While the more traditional honeymoon takes place on a sun-dappled beach, while donning swimsuits, slathered in sunscreen and sipping from umbrella-bedecked frosty cocktails, nobody says you can’t celebrate your matrimony wrapped in jackets among mounds of multi-colored fall leaves. In fact, “leaf peeping-moons” are all the rage. Who doesn’t want to snuggle up before a crackling fire with your soulmate after a chilly afternoon spent picking apples? Who can’t wait to snap photos of one another with a backdrop that mirrors a Hallmark calendar? Who can’t resist hot chocolate or steaming cups of apple cider complete with a cinnamon stick?
Indeed, just imagine yourselves as you rake up piles of golden, orange and pink leaves into mountain-sized mounds in a bucolic meadow with your mittened hands. See yourselves racing together toward those heaps of nature as recklessly as children, leaping irresponsibly into the leafy morass, rolling, falling, giggling, covered with autumn. “Dear, you’ve got leaves in your hair,” you’ll say, while she reaches over to untangle a stick from your mop. Messy is sexy, they say—don’t they? Regardless, autumn will take you there. On that note, we round two unforgettable fall leaf peeping basecamps for lovebirds with a penchant for the season.
Catskills Region, New York
Sure to appeal to your inner child, and full of as much whimsy as your relationship, The Roxbury at Stratton specializes in contemporary, eccentric, thematic accommodations, set amongst a Catskills-sited woodland, boasting a fall foliage extravaganza to beat the band. For suites, choose from several mind-boggling, artistic cottages, each aptly named to evoke the experience: Galileo’s Gate with an astronomy focus and its own glass-ceilinged observation deck; Faerie Forest, a pixie dust fantasy with floor-to-ceiling trees, rock ledges ascending the walls, and a ceiling as blue as the sky; or Dracula’s Fangs, which channels Bram Stoker with Gothic gorgeousness—among other rooms. Hike the region’s myriad trials, kayak down the Delaware River, and same sweet cider at local breweries amongst the pumpkin and saffron-colored terrain.
Kennebunk, Maine
White Barn Inn, Auberge Resorts Collection
Only one thing makes fall’s cornucopia of brilliant colors more bedazzling: a contrasting cobalt swathe of sea. Picture postcard idyll Kennebunk, a storied shipbuilding and fishing village in faraway Maine, set on the state’s rambling, rocky Atlantic Coast, has an artsy nostalgic vibe. An epicurean’s haven of blueberries and lobster in season, crisp but clear weather conditions year-round, schooner attractions, galleries and eateries, it has surrounding parks and treescapes alight with autumn hues. Pack your fall sweater and check into the stylish White Barn Inn, a landmark hotel. Aspiring home chefs can avail themselves of a pie and pastry making class, or a food and gin pairing experience in the resort’s kitchen, while adrenaline junkies can let the concierge arrange a forest flyover with Pine Tree Helicopters for a bird’s eye view of the radiantly transformed forests and many beaches.
Cape Cod, Massachusetts
Tour fall foliage late into the autumn season on Cape Cod, where leaves usually peak in explosions of vivid hues later into the season due to the area’s micro-climate. Scarlet, gold, fuchsia and apricot expanses edge beaches and ponds, and festoon marshes, farmland, and parks. Stroll the area’s plentiful trails, pick apples and pumpkins at dedicated farms, go on a whale watching tour, explore a cranberry bog and sip local beer and wine. Rest your heads at Chatham Bars inn, a former hunting lodge, lording over a 25-acre estate, replete with an 8-acre farm.
