Going on a honeymoon will be one of the most memorable events of your life. If you are someone who enjoys doing things out of the norm and are bored by traditional commercialized destinations for honeymoons, there are various exciting and unique honeymoon options you can explore. If you want to do more with your honeymoon than laze on a beach for two weeks then consider these possible honeymoon experiences in South America.

Take two to tango – Argentina

Enflame your newlywed passions by watching – or trying – the most passionate of dances: the tango. Argentine capital Buenos Aires is the fieriest spot to try it – as well as the place for excellent food, good red wine and Latino flair with a European twist. Head to the south of the city – the districts of Constitución, La Boca, Barracas and San Telmo – for the best dance clubs. For a lavish musical show, head to the classic Bar Sur or El Viejo Almacén venues; to see locals in action, visit Niño Bien – set in a fantastic old ballroom, it is one of the city’s best milongas (social clubs). For something more intimate, try Centro Cultural Torquato Tasso; here you can get cheap lessons, usually led by patient teachers who don’t complain when you tread on their toes. Or go to La Catedral, a trendy tango club in a converted warehouse where you can take a lesson first before getting involved.

Sleep out under the stars – Chile

Just you, your beloved and a few million stars… What could be more romantic. There are many ways to spend an astronomical evening but for some great stargazing head to Chile’s Elqui Valley. This region is scarcely inhabited (so little light pollution) and has a dry, thin atmosphere prone to delivering clear skies. Stay at the remote ElquiDomos (www.elquidomos.cl), where seven geodesic dome-rooms with removable roofs nestle amid the desertscape.

Observe the romance of nature – Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

So how did you woo your sweetheart? A box of fancy chocolates? Flowers? Some sharp manoeuvres on the dance floor? Chances are it wasn’t as graceful as the courtship display of the waved albatross. You can watch these huge birds – which mate for life – perform their loving routine of beak-clicking and neck-bobbing on Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands. Every March the albatross return to Española – one of the volcanic archipelago’s 15 main islands – to breed. And this being the Galápagos, where the creatures have little fear of humans, you can get unbelievably close to the intimate action. For the best Galápagos honeymoon, plan wisely. Book a cabin on a cruise ship: smaller boats mean more time ashore, bigger ones are more stable. But most important is the route the boat is taking. The three best sites are on Española, Genovesa and Fernandina, so pick an itinerary that includes these islands. And think about the time of year; for example, April-December is the time to see the albatross, June-December is best for whales. Year-round highlights include snorkelling with penguins, strolling on white-sand beaches a-flop with sea lions and hiking in the highlands with giant tortoises.

Drink wine by the vines – Argentina

What better way to ease into your honeymoon than by glugging on the best wine available? New World wine lovers should look to the vineyards of Mendoza, Argentina, where many bodegas are open for slurping and sleeping. At the swanky adobe villas of Cavas Wine Lodge (www.cavaswinelodge.com) you can be scrubbed with crushed grapes in the fancy spa, then sit on your roof terrace to sip wine overlooking the vines. Alternatively, charming Finca Adalgisa (www.fincaadalgisa.com.ar) offers cookery lessons and fine, home-grown malbec. If you want a souvenir bottle of wine from the year of your marriage, you’ll need to wait for that year’s vintage to be released (usually eight to 18 months after vinification; at least three years for vintage champagne) – a good excuse to go back!

The remote rainforest lodge – Costa Rica

If you want a truly different destination – with rainforests and beaches galore – you don’t have to head to Thailand. Costa Rica could make a fascinating alternative. This Central American country has it all, with 25 per cent of its land declared a protected area. Couples can get close to nature, from the birds and insects of the rainforest to the turtles and dolphins in the Pacific and Caribbean seas. The remote and eco-friendly Lapa Rios Eco Lodge is set in 1,000 acres of Central America’s last remaining lowland tropical rainforest. Spacious bungalows open up to offer ocean views, and squirrel monkeys and scarlet macaws can be spotted in the canopy above. Couples can plant a tree together and enjoy a massage in the rainforest-view massage room before heading off horse-back riding along the beach, surfing or even hiking to the rainforest waterfalls and pools. A boat ride offers the chance to see sea turtles, whales and possibly even swim with dolphins, depending on the time of year.

Take to the air – Iguassu Falls, Brazil

South America’s grandest waterfall is set amid a national park of jungle and jaguars. The best way to witness the true force of Iguassu is from the comfort of a helicopter. The Devil’s Throat is the most spectacular of the 275 waterfalls, creating a spectrum of colours among the watery mist. A kiss and cuddle while floating on top of a rainbow would not go a miss. The added bonus of taking your partner in a helicopter means you’ll leave the falls bone dry, unlike the drenched spectators below. Iguassu Falls is open year round but better weather months are September and October. Although it is possible to book in advance, it’s better to book while in Foz do Iguaçu due to varying weather conditions. Most hotels offer the tour from the front desk and include a transfer to the helipad.

Put your hearts into something – South America

There’s a growing trend for more meaningful honeymoons: spending your break volunteering for a local charity and engaging with the local community. Worthy stuff, but you need to be careful how you go about it. Weddings are expensive, and so are many organised volunteer programmes. If cost is a major limiting factor consider organising your own placement rather than working through a travel or placement company. Independent volunteering is the most ethical form of volunteering as any money paid goes directly to the host organization. You can easily find a week or two of conservation or community work via Volunteer Latin America (www.volunteerlatinamerica.com) or Volunteer 4 Africa (www.volunteer4africa.org), possibly asking wedding guests to contribute to the cost instead of buying presents.

In early 2012 the Ecuadorian government stopped subsidizing fuel costs for airlines going to the Galapagos. The result is a price hike of 15% on all flights to the islands. Both Tame and Lan have increased their prices between US$50 and US$70 respectively. Most agencies do not include the flight costs and the US$110 entrance fee to the park in their prices. The decision to stop subsidies is a result of the government focusing on revitalizing other areas of Quito and recognizing that the majority of Ecuadorians do not travel by air.

When it comes to weather apps, hype springs eternal. Many promise to deliver weather reports relevant to a smartphone user’s precise location, but the advertised “refresh” doesn’t always mean a new forecast. Others claim to have easy-to-read interfaces, enabling users to make travel plans at a glance – but don’t. In reality, the most popular apps perform a few functions well – not all of them.

And the quality of weather apps seems to range greatly by region. For example, Canada’s local leader in weather data, The Weather Network, provides forecasted snow accumulations on its free iPhone and Android apps, something that neither the Weather Channel nor AccuWeather do for their United States apps. North American-centric apps also tend to lack access to the nitty-gritty data gathered by the official meteorology organisations in foreign countries. Australia’s Android Pocket Weather AU uses Bureau of Meteorology data, including (so-far-unique) access to the official agency’s detailed rain radar (about $2, Android, iPhone). Similarly, Britain’s new Metropolitan Weather Service app (free, Android, iPhone) delivers much more precise rain forecasts than its US-centric rivals. Bottom line: if precision matters, download the app from the official weather service at your destination, where available.

But if your holiday plans are still unclear, here are the apps most likely to appeal to a global traveller who decides itineraries on the fly. All of these apps offer optional alerts for major weather events, such as approaching rainstorms.

Android

Droids come with “widgets,” mini-apps on the home screen that constantly refresh themselves without needing to be activated. Travellers should swap out the pre-installed weather widget with the AccuWeather one, which comes free with its app. AccuWeather’s widget and app deliver temperature and condition forecasts for locations worldwide, updated hourly. AccuWeather taps into your device’s GPS locator tool and enables you to see a forecast for your precise spot on a map, without having to know your location’s name or spelling. That is a practical feature for travellers off the grid in a rural area or moving rapidly through the countryside on a train. The app also makes it easy to track forecasts for a few destinations at once and has far fewer flashing ads than other free apps, at least as of today.

iPhone

The latest generation iPhones come pre-installed with Siri, a voice-activated personal assistant that can be asked about the weather such as “What is the forecast for the week ahead?” But the result is generally vague, such as “sunny and 76 today, cloudy and 75 tomorrow.” For detailed forecasts, iPhone users should give the WeatherBug app (free, iPhone) a try. It has far fewer flashing banner ads than rival apps and an easier to read interface on the iPhone, providing hourly predictions for the coming day and a 10-day forecast with minimal detail for rapid scrolling. A menu-and-swipe interface makes it easy to drill down for details. One drawback is, unlike the Weather Channel and AccuWeather apps for iPhone, WeatherBug lacks the ability to find a forecast for any geo-location internationally, directing you instead to the forecast for the nearest urban centre or airport. But the app does allow you to track more than one destination at a time.

iPad

Apple picked the Weather Channel app as its first iPad-available weather app for good reason. No other app takes as full advantage of the tablet’s large, interactive, high-resolution screen. Radar maps are animated to let you suss out a storm’s direction. Touch any point on a spinning globe to see the weather at that spot. Plus, no company is as good at video reports of weather forecasts as the Weather Channel, and its videos appear beautifully on the iPad’s large screen. The app’s TruPoint technology, similar to AccuWeather, uses the iPad’s built-in GPS locator for assessments of weather conditions within a mile of any arbitrary location, without you needing to enter your location’s name. The app also makes it easy to track forecasts for a multiple destinations at the same time.

Travel is a bit like a drug. Once you start, it can be difficult to stop, and the more you do it, the more you want to keep doing it. Go without it for long enough, and you may just find yourself in a pawn shop with your partners fancy watch and a fistful of Aunt Mable’s silver in an effort to plan your next escape.

What are the symptoms of addiction? Besides hoarding travel shampoo or dealing with ‘the shakes’ when you’re grounded for too long, what qualifies you as a travel addict? Check out these tell-tale signs and see if you are, in fact, a travel addict!

You know you’re addicted to travel when:

1. The only reason you work is so you can afford your next trip

2. You’re planning one trip while on another

3. Waking up at home feels strange

4. Instead of winter/summer clothes, your closet is divided into home/travel clothes

5. The high street in your hometown plunges you into despair

6. Your 9 to 5 job makes you feel like you’re in prison

7. You sit down at your work desk or at a restaurant and reach for the seatbelt

8. Your cubicle at work is covered in postcards and travel memorabilia

9. You live out of your suitcase even when at home

10. Thinking about all the places you haven’t been makes you feel anxious

11. You don’t wait around for people but take off on your own

12. You have credit cards based upon the air miles program

13. You have more miles in the air than you have on all your vehicles combined

14. You’re constantly counting countries and continents

15. You can and have given tourists directions in London, Paris, Tokyo, or any other places you don’t live

16. You already know the airport codes for airports you’ve not yet visited

17. You can pick up your luggage and guess, within a few ounces, the weight

18. You think about getting a small airplane or Lonely Planet tattoo for your ankle or lower back

19. The projected period of your next big trip is longer than the amount of time you anticipate being retired

20. When 80% of your email inbox is full of travel related messages

21. Haircuts are scheduled not on when you need them but to carry you through the next trip

22. You carry your everyday cosmetics in a quart-sized Ziploc bag

23. When you are out walking, you stumble because you are looking up at a jet in the sky and wondering where it’s going

24. Your travel bucket list is over four pages long

25. The only items on your bucket list that you’ve crossed off are the ones related to travel

26. Books, films and music make you want to travel

27. You pepper all your sentences with travel quotations or start all your stories with “When I was in…”

28. You read travel guidebooks for fun

29. You always ask “where people are from?” even when you know

30. You wear flip flops in the shower

31. You take toilet paper everywhere you go out of habit

32. Your iPod only has songs related to travelling

33. You can tell where people have been by the cheesy logos and sayings on their shirts (Same Same = Thailand, Yellow Star = Vietnam)

34. You have elite flier status on multiple airlines

35. You attend travel conferences multiple times a year

36. You don’t have paintings on the wall – you have maps

37. You spend two hours each day reading travel blogs and travel websites

38. You subscribe to multiple travel magazines

39. When you think of prices, you value things in terms how many days you could travel on the equivalent amount of money

40. You pretend you are a travel writer

41. Your conversation starter is “Have you ever been to [insert country name]?” instead of talking about the weather

42. You wear t-shirts that say country names other than where you live

43. When people ask you about your hobbies, all your answers contain the word “travel”

44. You know how to pronounce your name in 5 different languages

45. Some people cry when they leave home. You cry when you have to go back

46. When people ask you your profession, you say vagabond

47. You filled your first passport before the first year was over

48. You have trips planned for next decade

49. The Latin Lounge, Boots N All, Kayak, or Lonely Planet is your homepage

50. You don’t think San Jose (Costa Rica) to Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) is long distance

51. You’ve been to at least 5 major cultural events (Carnival in Brazil, Oktoberfest in Germany, etc)

52. You started a travel journal/blog (even if you only managed to muster up one entry)

53. You think it’s not really travelling unless you visit at least 2 countries during a trip

54. Half of your Facebook photos are of you standing in front of various world wonders or monuments

55. During a job interview, you tell the interviewer that your 5-year plan involves not staying on the same continent

56. You’re pretty familiar with the layout of most major airports

57. You know which customs officials to avoid

58. Your parents have suggested you seek professional help

59. You become offended when someone thinks Aussies actually drink Fosters

60. You spend hours every day daydreaming about trips you’ll never take, trips you’ve taken, and people you’ve met on the road

61. You have detailed critiques of the world’s major airlines and judge them by the quality of their in-flight food

62. The vast majority of your Facebook friends live across the world

63. Booking flights gives you an amazing high

64. The faint smell of sewage combined with car exhaust fumes makes you mildly aroused

65. Dodging cars, motorbikes, pushcarts and livestock is your only form of cardio

66. Friends with spouses and children live vicariously through your tweets and Facebook updates

67. You start to wonder just how much damage it would do to your life to spontaneously pick up and disappear for three-to-six months

68. Staying in the same place for more than one week makes you fidgety

69. You know the tipping etiquette for more than 10 countries

70. You are an expert in combating jet lag

71. You know which airports have free wifi and which do not

72. You can spot which souvenirs are authentic and which are from factories in China

73. You have spent a small fortune on iPhone travel apps

74. You follow elections in other countries to gauge for travel viability

75. You use Skype more than a regular phone

76. You plan your friends and family’s vacations, just for fun

77. You evaluate prospective careers based on allowable vacation time

78. You have more than one currency in your wallet, just in case

79. You don’t have a permanent address

80. When you read about travel addict posts!