insights
Honeymooning
Customize this route with destinations that are tailored to your interests and hobbies. 76 ▶ spring 2013
Be Flexible
Before you set out on your own highway honeymoon, decide on at least one location within driving distance that you want to visit. Customize this route with destinations that are tailored to your interests and hobbies. Once you’ve chosen one or two destinations, you can plan your highway route from there—but for once, plan to take the scenic route. On previous road trips, you may have passed interesting historical sites or kitschy roadside attractions like “The World’s Largest Ball of Yarn” but didn’t have time to stop. Your honeymoon is the perfect opportunity to do something out of the ordinary— just remember that the journey is the most important thing. “We got to bond. We got to talk a lot,” says Natalie. “From that car ride, a lot of good inside jokes came that probably wouldn’t have happened otherwise.”
Make It a Tradition
Perhaps the best part about a honeymoon road trip is that you can easily revisit your honeymoon. You may not be able to go back to Costa Rica or Hawaii, but if you choose to highway honeymoon, you can always load up the car, enjoy great conversation, and remember some of your greatest times together as a couple. By listening to a playlist that you enjoyed on your road trip or by bringing up an inside joke that reminds you of that kooky motel you stayed in, you can remember your honeymoon in a way that other honeymooners may not be able to. The time you spend and the fun you have together in the car after your wedding will bring you closer as a couple—and you can recreate it any time you are in the mood for an adventure.
—Lindsey Encinas
Photo by LisaGage.com
Natalie Thomson and her husband, Kelly, pulled their rental car off the main road in Mesquite, Nevada, onto an obscure street that led them to a dark bowling alley. As they stepped inside, they were greeted—sort of— by a sheet of smoke and stares from the regular bowling alley patrons. The couple looked at each other—and grinned. They had found a perfect stop on their honeymoon road trip. When Natalie and Kelly started planning their honeymoon, they realized that they would need to find an alternative to expensive airfare for a destination honeymoon. But there were plenty of destinations within driving distance, so they set out on a highway honeymoon with Las Vegas and Disneyland on their itinerary. They had one rule: they wouldn’t be afraid to stop anywhere that piqued their sense of adventure. It was this mindset that led them to that dark, smoky bowling alley in Mesquite, now one of their most memorable honeymoon pit stops. Many young newlyweds don’t have the luxury of jet-setting to a distant locale after they say “I do,” or maybe they don’t want to settle on just one location for their honeymoon. For creative couples with a sense of adventure, highway honeymooning is right up their alley. Here are a couple of pointers for would-be highway honeymooners.