After the Aisle

Eight extraordinary honeymoons for eight very different kinds of lovers

There was a time when the honeymoon came with something close to a formula: somewhere warm, somewhere beautiful, preferably with a beach and a hotel willing to scatter rose petals across the bed.

But there is no single definition of romance, and there shouldn't be a single definition of the trip that follows the wedding either. For some couples, paradise is a villa suspended above the Indian Ocean with nowhere they need to be. For others, it is waking before dawn to find elephants moving across the plains, disappearing into the Japanese countryside or landing by helicopter somewhere deep in the mountains.

The best honeymoon is not necessarily the most romantic place in the world. It is the place that feels most romantic to you. These are eight very different ways to begin.

THE ROMANTICS

Venice, Italy

Stay: Aman Venice

Arrive by water.

It is difficult to imagine beginning a honeymoon more theatrically than stepping from a boat directly into a Venetian palazzo. Beyond the doors of Aman Venice, chandeliers hang above frescoed rooms, windows frame the Grand Canal and gardens hide behind walls in a city where almost everything beautiful seems deliberately concealed.

Outside, Venice provides the rest. Take a boat with nowhere particularly important to go. Drink something cold beside the canal. Dress outrageously well for dinner. Walk after midnight, when the day visitors have disappeared and footsteps echo through narrow streets that suddenly seem to belong only to you.

Yes, Venice is an obvious choice for romance. Sometimes the obvious choice became obvious for a reason. For the couple who wants the honeymoon cliché, executed exquisitely.

THE CASTAWAYS

The Maldives

Stay: One&Only Reethi Rah

There comes a moment on a Maldivian honeymoon when shoes become unnecessary. Then watches.

Eventually, perhaps, plans.

At One&Only Reethi Rah, the world contracts into remarkably simple things: warm water, white sand, breakfast that arrives slowly, a villa to retreat into and the question of whether the afternoon should involve the ocean or absolutely nothing.

Take a dhoni onto the water as the sun begins dropping. Swim when everyone else has gone back to their villas. Order dinner somewhere private. Wake the following morning and discover that the day's most pressing decision is where to swim next.

The Maldives has never needed to reinvent the honeymoon. It perfected disappearing together a long time ago. For the couple who would happily vanish.

THE ADVENTURERS

South Island, New Zealand

Stay: Blanket Bay, Glenorchy

Some honeymoons begin with Champagne. This one might begin with a helicopter.

New Zealand's South Island unfolds at an almost unreasonable scale: mountains reflected in glacial lakes, valleys stretching towards snow, roads disappearing into landscapes that make arriving somewhere feel almost beside the point.

From Blanket Bay, tucked against Lake Wakatipu near Glenorchy, adventure lies in virtually every direction. Fly over alpine peaks. Land somewhere inaccessible by road. Hike through wilderness, ride horses across open country or disappear towards Fiordland, where mountains plunge almost vertically into dark water.

Then return to the lodge as evening settles over the lake, pour a glass of wine and watch the landscape become quiet again. Tomorrow, find another way into it. For the couple who wants stories rather than a suntan.

THE WILD ONES

Serengeti, Tanzania

Stay: Singita Sasakwa Lodge — Hillside Suite

The alarm goes off before sunrise. Outside, the Serengeti is beginning to emerge from darkness. Coffee arrives. Somewhere beyond the vehicle there may be lions returning from the night's hunt, elephants crossing the grasslands or thousands of wildebeest moving through a landscape that appears to have no edge.

This is a honeymoon measured in encounters rather than hours. At Singita Sasakwa, the Hillside Suite turns the experience into something deeply private. There is your own pool overlooking the plains, a private safari vehicle and the delicious possibility of returning from a morning game drive and seeing almost nobody else for the rest of the day.

By evening, there are sundowners and an African sky that seems impossibly large. And tomorrow morning, you wake before sunrise again. Happily. For the couple who wants the honeymoon to feel like the trip of a lifetime.

THE NATURE LOVERS

Arenal, Costa Rica

Stay: Nayara Springs

You hear the rainforest before you properly see it. Leaves move somewhere beyond the terrace. Birds call through the canopy. Mist hangs between trees, and somewhere above all that green sits the unmistakable silhouette of Arenal Volcano.

At adults-only Nayara Springs, villas disappear into dense vegetation, each with its own terrace and thermal plunge pool. Mornings might begin searching the canopy for toucans and sloths; afternoons can be spent walking across hanging bridges, soaking in volcanic water or simply watching the rainforest perform around you.

Nothing here feels manicured into submission. The pleasure comes from being surrounded by something much bigger, louder and more alive than the resort itself. Leave the curtains open. For the couple who wants the rainforest outside the bedroom door.

THE SOLITUDE SEEKERS

Namib Desert, Namibia

Stay: &Beyond Sossusvlei Desert Lodge

There is almost nothing here. That is precisely the point. The Namib stretches towards the horizon in rust, sand and enormous expanses of sky. There are no neighbouring resorts to visit, no restaurant reservations to collect and very little reason to look at a phone.

At &Beyond Sossusvlei Desert Lodge, glass and stone sit quietly inside that emptiness. Days can begin among the monumental dunes of Sossusvlei and end beneath some of the darkest skies on Earth. But the defining experience is not something scheduled. It is the silence between everything else.

Sit outside after sunset. Look upward. Stay there longer than intended. For once, there is nowhere else you are supposed to be. For the couple who wants the rest of the world very far away.

THE CULTURE LOVERS

Japan

Stay: Aman Tokyo + Aman Kyoto

Start in Tokyo. Spend mornings wandering neighbourhoods with no particular destination, afternoons moving between galleries and shops, and evenings disappearing behind noren curtains into restaurants with eight seats and no interest in becoming famous on Instagram.

Then take the train to Kyoto and allow everything to slow down. At Aman Kyoto, the city gives way to forest. Stone paths lead through gardens, temples punctuate the surrounding landscape and the rituals of bathing, tea and eating begin to feel as important as sightseeing.

Japan rewards curiosity relentlessly. There is always another alley, another bowl, another train, another tiny shop selling something inexplicably beautiful. You could spend the honeymoon lying beside a pool. Or you could come home with a hundred shared discoveries that belong only to the two of you. For the couple who cannot sit still.

THE LUXURY SNOBS

Tetiaroa, French Polynesia

Stay: The Brando

First, fly to Tahiti. Then keep going.

Tetiaroa appears in the Pacific as a ring of green surrounding water in shades of blue that seem slightly ridiculous even while looking directly at them. Once the private retreat of Tahitian royalty and later Marlon Brando's sanctuary, the atoll feels less like somewhere containing a resort than a place the outside world has temporarily forgotten.

The Brando occupies this extraordinary setting with just a small collection of private villas. Days involve empty beaches, lagoon excursions, sea turtles, spa treatments and stretches of time when another guest may not enter your field of vision at all.

This is not the honeymoon for someone looking for the liveliest resort in French Polynesia.

It is for someone who considers privacy the greatest luxury of all and who would prefer paradise without an audience. For the couple for whom five-star is merely the starting point.

AND THEN, HOME

Eventually there will be a return flight.

The wedding clothes will have been packed away. The flowers will be gone. Hundreds of photographs will already be sitting somewhere on a phone, and ordinary life will be waiting with its emails, calendars and alarm clocks.

But somewhere between Venice at midnight and a Namibian sky, between the first safari at dawn and the last swim in the Maldives, something else has happened.

You have taken your first great journey together.

Where it happens matters considerably less than choosing the version of paradise that actually feels like yours.