Honeymoon Decision: Hawaii or Sandals Resort?

The argument against Hawaii is that I get anxiety attacks and am severally out of shape so the idea of hiking for miles each day may not work in my favor. FH does not like figuring out food plans. When we were in Paris in September, we waited to find food plans until that day. Sometimes we sat on the bed for over an hour trying to figure out where to go because we both are very indecisive people. I don’t want to stuff so much stuff into the trip that I am exhausted. I loved Paris, but our feet were tired every single day by 6 pm, and usually earlier in between museums. I don’t want to be ‘go, go, go’ after our wedding.

The argument against Sandals is that we do not drink often. When in Paris, we drank 3 bottles of wine on our 9 day trip. And those were mostly “We’re in France so we should really drink wine” choices. I also am somewhat incapable of just sitting there. I see no fun in just sitting on the beach all day. I can do it for maybe 1-2 hours, but I get bored. We went to Playa del Carmen, Mexico, two years ago for my first international trip and first all inclusive. After a while I was enjoying just sitting by the water, but preferred a shaded hammock to a lounger in the sun. While in Paris this September, I really enjoyed sitting in chairs/benches and just relaxing, though, so I must be starting to accustom myself to the idea of a vacation. Sandals is also a lot of money. You could argue that it’s because food is included, but we spent less than $1k on food and activities in Paris for 9 days. Granted, we were being somewhat stingey with our money there (sharing bakery lunch sandwiches to save money) but I doubt we would spend over $300 a day on food in Hawaii.

The argument for Hawaii is that, well, it’s Hawaii. Probably cheaper than St. Lucia because I bargain hunt. We don’t like monotonous food. We were tired of the buffet in the cheap all inclusive in Mexico after 2 days. We were only allowed to go to ‘specialty’ restaurants at night, on certain nights. One word: Volcanoes.

The argument for Sandals is that we wouldn’t have to pre plan so much stuff. It would be less activity and more relaxing with the least amount of effort. We won’t have to deal with renting a car. They probably have better food than our last cheapo all inclusive and we don’t have to have a struggle over where/when to eat. We don’t have to worry about carrying wallets.

Money isn’t a giant concern because they will be within 1-2k of each other, I’m sure. But I do often base my decisions almost solely on money, which FH hates. He was convinced I was going to buy a $1 dress from the thrift store because I hate spending money. I never order what I want at restaurants, I order what is cheap.

So with ALL of that information (I know, it’s a lot), which would you choose and why? Thank you for reading this much! I would just like some outsider opinions to help with our decision. Not make the decision, but help

Ok, I didn't read your entire comment (sorry! It was long!), but I've been to both Hawaii for a family vacation and to the Sandals resort in Grenada. For a honeymoon, assuming you can afford the extra cost, I definitely would recommend Sandals. It's what Sandals was made for, and we loved having a place to unwind, sleep, and destress after the wedding was done. We had an amazing time in Grenada! Hawaii was nice, but with all of the wedding planning, do you really want to decide on more things? We didn't

Honestly, I am super out of shape too and love hawaii. It isn't as humid as you think, I actually think it's less humid than a lot of other tropical places. I loved it and it was wonderful. I didn't go the two places you're considering but we went to maui. Other than one hike we went on, I didn't really do anything strenuous except snorkel haha

I am trying to make the same decision for my honeymoon!!

Both my FH and I have been to Hawaii before, and we loved it, which is why we are thinking of going here on our honeymoon. I didn't think the weather was really all that hot or humid (I hate both of those too). It, of course, is warm and a little humid because, well, its Hawaii. A condo can be a great option because you can go and do as you please whenever you want. You can make breakfast at home while eating on the patio and listening to the waves and you can also go out to eat at local restaurants and experience some of the culture of Hawaii. You can also plan parts of your day, but don't over pack yourself with activities. If you don't want to be always on the move, you can plan just a few activities and then just go with the flow when you get there. At all inclusive's, from what I've seen, it is better to book everything ahead of time so that you make sure you can do a certain activity. I would suggest if you know there is absolutely one thing you want to do, definitely book it, but with Hawaii, you can just show up at a snorkel shack close to the beach and rent snorkel equipment 10 minutes after you decide you want to do it. One of the downsides is that you will have to rent a car. Some places can be far away and it is not as convenient as an all-inclusive.

One of the problems I am having with choosing an all-inclusive is that they are soooooo expensive! I don't know if FH and I will eat, drink, or do enough activities to make up for the daily price of the resort and I don't want to pay for more than we are using. Also, everything you need is right at the resort...which is great! But then you also lose out on seeing some of the culture of where you are visiting. The point of an all-inclusive is that you won't have to leave the resort to eat or do anything, so if you want to go out and see local shops and restaurants, I would suggest looking at another option besides an all-inclusive.

One more thing...my FH and I are getting married at the end of September so our honeymoon will go into early October. I looked up when peak hurricane season is and it is right around the time we will be going on our honeymoon and looks like it goes through the end of November. This isn't necessarily a deal breaker, but it definitely worries me to book our honeymoon in an area that gets hurricanes during hurricane season. Just something else to think about

Hopefully this all helps! Like I said, I am struggling with the same decision.

I'm biased here...I chose our honeymoon based on the fact that we could be flexible and explore and choose what we wanted to do/where we wanted to eat/etc. so I'd lean towards Hawaii.

I guess one thing to consider - Where would you be less likely to go at any other time if it wasn't your honeymoon? I didn't want a beach honeymoon because we can go to the beach anytime, so we went to Europe instead. Yeah we spent more, but we got an experience that we'll remember forever.

Two of our friends went on their honeymoon to Hawaii and rented an entire HOUSE through airbnb. Is that another option? I guess I personally just prefer the flexibility of being able to do my own thing (including relax on the beach or in my condo/hotel room/house/whatever) rather than be stuck with the limitations of an AI.

I'm going to sandals ST Lucia and from what I have read they have a lot to do, water sports etc so I don't think you will be bored. The food is supposedly amazing think filet not buffet stuff. I'm usually against all inclusive bc of the limited food but don't think it will be an issue with sandals. Hawaii is also very expensive in general from what I have heard

I've been to St Lucia but not Sandals. If you have been to any of the Southern Carib islands it's similar. I'm all for all inclusive bc it's easy, ya know like no thought really you just show up and hang out. But if you have been to any of the other Carib islands, my vote would go to Hawaii for a dif experience (if it even is, I haven't been so idk).

I should add I am a beach bum / heavy drinker on vacay so all inclusive clearly wins for me lol

I'm with LadyMonk. The last thing I want to have to do on our honeymoon is make decisions (and spend more money.) We chose Sandals for those reasons. It is so much easier than having to plan & book & pay, just to have some fun.

Thank you everyone for your input! Really helpful! I wanted to add that our "want to go" list includes: Spain (and/or Europe), Costa Rica and a Sandals resort (because they sound fancy and I want to go one time!) and now Hawaii. We will be waiting to have kids until after 2018. We would have to cross sandals, Costa Rica and Spain off the list for at least the first 8 years after having kids. But I see Hawaii as reasonable with kids because you can just rent a house and whatnot. Idk. Just seems more kid friendly than Spain or Costa Rica. And Sandals is adult only. But looking into Hawaii has FH leaning towards Hawaii. The only vacation I have been on is to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. But I hear St. Lucia would be different than Mexico. I don't know where the hurricane zone is, if St. Lucia is in that area. i just remember really enjoying eating dinner on the pier at playa del Carmen by the ocean. But the resort was really low end.

Why are you looking at warm places if you get sick from humidity over 75 degrees??

It's not dying sick. I just get headaches if I'm in the sun too long. And if it is over 80/85 or high humidity then I start getting dizzy. So I don't want to go somewhere if it is 90 degrees constantly. I guess I shouldn't have said that sentence since I hadn't looked at the average temps for there, yet. I certainly don't want to go to somewhere cold! We get lots of cold at home. I imagine these places won't be bad in October but I know nothing about those areas' average temperatures.

I didn't read everything but if you have direct questions about Hawaii feel free to message me! Also...I'd choose kauai over hilo, hilo is really rainy and not that interesting of an area. Volcanoes natl park is cool though and the Hawaii botanical garden...but I think there are more things on kauai. Also if you don't want to hike you don't have to. Oh if you do the big Island you can get out of the humidity you can always go up to mauna kea...it is VERY dry, it's at 14000 feet!

Thanks, everyone! I should also mention that the Iron Man World Championships will be taking place on the Big Island in Hawaii during our honeymoon. It brings in 1,000 contestants and their families.

Happy in Hawaii - I did not see a message button on your page so I clicked to connect to you. Sorry, don't know how to message!

Hi There. Ah, what a tough choice.

Both are great options and I completely can agree with your point-of-view when it comes to paying for an all-inclusive, when you aren't drinking or eating your share.

Hawaii is a great option but can get overwhelming when you are trying to plan meals, one thing that my clients do when going to a non all-inclusive is go on TripAdvisor and see where other travelers have eaten before and then make a list and check them out yourself. So you can save a lot of money if you are paying for a condo and car rental and HUGE bonus if you can get a flight for free.

St. Lucia is actually the "Hawaii of the Caribbean" its a gorgeous, lush island. There is a ton of activity. I have sent many honeymooners to the Sandals Grande there and they have loved it. Not sure where you stayed in Playa del Carmen, but the Sandals has very good food quality. They switch the menu a lot and have a lot of specialty restaurants. St. Lucia also has hiking, zip lining, waterfalls and romantic mud baths in the sulfur springs.

Just throwing it out there - another option could be Aruba. Fabulous island with a dine-around program. So it's not all-inclusive but you can pay upfront for breakfast/lunch/dinners at some of the island's top restaurants.

Feel free to contact me - I would love to help you with your decision and booking. I don't charge a fee and I check competitor's sites.

Happy Planning,

Krystle

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