Yes, you read the title correctly. This week’s real honeymooners went to Paris, the Maldives, Singapore, Hong Kong, AND Tokyo on one of the most amazing honeymoons imaginable. My friend Danny and his husband Graham travel frequently and very well, so of course they had to really step it up even more for their recent honeymoon. Read all about their ultimate multi-moon below:

When and where did you honeymoon?

As a global traveler on a regular basis for work and a huge airline “dork,” I wanted a honeymoon that would allow me to travel on a wide variety of airlines (in first class, of course) and to at least one exotic location that I had never been before. Fortunately, my now husband was on board with my ambitious plans and we settled on a pretty crazy itinerary.

In the end, we went to Paris (Westin Vendome) , the Maldives (Niyama Maldives), Singapore (The Ritz-Carlton Singapore), Hong Kong (The Hotel Icon) and Tokyo (The Peninsula), experiencing Suites class on Singapore Airlines, First Class on Lufthansa and Thai Airways and business class on ANA, including a trip on their new Dreamliner.

How long was your trip?

To keep the wedding/honeymoon as one celebration, we left on our honeymoon the Sunday after our wedding and spent roughly two weeks traveling (May 2014).

   

How did you decide on your honeymoon destinations?

For as long as I can remember, my number one criteria for my honeymoon was spending at least part of it on an overwater villa someplace tropical. Since Graham and I have been together (over 6 years), our favorite memories have been our tropical trips, sitting on a beach, drinking something fruity, and gorging ourselves with beach/pool side food. As such, he was more than happy to indulge me once again in this dream, so the focus became finding the best overwater bungalow we could.

   

We narrowed it down to Tahiti and The Maldives, but ultimately decided on The Maldives, as it was easier to get there for free with my miles and there seemed to be far more options with extra perks, like personal infinity pools and underwater nightclubs, that Tahiti did not seem to offer.

The other destinations were picked more based on getting to and from the Maldives with miles, maximizing our time in First Class, and getting to destinations where we knew the food would be amazing (our other big criteria).


   

The best part about our honeymoon was…

We may differ on this, but other than the amazing flights, and beautiful Maldives, I have to say the best part was just spending 2 weeks together, with no one else and no other distractions. It was the longest time we had spent together, just us, and it was pretty amazing. Über emo, I know. Hopefully you aren’t all throwing up now….

   


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

I would probably eliminate one or two of our stops. Going to 5 locations in roughly 10 days is quite a lot, even for someone who loves the traveling part of it. I think the ideal trip would have been heading to the Maldives (which meant a stop in Europe no matter what) and then time in Tokyo, which was our favorite of the other cities we visited.

How much planning did you do in advance?

Loads. I am in the travel industry (work for the world’s largest online travel company) and so I was fortunate to have many resources at my disposal. But the multitude of resources also meant a lot of time. I get a lot of travel perks through work, so it was a matter of maximizing those perks to the best of my advantage and picking the best hotels with the best discounts. Similarly, using miles and credit card points for multiple legs is not an easy task. It took quite some time to get what I deemed an ideal itinerary that got us into some of the best first class seats in the world.

   

(Danny sent me more airplane photos that any other blog contributor so far!)

What was your biggest honeymoon splurge?

I think our biggest splurge was a dinner in Tokyo. Graham really wanted to try Kobe steak in Japan, so we asked the concierge at the Peninsula for a suggestion. They recommended Kawamura in Ginza, a small tepenyaki restaurant with only a handful of seats. This was certainly one of the best meals of our lives. They had A5-5 Kobe steaks that literally melted in your mouth. It tasted like meaty butter. Amazing. It was not cheap and under normal circumstances we would not have splurged on such an extravagant meal, but this was our honeymoon and the food was to die for.


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

Like I said, we both love beach vacations. We have been to Hawaii a few times together (including when we got engaged) and always look for an excuse to head back there. Otherwise, Graham has always wanted to go to Ireland and Italy, so I think that may be on the shortlist. I am also looking for an excuse to head back to Australia (actually where I met Ilana), so that is certainly on the list as well.