AT 20 weeks pregnant, Courtney Monardo, a 40-year-old processor for a mortgage company in Scottsdale, Ariz., was — to quote Madeleine Kahn in “Blazing Saddles” — “so tired.”
“After work, I’d sit down on the couch, take a cat nap, eat dinner, and I’d be in bed by 8:30,” she said.
So her husband, who is also her boss, did something about it. “He walked into my office and told me to shut my computer down,” she said. The couple soon arrived at the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa, also in Scottsdale (www.kierlandresort.com). “He explained to me that this was a getaway, to be pampered, that I needed it.” First on the agenda was an in-room ice cream sundae. Next, a couples’ massage. Then a shopping trip for baby clothes, a room-service dinner ordered from the 24-hour cravings menu and a movie. The next morning included breakfast in bed, a round of golf and a pedicure.
The appeal of this brief but indulgent experience — known as a babymoon in travel industry parlance — is pure escape. “Everything was done for us,” Ms. Monardo said. “ We didn’t really need to plan anything.”
The World Travel Market Global Trends Report 2006 cited the babymoon as an illustration of the ways in which “travel and tourism companies are carving out increasingly customized packages to target different life stages.” For example, www.bnbfinder.com, an online bed-and-breakfast directory, is currently offering more than 30 babymoon packages.
When she learned about babymoons, Ilonka Molijn-van Ginkel, a 31-year-old mother of two who lives in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, co-founded www.baby-moon.eu, a clearinghouse for luxury pre-birth getaways, in January. “Just like everybody knows the honeymoon, this should also happen with the babymoon,” she said. The Web site covers Asia, North America, the Caribbean, Europe and the United Arab Emirates.
Some of Mrs. Molijn-van Ginkel’s favorite spots include the Renaissance Chancery Court in London (www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/loncc-renaissance-chancery-court-london), which offers minicupcakes and a “musical energy balance” massage that involves chakra-balancing (445 pounds, $950, at $2.04 to the pound); the Hotel Schloss Fuschl (www.baby-moon.eu/schlossfuschl.html), a castle outside Salzburg, Austria, which offers lymph drainage for the legs and lakeside walks (325 euros); and the Westin Kierland’s “Bundle of Joy” package, mentioned above ($599).
According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the second trimester is the safest time for pregnant women to travel.
But Kelly Miller, a 30-year-old teacher from Denville N.J., chose a third-trimester experience. She and her husband, who wanted to hike but were restricted to car travel, drove to Mohonk Mountain House (www.mohonk.com) in the mid-Hudson Valley of New York. “I was really impressed; they massaged me as I lay on my side,” Ms. Miller said of her posthike spa treatment, admitting that she had had doubts as to how the therapist would work around her 33-week pregnant midsection.
Nina Smiley, director of marketing for Mohonk, said of her babymoon clients, “They are about to become nurturers themselves, so one of the things we delight in is nurturing the mother and father to be.” Beginning June 1, rates for the Mohonk package will start at $374 a person, a night.
“It’s kind of bittersweet,” Ms. Miller said of her prenatal days. “Now when we go away, we either have the baby with us or we worry about her if we’ve left her behind. The babymoon really was like our last hoorah.”
Melissa Perlman, a mother of an 11-month-old and founder of Amansala Eco Chic Resorts (www.amansala.com) in Tulum, Mexico, knows firsthand that her yoga-inspired babymoons give expectant parents much-needed time to bond and regroup.
“A babymoon is not only about pampering, but about slowing down enough to savor the pregnancy,” Ms. Perlman said . “It helps mom keep in touch with her sensuality, with her body, and to embrace the change that is happening in her life.”
