Honeymoon help - Eastern Europe
 

Hi all,

I'm looking for advice/ inspiration for planning my Honeymoon next year. We're getting married in April but planning to take advantage of the UK bank holidays in May with a view to travel pretty much most of May.

I've considered many destinations but am sort of stuck on eastern europe for now, largely because flights are quick so that means we'll get more honeymoon for our time away. We've also agreed that we want to go to places that we've not been before. In eastern europe that means Greece is out, also Hungry and we're planning a trip to Prague later in the year. Other than that I've got free reign. We are also keen to see a few different places and experience a few different cultures.

Really I'm just looking for inspiration at this point to build an itinerary around. We'd like a mix of city breaks and some coastal towns / beaches. The weather should be getting warmer then so coming back home with a tan would be excellent. I've been building a few itineraries around croatia but I don't think I've found one yet that I'm completely in love with. Happy to do some car rental, but also travel by train or even short flights, though from what I gather train travel in the area is not as good as other parts of europe.

If anyone's been in the area (particularly in May) and have completely loved it, please feel free to contribute locations that we can consider because I am really keen to make this the best trip possible... you only have a honeymoon once (hopefully)

I visited many parts of these countries on a trip that was in May/June a few years ago. I usually prefer to travel in May, but pushed part of my trip out into June because the schedules for Croatian ferries changed on 1 June, and I think that is still the case -- something to consider!

Trains are limited, but buses are plentiful and IME very comfortable,

Here's what I did -- and BTW, I do NOT recommend my itinerary to anyone else because I was traveling solo and HARD! It would certainly NOT have been suitable for anyone looking for a bit of romance. But you asked for what those of us who completely loved our trips did, so here it is:

Day 1 (mid- to late May): Leave the US (overnight flight)
Day 2-3: Sarajevo (2 nights)
Day 4: Mostar (1 night)
Day 5-7: Dubrovnik (3 nights, day trip to Kotor)
Day 8: Korcula (1 night)
Day 9: Split (1 night)
Day 10-11: Stari Grad and Hvar Town (2 nights)
Day 12: Trogir (1 night)
Day 13-14: Sibenik (2 nights)
Day 15: Zadar (1 night)
Day 16: Rab Town (1 night)
Day 17: Lovran (1 night)
Day 18: Rovinj (1 night)
Day 19: Gračišće (1 night)
Day 20: Plitvice (1 night)
Day 21: Cigoc (1 night)
Day 22: Varazdin (1 night)
Day 23-25: Zagreb (3 nights)
Day 26-27: Ljubljana (2 nights)
Day 28-29: Lake Bled (2 nights)
Day 30: Flight home.

BTW, if you are looking for inspiration, you might want to check the Eyewitness Guide, which includes lots of great pictures. Otherwise, I found The Rough Guide the most useful one of those I consulted for this particular trip.

Hope this helps, and congratulations/best wishes!

Last June our 12 year-old daughter and I spent two weeks traveling this route: Vienna-Zagreb-Sarajevo-Belgrade-Istanbul-Vienna through a combination of trains, planes, and buses. We live in Vienna but had never visited the other cities. All of the cities offered a variety of things to see and do, and could easily be romantic if planned that way. Also, if you make your way toward Istanbul in late May you could possibly head to the Black Sea for beach time? The trip report is posted under my name if you're interested.

Looking at kja's itinerary I would add more time to Sarajevo and Plitvice and take some from Dubrovnik. For a honeymoon I would slow way down and drop a lot of places. I would also consider Montenegro - take a look at Sveti Stefan, photos here: http://mytimetotravel.wordpress.com/...-sveti-stefan/

I have visited Croatia in late May three times--including my honeymoon. It is a lovely time of year in terms of weather and fewer crowds. If you want to swim, make it to the islands as late in May as possible. Feel free to ask more once you have read up on the islands.