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So we’ve finally got our honeymoon booked, and we’re really quite excited by what we’ve got planned. We’d always wanted to go somewhere that wasn’t too far, and didn’t involve a complicated flight change, or risk of long delays. Unfortunately, there weren’t quite as many destination options from Glasgow or Edinburgh as we’d hoped for when we first started planning, at least at this time of year.

We canvassed opinion from friends and relatives, and also popped in to a travel agents last Monday (First Choice, in Shawlands). The travel agent seemed to think honeymoons always equated to a beach holiday, so when Frances said we wanted something ‘a bit different, with things to do’, her face visibly dropped. When she went on to suggest that Ryanair had a flight to Pisa for our suggested Tuscany trip, my face must have dropped too, because she lost interest in us, as did we in her suggestions (which were minimal at best because “there’s not much left, due to the half-term“, so helpful…), so we grabbed a few brochures and went off. Now I hate Ryanair with a passion, and rushing to get seats together on one of their flights is really not how I envisaged my honeymoon starting… Plus a honeymoon destination doesn’t, in my mind, really overlap much with the sort of holiday a family might take. At least by my reckoning!

I’d previously suggested to Frances a ‘half and half’ holiday, of a few days in a nice and luxurious spa hotel somewhere in Scotland or the North of England, and then a long weekend break somewhere interesting, but not too far away. We had quickly settled on Iceland as favourite. Not perhaps the cultural equivalent of Tuscany, but it’s a short flight, and a country that we’ve heard nothing but good things about (in particular from our good friends David and Sharon Rowe; Sharon’s travel notes and photos are here).

We investigated a few package options, and found one we liked. At least, that is, for the price. Over £1000 for a three night trip seemed a tad(!!) excessive, even by Icelands notorious standards. But Frances is an expert at hunting out bargains (and choosing hotels), so after a spot of surfing, she managed to get almost exactly the same deal, but for almost half the price, with an extra tour included too. An absolute bargain, without compromising on what we were getting. So we figured the “saving” we made would safely cover the cost of the meals and a drink or two, which are notoriously expensive!

We’ve still to sort out the initial spa break, but have a hotel in mind, but want to check a few other options out first. But we’re both really excited to be going to see Iceland, and it ticks almost all of the boxes we’d set ourselves. I wanted to thank everybody for their suggestions in my previous post about honeymoons. We did look in to every one, and we’ve now got plenty of ideas for some future holidays when we have a bit more time, which is no bad thing!

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 1:41 pm and is filed under Personal, Travelling, UK. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.