The best March honeymoons usually start with someone admitting to me, “We were going to figure out the honeymoon later,” and then suddenly it is six months before the wedding and later has officially arrived.
By this point, you are probably tired of making decisions. Your TikTok saves have somehow given you 14 possible honeymoon destinations instead of helping you narrow them down. Maui looks amazing, but so does Italy, someone just posted a gorgeous hotel in Costa Rica, and your coworker says you have to go to an all-inclusive. No wonder a trip that is supposed to be the fun part of wedding planning has turned into one more decision you need to make.
This is why I don’t start honeymoon planning by asking where you want to go. I want to know what the two of you are like on a normal Saturday, whether you actually enjoy lying on a beach for six hours, and whether good food can make or break a vacation for you. I want to know if three days without plans sounds incredibly relaxing or if you are both going to be looking at each other by noon asking, “Okay… what are we doing today?”
Because I don’t want you borrowing someone else’s honeymoon simply because it looked good on TikTok. I want to plan the one that actually feels like you, and March gives us some really interesting ways to do that.
Where Should You Honeymoon in March?
I really like March for honeymoons because it falls into shoulder season for quite a few destinations, which can give you fewer crowds, better availability, and a completely different experience than you would have during the height of summer. Rome is probably my favorite example because I would happily trade a little sunshine for the ability to experience the city outside its busiest summer tourism season.
That does not mean every destination on this list is in shoulder season, though. Maui is popular in March, Costa Rica is still firmly within its dry season, and parts of Mexico and the Caribbean can become busier as spring break calendars begin lining up across the United States. This is one of those times when looking only at average temperatures doesn’t tell you nearly enough about what a destination is actually going to feel like while you are there.
March also asks you to be a little flexible about weather. Rome might give you a chilly, rainy afternoon. Maui is still coming out of its wetter winter season. If your definition of the perfect honeymoon requires seven consecutive days of guaranteed sunshine and 80-degree temperatures, some of my favorite March honeymoon places probably aren’t going to be right for you.
The mistake I see people make is assuming that a honeymoon in March automatically means finding the warmest beach possible. Sometimes slightly imperfect weather gives you a much better trip, whether that means exploring Rome before the summer crowds arrive or visiting Costa Rica while much of the country is still in its dry season.
And sometimes March gives you something you simply cannot come back for in August.
A Maui Honeymoon in March
If you handed me your March honeymoon and walked away, I would send you to Maui.
Maui is usually where my brain goes first when someone tells me, “We want to relax, but we also want things to do.” There is a very specific kind of honeymoon where you want to come home feeling like you actually went somewhere, but after months of wedding timelines and appointments, the last thing you need is another color-coded itinerary telling you where to be every hour.
Maui gives you room to decide what kind of day you are having. Maybe you wake up early, grab coffee, get in the car and spend the day on the Road to Hana, stopping for banana bread along the way and pulling over when something looks too good to drive past. Or maybe you had every intention of doing something productive, slept until 9:30, smelled the plumeria when you stepped outside, looked at the pool from your lanai and decided that neither of you is leaving the resort until dinner. Both are perfectly good honeymoon days.
Food is also a huge part of why I love Hawaiʻi, and it doesn’t have to mean planning a fancy dinner every single night. Some of my favorite food memories are the simple ones: banana bread along the Road to Hana, shave ice when you are hot and sticky from being outside all afternoon, or grabbing poke that is ridiculously good from a grocery store and eating it without turning lunch into a two-hour production.
Then there are the meals that are worth planning around. Mama’s Fish House is one of those reservations I would be thinking about well before you arrive, not when you land on Maui and decide it sounds good for Thursday. That combination is very Maui to me. One meal might be something you have been looking forward to for months, and the next might be poke from the grocery store that ends up being one of the things you keep talking about when you get home.
March adds another layer because humpback whales are still in Hawaiʻi’s waters, with Maui’s peak whale-watching period generally running from January into early April. You might see them while you are out on a boat or spot activity from shore, and while I would never promise wildlife, knowing you are there during whale season gives a March Maui honeymoon something a summer trip simply cannot offer.
This is for you if: You want a honeymoon that gives you adventure, incredible food and a beautiful resort without scheduling every hour of every day.
Skip it if: What you really want is an adults-only all-inclusive where you can put your wallet away, stay mostly on property and make almost no decisions for a week.
Book this early: Haleakalā sunrise would be on my calendar before you arrive. Watching the sun come up from more than 10,000 feet above sea level is one of those experiences that is completely tied to being here. Haleakalā means “House of the Sun” in Hawaiian, which feels particularly fitting when you are standing on the summit of a dormant volcano watching the sky change above the clouds. Of course, you can watch a sunrise almost anywhere, but you cannot watch this sunrise anywhere but Haleakalā. Sunrise access requires advance reservations, so this is not the morning to wake up and wonder whether you should drive up to Haleakalā today. If this experience matters to you, it needs to be part of the plan before your honeymoon begins. You are also getting up painfully early, but this is one of the very few times on a honeymoon when I think the alarm is worth it.
The March trade-off: You are visiting during a popular time and can still encounter wetter weather, but you are also on Maui while humpback whales are still in Hawaiʻi.
→ Maui honeymoon guide
A Rome Honeymoon in March
Rome is for the couple who wants to come home from their honeymoon feeling like they really experienced somewhere together. You want the food and the art and the history, but you also want those bucket-list moments when you finally stand in front of something you have seen in books and movies your entire life and realize, oh my gosh, I am actually here.
This is a honeymoon where I want you to pack the best pair of sneakers you own, because Rome is meant to be experienced on foot. You are walking past ruins that are casually sitting in the middle of a modern city, wandering into churches filled with art that would be the main attraction anywhere else, and eventually finding your way across the Tiber into Trastevere, which is one of my favorite places to slow everything down.
Trastevere has this wonderfully romantic, lived-in feeling that is so different from the monumental side of Rome. The streets narrow, the cobblestones are uneven, and the buildings are all those earthy shades of taupe, ochre and brown with greenery spilling down the walls. Then there will be an aqua-blue moped parked against one of them looking so perfectly Italian that you almost wonder if someone put it there specifically for your photo. This is where I want you to have the long lunch. Order the carbonara, order the cacio e pepe, get a bottle of wine and sit outside if March gives you one of those beautiful spring afternoons. I still think about a carbonara I ate at a little mom-and-pop restaurant in Trastevere, and it was so good that I broke one of my own travel habits and went back instead of trying somewhere new. I had already found the carbonara, so why mess with perfection?
Rome is also one of those places where art and history start running into each other until it becomes almost impossible to separate them. You have the obvious heavy hitters like Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling and Pietà, but you also have Bernini sculptures, Caravaggios tucked inside churches, ancient mosaics, fountains and architecture everywhere you turn. You don’t necessarily have to consider yourself an “art person” to appreciate it because so much of the art here is part of experiencing Rome itself.
While we are discussing Italian masterpieces, we also need to discuss gelato because I refuse to let you get tricked by fluorescent pistachio. Pistachio gelato should not be bright green. You are looking for a much more muted, dusty green, and ideally the gelato is stored in covered metal containers rather than piled into enormous fluffy mountains covered in decorations. I am also suspicious of restaurants with giant photos all over the menu or someone standing outside trying very hard to convince you to come in. If they have to chase you down the street to sell you carbonara, I promise we can find you better carbonara.
March is where I am perfectly happy to make a weather trade in Rome. Earlier in the month can still feel cool, you may have rain, and this is not necessarily the version of Italy where every dinner happens outside in a sundress. But you don’t need 75 degrees to stand inside the Colosseum and imagine what happened there almost 2,000 years ago, and the Vatican Museums do not become more impressive because it is sunny outside. I would personally rather put on another layer if it means experiencing Rome outside the crush of its busiest summer tourism season.
I also rarely think Rome needs to carry the entire honeymoon by itself. Three or four nights gives us a fantastic beginning before continuing somewhere else in Italy, whether that means taking the train north to Florence, heading toward Naples, or building a longer Italian itinerary around the two of you.
This is for you if: Food, history, art and culture are the reason you travel, and crossing the Colosseum and Sistine Chapel off your bucket list sounds much more exciting than spending seven days beside a pool.
Skip it if: You are coming out of your wedding completely exhausted and want your honeymoon to require almost no planning, walking or decision-making once you arrive.
Book this early: Your Vatican Museums experience and your Colosseum experience need to be planned ahead, particularly if you care about the time of day or the type of tour you take. For the Vatican, I prefer getting you there as early as we reasonably can, because I want you to have the best experience possible inside, particularly when you reach the Sistine Chapel.
The March trade-off: You are giving up reliably warm, sunny Italian weather for the chance to experience Rome outside its busiest summer tourism season.
→ Rome honeymoon guide
A Cabo Honeymoon in March
There is another version of a honeymoon where the hotel is not simply where you sleep between activities. The room matters, the view matters, the pool matters, and the fact that someone else is making your drink while you decide whether you have enough energy to move from the lounger to lunch matters.
Cabo is one of my favorite places to look when you tell me that luxury and being taken care of are high on your honeymoon list. You have just spent months thinking about seating charts, timelines, vendors, family members and approximately 4,000 tiny wedding decisions, and there is something wonderfully appealing about checking into an adults-only resort where very little is required of you for the next several days.
For this particular honeymoon in Cabo, I care quite a bit about your room. I want the ocean view, the balcony where you will actually sit with your coffee in the morning, and the bathroom that makes you immediately start taking pictures when you walk in. This is not the trip where I am going to tell you the room doesn’t matter because “you’ll barely be in it anyway.” You very well might be in it, and I hope you order room service while you’re there. Le Blanc Spa Resort Los Cabos is exactly the type of resort I have in mind for this honeymoon. It is adults only, polished and very much built around the idea that being taken care of is part of the vacation rather than something happening quietly in the background. Sleeping late, having a slow breakfast and realizing at 11:30 that you still have not technically accomplished anything can be a perfectly respectable itinerary.
The setting is also part of what makes Cabo feel so different from the tropical beach honeymoon people sometimes picture when they hear Mexico. The desert meets the sea here, so instead of palms and jungle, you have dry, dramatic landscapes against deep blue water and the rock formations around Land’s End. It feels distinctly like Cabo, even on the days when your biggest adventure is deciding which pool you prefer.
I would still build one beautiful day on the water into the trip because seeing this coastline from a boat gives you an entirely different perspective. A private or small-group sailing experience around Land’s End lets you see El Arco from the water and take in that meeting of desert and sea. March is also still within Los Cabos’ whale season, so there is the possibility of seeing humpbacks while you are out there, although wildlife is never something I am going to promise.
March generally gives us the warm, dry weather that makes Cabo so appealing, but there is one thing I want you to know before you fall in love with an oceanfront resort photo on Instagram: many beaches in Los Cabos are not safely swimmable. If walking directly from your resort into calm water every afternoon is part of the honeymoon you have pictured in your head, tell me that, because the exact property we choose matters enormously.
March can also overlap with spring-break travel, which makes resort selection even more important. I am not putting my honeymoon couple who wants quiet, adults-only luxury at a property known for its party atmosphere simply because both resorts happen to have a Cabo address.
This is for you if: The room matters, the resort matters, the food matters, and being thoroughly pampered after planning a wedding sounds like exactly what you need.
Skip it if: Walking straight from your resort into calm, swimmable ocean water is non-negotiable.
Book this early: For Cabo, I would protect a private or small-group sailing experience, ideally timed so that you can enjoy the coastline without turning your wonderfully lazy honeymoon into an excursion marathon. Whale season gives the sailing an extra layer in March, but the reason I like this experience is bigger than whale watching alone. Land’s End, El Arco and that dramatic Cabo coastline are such a defining part of the destination that I want you to see them from the water at least once, while leaving the rest of your honeymoon deliberately spacious.
The March trade-off: March gives you warm, dry weather and overlaps with whale season, but it is also a popular travel month. The resort I choose for you matters.
A Costa Rica Honeymoon in March
Costa Rica is for the couple who starts talking about their honeymoon and immediately begins listing all the things they want to do. You want wildlife, waterfalls, hiking and a little adrenaline mixed in, and the idea of spending seven consecutive days beside the same pool sounds less relaxing and more like something you would need to recover from. This is where I want to give you adventure without making your honeymoon feel like summer camp.
I particularly love splitting a Costa Rica honeymoon between Arenal and the Pacific coast because it creates two completely different chapters of the same trip. Give me three or four nights around Arenal first, when you still have that post-wedding energy and are excited to get out and experience everything, and then another three or four nights along the coast when you are ready to slow things down.
Around Arenal, your days are naturally going to be more active. This is the part of your Costa Rica honeymoon itinerary where we can get you into the rainforest, walk the hanging bridges, look for sloths and monkeys, hike around the volcano or add ziplining if that is your thing. There is a lot to do here, but I don’t want to see how many activities we can possibly cram into three days just because they exist.
The hot springs are one of the reasons I like Arenal so much for a honeymoon. After a morning spent hiking or exploring, you can come back, change out of the clothes you have inevitably sweated through, and spend the rest of the afternoon soaking in naturally heated thermal pools surrounded by rainforest. Depending on where you stay and which experience we choose, this can feel incredibly romantic rather than like another attraction we need to check off a list.
Once you have had a few days of adventure, I would move you west toward Costa Rica’s Pacific coast and intentionally change the pace. Guanacaste gives us a lot of options, so where I put you depends on what you want the second half of the honeymoon to feel like. If you still want to get out and have restaurants, beach towns and more going on around you, we can choose a location that gives you easier access to that side of the region.
The Papagayo Peninsula is where I start looking when you tell me you want the second half to feel decidedly more luxurious. This is the part of the trip where I am much more interested in the resort itself, the view from your room, the pool, the spa and having absolutely nowhere you need to be that afternoon. You have already had the active half of your honeymoon, so slowing everything down for the last few days gives the trip a much better rhythm than trying to maintain the same pace for an entire week.
Food in Costa Rica is generally much simpler than the elaborate dining experiences you might plan around elsewhere, but that is part of experiencing the destination. Start the morning with gallo pinto, the traditional combination of rice and beans usually served with eggs and plantains, try a casado for lunch, and take advantage of all the fresh pineapple, papaya, mango and passion fruit while you are there.
March works particularly well for this itinerary because it falls within Costa Rica’s dry season, including in Guanacaste and the Northern Plains around Arenal, which is exactly what I want when so much of your honeymoon happens outside. That does not mean I am promising eight rain-free days because Costa Rica has a variety of microclimates, but March gives us a strong seasonal fit for an itinerary built around wildlife, hiking, hot springs and eventually the Pacific coast.
It is also a popular time to visit, particularly around spring break and Semana Santa, so this is another destination where good weather does not automatically equal shoulder-season pricing or empty resorts.
This is for you if: You want wildlife, rainforest and adventure to be a real part of your honeymoon, but you also want a few days at the end where a beautiful resort, a pool and nowhere to be sound pretty wonderful.
Skip it if: Changing hotels sounds annoying, you don’t particularly enjoy being active on vacation, and what you really want after your wedding is to unpack once and completely veg for a week.
Book this early: For Arenal, I would make sure your hot-springs experience is part of the plan before you arrive, particularly if we are choosing a smaller or more romantic experience rather than one of the larger complexes. I don’t want to squeeze the hot springs into a 45-minute opening between two other activities. Give yourselves the afternoon or evening to actually enjoy them, have dinner afterward, and let this be the part of your Arenal stay where nobody needs you to hike, climb, zipline or accomplish anything.
The March trade-off: March puts you in Costa Rica’s dry season, which works beautifully for an itinerary built around being outside, but it is also a popular time to visit.
A Seville Honeymoon in March
Seville is for the couple who wants Europe to feel romantic before they need it to feel impressive. You still want the history, architecture and food, but you are equally interested in everything that happens between the things you planned: wandering through Santa Cruz without being particularly concerned about which street you are on, crossing the river into Triana for tapas, or sitting outside with a glass of wine and realizing neither of you is in any hurry to leave.
One of the reasons I particularly love the idea of Seville for a honeymoon in March is something you will probably smell before you consciously notice it. Seville has thousands of bitter orange trees throughout the city, and as they flower in spring, the scent of orange blossom, or azahar, begins filling the streets. This is exactly the kind of sensory detail I love when I am thinking about a honeymoon because you aren’t going somewhere simply to look at beautiful things. Years later, a particular smell can bring you straight back to a place.
March also gives you a much more comfortable version of Seville for exploring on foot than the intense heat that arrives later. You should still be prepared for some cooler temperatures and spring rain, but this is a city where I would happily make that trade because so much of what I want you to do involves being outside.
Start in the historic center, where the Cathedral, Giralda and Real Alcázar put some of Seville’s most important history and architecture within a relatively small area. The Alcázar is particularly spectacular, with elaborate tilework, carved arches, courtyards, fountains and gardens reflecting centuries of different architectural influences. This is one of those places where I don’t want you rushing through because you have six other things on the schedule before dinner. Give yourselves time for Santa Cruz as well. The streets narrow into a maze of small plazas, whitewashed and warm-toned buildings, tiled details, wrought-iron balconies and orange trees overhead, which is exactly the kind of place where wandering without much of an agenda becomes part of the experience. I also want you to cross the Guadalquivir River into Triana because Seville isn’t a city I would plan entirely around monuments. Triana has deep associations with ceramics and flamenco and gives you another side of the city to explore once you are ready to step away from the biggest landmarks.
Food is another reason I think Seville works so well for a honeymoon, particularly because tapas gives your evenings a rhythm that feels much less structured than making a dinner reservation and sitting down for three courses every night. Order a few things and a glass of wine, stay for a while, and then wander somewhere else when you are ready for the next round. Look for espinacas con garbanzos, the traditional combination of spinach and chickpeas, or carrillada, slow-cooked pork cheek that should practically fall apart when you touch it. Add jamón, croquetas, local olives and whatever else looks good enough that the two of you immediately decide you need one more plate. I would also seriously consider putting a food tour near the beginning of your stay, because having someone introduce you to the neighborhoods, dishes and places you might otherwise walk past gives you context for everything you eat afterward.
There is one very important caveat to everything I just said about Seville in March, and this is exactly why I want to look at your actual travel dates rather than simply declaring that March is a great month to visit Spain. Semana Santa, or Holy Week, can fall in late March or April depending on the year, and in Seville it is enormous. Religious brotherhoods process through the historic center with elaborate floats, music and thousands of participants, and the experience of being in the city changes dramatically.
If experiencing Semana Santa is something you intentionally want to do, that becomes a very different honeymoon conversation because it is one of Seville’s most significant cultural traditions. If the honeymoon you are picturing involves leisurely wandering, orange blossoms, tapas and a quieter version of the city, however, I want to make sure your dates aren’t accidentally dropping you into one of its busiest weeks.
This is for you if: You want a European honeymoon filled with history, beautiful architecture and really good food, but you also want time to wander, linger over tapas and enjoy the city without feeling like every hour needs another major attraction.
Skip it if: Your European bucket list is the entire reason for the trip and you will be disappointed if you aren’t checking off major, globally recognizable landmarks every day. Seville has extraordinary history and architecture, but the pleasure of being here is just as much about the streets, neighborhoods and meals between them.
Book this early: The Real Alcázar would be firmly on my itinerary before you leave home. The palace and gardens are one of Seville’s defining experiences, and what makes the Alcázar especially interesting is how many different periods of the city’s history exist in the same place. Give yourselves enough time for the gardens, too, especially in spring. The courtyards, fountains, palms and citrus trees are part of the experience rather than something I want you hurrying through on your way to the exit.
The March trade-off: Spring weather can be unpredictable, and Semana Santa can completely change the experience depending on where Easter falls that year. In return, March can give you comfortable exploring weather and one of Seville’s loveliest seasonal details: the scent of orange blossoms beginning to fill the city.
Where I Would Not Send You on a March Honeymoon
Part of figuring out where to honeymoon in March is knowing which destinations I would save for another time of year, even if TikTok is currently trying very hard to convince you otherwise.
The Greek islands: I love Greece, but March is too early for the version of a Greek-island honeymoon most of my couples have in their heads. Seasonal hotels, restaurants and beach clubs may not be fully open yet, and if you are dreaming about warm evenings overlooking the Aegean, I would rather move this trip later into the season.
The Amalfi Coast as the beachy, glamorous centerpiece of the trip: You can absolutely travel through this part of Italy in March, but I would not build your entire honeymoon around the expectation of the polished coastal experience you see all over Instagram. If Italy is calling your name, I would much rather lean into Rome, Florence or another city where cooler March weather doesn’t work against the reason you came.
Anywhere you chose only because the temperature chart looked warm: This is the larger mistake I want you to avoid. Weather matters, but so do spring-break crowds, seasonal closures, whale migrations, rainy seasons, holidays and what you actually want to do once you arrive. Seventy-eight degrees does not automatically make somewhere a good honeymoon destination for you.
That is why my list of the best March honeymoons includes places that look completely different from one another. The right answer depends much less on finding the destination with the highest average temperature and much more on figuring out what the two of you want this trip to feel like.
Which March Honeymoon Is Actually Yours?
If you made it this far and still have three destinations open in separate browser tabs, that is completely normal. Choosing between Maui, Rome, Cabo, Costa Rica and Seville is not really about deciding which destination is objectively the best because I could make a very good argument for all five. The better question is what you want to remember about the trip.
Maybe it is waking up before sunrise to stand above the clouds at Haleakalā and then doing absolutely nothing the following afternoon. Maybe it is the carbonara in Trastevere you end up ordering twice. Maybe it is opening the curtains to an ocean view in Cabo and realizing you have nowhere you need to be. Maybe it is soaking in a hot spring after hiking around Arenal, or smelling orange blossoms while you wander back to your hotel after tapas in Seville.
If you want help figuring out which one actually fits the two of you, schedule a honeymoon consultation and we can start with the same questions I ask every couple: how you actually like to travel, what matters enough to spend money on, and what you want this trip to feel like once the wedding is finally over.
If you are still in the “TikTok has given me 14 destinations” stage, take my honeymoon quiz to start narrowing down the kind of trip that might fit you.
And if March isn’t quite your month, take a look at my best February honeymoons and best April honeymoons next.
