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Honeymooners: Hannah and Simon
Type: International travel
Budget: Midrange ($1000-$5000)
Where did you go? We went to Bali, Indonesia. We chose to go somewhere affordable, but family-friendly. We didn't think we could afford to go on a honeymoon, let alone schedule it in. A week before the wedding a really great deal on flights came up that was in Simon's week off uni, and only 10 days after our actual wedding day, so we just jumped on it.
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What did you do? We are a bit of a travel-savvy family, and we have been internationally with my eldest daughter a few times now. This was the first time as a family of four though, so we assumed it would be a lot more challenging. It really wasn't! We had a such a ball. We usually try and set up base somewhere and then travel on day trips from that point, but this time we threw all of our preconceived ideas out of the window and just did what we wanted.
In the end we spent around three nights in four completely separate parts of the island. It was so much fun rocking up in a new location every few days. We started down low by the beach of Sanur, with the busy streets and street markets everywhere.
After that we went up the mountain, to Ubud. The kids were crazy for the monkey forest, and we found the most amazing little homestay-style bungalows for like $30 a night. We just walked into a place we liked the look of, with the kids in tow and asked if they had any rooms. It was fun feeling like we were these young, free, backpacker types, when at home we often feel so far from it.
Next we moved on to a quieter part of the island, the black sand beaches of Lovina. This is the first place we really got a feel for why Indonesia has such a family friendly reputation. Everywhere we went people were keen to greet our kids, and chat with them. We had waiters insisting on sitting with us so that they could help feed my picky eater toddler. It was so lovely to feel like not only were they welcome, but they were wanted. Far different to the restaurant culture of home. It was here we went to the amazing natural hot springs, too.
The three days we decided to dish out on some cushy accommodation. (up until that point we hadn't paid over $40 a night). We found this amazing place in Seminyak. It was nestled in away from the busy street front, so we felt like we were in our own little oasis. This is when we really took some chill out time as a family. Ordered yummy take-ins, bought a few family flicks to watch and gorged ourselves on room service. It was heavenly. The bed was ginormous. It was well and trully big enough to fit all four of us, plus wiggle room. It was so much fun just snuggling up with my family as we drank in the final hours of our familymoon.
What would you have done differently? I can't really think of anything. Sunscreen is comically expensive over there, maybe I would've packed more of that!
What's your best travel advice for other offbeat honeymooners? We are so glad we largely threw tradition off our radar with this wedding, particularly when it came to involving our gorgeous daughters. There is a real cultural stigma around involving kids in important events, like somehow their presence will negatively impact on the conspicuous day. I don't mean to overly romanticizing the issue, I am a mother, I have experienced tears and tantrums. But I have also experienced all of the love and laughter that comes in that chaotic bundle. And we wanted that, them, with us. It's kind of how we roll. 😉
That, and: Tripadvisor! It was a savior for us.
Enough chat! Let's see some more gorgeous Bali family-moon photos:
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beautiful family!
baby+monkey=great photo
the whole trip looks like a blast, congrats! 🙂
Thank you for a great and inspiring post. It is so great to see someone like us on a wedding site. We’ve been together almost 6 years and have two wonderful children together who will be very much a part of our wedding in October. We are Offbeat in that way, I guess. I would love to hear more about your wedding and that of any other families getting married.
Have you joined the tribe? I have explained my wedding day a little there, and shared some photos. We had a family friendly old fashioned picnic wedding.
Just interested in where you travelled from?
me toooo! did we miss your wedding being featured? it’s always great to see kid friendly ones.
We are in Australia. Here Bali is the most affordable place to go, I understand from the rest of the world it is probably a pretty decadent choice.
We haven’t submitted our wedding, but we have shared some of it in tribe forum.
I’m on tribe, I’d love to see your wedding. How do we find it? please do share it on here. It’s really refreshing to see family as a focus.
This is awesome! We don’t have kids yet, but we also know we won’t be able to travel everywhere on our wish list before we want to have kids, and when I tell people we’ll just travel with our kids they usually treat me like I’m crazy… Thanks for proving the nay-sayers wrong! And OMG the monkey-baby photo is so wonderful! Looks like a great trip!
It definitely is possible. We found it very easy when the baby was young and we could just chuck her in a sling and go about life (we have been to the UK, Spain, France when our first was little). But now that they are that little bit bigger it is much more fun, not only do we get to see the things we love, but we get to experience it from a child’s point of view too.
Yay! I love honeymoon posts! Love the pictures, too!
great honeymoon post. it’s fab seeing budget//family friendly posts. was your wedding very family centered too? did I manage to miss it on OBB?
We haven’t submitted it to the blog. Maybe we should submit a prequel post. Our wedding was a family friendly old fashioned picnic in the park. It was so perfect for us, and the kids had so much fun.
SUBMIT IT! http://offbeatwed.com/submissions/submit-wedding
I was considering submitting it after we get some professional photos done (our originals from the wedding were stolen). But it seems you don’t want wedding shoot shots? So maybe I will just submit if with non pros, we still have a few luffly candid moments captured.
Your family is gorgeous!!!
Were also having a familymoon after our wedding with our 17month old, and my sister.
I am hating getting all the “oh are you taking your son on your honeymoon?!” comments 🙁
It is frustrating, isn’t it? We really enjoyed our familymoon, it was so much more relaxing having our kidlets with us.
Thank you for sharing this. We don’t have kids but I have mobility issues and we had been looking at all the ‘safe’ options for our honeymoon. It was looking like a weekend break in Belgium in winter before we saw your post. Being in the UK Bali is very much the decadent choice for us but we figured if someone with kids could manage so could we. So we just booked a 10 day Singapore/Bali adventure 🙂
I have to pipe in here…my sister is named Hannah and her husbands name is Simon! I saw the post title and thought, “but they went to Disneyland on their honeymoon!” So glad to see another couple with those names 🙂
HI. Great Article. Actually I am planning a holiday with my family in Bali and looking for a good itinerary. Definitely there is a lot of offers for a family holiday. I found out http://7.holiday/package/grand-hyatt-with-kids This package looks great and it seems I can modify it.