Bermuda... The Honeymoon I Forgot to Mention

In the cab... We made it!!!

Holy goodness gracious!!! All these posts, and I just realized I ever even blogged about our honeymoon in Bermuda. Wowzers… not sure how that one slipped by me! Ok, nearly 6 months later, but here were some of the highlights of the trip: • We had a great dinner every night we were there. I mean, leave it to me to get us well-fed, but we did not miss out on a good meal while there! If you ever go to Bermuda, I suggest Baracuda in Hamilton (best meal we had the entire trip) and King Henry VIII (great atmosphere… very old school, dinner and dancing).

What we woke up to

Other side of patio

• Our first day we walked, and walked, and WALKED! Did I mention we walked?! Ha! The cool thing about Bermuda is, it’s not your typical “tropical Caribbean island.” It’s very British (accents, driving on the wrong side of the road, the whole shebang) and there’s more to do adventure-wise than just laying and having drinks by the pool all day. We found several beaches, including the famous Horseshoe Bay. We stopped and had a few patio drinks along the way. After one drink stop, we found this random, salient forest with vines to swing from. I don’t know if anyone else knows that place is there, but we had lots of fun playing in it. Finally, when I started getting fussy, we finally caught a cab. I bet money we walked 10 miles on this day. So much fun though!

Pink sand... beautiful

Swizzle Time!!!

• That first night we had dinner at the hotel and went back to our room with a bottle of wine, sat on our balcony and listened to tunes, laughing and talking for hours. This is why I married my husband. Just me and him, all by ourselves, have the best time together!

Dinner

Drinks on the Patio after din

• Day 2 was St. George’s… may have been the best little town on the entire island! I felt like we were in London walking the streets, and there was plenty to see, do, and explore. We got off the beaten path and discovered an unfinished church. It was so beautiful and like nothing I have ever seen. After more walking we cracked open a bottle of Santa Margarita from our backpack and did more exploring. I’m pretty sure it’s not legal to walk the streets of Bermuda drinking wine, but we certainly did it… haha!

• Before I go more into day 2, I need to talk about how nice the people are in Bermuda. Look, you will hear people say that about almost every place they visit, but I swear, if they call anywhere aside from Bermuda “the nicest people on the planet,” they have never been to Bermuda!!! This may sound extra-creepy, and it’s nothing we have ever in our lives done before, but we hitch-hiked nearly 5 times on this trip… And no, we never stuck our thumb out. There were plenty of cabs, we were not desperate. People would see us walking, drive up, and offer us rides. It was really weird at first, but everyone was so nice, and by the end of the trip, we had taken so many rides with strangers, we didn’t think twice about it!

Unfinished Church and St. George's

• One more thing on Day 2…. It POURED!!! I mean completely drenched me to where I was “drowned rat” style. We didn’t have an umbrella, so we ran into an ice cream shop, had a bite to eat, and asked the lady working if we could have a garbage bag or something to cover up with. She comes out with an umbrella. SHE GAVE IT TO US!!! Seriously, these are the people of Bermuda. I have been a lot of places – a lot of places with extra-nice people – and I have never experienced anything like this!!! After this experience, we headed to The Caves... a great sightseeer in Bermuda!

CAVES!

• Day 3 was golf!!! We played at The Southampton Princess, and I have never seen a course so beautiful. Of all 18 holes, there was a view of the ocean. The best part was, we got there extra-early, and with it being low-season, we pretty much had the entire course to ourselves. It was a golf game to remember and our second favorite day the entire week!

POOL TIME!

• Day 4 we hung out at the Dockyard, another area of Bermuda. We started the day off with a tennis game, had lunch, did some exploring, layed on the beach, then ended the day with another bottle of Santa Margarita and King Henry VIII.

LOSER

WINNER

• Day 5… BEST DAY OF THE ENTIRE VACATION!!!!! It was our last day, so we rented a boat and took it out on the open ocean. It was so relaxing just having me and Tres together on our sweet little boat. We stopped at a tiny island for a picnic – one of the most fun things we have ever done together. After lunch, we went shipwreck sightseeing. Bermuda is known for their shipwrecks because of all of coral close to land. It was really cool to see, as one we saw sank in the 1800’s!

• It was sad to say goodbye, as I’m sure every honeymoon is. We enjoyed every aspect of Bermuda. The food was great, the people were amazing, and the activities were entertaining! Also, nothing beat our awesome hotel, Cambridge Beaches. It was secluded, quiet, and our suite had the most amazing view! I highly recommend it!

Beautiful room!

• Last things to point out about Bermuda… THE PINK SAND!!! It’s beautiful and you will never see anything so exceptional! And…. THE SWIZZLE!!! It’s the island’s signature drink, and we had a bundle of them while there. It’s a must-try!

Budget and Beaches!

Money, money, money, monaaayyyy!!!! This past Sunday, Tres and I sat down and had “the talk…” The BUDGET talk that is! :) We spent literally the entire afternoon staring at a spreadsheet and mapping out our budget – what to spend on what, where to save, where not to save, etc. We were lucky enough to be given a great sum of money from my mom and dad to go towards the wedding, so we have been very grateful for that! But we have also learned that no matter what kind of budget you set, you will more than likely ALWAYS go over it. We have definitely gone over it, but we are not stressing about it… I love that saying, “Go big… you only get married once!” haha. And this is true, since we only get to do this one time in our lives, we are planning on not going overboard but having everything we really, really want!
It grows on trees... duh!

Sunday afternoon’s budget talk became Sunday night’s honeymoon talk! Now THIS was much more exciting than the budget talk! We love to travel together, and we do it a lot (I have a Travel Blog too)! So, I had been anxious to have this talk because I just know our honeymoon will be to die for! We discussed what we wanted and didn’t want out of a honeymoon. Here are our bottom lines:
Bermuda: There's nothing more unique than a PINK beach!

• Nothing “touristy”! At first, I kind of imagined us doing a place in Europe neither of us had been before, but the places we want to go in Europe are very touristy. The last thing I want to do is to be running around five different cities in a week’s time, trying to see 100 different attractions, with 10 different maps and tour guides in our hands, and so tired at the end of the day that I don’t even want to curl my hair or dress cute for dinner! No thanks! I am dying to go to Italy, but maybe we will save it for our one year anniversary!
• A relaxing place! Hence, nothing touristy! We will be off work for about a week for this, so I want my feet up and to not move a bone in my body the entire time. I want to be able to enjoy the days with naps in between and enjoy the nights without be tired (and also feel like curling my hair for dinner each night)!
• Not a long flight! This is Tres’ bottom line, and he has a good point. We are already having somewhat of a vacation wedding with it being in New Orleans. We will already be taking off some the week before to get down there and get settled, so we don’t need to go on a honeymoon where we are flying across the entire globe. A 20-hour plane ride will take a full day of vacation away from us on the way there and on the way back… No thank you to that too!
• Finally, a nice hotel room and good food! Just feed me good food, and I’m happy. Just put Tres in an awesome hotel room, and he’s happy... fair game!
The Turks and Caicos... tiny little islands

So, with all of this in mind, there is really only a few options, and they are all in the Caribbean! We, of course, have consulted with our good friends Trevor and Lori on this since they lived in the Virgin Islands for several years. This is what we are leaning towards (and this could completely change on any given day…): Turks and Caicos, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, and Barbados - with Turks and Caicos and Bermuda being the favorites. We like the idea of Turks because it’s different and the development is very new over there. Plus, I have read that it’s where a lot of celebrities go for their “moon”! And we like Bermuda because of the pink sand, the good reputation, and it’s not really in the Caribbean… it’s more north than all the other islands and it’s all by itself! We are going to discuss this further. TO BE CONTINUED…