I was totally happy to get another Real Honeymoon submission from South America, and the very first honeymoon in Brazil!  The post made me even more excited about the possibility of going back to Brazil for the FIFA World Cup 2014.  (Shhh… don’t tell my mom quite yet ; ) – I think we’ll find out whether we get tickets at the end of next month or early November.)  Anyway, read all about Lacey and Travis’ awesome honeymoon in Rio below:

When and where did you honeymoon?


We honeymooned in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June of 2013.

How long was your trip?

We stayed 5 nights and 6 days.

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

We wanted to go somewhere with beautiful beaches and interesting culture to explore. Rio de Janeiro was on both of our travel wish lists so it was a perfect place to pick for our honeymoon.

The best part about our honeymoon was…


Either the day we saw the Christ the Redeemer statue and took the gondolas (yes two) to the top of Sugar Loaf mountain, or the day we spent relaxing at the pool and the beach since we never have time to relax! We also had a great time exploring the over 200 year old Jardim Botanico where we saw wild monkeys.

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


We would probably stay one or two less days in Rio de Janeiro and see another city in Brazil. You can do all of the must see sights in about three days so the remaining time is spent enjoying the beach and nightlife.

How much planning did you do in advance?


When we travel we typically plan the hotel in advance and that is it. When we arrive we usually schedule a day trip of each city to get our bearings and decided how we want to spend the rest of the time in that city. We did the same for our honeymoon and it worked out great to not have any concrete plans so we could wait to see what we wanted to do each morning.

What was your biggest honeymoon splurge?


The second to last night of the trip we went out for a nice dinner and spent an evening listening to jazz and champagne tasting at a gorgeous hotel on the beach.

We also could not stop ordering fresh coconuts and caipirivodkas (a spin on the caipirinha, Brazil’s national cocktail) from the street vendors. They are much more reasonably priced than those at the hotels and taste just as fantastic sipped on the boardwalk or beach.

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

Our next big trip will likely be to see Machu Picchu in Peru or to see the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, hopefully in the late fall/early winter of 2014.

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Here are a couple of other quick tips from Lacey:

• June in Rio was great! It’s the end of the busy season so the beaches aren’t as crowded and the weather was perfect. It was sunny and warm enough for the beach with a slight breeze so you don’t get too hot. The breeze was a little much in the morning so we would explore or go to the rooftop pool and hit the beach after lunch.
• We stayed at the Marriott in Copacabana beach and it was great. (Travis travels a lot for work so  we were able to use points to stay the week there.) That beach is a little less nice than some of the others, but the drinks were more reasonable and we felt safe.