We got married back in 2010 in the midst of World Cup fever and the past ten years have flown by so fast. Sigh, such a cliche but so true. At the risk of adding another cliché to the mix, our marriage has been quite a journey. Our family grew from just the two of us to five in a flash and before we could blink we were parents to three kids all in nappies at the same time. I still can’t believe that this is my life.
Anticipating our ten year anniversary, inevitably means looking back and we’ve been reminiscing about our wedding and our honeymoon. And here’s something you might not know – we won our honeymoon in a Facebook competition. It was back in the day when a Facebook giveaway was a truly novel idea and we were lucky to have had friends, family and colleagues who rallied around us to get everyone they knew to like our photo on Facebook. We’d hedged our bets on winning and as we didn’t have a back up honeymoon plan in the event that we didn’t win, we celebrated for days when we heard that our Facebook post had the most ‘likes’, securing our win.
Mauritius was, and I’m sure still is, an incredible honeymoon destination. Not only is it a short flight from Joburg, but it’s only two hours ahead of South Africa (no jetlag!) and there are hundreds of beautiful hotel options offering great package deals. We stayed at a hotel called La Plantation on the North West coast of the island and loved hanging out at the beach and pool and ordering ‘free’ drinks or snacks as we’d opted to upgrade to an all inclusive option. What I loved about Mauritius is that there is lots to do if you feeling like exploring, yet we didn’t feel like we were missing out on too much by choosing to stay and relax at the hotel. We swam, read books, went snorkeling, Ryan wake boarded and we parasailed in a parachute behind a boat. We had an amazing time together and memories of that trip have ‘sustained us’ over the years.
It’s been ten years since our honeymoon and although another getaway like that is the ultimate dream, I have always wanted to revisit our honeymoon hotel with the whole family. This desire has grown since I’ve heard about some travel deals where young kids fly for free and even sometimes stay for free at certain hotels too. Plus most of these hotels have incredible kids programmes too – I’m imagining early morning family swims followed by cocktails at the pool while the kids play beach volleyball with the kids club team. What more could parents want?
I’ve been browsing flight bookings for inspiration, because the best honeymoon destination could also double up as the best ten year anniversary destination, with or without the kids.
Best we get those passports ready, just in case…
*This post was written in partnership with Travelstart.