We were SO excited for our honeymoon. We had fun planning the wedding, and of course, we were looking forward to that, but I think we were even more excited for our honeymoon. We had our trip all planned out several months before the wedding. Flights booked, resort reservations made. We were so excited to be going to the Dominican Republic and spend a week just relaxing with each other on the beach. Then, shortly before our wedding, the news stories started appearing.
Every time we watched the news we heard about people dying or getting sick at resorts in the Dominican. We waived off the first few stories as flukes, but when there was a death at the very resort we were supposed to be staying in, we decided we had better cancel our trip. We just wouldn’t have been able to have peace of mind and relax while we were there.
This added just a bit of stress just one month out from our wedding and planned honeymoon. We turned to a travel agent to help us figure out where to go. Jamaica was in the running, but we finally decided on St. Maarten in the Virgin Islands, and boy are we glad we did! One of our best decisions ever!
We stayed at the Sonesta Ocean Point Resort and we absolutely loved it! They had complimentary drinks for us when we arrived and an adorable personalized plate of goodies in our room! They had also decorated our room since they knew it was our honeymoon.
We were on the third floor and had the most amazing view of the pool and the ocean! We loved our balcony and spent a lot of time out there. The great thing about the resort was that it was adults only, which we really wanted for our honeymoon, but it is also connected to a family resort that we had full access to as well. This allowed us to go to many different restaurants, even though our favorite restaurant was on the adults only side.
Azul restaurant was so beautiful with such delicious food! The views were absolutely incredible! You were literally eating right above the sea, with the breeze blowing through the restaurant and the waves crashing underneath you.
Throughout the resort we were so amazed by everyone’s kindness. We are from Iowa, which is known for it’s “Iowa nice”, but let me tell you, St. Maarten nice has us beat! The staff was all amazing! So sweet, fun, and personable! We enjoyed many evenings on the rooftop bar with our favorite bartender Ramon.
Most of our time there we just relaxed and enjoyed the activities on the resort, like yoga above the ocean and pool aerobics, or just laying by the pool getting endless strawberry daiquiris and reading countless books.
However, one of our favorite days was the day we took an all day boat tour of the island. We did this through Billy Bones and we highly recommend it! Our guides were so much fun and we had a blast snorkeling, swimming with sea turtles, and just speeding around the island with an endless supply of rum punch!
I have always said that I don’t think I would ever take the same vacation twice since there are so many places in the world I’d like to go, but Alex and I loved St. Maarten so much that we both said we would definitely love to go back! If you have gone or are going to St. Maarten, I would love to hear about your experience! It is definitely one of our favorite places on earth!
