While honeymoons catering to food and wine lovers have been increasingly popular over the past decade, specific destinations appealing to those couples are readily familiar to most travelers – New York, Paris and Madrid, to name a few of the obvious. But, a table’s bounty awaits honeymooners in all sections of the globe.

Dining Down Under

Oceania was already a hot general tourism destination before global moviegoers traced hobbits to quiet, pastoral New Zealand. But while many travelers focus on sporting itineraries, Australia makes for a delicious oenophile honeymoon.

Outside Melbourne an hour by car, the Yarra Valley is a spectacular destination to stay or to visit on a wider itinerary. Lush, rolling green hills and misty forests accentuate the pristine environment. Here, more than 50 wineries dot the countryside, ranging from small family operations to well-known names such as Chateau Yering and Domain Chandon. Some of Australia’s finest pinot noir and sparkling wines are made here, among others. Explore and sample the wineries however suits you best – from self-guided tours to limo tours; and a sunrise hot air balloon excursion over the valley is most memorable. Dining is luxurious here, with the region also being famed for its dynamic produce. For a spectacular afternoon, consider packing a basket of local products and taking to the National Rhododendron Gardens for a picnic among lush flowers.

Other significant wine regions include Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale in the south and Margaret River and Swan Valley in Western Australia.

Into The Cape

Like Australia, South Africa has witnessed a notable increase in the popularity of its wine and food in recent years. And also like Australia, tourism has benefitted as a result and today South Africa draws as much interest in its fine dining as it does its famed veldt. Fortunately, ample elegant options for accommodations and fine dining in Cape Town, just a short distance from many of the nation’s leading wineries. Just 20 minutes from Cape Town, Constantia is a leading wine region with myriad offerings. The Route 62 wine trail has been called the longest wine route on earth with a host of wineries and vineyards along its winding path, and the Stellenbosch Wine Route and its famed JC Le Roux sparkling wine is the country’s oldest trail. Famed destinations include the 245-year-old Spier Wine Estate; the town of Robertson, home to the acclaimed Robertson Winery, winner of numerous international awards for its shiraz, sauvignon blanc and chardonnay varietals; the Wellington region, famed for its brandy; and Paarl, South Africa’s third oldest town and home to internationally renowned Nederburg Wine Estate, as well as numerous other premier brands.

Fine dining can be found throughout the Cape, but the nearby Franschhoek Wine Valley is considered the “gourmet capital of South Africa,” and is a terrific alternate to Cape Town for honeymooners’ stays.

At Earth’s End

At the veritable end of the world, Chile’s mid-southern region offers adventurous honeymooners with a taste for good wine and food an emerging destination rich in opportunities. Chilean wines, predominantly reds, are wildly popular today for quality and value. Primary wine destinations, easily accessible from the capital of Santiago, include Maipo Valley, San Antonio Valley, Cachapoal and Casablanca Valley. Hospitable wineries cheerfully greet visitors throughout, crafting tasting experiences thrust against the beautiful backdrop of the sea to the west and the mountains to the east. Chilean wines will present surprises to even veteran wine aficionados.

In culinary terms, Chile’s best features are an abundance of fresh produce from its green core and the bounty of the sea. But being a city of some five million people, many different cuisines are represented, and foodies will find countless opportunities to indulge themselves in Santiago. In addition to ample high caliber food and free-flowing local wine, there are beautiful accommodations in Santiago and more than a few city attractions to ensure a memorable stay at the far end of the world.

Quintessential Wine Country

Of course, after France, the first destination many American think of when it comes to wine-driven travel is California wine country. And when it comes to the quintessential Sonoma Valley venue, that image is of Healdsburg.

Everything about the town and its immediate vicinity appeals to wine and food lovers. Numerous vineyards and wineries are within easy travel of the quaint, lush town and there are numerous tasting rooms surrounding the central town square. Terrific zinfandels, pinot noir from Porter Creek and the Petite Sirah from Froppiano’s are among wine treats. Pair those wines with top-notch dining as well, since Healdsburg is a foodie paradise with an emphasis on fresh California cuisine in numerous restaurants located in town as well as fresh local products available in shops.

Capping Healdsburg’s travel appeal is that it caters extensively to wedding parties and honeymooners who want to enjoy the best that wine country has to offer.
Island in the Stream

Mention Portugal to many travelers and their thoughts might turn to smoky red wines and, of course, the homeland of the world’s greatest port wines. But Pico Island in the Azores might be the nation’s premier destination for true aficionados.

With Mt. Pico towering over it, Pico is a beautiful, serene, lush island that might look like somewhere in the South Pacific. But the South Pacific doesn’t produce world-famous wines, nor is it home to UNESCO world patrimony designated vineyards – unlike Pico, which can make both claims.

There are a few wineries worth visiting. Here you will want to sample regional wines and table wines under the Terras de Lava, Frei Gigante and Basalto labels and Pico’s most famous libation, fortified verdelho wines (Lajido). Dining life revolves around informal and very friendly cafes and dining is simple but very fresh and regional. Informal also describes accommodations, although service is likely to be warm and personal.

From whale watching to water sports, Pico is a nature lover’s paradise. And when you witness sunset from Mt. Pico after a beautiful 2-3 hour hike, “paradise” will definitely come to mind. What more could one ask of a honeymoon?

Your close friends and related peers are tech-savvy and used to living in a tweet-a-minute, constantly plugged in electronic world. They’re used to even the most elaborate plans for a group ski getaway or cruise being shared via email or even a vacation planning website. That doughty anachronism known as the post office is for delivery of junk mail and annual birthday gift cards from that distant great aunt Elsie. So, with the big event coming later this year, why not send out your wedding invitations via email and save both a tree and some money simultaneously?

Indeed, some couples will jump at the electronic option, either for the savings, the simplicity or for the green hipster cred. And email invitations are certainly increasingly common and have steadily improved to offer potential consumers a spectacular array of tools to create impressive multimedia extravaganzas. But time-honored traditions don’t fade easily, framing the question as efficiency versus etiquette.

It is that efficiency and improved quality that have buoyed recent use of email wedding invitations. Cost is part of that efficiency. The owner of www.emailweddinginvitations.net told Columbia News Service last year that the company could provide the same quality email invitations as it could printed versions for as low as $48.99 – and that business had gained steam the past two years. Numerous service providers can now craft for couples complete multi-media e-invites, complete with video, photo montage, music and much more – improving dramatically on earlier invitation versions with which many people are familiar. Efficiency of delivery is another factor couples consider since email invitations are far less time consuming, eliminating the need for much of the process including calligraphy, stamps, reply cards, postage, etc. Most service providers include a response option so keeping a tally of guests is considerably easier.

Combined with the environmental benefits, email invitations’ appeal is obvious. But it also isn’t universal, with such institutions as Bridal Guide Magazine opposing the trend, manners maven Anna Post having strong reservations and even Crane & Co. moving only slowly in exploring electronic applications.

Chief arguments against the e-trend are tradition. Emails tend to be informative or informal, not the bearer of formal symbolic gestures such as the wedding invitation, which is often saved as a keepsake.

“To many people, an electronic invitation just does not convey the same sense of importance as a paper-and-ink invitation received in the mail,” wrote Peggy Post, director of the Emily Post Institute and the great-granddaughter-in-law of its namesake, in a New York Times column in 2011.

Many weddings will also include guests who aren’t entirely technologically savvy, who don’t live their lives online, pay attention to email or routinely check their spam folder. The result is an inevitable two-tiered invitation process that makes it unlikely that all guests will receive their invitation simultaneously – another tradition – and complicates the entire process.

There are a number of ways technology can ease the wedding planning process without affecting tradition, such as a wedding website for disseminating information, sharing plans, collecting replies and requests, etc. A wedding Twitter account can be fun and festive. However, when it comes to determining whether to go with electronic or paper invitations, there are a number of factors to carefully consider and weigh against the vision you have of the special occasion.

“A wedding is considered one of life’s most important occasions, and the invitation that heralds it sets the overall tone of the event to come,” Peggy Post opined in the Times.