2 part honeymoon: Central Europe + Beach. Advices?
 

Hi!
We are planning our 3 week honeymoon for late May - early June 2015. We are set on Europe (my fiancé has never been there). He initially wanted to see more cultural stuff (museums, site seeing, castles...) but I wanted to see the sea and get some much needed time to relax. After a lot of thoughts we decided to part our honeymoon in 2: the first half to visit and the second half to relax.

Europe is large and diverse and I've been a couple on times already so we narrowed it down:
1rst part of the trip: romantic Central Europe. Prague (4 days), Vienna (5 days), Budapest (4 days)
Then: one day to travel elsewhere (low cost flight)
2nd part of the trip: Beach! That's where we are not sure where to go yet. We are hesitating between Amalfi coast + Capri, Crete, Cyclads in Greece (but which ones?!?), Sardinia, Mallorca, Sicily, Croatia. We are more tempted with the Cyclads or the Amalfi coast, less with Sardinia or Mallorca (too early to swim). We have the remaining of our time to spend in this 2nd destination, so about 6 full days (excluding the arriving and departing days).

What do you think? For the first leg of the trip we will travel by train, take the time from Vienna to do 1 or 2 day trips and then travel by ferry from Vienna to Budapest (one possible stop to Bratislava if it's worth it).

The second leg of the trip is really where we need your suggestions! If it can help we have a budget of about 6k excluding transportation, we are budget travellers and don't care for 4* hotels or fancy restaurants/alcohol. We want to spend most of our money on activities. For the beach part, we would like to enjoy the sun, maybe spend a day on the beach, scuba dive if possible, do some hiking, eat local food... enjoy ourselves to the max before heading back home!

Thank you all!

Before booking any beach resort in europe definitely check out the beach - a few are quality but many are very poor - pebbles or even rocks instead of pure white sand. Also check access to the beach - sometimes the only good ones are the property of expensive resorts and the public ones are awful.

I know the best white sand beaches are not in Europe and we are not going there to lay on a beach all day.

We are not looking for a beach resort. We would like to stay in B&B or pensions, and have the option to put our feet in the sea. We might want to change spots (3 days in 2 different places?).

On late May/early June, for 6 days or so, you may want to have a look on Rhodes. Hotter climate, lively enough on your dates, a diverse island with plenty of watersports, many different beaches and a good bus system to connect among them and many saights and sites if you decide you want to explore a bit more. One more plus is that there are many boat trips to surrounding islands, so you may get a glimpse of other destinations without having to pack/unpack and move locations once again...

Rhodes, recommended by Mariha, would be a good choice, as would Crete. Both are southerly, so temperatures are likely to be a few degrees warmer than the Cyclades. The Cyclades is the classic island hopping group, where it would be possible to split your 6 days between two islands only 2-3 hours apart by ferry. Many honeymooners choose Oia on Santorini for its caldera views. Naxos, with many great sandy beaches, is only two hours away.

I have to disagree with nytraveler about the definition of a quality beach. I enjoy snorkelling myself, and the last place to go for that is a long sandy beach. The best places for snorkelling are small rocky coves where the fish have some shelter from predators. Often these beaches are a mixture of sand and pebbles. BTW, pure white sand comes from coral, of which there is none in the Mediterranean. The closest I've found to pure white silica sand are the beaches of Formentera, near Ibiza in Spain.

Other places you might consider: the Algarve in S Portugal or Corfu. Look at pictures, especially of the Algarve. It will have everything you want with warm weather.

These two would be cooler, but might be of interest: the Azores or Cefalonia (Kefalonia).

I would still keep the AC as a possibility, but take a day from the rest of the trip and add it to your time on the AC so you could include a bit of sight seeing and go to Pompeii while on the AC.

I like Rhodes too. Last time I was there, I waded around in shallow water and saw fish swimming around my feet.

....and if you really want to swim in May, fly with http://wizzair.com/ for about 130 EUR/OW from Budapest to Larnaca and enjoy the beaches of Cyprus: seawater tempteratures end May / early June around 22 degrees centigrade/72 degrees Fahrenheit.
http://www.bigblueplanet.com/destina...trySelected=59
You may then fly back to any European airport (aegeanair, tuifly, easyjet, ryanair, etc.)

Are you taking a ferry from Vienna to Budapest or the hydrofoil? If a ferry, isn't that a 7-8 hour trip at minimum? The hydrofoil is half that.

Bratislava is thisclose to Vienna. You can make it a day trip while you're IN Vienna.

My first thought is to reverse the halves of the trip. Put the rest on the beach part first to get over both post-wedding fatigue and jet-lag/sleepiness (assuming you're arriving in Europe after a long, overnight flight). Earlier is less desirable if you want warm sea water for swimming, but a few days doesn't make that much difference. For instance you could fly into Athens, then on Rhodes or Crete your first day.

After your relaxation time, you could fly to Vienna and start your sight-seeing.

When you narrow down your choices, check out the convenience of flights into and out of your beach location. skyscanner.com and whichbudget.com have cheap flights within Europe. Flight convenience will help you decide.

Greek weather can still be unsettled in May, and a couple of weeks really does make a difference in water temperature. For that reason I prefer waiting until June. I have been on the Greek Islands in mid-May when it was so cold I needed a sweater AND jacket to keep warm in the evenings.

Thank you all for your answers! We will take a close look to all of your suggestions.

The idea to narrow things down with flight convenience is definitely a good idea.

We initially wanted to put the beach part in the second half because of the possibly cold temperatures in May...

If your trip starts by May 18 or later (AND you are from US not in the south), you'll be OK swimming in Greece, it's "brisk" for the first minute or so, then very refreshing ... and as others have pointed out, in some places the water is a bit warmer. Lindos bay in Rhodes is a "suntrap" facing S.E. -- I've swum there May 14 enjoyably. On Naxos, the beach adjoining he port town, Ag. Giorgios, is shallower, warms up earlier.

We are travelling from May 24 to June 14 and we are from Canada. We are used to brisk water ;)