The Mediterranean - The cheap version

In my continued search for the perfect, memorable, budget friendly honeymoon and my refusal to postpone the trip for a latter date I began looking for other options that would give us culture, beach, sun, relaxation and great sightseeing.

I kept noticing how on several Mediterranean cruises there was always a stop in Split, Croatia, which got me thinking that there must be something to this port if everyone wants to go there. Then this morning I was browsing through the newest issue of Utterly Engaged and there was a profile of a couple who took their honeymoon in Croatia and Italy. I had to know more. I started doing some digging and for the last 2 hours I have been researching flights, hotels and sights within Croatia and I have to say I WANT TO GO!!! Croatia has a perfect mix of culture and relaxation. There are hundreds of small Adriatic Islands that have gorgeous beaches as amazing resorts. On the mainland the cities are just dripping in history. Throughout it's history Croatia has been under the influence of several ruling countries and that history is reflected in the architecture, the art and the food. I know this is something that my history buff fiancee would love!

I had no idea just how beautiful this country is:

Paddling around one of the many Adriatic Islands

Rovinj, Croatia

Split, Croatia

I could go on an on....
Apparently Croatia has been gaining popularity among Europeans as vacation destination for several years, but here in the states it's fairly undiscovered. One of the best things about honeymooning in Croatia...the money! Hotels are incredibly reasonable and the high(est) season for tourism doesn't start until July! Which means we can still enjoy low(er) prices for our June honeymoon.
J is sound asleep right now, so I haven't has a chance to sell him on the idea yet, and it's taken all my self control not to wake him up yelling "look at this look at this!!!" Fingers crossed that he loves it!

Honeymoon??? Mini-moon??? No -moon???!!!

One of the topics that J and I have been discussing at length is our honeymoon. Since we both love to travel we want our trip to really be something special and something memorable, but we also need it to be affordable. Unfortunately memorable and affordable are two words that don't really get along very well.

Our original thought was to do a 12 night Mediterranean cruise. J and I LOVE Europe and to spend two weeks exploring the Greek Isles would be amazing. We found a great itinerary that we love with Princess Cruises. We'd be sailing on the Ruby Princess from Venice to Rome with stops in Athens, Mykonos, Croatia and several others.

We loved everything about this idea, except the price. We'd be traveling in June which is the high season in Europe. High Season=High Prices. The cruise price we could handle, the airfare was another story.
So we began looking at other options. There were some 10 and 12 night Caribbean cruises that seemed nice, but we don't really want to spend our entire trip warding off the local vendors. Although we did like the idea of having a few at sea days to just relax and enjoy the ship; something that we wouldn't have with the Med cruise.

I tossed out the idea of renting a beach house in the South Carolina.

We could pack up the car and the dogs and spend a week laying on the beach. Plus we would be an hour for Charleston and an hour from Savannah which would make for some great day trips. History and relaxation all in one. Perfect!

J countered with Disney World, which I shot down right away. I don't think that we are the Disney Honeymoon type of couple. Plus, I would like to try and limit our encounters with screaming children if at all possible. He agreed, and we decided to shelve the Disney vacation for an anniversary.

It was at this point that I just began naming random places that might make a good honeymoon spot. Fiji!? Costa Rica?! Niagra Falls?! Door County?!

Then J offered up the suggestion of postponing our honeymoon....POSTPONING???!!! Are you f&!*#g kidding me?? I know us..I know how we operate, if we postpone it won't happen. It just won't, we will find some excuse not to go or some reason not to spend the money. He suggested a short, in-state, mini-moon right after we say "I do" and a full blown honeymoon in January, but I'm just not feelin' it. I think that if we are going to go, we should just go.

So now we are back to where we started. I'm stalking every discount cruise website I can find in hopes of striking a deal, but so far no luck. I think the next step is going to be calling a travel agent and seeing what sort of magic they can work with in our budget.

Anyone out there in blogland have any suggestions?