Post-wedding, the honeymoon has long been the natural next step in a couple’s journey. Some have opted for the immediate jet-setting getaway, others have delayed it on their calendars, but there’s yet another honeymooning trend that seems to have emerged among newly-married couples: the “unimoon.”
According to a new feature from The New York Times, some modern couples are opting for solo honeymoons, in which they travel separately and without their partner, all on a mission to seek some “me time.”
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“It’s a very individualistic, modern practice of efficiency over everything else,” one groom, William Powers, tells the Times. “I think that it’s tied with workaholism and being on the work-and-spend treadmill when you can’t even coordinate one of the most important times of your life together.”
While it may not seem traditional to tie the knot and then shortly after separate to experience your respective honeymoons, but many of the couples have noted that it comes down to convenience and preferences.
For some couples, their ideal honeymoon destinations didn’t match, so instead of going with one plan, they decided to split up and separately travel. For others, their individual work schedules and paid time off options didn’t coordinate, so they each timed their trips according to their own days off.
Then there were the couple who each had their own work trips and chose to prolong their getaway as part of their honeymoon.
And after weeks, if not months, of intensive wedding preparations, the input of extended families, and the general stress of throwing a celebration, the frustration and need for some alone time can certainly be understood. Though opting to separate for your first big wedded trip alone, has brought some negativity from online critics.
No matter their reasons, the couples reported that going solo on their honeymoon was the best option for them. To each couple, it seems, their own.