'Moon rise
Honeymooners at the high end seek not only an exotic location and the frills that have become standard (sunshine, spas, great food), but also an essnetial element: Privacy.
You're in love, you've just declared it to everyone, and you're with the one person who counts - that's what matters in a honeymoon.
For some newlyweds, that special time means an exceptional place to finish off a wedding and launch a life together. "Some honeymooners, particularly those on a budget, want to go someplace close, and for those who can spend more, it could be a private island," says Sally Sells, the owner of Travel Anywhere, a travel agency in Center City.
Sells sends many couples to their special places, and choosing that location "often depends on how much the bride and groom have traveled. If they're sophisticated travelers, they're the ones who want to have an exotic experience."
For Sells and other travel agents who make a point of knowing honeymoon spots firsthand, "you have to know your client before you start suggesting a trip, and you can kind of tell what to suggest after the first 20 or 30 minutes."
These days, she says, higher-end honeymooners seek not only an exotic location and the frills that have become standard (sunshine, spas, great food) but an essential element: privacy.
So when Sells spoke to Tim and Kellie Rutten before the two Washington lawyers were married, she suggested Fiji, in three parts: first, at a rarefied resort; second, on a three-night cruise on the Blue Lagoon line, through Fiji's primordial Yasawa islands; and third, at Shangri-La, a larger resort near the airport, where the couple could mark their reentry into the real world. The two-week honeymoon cost just short of $20,000, and included a night's lodging in Los Angeles, on the way out.
The first resort, Namale, sounded so special, the couple decided to be married there - in fact, they eloped. "It's this beautiful setting, and I think maybe 90 percent of the couples staying there - maybe 30 couples were at the resort - were on their honeymoons," Tim Rutten says.
"You had your own bure (BOOR-ay), which is a thatched-roof hut, and no one was around you. You were secluded in the woods in this spectacular place. We had to climb some stairs to get to it and cross a bridge - we called it our little tree fort."
Namale Resort (www.namalefiji.com, 1-800-727-3454), in the town of Savusavu, is an all-inclusive owned by Life Mastery guru Anthony Robbins. It bills itself as a "lovers' landscape . . . where rainforest meets ocean." It has plenty of action, such as scuba diving, snorkeling, reef walks, rainforest explorations, plus those bures - the classy Fijian bungalows that offer privacy. Honeymoon bures will begin next summer at $1,325 a night.
Here are three more exclusive spots for honeymooners - all of them appearing on Brides Magazine's first list of "10 steamiest resorts" - that have been making honeymooners happy.
Le Taha'a Resort
and Spa
French Polynesia
www.letahaa.com, 1-800-735-2478
On a private island five minutes by boat from the South Pacific island of Taha'a, you'll find a dozen beach suites and 48 others poised on stilts over a lagoon, overlooking the rich, blue water. The resort's public areas are built amid the trees, and a restaurant is in the treetops.
Honeymooning couples find their alone time on private patios with tropical gardens (dinner is served there, if you wish) and, for those renting beach villas, in their private swimming pools. The resort, part of the Relais & Chateaux group, has been catering to newlyweds since it opened in 2002. Rooms next summer will start at about $1,000.
Hermitage Bay
Antigua
www.hermitagebay.com, 268-562-5500
Twenty-five colonial-designed cottages overlook a pristine bay in a secluded corner of Antigua's west coast. Each is wrapped by a balcony for ocean viewing and outiftted with a garden shower, and many have their own small pools. Take your meals at the private beach or in your cottage.
Hermitage Bay is well aware of the privacy it offers to honeymooners and, in turn, offers upgrades to the next rooming category from May through August. They also get flowers on arrival, a bottle of champagne, and a private veranda breakfast. Rooms next summer will begin at $920 a night at the all-inclusive resort.
Trisara
Phuket, Thailand
The five-year-old resort's name means "Third Garden in Heaven" in Sanskrit. It is devoted to privacy, and offers many types of villas - but honeymooners will want to consider the oceanfront and ocean-view pool villas with their own pools looking out to the Andaman Sea.
Both are directly above the beach and have the closest ocean access. The oceanfront pool villas are Trisara's premium accommodations, with teak dining and sunning decks, outdoor showers, and private gardens. The ocean-view pool villas are designed the same, but one level higher. Rooms next summer will begin at about $650. I