Travelling Tokyo the Avanti Group Way: Doc Holiday Travel Advice for the Perfect Honeymoon

Doc Holiday: Travel advice for the perfect honeymoon, using Facetime and Viber on Wi-Fi overseas, and more

DOC Holiday offers weekly travel advice on your travel dilemmas.

WE GOT married a month ago. My job was to organize the wedding and new husband’s job was to plan the honeymoon. We want to travel in the NSW September school holidays as I’m a teacher and our budget is $7000 for 12 nights. Our honeymoon criteria is hot, beautiful beach, air con, not too many children, reasonably priced food and not Thailand, Malaysia or Bali.

Doc: With a tight budget you’ll get more bang for your buck if you stay close to home, here are some suggestions:

The Cook Islands has year-round perfect climate, unspoilt white beaches and lagoons teeming with fish to check out while you’re snorkelling.

There are 15 islands in the group with Rarotonga and Aitutaki being the largest. Aitutaki is often compared to the Tahitian island of Bora Bora, because of its beautiful beaches and lagoons.

Air New Zealand offers direct flights from Sydney, and Escape Travel (escapetravel.com.au) has a Rarotonga and Aitutaki combo package, including bonus honeymooner gifts.

Boracay is a gorgeous island in the Philippines about 300km south of Manila, and simple to get to with a short flight before a 20-minute boat transfer.

Often overlooked, this island features more than 30 beaches and sparkling turquoise water.

It’s a small romantic island, where you can enjoy snorkelling, golf, kayaking and horse riding.

If you go, hire a scooter and explore the bat caves and forest of dead mangrove trees.

Try an ocean-view room at the Shangri-La Boracay Resort.

Langkawi is another stunning island ideal for a honeymoon. The largest of 99 tropical islands in the Andaman Sea off the coast of Malaysia, it too features exquisite beaches and landscapes.

Here you can get around by hire car, scooter or bike, or explore waterfalls and bush trails on foot.

There are small villages to see and big shopping malls if you need some retail therapy.

Try the Andaman Langkawi which has South-East Asia’s first coral nursery and is on Datai Bay, recognised as the ninth best beach in the world by National Geographic magazine.

Or stay in a suite at Langkawi Lagoon Resort.

Fiji is another that will guarantee tropical sunsets, warm weather, lovely beaches and romantic times.

Check out the quieter islands like the Mamanuca group or Taveuni. The Taveuni Resort is spectacular. It has more than 4ha of tropical gardens and only accommodates 12 couples.

Each house is private and offers extensive views over the ocean.

A nice touch is that most of the fish on the menu have been caught by the staff.

Malolo Island Resort is an intimate island, part of the Mamanuca Group.

It’s family owned, has 49 air-conditioned bures, three dining venues, pool and spa.

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