UKC

We are looking to book our honeymoon and while we don't want a predominantly climbing holiday, climbing still features highly on our list of wants....

We have looked at thailand, but unfortunately, it's monsoon season when we are getting married at the end of August, and honeymoon first 2 weeks of September, so we have looked a few other destinations.

We have narrowed it down to a couple (after doing a search on here for "honeymoon") but I would like some first hand recommendations relating to the general areas, and also the climbing.

At the moment, we have narrowed down to Gozo, Malta or Sorrento, Italy.

One of the reason being, I also consider beach and sea a big part of honeymooning and would like to have a go at scuba diving and other water sports.

Has anyone been to either of these locations or both and can offer some advise on resorts/locations?

Thanks in advance

In reply to staceyjg:

SORRENTO!!! I went there some years ago with work - a week long conference and it is beautiful. Beach nearby at Positano is awesome. Boat trip to Capri. Visit to Pompeii. Definitely. From memory, stayed at Bristol Hotel but it was a long time ago.

But I've not been to Malta so can't provide the comparison unfortunately. X

In reply to staceyjg:

Surely you could have just waited until tonight to tell me that!!!

In reply to staceyjg:
italy or malta?? absolutely no decision...if you want good food, good wine and pretty girls/boys then it has to be italy

In reply to staceyjg:

Early September may well turn out to be a bit too hot for a lot of sunny Mediterranean locations. I've been to Gozo in May and it was fine but I think it would be a scorcher in early September; however, you're clearly not going to be climbing all day every day so I daresay some of the cliffs will be refreshing, and there is always some DWS around the inland sea and that huge long DWS low traverse.

Haven't dived Gozo apart from a brief little excursion around the Azure Window.

A place where I CAN recommend both climbing and beaches/diving, is northern Croatia. I stayed in Istria, at Brsec near Moscenicka Draga, but many people recommend the islands (Hvar etc) which sound excellent. Pula looks an interesting city too though we never went into town.

In reply to staceyjg:

Croatia.
You can pretend it's 1982 based upon the ubiquity of the Renault 4, they are EVERYWHERE (used to produce them in large quantities in Yugoslavia)

http://www.blue-straggler.net/Croatia_May2009_Overview/

In reply to staceyjg:
If you haven't found it already, I asked a similar question here: http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=524764&v=1#x7067080

In reply to staceyjg:

We had our homemoon in Thailand in Monsoon season. We were there for 5 weeks in total and went climbing an average of twice a week managing to visit locations in north, central and southern Thailand as well as a few islands. It was great as we were never tired and could always climb well. When it did rain it was very heavy but never for more than an hr or 2 and it was pretty obvious when it was on the way. We just nipped into a bar for a break then went back out after. Lovely time, would recommend it. If I was to do the trip again though I would spend more time at Crazy Horse (we did 2 days there). Highly recommend the downhill mountain biking at Chiang Mai too.

In reply to staceyjg: Sardinia - Cala Gonone. A small sea resort overlooking 40 km of rugged, virginal coastline in the Orosei Gulf. Almost entirely devoid of concrete, its beaches – Cala Luna, Cala Sisine and Cala Mariolu, Cala Biriola, Cala Fuili, Cala Cartoe, Cala Osalla – of various sizes, are among the most beautiful in the Mediterranean, interrupted only by coastal towers and harsh limestone cliffs.A holiday in Cala Gonone offers both an authentic return to nature, with fascinating sights from primitive times, and the most up-to-date and comfortable facilities available. A daily boat service allows you to reach the most impressive parts of the coast in only a few minutes.
Sea, sun, caves, excursions into undiscovered nature, hospitality, folklore, archaeology, climbing: This is Cala Gonone.
Cruise in boat of one day: beach Cala Luna – beach Cala Sisine – beach Cala Biriola – beach Cala Mariolu – beach Cala Goloritzé. Rent boat.

For accomodation to Cala Gonone: putzut@tiscali.it

In reply to staceyjg:

Go to Cairns and stay here http://www.cairnscolonialclub.com.au/

you won't regret it.....

In reply to staceyjg:

I've not climbed at either, but Malta is ace (although their driving is terrifying), and Croatia is beautiful. Italy is full of Italins, but once you get past that, it's great :o

In reply to staceyjg: Corsica ticks all your boxes for a honeymoon location and is lovely and uncrowded in early September. Stacks of awesome beaches and watersports opportunities (diving, kitesurfing) and some great climbing on the granite. Head to Restonica valley and Bavella for climbing. The best climbing is away from the roadside single pitch sports venues. Some magical canyonning in Bavella and a few commercial operators there running canyoning trips.

If you go to Vegas you can couple up the madness of the strip with some climbing out at red rocks or something?

We went our honeymoon to Vegas and San Francisco. My partner does not climb but I took the chance to go up Mount Charleston which had good scrambling and scenery.

In reply to staceyjg:
We went to Lofoten. Roadside climbing, mountain walks and scrambles, twenty-four hour sunshine. There were some nice beaches but only the Norwegians were tough enough to get in the water.

In reply to staceyjg: Paklenica in Croatia might be nice at that time of year.

BW

In reply to staceyjg:

Tanzania? We married on Zanzibar then split honeymoon between there and safari on the mainland. We met another couple who had married in the UK then had the first part of their honeymoon climbing Kili, then the second part as a beach / diving trip on Zanzibar. Sounded a great idea.

In reply to staceyjg: For my honey moon we went lake Garda (climbing near by) and nice relaxed feel. Then caught the train into the dolomites. Finished off in Venice. bit of everything and easy to arrange yourself.

In reply to staceyjg: Myself and Mrs Frost went to corsica, great times! though we should have hired a car.

Cheers
dave

In reply to staceyjg:

UKC posters are ace. You ask them one question and they answer a completely different one!

In reply to staceyjg:

For my first honeymoon we went to a small island north of France - Canvey Island in April!

For my second, I suggested another island, this time my (2nd) wife and I went to Nusa Lembongang (near Bali) in August - perfect doesn't begin to do it justice! (especially if you like snorkeling, diving and surfing)

In reply to Tony the Blade:

We got married 20 years ago on August 28th.........we spent the first two weeks of September in :

Plockton

Skye

Gairloch

Ullapool

Glencoe.............!

In reply to staceyjg:

For a mixture of laid-back beach and activities Thailand, Mexican Caribbean and Hawaii take a lot of beating, but for the time of year you are going (September), the Med is about at its best: still warm, practically all facilities still open, and only about one tenth of the tourists compared with the high season. The weather can be really good - last September I had perfect weather in southern France, Italy and Croatia for a whole month. For a honeymoon, the Greek or Croatian islands are AOK. The only snag with Croatia at that time of year is a dominance of aging German tourists. This is not a prejudiced comment. Any nationality that so out-numbers the rest would get tedious!

In reply to staceyjg:
We went to Thailand a couple of years ago in September and climbed both at Railay bay and on Phi Phi. Great fun and tremendous weather.

In reply to staceyjg:

Gozo has fab diving but crap climbing and will be really hot in early September.

In reply to shantaram: +1 for Corsica.

In reply to staceyjg: Congratulations in Advance!!!

In reply to staceyjg: We got married in sorrento last year and its lovely, altho the climbing was hard to find!! The guide book had sketches of cliffs and we really struggled locating them! However, for our honeymoon we flew to sardinia, staying in cala gonone for 4 nights then got the ferry from santa teresa in the north across to corsica and spent a week there before flying home. Sardinia's amazing, perfect balance of beach, rocks and culture, and its relatively inexpensive in case thats a concern!! Corsica's great because its such a small island you can drive everywhere, and again has a good mix of activities, and the food we had was amazing too. I probably preferred sardinia, i love italy, and we've been back twice since then we just loved it!

In reply to Jenny Monkey: I have to agree, Cala Gonone in Sardinia has a perfect balance of both. You can also hike and canyon out there (if your after the canyoning finding an english guide book out there isn't so easy so best get it before heading out.

In reply to staceyjg: Majorca has lots of beautiful bits and loads of good climbing?

In reply to staceyjg:

I have been so tied up with other stuff, completely forgot that I had posted this, thanks for all the responses, I will, when a get time, have a wade through and see what I can come up with, see if it helps any further with decisions, or just gives us more to think about.

Thanks again.

xx

In reply to staceyjg:

I am more than happy to test out all the venues for you. At your cost, of course. You can come with me if you like

Concrete examples of honeymooners in Sardinia exchanging rings on top of the Aguglia http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QyjAr5agNg4/ShqhNjmHw3I/AAAAAAAAAGY/1HdFJqU7Lh0/s... Eddie had planned this in advance with us but hadn't told his wife Star, we didn't know this...she only found out at the beginning of the holiday, we learnt afterwards, we thought something was wrong but after they climbed it she was all bubbly. We all became great friends and several years later visited them in New Orleans.

Good nearby scuba diving with English speaking instructors at Nautica (Santa Maria) or you can get the boat to Cala Mariolu, again English speaking instructors in first half of September.

Kayaking is very nice to do. We had some kayakers stay recently, we thought their bags looked big for a 4 day stay, turned out after they'd stayed they had gone over to the other side of the island to get married, suits and dresses were in the bags. They combined getting married and honeymoon.

In first half of September it will still be hot, you would be best climbing in one of the areas at 600 - 1000 m amsl in the shade in the afternoon.

ciao Peter