rent a villa in the Como lake district of Italy or Lugano Lake of Switzerland. Great for shopping, natural beauty, etc...

Food is great tooo. Use to work in the area and really nice...

If you are going to go to Europe (or anywhere that's not a destination resort), I agree with Luis - rent an apartment or villa in one location and use that as a jumping off point. There are many beautiful areas in Europe to go, it really depends on what floats your boat. Italy, South of France, Paris, Austria, Portugal, Barcelona, so many nice places to go!

I know a Jennifer from the mid-west, but I know it's not the same one as I'd have recognized her photo...

Kenya

Hang w/an English crowd, travel package tours 5 exotic sanctuaries, and relatively inexpensive if you shop it. She'll be talking about it forever.

There are others in Africa so look up migration seasons.


another idea is to look up Tauck Tours.
www.tauck.com

So it's not Europe, but my wife loved the cruise we took. We went to Cozumel and Calica, 5 day, and it was something like $1200 (Carnival). Includes all food and drinks, except alcohol. They have a huge variety of shore excursions (diving, scuba, horseback riding, etc), so you can mix things up. Plus, there's just something insanely relaxing about sitting on the deck of the boat, looking around, and not seeing a damn thing. We had a great time, and will go again.

Plus, you can go just about anywhere. Next one we take will be Alaska, which is supposed to be incredible.

I'll try being helpful.
Have you thought about Madeira? Very nice little island out in the North Atlantic. Nice and warm, a little bit of everything, very relaxing. Have a look at this...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeira

The Amalfi Coast - Italy. Positano, Amalfi, Ravello. Most beautiful place I've ever been.

Ian

good food, very friendly folks
not to sunny though, mostly gray overcast,(you do get a tan, albeit not a scorching flashburn like in Gran Canaria) except on the south tip of the island where there is more sun.. temp's are usually 24-28 C degrees, little variation between day or night
Very Very humid

it's not a touristic island in the sense of package tourisme and loads of young folks, in fact when i was there, most hotels were retired folks, in big hotels on the coast, very little touristic nightlife, i think that's a plus

when i was there, i was visiting a girl from my hometown who went there as a dancer, was dancing in a show for all the hotels... best holiday i ever had :D

Wife and I really enjoyed a cruise from Vancouver up the Alaska coastline....

Maybe a quick tour thru Europe somewhere, say England and France?

$5K is not going very far in Europe. It's really expensive. Two coffee and some sort of pastry = ~ $20. The bigger cities even more.

Europe is great - if you're up for it. After our wedding we were both exhausted. If I could do our honeymoon over (England, Holland, Austria over 10 days) I would go for a resort on a beach where all you do is have sex, eat good food, lay on the beach, play in the water, have more sex, dance, and then eventually sleep :)

The wife and I recently had an amazing time in Puerto Vallarta at a Marriott resort. Infinity edge pool on the beach, multiple food choices, no stress, and mostly peaceful and relaxing. Your $5K will go far there.

Good luck to you and your future bride.

Europe can be done cheaply if you know how to do it. I've rarely spent more than $1000 in any of my three week trips there and that included renting a car and driving a lot. Of course, I have never stayed in a hotel in Germany or Austria, since I have a lot of friends there. But $5k should easily be enough if you're not throwing money away, taking the most expensive trains, flying first class and staying at the expenive hotels. Your money goes way farther in eastern Europe than in the west and I think eastern Europe has far more character.

In the early 90's I hitchiked from Luxembourg to Kiev and spent about $300 in three weeks. You couldn't get that great of an adventure for $10k.

what was the exchange rate , the times you came over???
currently, it's a biotch for you guys
these days it's more fun to spend money earned in Euro's, over in the US...

Oh, I know the exchange rate sucks. But adventure travel can be done cheaply anywhere if you really know how to stretch your money.

If you want real adventure for very cheap, go to China. Best bang for the buck, you'll live and eat like royalty and never ever be bored or think you've seen enough.

Something doesn't add up...in another thread you talk about getting a 308 and talk about your 512 boxer, and here you are trying to cheap out on your honeymoon?

Some advice...think about spending more on your honeymoon than on a maintenance check on your Ferrari.

In any case, we just did 10 days in Fiji for about 5 grand and we stayed and dined pretty well. Air New Zealand and Air Pacific have amazingly cheap fares right now.

I got back about a month ago from a 2 week honeymoon in Thailand, you could definitely do it on this budget. We spent around $6k total.
Round trip airfare from JFK to Bangkok was around $1200/person including taxes etc
Very good lodging in the cities (I'd recommend Chiang Mai highly) can be had for less than $50/night. Our honeymoon suite in Chiang Mai was $67/night including excellent breakfast.
Good meal including drinks will start around $10-15 at a nice restaurant
Car and driver for a day will run around $30-$40
2 hour Thai massage will cost you around $15-$20
Liter of Singha beer will cost you around $1
We had an absolute blast... Spent time in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Kho Samui, and Kho Tao.

Maui

I hear Kabul is wonderfull in the Fall. Have the Special Forces guyz take you up to the Pakistani Boarder and pop off a few Taliban/Al Qaeda types on the other side with a 50 Barrett. That ought to be a memorable Honeymoon, and you will be doing your bit in the War on Terror as well.

I've done the same in the '80s and '90s. Youth hostels, pensions, Eurail pass, etc...3 weeks for $1500 and it was a blast. However, that's not the sort of trip I think most folks have in mind for a honeymoon. We went through $7.5K over 10 days in UK & Europe. Airfare, rental car, toll roads (one route cost $75), gas, food, hotels, sights, attraction entrance fees, misc small items. Most nights we stayed in medium/low class hotels, only one night of *fine* dining, and very little shopping. Hell it even costs money to use a public restroom. It's mind boggling how fast the money goes unless you really concentrate and work to go cheap. But that's not my idea for a great honeymoon.

Paris - maybe 3-4 days
Hi speed train to the south of France
Avignon - rent a car.
Explore the region for 3 days.
Back to Paris.
5000 would cover this quite easily - as long as the "fine dining" is
kept to a minimum.

Am I really the first one to suggest going to the bedroom?