While in Dubrovnik, Croatia, one of our favorite days was our day trip up north to Ston and Prapratno Beach. Ston is home to the largest intact wall in Europe making for a nice piece of trivia, while Prapratno Beach was the most beautiful beach we visited on our entire honeymoon on points. While Dubrovnik is an amazing place to begin with, it is also a perfect spot to base yourself for day trips. From our hotel, the Sheraton Dubrovnik, we first day tripped to the awe-inspiring Kotor, Montenegro, and our second one up to Ston, Croatia. Both were amazing.

Day Trip to Montenegro

We absolutely loved our stay at the Sheraton Dubrovnik as part of our long honeymoon. The Sheraton was a perfect base for exploring all of southern Croatia aka Dalmatia, Montenegro, and even Bosnia and Herzegovina. We didn’t have enough time to go into Bosnia, but we did head to Montenegro on a day trip and really enjoyed it!

From Dubrovnik it was a short 1.5 hour drive to get to Kotor, Montenegro. The drive itself was worth it. Starting off from Dubrovnik you head south past the airport and then to the Montenegro border. There is a passport and green card (car insurance) check. Make sure when renting your car in Croatia to get the green card if you plan on visiting any of the bordering countries as it is required.

After the border crossing we drove through the industrial town of Herceg Novi which was not the prettiest area but once past that the beautiful Kotor Bay opens up. The drive is amazing hugging the water with the beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. The whole bay is enclosed by the mountains so it is very unique.

Point Booking

Our last destination on our amazing 3 week honeymoon was to beautiful Croatia and we stayed at the equally amazing Sheraton Dubrovnik Riviera Hotel. The Sheraton is a brand new hotel with the grand opening happening just last October. Despite it being it’s first summer we didn’t notice any issues at all!

We initially booked this hotel when it was a Starwood category 4 hotel, meaning it cost 10,000 points per night. It would have ran a total of 40,000 points for our 5 night stay but we lucked out! Starwood dropped the category back in February all the way down to a category 2 hotel! This meant it cost between 3,500 – 4,000 points per night for a total of 16,000 points! The first hotel we stayed at for our honeymoon, the Westin Punta Cana also dropped in points, saving us a total of 24,000 Starwood points. It was freaking awesome, because it meant enough points for another vacation!

Booking a Volotea Flight from Venice to Dubrovnik

Beth and I wrapped up our time in Italy with a final stop in Venice and then a flight on the ultra low cost carrier Volotea to wonderful Dubrovnik. More on Venice later!

Our flight from Venice (VCE) to Dubrovnik (DBV) left early in the morning at 7:15 AM. This route was new for the summer and it proved to be perfect for our honeymoon plan in order to explore both Italy and Croatia. The flight was a mere 1 hour and 20 minutes across the Adriatic Sea. We paid a total of €116.96 for both of our tickets, so cheap! But, with Volotea being an ultra low cost carrier meant they charge extra for anything other than just a seat. They charge for checked bags, carryons, selecting seats, and even printing boarding passes at the airport!!

Fortunately, the Combo Plus package that Volotea sells fit our needs perfectly. It included a checked bag each, premium seat selection, better cancellation policies, and printing of boarding passes at the airport. It priced out to €66.00 for both of us which was cheaper than buying the checked bag option separately which is what we really needed. We even got to select the exit row seats on Volotea’s 717! So a score for us! A nonstop flight and significantly cheaper than any other option.

Getting from Venice to the airport proved somewhat difficult. We had to get up really early to catch the 5:00 AM express bus to the airport. We trekked across Venice’s canals with our bags in the moonlight. It was quite peaceful with almost no one about. Just a couple of stragglers who had stayed up all night partying. The bus ride was a nonstop to the airport and cost €8 person. A pretty cheap option and it was a comfortable ride.

Our Honeymoon

Beth and I just finished up celebrating our wedding day with our loving family and friends just a couple days ago and we have now embarked on our 24 day honeymoon visiting the Dominican Republic, Italy, and Croatia! Before we get to our honeymoon a special thanks to all of our friends and family who support us and made our wedding day a truly amazing day.

As for our honeymoon many of our friends did not really understand how we can an afford such a long honeymoon across the world, let alone why we chose those three locations, Dominican Republic, Italy, and Croatia. Haha. A combination of relaxation, exploration, and culturalization! Well thanks to my airline miles and points hobby we are able to stay at places we could not afford and fly nearly anywhere in the world for free. For this trip nearly all the flights are free minus some taxes and fees and we are flying business class to Europe! On the accommodation side of things, all hotels are free thanks to points minus some Airbnbs that we are staying at in Italy. We still got a great deal on those thanks to the Airbnb Amex offer a couple months ago.