Hey there! So my husband & I are looking for something neat to do on our one-year anniversary trip. We live in Florida, and since we went to Europe for our honeymoon, we were thinking something slightly cheaper this year, think $2000 altogether-ish? We travel a decent amount (we've been to Park City, Whistler, Breck, Steamboat, Winter Park, Paris, London, Munich, Cozumel, the British Virgin Islands, the Keys, Miami.. and a bunch of random smaller trips around the places we've lived in MO, TX & now here in FL--we're also heading to Orlando at the end of the month for my birthday).
I'm at a loss, honestly. Not that I can't think of awesome things to do, but I can't seem to narrow it down. Does anyone have any recommendations for cool places to go? We're all over the place on this: we were talking about NYC, or somewhere in the Caribbean, or maybe Maine, or... you get my point, we basically just don't know what we want to do. Time isn't *too* big of an issue, I was thinking 4-5 nights over a weekend in late May/early June.
Activities we enjoy: we like hanging out on the beach, we like wandering through cities, we SCUBA dive, we like camping, we like pretty much everything normal couples do. What do you guys think?
Edit: Forgot to mention, I had checked out cruises as we'd never been on one together, but there really isn't much going out of Tampa (where we live) at that time...
Re: Trying to come up with one-year anniversary trip ideas!
I'd probably go to Maui or Napa; but I don't know if the long flights (to Hawaii from Florida) would be worth going for only 4-5 days.
Napa & San Francisco would be nice. Or -- I've heard great things about Puerto Rico. It wouldn't be a long flight for you from Florida and it would provide several of the things you mentioned...beaches, cities to explore...
If you have AAA, maybe talk to one of their travel agents to see if they can help you find something.
If you are talking about May-June, then Maine isn't an option unless you want a cold breeze and evenings below freezing, LOL. It is lovely, but that would be a trip for July-August
Our HM was a 2 week trip in September down the coast of California on the Pacific Coast Hwy, from San Fran to San Diego in a convertible. But, we like road trips and seeing more than one area.
This would be a great trip if you like scenery, and to cut it shorter, you could fly into LA, spend a couple of days there, rent a car and drive down to San Diego and stay there a couple of days. In May-June, it's warm enough to swim or scuba dive. Also, 3 city flights (ie from your area to LA, then back from San Diego to your area) do not cost that much more than round trip. I think it was $20 more for us, but then the airport in Detroit is a hub for Delta so flights are plentiful.
We stayed in a hotel in Malibu right on the water, with a deck overlooking the beach. They don't have a website (really old school, LOL), but here is their page on tripadvisor.com
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g32676-d78107-Reviews-Casa_Malibu_Inn_on_the_beach-Malibu_California.html
We spent a day in the downtown "Hollywood" section, you can go to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, or spend a day at Universal Studios.
In the San Diego area we stayed in Coronado, which is attached to the city of San Diego by a bridge, and you can stay near the beach, plus see downtown San Diego after a short drive.
Here's info on Coronado Bay, they have a highly rated beach:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g32250-Coronado_California-Vacations.html
The other place I'd recommend is Charleston SC if you haven't been there. It's romantic, full of history, has an abundance of fabulous restaurants. The hotel we stayed in was the French Quarter Inn, which has fireplaces and is a 4 Diamond hotel.
This would be a great trip if you like scenery, and to cut it shorter, you could fly into LA, spend a couple of days there, rent a car and drive down to San Diego and stay there a couple of days. In May-June, it's warm enough to swim or scuba dive. Also, 3 city flights (ie from your area to LA, then back from San Diego to your area) do not cost that much more than round trip. I think it was $20 more for us, but then the airport in Detroit is a hub for Delta so flights are plentiful.
We stayed in a hotel in Malibu right on the water, with a deck overlooking the beach. They don't have a website (really old school, LOL), but here is their page on tripadvisor.com
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g32676-d78107-Reviews-Casa_Malibu_Inn_on_the_beach-Malibu_California.html
We spent a day in the downtown "Hollywood" section, you can go to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, or spend a day at Universal Studios.
LA is a great place to visit!! Lots to offer...beaches, museums, restaurants, shopping..... Only downside is our traffic.
I would avoid Universal Studios though.
For a city trip, I would recommend Washington DC, Boston, San Francisco, San Diego, or Los Angeles as long as you can get a direct flight to maximize your travel time.
I also like the suggestion for Napa Valley/Sonoma County and Puerto Rico.
I like the Napa/San Fran recs also. That's what we were going to do last year for our anniversary, but didn't make it.
Turks and Caicos in the Caribbean is also really nice,lots of scuba but not much nightlife there
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I love the Couples Resorts in Jamaica for a romantic get-away for two. We did the Secret Rendevouz package which costs less because you don't know your final destination until about 2 weeks before you arrive (all resorts have shuttles from Montego Bay). The resort is adults-only and all inclusive (including SCUBA when we went), and they are geared towards making sure the two of you have quality time together!
Have fun wherever you go!
I'm going to ditto the PR rec because you can pretty much do everything you listed (beach, city, diving, 'camp', etc). For a $2K budget, I imagine the flights from FL would be super cheap, which leaves a lot in your budget for activities.
I'd recommend staying in San Juan. Take a day to walk around Old San Juan to check out the old forts. If you like hiking/camping type experience, I HIGHLY recommend the waterfall hike/zipline tour through Acampa, which was incredibly fun and provided one of the best meals we had our entire time in PR. Drive to Fajardo for the Bio Bay, which is incredible. We did a kayak/snorkel tour in the day, then the kayak/Bio Bay tour at night on the same day. It was exhausting, but very worth it (just apply sunscreen often, we both got totally fried). For diving, Fajardo is also a good spot. The visibility near San Juan isn't great, but I believe there is a wreck dive there if you're interested. However, if you have time, the best bet would be to stay on Vieques or Culebra for a day or two, the diving there is supposed to be much better.