UKC

Hi Folks,

Me and my girlfriend are getting married this summer. We are looking to have a fairly long (for us) honeymoon trip, 3ish weeks. We are on a farm, so it'll probably be the only longer trip we get for a while. (We're available to go any time from early august onward).

Looking for recommendations on destinations with the following themes:

Mountain surroundings; girlfriend has the farming background, so we'd like to do a few days horse trekking/camping; some multi-pitch routes (5/6 pitches max) Scottish sized walk-ins fine.

We had thought of Montana, plenty mountains, horse trekking and multi-pitches like this, I think could be perfect: https://www.mountainproject.com/route/106679643/shoshone-south-face

Anyone been?

The other obvious place is patagonia, but I don't know if/where there is any moderate multipitch down that way?

Any other tips or suggestions!? (Jordan etc?)

Cheers,

I've not been to Montana, but I was going to suggest Alberta Canada which isn't a million miles away. 

You can horse trek there, lots of moderate multipitch, great mountain surroundings. Hot springs for days chilling. Driving from Calgary to Jasper is a great drive, alternatively you could fly into Calgary then out of Vancouver so you get to enjoy the a few areas.

Hi Alex, thanks for the suggestion, that is one area we have both been to in the past, separately! Otherwise, a great shout! Cheers

How about Squamish?

Or Smith Rock and Oregon?

Or, best idea I think, Boulder and Eldorado Canyon?

Bit of a curveball, but have you thought about Kyrgyzstan? I'm not sure what the rock climbing is like but it's got mountain scenery and horses in spades. It's also a relatively nice place to visit because it's got just about enough infrastructure to make it feasible to get around and find accommodation for yourself and stuff but without feeling like a total tourist factory.

My tip - one of my colleagues told me it's tradition that the Bride and her mother organise the wedding, and the groom organises the honeymoon. My wife said this was fine, so I decided she was going to have a surprise .  I asked her what she didn't want from her honeymoon, and some generic things she did want.  With that information I was able to plan a trip. All she knew was what she had to pack. I managed to keep the secret until we were in the airport in our destination country .

We had a walking and climbing honeymoon in Sardinia.  First couple of nights were in a 5 star romantic hotel (because it was honeymoon ad we wouldn't normally do that), then we were in guest houses / agriturismos, then another couple of nights in a different 5 star hotel at the end to relax. It worked well, and I'd recommend that approach to anyone who thinks their wife will cope with it.

Hi, also been to Squamish previously.

Didn't think of Boulder, but looks like it would fit the bill perfectly!

On the other hand, some friends of mine got married and she decided to organise the surprise honeymoon, with no clues.  It was January, and so he packed shorts, t-shorts and flip-flops, and found himself in a log cabin in Norway......

Boulder would be fun - as suggested

Nearer to home - Dolomites?

I did the sensible thing and took her to the Alps. Fabulous holiday mostly staying in 4* hotels. Finished up in Paris.

Wadi Rum would fit the bill really well - except that you may find the horses have rather large humps on their backs! It also is likely to be way too hot in midsummer.

Kyrgyzstan is also a good shout. Within a day's travel from the capital Bishkek there's the Ala Archa national park, with more rocky peak-bagging than you could shake a stick at. But don't expect western luxury photo-topos. Horse trekking would, however, be trivially easy to arrange.

My friend Saleem who runs Jordantracks (https://jordantracks.com/) specialises in horse riding tours in Wadi Rum.

I had a great summer in wyoming in 2013. Highly recommend the river range. 

Looks brilliant, did you climb in the Cirque of the Towers?

Thanks for the suggestions folks! Kyrgyzstan looks a bit too exciting with the other half, but looks amazing! 

Wadi Rum has moved up the pecking order though!

We climbed in Cirque of the Towers, in the Wind Rivers, in July 2015, a fantastic place to go and probably the highlight of a month in Colorado/Wyoming (with the Diamond a close second).  We did walk into the Cirque of the Towers with everything for 3 nights, so big bags, but horse-trekking options seemed to be available.  A lovely place to camp and some great routes, even if we did abseil off of one having got thoroughly lost.

We went to Norway, also for three weeks, and it was incredible! So much to go at - we barely scratched the surface - but spent most of our time in Lofoten. Lots of mountains, climbing, beaches, surfing, snorkelling, diving etc. Plenty of places to stay, from camping through to top end cabins. There were a few horse trekking companies too, but we didn't end up doing that ourselves. We went in June/July, just missing the main tourist season, and had incredible weather (tied with midnight sun, so extra time for adventuring). Unfortunately, as the weather is out of your control I heard it can often be pretty grim up there too. It's also very pricey, but we figured our honeymoon was the time to do it!

Would highly recommend though  

How about Llandudno? Pen Trwyn, Little Orme, trad, sport, bouldering. Mount Snowdon nearby and donkeys on the beach. Ticks all your boxes. Sorted.

The Middle East in the summer is probably not a good choice....

Yeah, should have clarified, we can probably go any time up til Christmas. 

Hi folks, we have been thinking about Lofoten. If we drove there from the UK seems like it would take a few days, but probably quite a nice drive once you get further north? That wouldn't put us up that way until about 11th 12th August. I know the weather is probably even more of a lottery than here, but any anecdotal evidence for this time of year? Is it busy this time of year etc?

Cheers,