As Megan wrote recently, cruising is back! That, combined with our upcoming anniversary trip, got me thinking about our honeymoon. We did a 7-night cruise through the Mediterranean on Royal Caribbean’s Rhapsody of the Seas. You would think we might be “cruised out” after Tyler had his bachelor party on a cruise to Havana, and I had my bachelorette party on a cruise to Cozumel, but our honeymoon at sea was equal parts active and relaxing – just what we wanted.
While you don’t get to see each place as in-depth as you might on, say a 10-day road trip around the country, we loved that it gave us a glimpse of several new spots. These included…
- Dubrovnik, Croatia. We took the bus into Old Town and spent most of our day there doing the wall walk around the city. We could hop on and hop off as we saw things that looked interesting (or needed a drink), plus we got great views of the city below. We also hung out at the beach for a bit, which was beautiful, but crowded.
- Kotor, Montenegro. This stop was swapped in for our original one in Turkey, so we weren’t sure what to expect. We spent our day hiking to the fort at the top of the mountain, which involved over 1300 stairs. We enjoyed a well-deserved meal (and ice cream) after our trek back down into the city.
- Santorini, Greece. Everyone will tell you to visit Oia, but we found it to be overhyped and overpriced – though we still got our photos with the blue dome roofs. We ended up taking a taxi to Santorini Brewing Company on the other side of the island, which really turned our day around. We ended the day on the black sand of Kamari Beach.
- Katakolon, Greece. There was a lot we wanted to do here, so we ended up booking a tour through Royal Caribbean. The first part of our day was spent exploring ancient Olympia, where we got to stand on the original marble starting blocks. We hit the shops, then rounded out our day with a wine tasting and snacks at the Mercouri Winery.
- Venice, Italy. Since the cruise departed and returned to Venice, we wanted to make sure we actually got time to see the city! We stayed an extra night in Venice, winding our way throughout the city (it can be difficult to navigate) and seeing the sights, as well as squeezing in a gondola ride and some gelato.
We were supposed to return to the Mediterranean last year for a different cruise, but it’s not back on our places we must return. In particular, we’re excited to see more of Italy.