Honeymoons in Cornwall and Devon

Adventure and Volunteering Honeymoons

Adventure and Volunteering Honeymoons

Adventure honeymoon ideas

If your idea of a perfect honeymoon is pure peace and relaxation, look away now. These boundary-pushing real-life trips are not for you...




If your idea of a perfect honeymoon is pure peace and relaxation, look away now. These boundary-pushing real-life trips are not for you...

Everyone agrees a honeymoon should be the trip of a lifetime. But does that mean going large on a tried-and-tested formula, or stepping into the unknown?

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Here we meet two couples who tried something completely new - with memorable, and in one case life-changing results.

The adventurers: Judith and Simon Langdon

For a couple with a love of the outdoors - they got engaged while camping wild in Snowdonia - Judith and Simon Langdon had never done much adventure travel. But a year before getting married they took off on a cycling tour of Italy's Etruscan coast, and the bug bit.

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"It didn't sound like my idea of a holiday," says Judith, "but actually it was fabulous. I suppose that gave us both a taste for active holidays."

When it came to planning their honeymoon, they decided to make the most of the opportunity.

"We both wanted to go somewhere far-flung - we'd talked about Peru and Sri Lanka. We wanted it to include something out of the ordinary. Just going on a beach holiday would have felt like a waste."

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After a friend recommended Malaysia, they picked up a guidebook. Borneo jumped out - not only for its jungles and wildlife, but also for 4,000m-high Mount Kinabalu, the highest peak in Southeast Asia.

"It seemed perfect for us - sandy beaches as well as opportunities for adventure. We definitely wanted to climb Kinabalu. Then we got some brochures and decided to add jungle trekking and white water rafting."

The couple booked a three-week tour of Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan (home to the Sepilok Orangutan sanctuary) and Kuching, asking their travel agent to balance luxury and adventure.

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"The hotels we stayed in were really luxurious," says Judith. "Then we interspersed it with roughing it in mountain shacks and jungle huts, but always with a five-star to go back to. It worked brilliantly."

They spotted proboscis monkeys while hiking in the Sarawak region, and rode the North Borneo Railway to Beaufort for a rafting session in the Padas Gorge. But the main event was the ascent of Kinabalu, done over two days with an overnight stay at a basic mountain lodge.

"It was and probably still is the most physically demanding thing I've ever done," says Judith. "It just went on and on. The descent was probably more difficult - for days afterward we would wince when we walked down the tiniest incline. The locals would smile and say 'Ahh, Kinabalu?'"

"But watching the sun rise from the summit was the standout moment of the trip. It was utterly magical, and made all the more so by the effort it had taken to get to the top - as well as sharing it with my new husband."

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It may not be everyone's idea of honeymoon bliss, but Judith believes that pushing your limits turns a trip into a deep bonding experience.

"The sense of danger actually brings you closer together as a couple. You feel this responsibility to keep one another safe, which is very romantic in its own way. It was just such a fantastic way to begin a marriage."

How to do it

Judith's tip: Pre-book your major tours and activities. "We booked the 'adventures' through local hotels, and only got the last couple of places on some," she says. "If I did it again I'd book more of the trip in advance."

Next steps: Audley Travel can tailor trips to Borneo, including an ascent of Kinabalu with a local guide. Its 14-day Rivers, Mountains and Beaches itinerary starts at £3,195pp, including flights from the UK.
www.audleytravel.com

The volunteers: Alexa and Chris Bane

"You're not meant to do that," says Alexa Bane. "You're meant to go to the Maldives for a fortnight or something."

She is right. You are not meant to devote part of your honeymoon to a volunteer placement in West Africa. But that's exactly what she and husband Chris did.

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"We'd never volunteered before," says Chris. "We'd done some independent travel in Bali, but nothing like this. Bali was where we first said 'I love you,' which is probably what gave us the bug for going further afield."

The couple invested in a round-the-world ticket, planning to turn their honeymoon into a year-long adventure. Then the urge to go deeper took hold.

"Over dinner one night we thought it'd be a shame to walk through all these different cultures and not put anything back," says Chris.

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They looked into volunteering, and settled on a three-month placement in The Gambia, planning to return to their RTW trip afterwards.

"We thought we were going to teach English in a village and ended up doing beekeeping," laughs Chris. "Within a few days of arriving we were in a pickup harvesting wild honeycombs in the middle of the bush. It was just like, 'Oh yeah, this is it! We've arrived!' - it was incredible."

There were nerves at first, but making an effort to go out and explore quickly calmed them.

"Initially we had two weeks in a package hotel, full of terrified tourists. We got friendly with this guy and said, 'Can you take us out?' So he took us to an eating shack in the middle of Bakau and we had cow's foot soup. I remember finding it quite scary. But the number of times we walked past the place afterwards - it wasn't scary at all."

At this point, traditionalists may be wondering what was romantic about the trip. Alexa has no doubts. "Leaping off into the unknown - it was very romantic in that sense. Six hours' flight from the UK, but such a different world. We were really relying on each other, very much each other's support mechanism."

Nor was the experience all work. "We made some lovely friends, went to lots of great parties. The Gambia was very unspoilt then, so you could easily take your tent down to the beach and camp."

As the end of their three months approached, the couple had a decision to make.

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"We loved what we were doing, and if we had left, the things we'd achieved wouldn't have stuck. It became a crisis of conscience. We cancelled our RTW ticket, got 75% of the money back, and said, 'Right, let's stay and finish the job.'"

When Alexa found work with a local NGO, the stay became indefinite. Instead of picking up where they'd left off in the UK, they began a journey that has seen them live and work around the world - New York, Hanoi and now Bangkok. "It totally changed our lives," says Alexa.

How to do it

Chris's tip: Do your research. Volunteering is not something to take lightly, and not all operators are reputable. "In hindsight I'd do better screening of the organisation," he says. "There are issues with the market. But we'd definitely recommend volunteering to others."

Next steps: Try People and Places, an organisation that pairs skilled volunteers with genuine community projects. It works with eight projects in The Gambia, ranging from tourism development to nursery school support. Prices from £1,165 to £1,315pp, excluding flights.
www.travel-peopleandplaces.co.uk


words Nathan Midgley


Copyright Wed magazine 2013