Another couple of newlyweds who really took advantage of their travel points and miles are my good friends McKenzie and Curtis who spent the majority of their honeymoon in the picture perfect Maldives.  As I’ve mentioned before, there are definitely perks to being a consultant when you want to go all out on your honeymoon.  Read all about their “baller-status” honeymoon below ; )

When and where did you honeymoon?

We left the Monday after the wedding and our first stop was Hong Kong. We were in Hong Kong for two days before trekking to the Maldives. We were in the Maldives for 10 days and on the way back to the U.S.A. we stopped in Tokyo for a day.

Look familiar? Seema and Tommy took the same photo!

How long was your trip?

Two weeks total.

How did you decide on your honeymoon destination(s)?

Your honeymoon is your one chance to do it big. When else in your life are given cart blanche to take multiple weeks off work and spend money like you are rockstars? It has been a dream of mine to stay in an over-water bungalow, and there are only a few places in the world that have those, one being the Maldives, the exotic and remote honeymoon were looking for! After deciding on the main attraction, we needed to determine which route to take. We wanted to make a stop on the way there and back for two reasons: 1) To break up the 36 hour journey and 2) If we are going half way around the world, we might as well make the most of it. Since we have both been to Europe several times, we decided to take the Asia route. We decided to visit China on the way there (Hong Kong) and Japan on the way home (Tokyo).

The best part about our honeymoon was… 

Our resort in the Maldives. I can officially say that I have stayed on a private island. For the first five nights we stayed in an over-water bungalow, a dream come true. While sleeping you can hear the Indian Ocean lapping underneath you. During the day, we would hang out on our deck and whenever we wanted, we would just walk down the deck stairs and we would be knee-deep in the Indian Ocean. We could go snorkeling, swimming or just float in the 80 degree water. It was heaven, we almost did not want to switch to our second room, but we are glad we did.

For the second five nights we had our own private villa with our own private infinity pool. Privacy walls surrounded the villa so every morning when we woke up all we could see was our pool and the Indian Ocean. We spent our days lounging on our patio and when the 90 degree sun got too intense, we could cool off in our own private pool!

We also did several activities while at the resort. We had a spa day, we did two snorkeling trips and we went on a sunset dolphin watching cruise. Every night we would get drinks on the beach and go to one of the six restaurants on the island. In contrast to the couple Mexican vacations that Curtis and I have taken together, this vacation was heavier on the relaxation and lighter on the tequila.

If I knew then what I know now, I’d change… 

I would have packed more casual clothes. Since it was my honeymoon, I packed cute dresses and heels for dinner every night; however, the paths through the island were sand and the one night I wore heels, I ended up walking home barefoot. Most people wore casual sundresses and flip-flops, and I wish I packed more outfits like that. During the day, we only wore bathing suits and cover-ups.

How much planning did you do in advance? 

The hardest part was booking the flights and coordinating all the travel plans. We did not plan anything for our ten days in the Maldives, we played it by ear the entire time we were on the island. We did look up the sights to see in Hong Kong and Tokyo and bought a travel guide, but we made up our itinerary on the fly and used help from the concierge to finalize our plans. (After showing my husband a draft of this blog entry, his contribution was to point out that he did all the planning and hard work :)

What was your biggest honeymoon splurge? 

The entire honeymoon we spent money like we were millionaires. Anything we wanted to do, we did. Anything we wanted to buy, we bought. Anything we wanted to drink, we drank. Anything we wanted to eat, we ate. We never even thought about money, and if something was particularly expensive, we would just throw our hands up and say, “Welp, it’s our honeymoon, so why not!” Like I said, it is your once chance to do it up big, every other vacation you take in your life, you will not have the built in excuse of “it’s our honeymoon” to go ahead and take a Rolls Royce from the Hong Kong airport to the Ritz Carlton Hong Kong.

Where do you want to go on your next big trip?

We are already talking about doing a Greek Island cruise, but we are not sure when that will be. I think it will be a while before we travel half-way around the world again, but we have a long list of travel destinations and a life time to complete them!