I Had My Honeymoon on Uniworld’s Aria Amazon in Peru

As the sun set over the tree line of the Amazon River, my wife and I danced to the music played by the Aria Amazon’s onboard band, the Chunky Monkeys, made up entirely of our waiters, naturalists, Cruise Manager, and other staff. The band’s joy was infectious, and the colors of the sunset were stunning.

We had several nights like this onboard the Aria Amazon, munching on hors d'oeuvres, sipping tropical juices and pisco sours, and savoring beautiful sunsets while being serenaded by the Chunky Monkeys.

However, my favorite night onboard was the night that the ship celebrated our honeymoon. After our nightly overview of the activities for the next day, our Cruise Manager asked us to hang back instead of going straight to dinner. They had a special surprise for us. We waited at the bar for a few minutes, watching as one of our waiters arranged an adorable private dining set up for the two of us, complete with a projected fireplace, rose petals, and champagne. At the end of a delicious meal, the Chunky Monkeys performed a number for us and left us with a giant chocolate mousse heart for dessert. We got back to our room after dinner to find more rose petals and two towels folded into swans on our bed. It felt so special that the staff went out of their way to make this trip memorable for us. The Aria Amazon staff did a wonderful job of making the Amazon a truly romantic vacation for us.

For the land portion of the trip, each hotel we stayed at also left special treats and cards for us to acknowledge our honeymoon. My favorite hotel that we stayed at was the Tambo del Inka in the Sacred Valley. In the lobby, our group was greeted by a baby alpaca and complimentary muña or coca tea. At this hotel, we also had a full leisure day where we got the opportunity to enjoy lunch in the hotel’s garden and spend some time relaxing at the pool and sauna.

On this trip, we had some truly amazing experiences! We went stargazing and enjoyed the authentic sounds of the rainforest at night. We ate breakfast under the shelter of a banyan tree while it lightly rained around us. We caught piranhas one morning and the chef fried them up for our lunch! We walked through Machu Picchu and many other ancient Incan ruins throughout Peru. We saw beautiful birds, sloths, pink dolphins, alpacas and even a capybara!

We got the question often from our fellow travelers about why we chose this trip for our honeymoon. Our response: we only plan to have one honeymoon, so we wanted to make sure it was a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Little did we know that we couldn’t just go to the Amazon once—we immediately knew we would have to come back. Maybe for that 10-year anniversary!

Note: The contents of this article are accurate as of the publication date. Uniworld itineraries and inclusions are subject to change at any time.