (my husband can't swim, it'll be fun to watch him scared hahahahahahahaha) I'm so evil! I just wanna lay in the sun and relax :) I hope we have time to go somewhere, with our tight schedule and Umrah, I dont think we'll be able too.

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Apparently Malaysia is really easy about driving licenses so you shouldn't have a problem on an international and probably not on the Pakistani one either.

I was advised to hire a car from KL for my whole trip; to get me around KL (apparently you really don't want to be dealing with public transport) and around the rest of the country. The distances are fairly short. From KL to the east coast, it's a 3 hour drive. Even staying in KL for a week after spending a few days in the city itself there are lots of places nearby. Melaka is max 2hr drive south from KL.

Cameron Highlands about 2 hours drive north. You could make a day trip out of it and come back to KL. Or I'm guessing you want to spend longer, so drive to Ipoh, get a hotel there for a few days and make day trips from there in different directions.

If you want to be more adventurous, you could travel to Malaysian Borneo.

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Re: Honeymoon Destination Ideas

i was thinking about Maldives to, but all this sinking subject, and pirates issue, has made me tooo scared to go on a deserted island :S

so we might take a short fun holiday trip to Dubai :)

haven't seen Dubai yet, so why not :)

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One of the fun things we did in Malaysia was island hopping. You get to stay on a bunch of different islands. And one of the islands we stayed on was called Redang; we got to live on huts right off the water and it was absolutely beautiful. the water was absolutely crystal clear; u could see right down to the sea bed. although there are a lot of foreign tourists there, there are definitely some malaysians too, so you don't feel too self conscious being all covered up and what not, plus if you enjoy activites like canoeing you can do those too.

Redang is a little more secluded, theres penang as well, which although a lot more crowded is very pretty too and with a lot of water sports such as water skiing, parasailing etc. and they have much more of an inner market where you can check out local shopping etc. and definitely have large malls too with your regular guess, mexx type stores.

Cameron highlands is very beautiful, there's tea plantations and strawberry farms and such you can visit.

Theres also genting highlands, its actually at a higher elevation than cameron highlands but mostly the only thing to do up there is that they've got a huuuugee resort with theme parks and rides and everything. I obviously went a few yrs ago when i was more of a kid, but I still think its fun. I personally love rides so if you do too, you should check out Sunway Lagoon outside of Kuala Lumpur, another fun theme park.

Indonesia is also a really nice option, altough there are gazillions of nice places Bali is obviously the most famous and also is best geared for tourists. Its definitely not a break your bank type location either and is absolutely gorgeous. The best thing about Bali is theirs something for everyone; there's the beach, but there's also stunning temples, museums, traditional hindu ballet theatres, cultural centres for arts and crafts, local shopping if you're into hiking- there's organised 2/3 day excursions to Mount Arjuno. I've been twice and I still haven't seen everything there is to see in Bali.

Both Indonesia and Malaysia also have halal food and compared to North America you get a lot more food for what you pay for.