Imagine it: you’ve just planned the biggest party of your life—your wedding—and now you’re ready for the honeymoon of your dreams. But honeymoons, like weddings, aren’t one-size-fits-all. For some, the perfect trip consists of nothing more than a chair on the beach and an umbrella drink. But for others, it’s the chance to see the world and share adventures together as a married couple for the first time.
For active couples who want to adventure together, but who’ve done enough planning for a while, a tour can be a winning option. “We wanted to explore a different country without having to worry about what to do, where to stay, and who would be transporting us,” said Lilian and Jose Escobar, who recently hopped a plane hours after their wedding to join a Costa Rica Nature Adventure tour from Trafalgar. When they saw that Costco had an all-inclusive package deal that included flights and the guided tour, they jumped at the chance for the ready-made honeymoon. “We loved the idea since we’d been wedding planning for the past year and a half.”
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Most tour companies don’t track how many honeymooners they host, but all I spoke with said anecdotally, honeymooners are a regular sight on tours. Liz Einbinder at active adventure tour company Backroads told me it’s “not uncommon for us to have couples celebrating anniversaries and honeymoons on our trips, we’ve also had numerous engagements take place on a Backroads trip.” Other tour companies told me about guests who first took a tour together on their honeymoon and later returned with their kids on family tours.
The appeal of a honeymoon tour
Taking a guided group tour for a honeymoon isn’t for everyone. It’s not a sitting-on-the-beach vacation (though depending on the destination, you can often tack on a pre- or post-trip to a relaxation-forward spot). It’s also not a sleeping late every day vacation or a just-the-two-of-you getaway.
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But here’s what tours are: the chance to sit back and let someone else do the planning (and driving). When I asked Tom Armstrong at Tauck Tours to imagine what draws honeymooners to tours, he said “When you’re already stressed out planning the myriad details involved in a wedding, it can be a huge relief to have someone else handling everything involved with the honeymoon—transportation, hotel accommodations, meal reservations, sightseeing, and so on.”
Tours are also an opportunity to do a lot, and to learn and experience and see alongside your new spouse. On their Costa Rica honeymoon tour, Lilian and Jose found moments to learn, grow, and be challenged side by side. Lilian said “Zip lining through the forest was an awesome experience together. I like to think I conquered my fear of heights with my husband by my side.” For Jose, a small-group ATV tour on the slopes of Arenal Volcano was a special chance for the couple to meet members of the local “Moleku indigenous tribe and learn about their culture, medicine, and craft.”
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Tom Armstrong says there’s another reason tours are a good fit for some couples. “Newlyweds planning on starting a family fairly quickly will consider a honeymoon as a great chance to get in a ‘bucket list’ adventure before the demands of parenthood make that kind of trip more difficult.” Honeymoons are a perfect time for big trips like African safaris and tours to places that take considerable time and effort to reach, spots like Australia or New Zealand, Tahiti, Bali, and Madagascar.
What about alone time?
“The way I see it, we have our whole lives to be just us together. This is a chance for us to find adventure.” This was Jose’s quick response when I first asked him if being on a honeymoon with 22 other people felt strange.
Lilian expanded on the idea: “Our advice would be don’t be afraid to book a guided tour with other folks because there are times when you get to be with your significant other on a one-on-one basis. And you will still get to enjoy all the different activities together.”
Reflecting on the tour after returning home, they said “We were relaxed, and enjoyed our time without having to worry about anything.”
Liz Einbinder shared a bit of similar feedback from a couple who made their honeymoon a Backroads tour. “Choosing to start your honeymoon with a set of 13 strangers for eight days might seem unusual, if crazy, though everything Backroads put together was outstanding. We could not be more grateful or fulfilled for our choice to join the trip.”
Honeymooners on tour
That Costa Rica tour that Lilian and Jose were on? I was there too, with my 10-year-old daughter, and I got to watch the magic that unfolds when a newly married couple joins a tour. Tours have long been thought of as the domain of retirees, but in recent years, that’s been changing, with more younger folks and families embracing the benefits of organized group travel, too.
Our tour group included a mix of younger and older travelers, and for all of us, there was something special about having honeymooners in our midst. Older couples reminisced about their early days together. I listened in on some wonderful conversations about what couples wished they had known when they were younger (celebrate more, treasure each other, and know when you’re tired and a conversation should be put off until the next day).
Marriage is a grand adventure. A honeymoon can be too.
