Winter honeymoon ideas

Hi guys. Looking for some advice on honeymoon destinations in Australia for a winter getaway. We both have never been to snow so want to make a winter honeymoon around July.

We Are happy to go anywhere in Australia and are tossing up between a few places, maybe Thredbo as the obvious choice but was after some ideas from you guys if anyone else has done this, or any suggestions of some perhaps not so obvious choices.

Should have a budget between 5-10k for between 3-5nights.

 

can i throw a spanner in the works and ask you to consider NZ if you want snow?

i know you said "in Australia" but NZ is only over there *points east*.

 

Lol yeah but it involves getting passports etc, flights and all that jazz just easier in Australia as we can drive our self anywhere. We both love to drive on road trips so that's one of the other reasons for an aussie honeymoon.

 

It's your honeymoon, live a little! That budget will easily get you further than Thredbo for longer!

Why not get a passport? its a few forms, not hard! You can have a road trip in NZ. Although also worth considering Japan. Skiing in Japan is actually cheaper than Aus even considering the flights once you go for more than a week. Not to mention much more interesting culturally than a quick trip here!

If you just want to see snow any mountain resort will suffice, if you are in NSW, why not check out the Vic mountains? I think my favourite skiing is Australia is Mt Hotham, plenty to see along the way, for that budget you can charter a plane to fly you in, then hop a chopper over to Falls Creek for the day (only $120 return or something IIRC

 

If you love road trips I can't recommend NZ enough. I know you specifically said Australia, but NZ has some truly spectacular landscapes and I've never seen anything in Australia that compares. I'd highly recommend reconsidering.

 

If you're going to send $5-$10k... Just get your freaking passport and go to the snow properly. Seriously, you'll like it way more...

Seriously - I'm going to Snowbird in Utah for less than half that. and that is arguably the best now on the planet...

Seriously, get your passports. You like driving? Rent a car. It WILL be fun! Really, you'll love it! Australia really is a 3rd rate snow destination...

Z...

 

FTFY mate.

 

I'm having my honeymoon in NZ for 10 days on that budget.

You can hire a Mazda MX5 in Christchurch and then drive around the south island, stopping in Queenstown to ski (which is what we're doing, minus the skiing since we are going in April)

Flights are cheap, and accommodation is cheaper than Australia. And its a beautiful country!

 

Ok guys thanks for the recommendations will see what we can do

 

Go to the snow to ski or just hang out with snow around? Wife and I stayed at Cradle Mountain for a couple nights at the start of our honeymoon. It snowed which was unexpected but pretty cool (late September 2011). Then we did a lap over the next two weeks in our own car. Plenty of great driving in Tassie.

 

We would probably want to give skiing a try and maybe snowboarding but not like with us being first timers to the snow it's gonna be that big of a deal breaker Lol.

 

Budget of 10k for 3-5 days?

We spent around 10k and ended up going around Mexico for a month for our honeymoon.

Personally I'd be saving the skiing for a weekend away and spend the money for a bigger trip.

That said if you're set on the snow then go for it. Just an idea . Congrats on the wedding.

 

Yeah I'm not adverse to spending less that's for sure Lol. If I can get away with only spending $5k for a decent trip to nz will for sure give it a go. A question on passports though. We are getting married in march, if we both apply for passports now what will the missus have to do after the wedding with a different last name? Or would it be better waiting till after the wedding. Not sure on how long a passport application usually takes.

 

Your wife can do whatever she likes with her surname after the wedding... She doesn't legally have to change her name, so if she doesn't mind travelling under her maiden name, no one will give her a hard time about it... It's very common... If it's a deal breaker for her, and she wants to travel under her married name, then you guys will have to wait until you receive the official BDM marriage certificate and change it from there... It's a massive PITA though, my wife logged a metric shit-tonne of hours trying to change her name after we got married, so if I was you, I'd forget about it and just travel under her maiden name...

Oh and forget skiing in Australia... A shit day of snow in NZ/Japan/Europe/North America is 10 times as good as the best days we get here... Even $5k will go a long way towards a proper snow holiday! My wife, daughter and I did a trip to the USA in March 2012 for $10k and that was 4.5 weeks travelling all over the country... If you were to fly to Utah or Colorado for example, for 5 nights, with a side trip to LA or San Francisco to make the trip worth your while, you could easily come in around your $5k...

 

Lots of people travel away for their honeymoon using their maiden name so there is no problem with that. All of your "wife's" identification will still be in her maiden name, bank card, drivers licence etc as they won't be changed until after.

We recently travelled overseas and my daughter in law hadn't updated her passport so had to do hers, she said it was easy to do and they didn't even charge her for doing so.

 

Just make sure that everything is booked in the correct names and it'll be all good!

 

Flights and Visas are the only things that matter, name-wise, but yeah, this is good advise... Airlines will not let you fly if your ID doesn't match the name the booking is under, especially if you end up heading overseas!

 

+1 on the NZ snow road trip. There are some great deals, me and my mrs went on one and booked the package through Ski Express (no affiliation), can't recommend them enough. The south island landscape is stunning to say the least. Passports may take 2 or 3 weeks, so apply with plenty of time.

 

oh cool good to know, didn't realise we could travel under maiden name still after being married

 

Yep, no worries at all... Just make sure that any visas you need and airline bookings are in the name that's on her passport/ID that she's using, and you won't have an issue... Hotels and what-not you book in your name only...