Rob and I had our one-week honeymoon planned to start 10 days after the wedding, a decision in retrospect that I’m very happy we made. It gave us a little over a week to settle back into a routine before leaving for another week. We kicked off the honeymoon in Amsterdam, where we stayed for three nights and then took the Thalys train to Paris for another three nights. Here are some highlights!
Amsterdam Highlights
Rob’s favorite city and a quaint, beautiful place to endlessly wander and people watch. We did everything from visit the Red Light District to a canal boat cruise with wine and cheese to the Rijks Art Museum to see beautiful pieces by Rembrandt, Van Gogh and more. It’s a cozy city with lots of coffee shops, cafes, cute boutiques and restaurants.
Rob’s highlight was the boat cruise which was like $35 a person for an hour long tour through the canals and some history shared from the guide along the way and he loved his cappuccino from Coffee Company. My highlight was of course shopping at Hermes and scoring the sandals I wanted and finding a beautiful vintage Max Mara jacket at Penny Lane Vintage.
We stayed at Park Centraal which was an incredibly beautiful hotel which I found centrally located to all of the places we wanted to visit, we were right next to museum quarter, steps away from Rijks Museum (and all the fancy shops!) I also loved wandering the Jordaan neighborhood and would like to spend more time there next time I’m in town.
We spent most of our time just wandering by foot without too much actually planned. I think if we returned we would do more research on restaurants and get reservations since we couldn’t eat dinner at the nicer places that Rob was interested. We would do another boat tour too and try to get tickets to the Van Gogh museum which was sold out, and I’d like to visit the Moco Museum as well.
ย When in Amsterdam, get a fresh stroopwaffle from van Wonderen!
ย Everything is so picturesque there, and lots and lots of bikes!
Paris Highlights
Of course, Paris was my favorite city of the trip with its gorgeous architecture, designer shops on every corner and impeccably dressed Parisians. We ate some delicious meals like duck and truffle pasta and a lot of baguettes with butter and croissants. That French butter blew my mind. Oh and the cheese sandwiches, something so simple, but delicious.
Our main highlight was the 2CV vintage car tour where a guide whisked us around the city hitting up the monuments we wanted to see like the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe. The guide gave us great restaurant recommendations too and took some photos of us which was nice considering we only had selfies up until that point.
During the second day, Rob booked himself a ticket for the Louvre and during this time I did my own exploring and shopping, visiting Celine to make a couple purchases and then walking to the Le Marais to check out the vibe. Lots of cute local stores, vintage shops and cafes.
We stayed in the first arrondissemont at the Melia Vendome. This was steps away from the original Chanel store location and all the other beautiful luxury shops and right across the street from the Jardin de Tuileries, a large public garden with intricate Parisian landscaping, stretching all the way to the Louvre.
We also made it a point to go to some iconic spots like patisserie Angelina for hot chocolate and a light French breakfast and Les Deux Magots in the 6th arrondissemont. We walked around to plenty monuments, churches and majestic shopping malls like Galeries Lafayette where we could shop for everything from designer to secondhand clothing to affordable souvenirs (and gelato which we did get!), take in the grand architecture and dome inside the building and visit the terrace for a beautiful and free view of the city, with no waiting in lines or crazy crowds.
ย On the terrace of Galeries Lafayette.
