While you’re planning a marriage, individuals all the time ask you a similar issues: When are you getting married? How many individuals are you inviting? Have you ever purchased a gown? Cue a slew of mundane wedding-related questions…
However for somebody as journey obsessed as I’m (I’ve travelled to over 45 international locations and my Lonely Planet assortment would rival any bookshop), the primary query individuals requested was ‘What are you doing to your honeymoon?’.
I can assure that ‘Climbing to Annapurna Base Camp in Nepal on a small group tour’ wasn’t the reply they had been anticipating.
On our strategy to Base Camp.
It wasn’t our selection of vacation spot that had individuals shocked. We’re identified amongst our buddies for travelling to unconventional locations, mountaineering for days within the wilderness, or road-tripping to surf tucked-away seashores. It was the ‘small group tour’ bit that folks couldn’t perceive.
EXPLORE INTREPID’S FULL RANGE OF SMALL GROUP ADVENTURES IN NEPAL HERE
So why on earth would we expect this was a good suggestion, after we might persist with a extra typical honeymoon vacation spot, like an island in Fiji or a jungle retreat in Costa Rica?
Nicely, a number of causes…
1. We didn’t must plan a factor
Speak about an epic dawn!
I often adore planning journeys – figuring out itineraries, selecting accommodations, researching the place to search out probably the most genuine and scrumptious meals on the town… However after organising a marriage, I beloved the truth that my honeymoon was already deliberate for me. All the pieces about it. Flights? Accomplished. Lodges? No worries. Transport? Throughout it. This was bliss, and such a aid after months of marriage ceremony mania.
FIONA AND BEN TRAVELLED ON OUR ANNAPURNA BASE CAMP TREK – FIND TRIP DETAILS HERE
It meant that we might simply calm down. We had an superior native chief with us, so we didn’t want to fret a few single factor. Logistics, security and meals had been all taken care of; our chief Chitra was even our alarm clock most mornings, waking us up early to look at the solar rise from behind the mountains – a fairly unimaginable strategy to begin the day.
2. We acquired to eat probably the most unimaginable meals
One of many scrumptious meals we had in Nepal – yum!
Once I’m travelling, my absolute favorite factor to do is eat. And after months of marriage ceremony planning, consuming was undoubtedly a honeymoon precedence.
Travelling with Chitra meant we ate and drank like absolute kings. He took us to eating places we’d by no means have gone to on our personal, recommending dishes and inspiring us to strive loopy new issues. With out him, there’s no method I might have ordered ‘the perfect enchilada in Nepal’ from a Nepali guesthouse on the aspect of a mountain.
On our final evening within the mountains, Chitra acquired our group of 11 into the kitchen of our guesthouse so we might learn to prepare dinner dhal bat for our porters (dal bhat, made with rice and lentils, is an actual staple if you’re mountaineering in Nepal). Because of him, meals was a spotlight of our honeymoon, which you wouldn’t anticipate on an 11-day hike.
CHECK OUT OUR RANGE OF REAL FOOD ADVENTURES HERE
3. We made a bunch of latest buddies
We didn’t anticipate to make this many new buddies on our honeymoon.
All this being stated, you’re most likely nonetheless questioning why we’d wish to share our honeymoon with 9 strangers. What was nice about travelling with Intrepid was that we nonetheless had loads of spare time the place we might go off on our personal and have a while to ourselves.
Nevertheless, we had such an awesome group that we by no means did this, and as a substitute opted to all enterprise out collectively. We love assembly individuals and making buddies after we journey; it’s all the time particular connecting with new individuals from all over the world. In addition to, we now have the remainder of our lives to spend collectively, proper?
RELATED: WHY TRAVEL FRIENDS MAKE THE BEST FRIENDS
4. It introduced us each again to earth
Ben, Chitra and me, feeling on high of the world.
Getting married is an indulgent expertise, and though our marriage ceremony was fairly small, it nonetheless price us a small fortune. So happening a honeymoon with Intrepid was an sudden strategy to floor us once more. From begin to end, there was a concentrate on the surroundings, native communities and gender equality.
At our welcome assembly on the primary day of the journey, we got canvas tote luggage to make use of as a substitute of single use plastic luggage. We had been inspired to make use of reusable water bottles and water purifying tablets as a substitute of shopping for plastic bottles on daily basis. Every of the porters had been inspired to speak to us about their village and households which opened up a dialogue between them and our group very early on. We spent some beneficial time with them on the hike, and performed numerous rounds of ‘kill the ten’, a Nepalese card recreation.
Getting kitted up for our cooking class.
Chitra took us to a restaurant in Pokhara that solely employed ladies in an effort to practice them up within the tourism trade. Our group additionally did a cooking class at Seven Girls, an organisation in Kathmandu that empowers Nepali ladies.
RELATED: MEET KATHMANDU’S HIDDEN ARTISANS, THE EXTRAORDINARY SEVEN WOMEN
We didn’t anticipate our honeymoon to be so humbling, and this was a breath of recent air after a time in our lives that was so self-indulgent. We beloved our Annapurna hike with Intrepid, and though unconventional, travelling with a small group of travellers from all over the world made our honeymoon much more particular.
Have your personal journey – even perhaps a honeymoon – on an Intrepid small group journey. Take a look at our vary of journeys in Nepal now.Â