I am planning a honeymoon for two weeks beginning June 22, 2006. I love active adventure vacations, including scuba diving, white water rafting, some hiking, water skiing, sailing, whale watching, etc.

My fiance already nixed the galapagos, Australia, Alaska, anywhere in Africa, or South America.

Would some Greece aficianados please suggest fun, adventurous, and active things to do in Greece and the Greek islands?

I would appreciate any assistance you can provide me. Thanks!

Jay

I guess the question would be, why did your fiancee nix those place? That may help in deciding if Greece is the place to go or where in Greece.

Crete definitely has hiking so perhaps that's a good start. We're going to do a kayaking/snorkeling/cave day trip on Antiparos that should be fun. I know there are scuba diving options there as well.

I'm sure there are options on the mainland for hiking, rafting, etc.

When I see your list of things you enjoy, my first thought is New Zealand or, closer to home, if you're from the US, Belize. We LOVED both those countries and had tons of adventure opportunities that we took advantage of.

However, for a honeymoon, Greece can't be beat. (this is where I spent my honeymoon, along with Paris)

I know REI does some trekking trips to Greece as well as many other companies. Perhaps you can search for those and see what they have on their trips. That would give you a good idea of what's availabile.

Thank you Wug. Yes, I am from NYC and I would love to go to New Zealand and Belize, which are both great suggestions. However, I am a scuba diver and to go scuba diving in those places at the level I would want would mean spending significant amounts of time away from my fiance (and my fiance has already been to Belize.) I wouldn't want to merely dabble in scuba diving at some of the premier scuba diving locales in the world.

Antiparos sounds terrific! What does REI stand for? Please excuse my ignorance.

Thanks again.

Jay

I understand the scuba diving part and not wanting to spend too much time away from your fiancee. You need to find a place where there are things you both want to do together.

Do you like more laid back places or places where you can go out at night, etc? Antiparos is a very small island with Paros and Naxos very close by. We're actually staying on Naxos and going to Antiparos for the day to do the kayaking trip. It's an eight-hour trip with about half of that actually kayaking, the rest is snorkeling/swimming in caves, going to secluded beaches, stopping for lunch, etc.

You know, I'm not sure what REI stands for but, it's an outdoor company that sells all kinds of outdoor stuff. There's an awesome store in Dallas. They have a travel company as well. Go to

http://www.rei.com/adventures/index.html

and you'll see all of their trips. I take a look at them a lot to just give me ideas of places to visit and what's availabile in those places.

Let me know if I can be of any other help. I'd love to hear where you decide to spend your honeymoon. Congrats!

I really do love Greece and think it is a great place for a honeymoon. It is very romantic.
However when I read your post it reminded me of the many postings we see for British Colombia Canada.
There are hundreds of hikes, white water rafting, whale watching, hot springs, bed and breakfast, sailing, mountains and ocean. You may want to check out the Canada Forum.

Crete would be perfect. There is a lot to do there and a lot to see. The Samarian Gorge is a beautiful walk, there are lots of places to hike, do watersports, gorgeous scenery, great places to eat etc. There are beautiful beaches, boat trips and a couple of wonderful towns to explore. Western Crete is particularly beautiful, especially the town of Chania.
Carolena

jaydubbs15 - a Aussie friend of mine worked on dive boats out of Rhodes for a number of years, and he said that diving in the Greek Islands is nothing to get excited about.
If you like diving, why not the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, or the Seychelles.
If you decide on Australia, then in the Cairns region in far north Queensland, they have white water rafting in the Tully River, diving on the outer barrier reef, plenty of hiking in the mountains behind Cairns, and yes we get plenty of whales swimming up and down the coastline of Australia, thats if the Japanese Whale boats have shot them yet.

Tropo, yes Australia would be an excellent choice. However, the best diving is in the coral sea, which is quite remote, and I don't think Robin would appreciate my spending so much time away from her. I love diving and if I were to go all the way to Australia then I would want to do the very best diving there, which would require staying on a live-aboard for a few days.

Standbr, British Columbia would also be an excellent choice. I may plan a scuba diving trip there on my own after our honeymoon!

Wug, thanks for the suggestion! I plan to look into Antiparos, Paros, and Naxos. All of those activities you mentioned sounds great!

Thank you all!

Jay

wug - do you have a web site for the kayaking trip on Antiparos. That sounds like so much fun. We always try at least one thing a little different when we travel.

Hi pbing

Here's the website. There are actually two kayaking companies I found. Argonauts Blue is the one we're going with, mainly because they are easier to get to, the trips are for eight hours, include lunch and sounded really fun. However, the other one sounds great too. They have multi-day trips as well as four hour trips and have accommodations right there at their site. We just didn't have time to do a multi-day trip this time. Maybe next!

Here are the websites for both.

http://www.argonautsblue.com
http://www.seakayak-greece.com

Have fun!