Which countries would suit us best for a 3 week honeymoon?

Based on what you like to do I would think either southern France or a combo of Amalfi Coast, Naples & Sicily would work well.

For 3 weeks in France and not interested in big cities I would suggest a week each in 3 different locations: French Riviera, staying in a smaller town somewhere around Nice; Provence, staying in a smaller town centrally located to venture out into the different areas of Provence; and somewhere in the Dordogne area. You could easily do this with a mix of trains and a rental car.

Endless options. I am going to suggest few: France: Paris and then go south (actually France is beautiful almost everywhere). If you like high mountains don't skip Chamonix. Provence, Riviera. 3 weeks is not enough for France but at least something. Or do several cities: Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Vienna, Budapest. Spice it with two picturesque little towns: Cesky Krumlov, Hallstatt. Or do Slovenia and Croatia. Or Greece with its islands. Generally former communist countries are still cheaper than western Europe. That means you can expect Prague, Budapest, Cesky Krumlov, Slovenia, Croatia to be cheaper than the rest.

I did Rick Steve's Best of the Adriatic and think that Croatia is a good idea. Look at Dubrovnik, Split, Hvar and Korçula.

Plitvice Lakes, Pula, Rovinj and Lake Bled (Slovenia) could also be worth stops.

The tough part about former Yugoslavia is that it's a little further out of the way and the connections from transatlantic flights aren't always the easiest. It's awesome and somewhat less expensive than other parts of Europe when you get there.

It could make your trip work best to spend a few days in Western Europe, fly to Croatia and then fly back west for your last few days before heading home.

Switzerland might still be ok, but I think it would be better to be in the Alps during July and August. High tourist season, but also best chance of sunny days and the best views.

I know you're doing Europe for this trip, but check out New Zealand for some day. Based on your interests I feel like it would be a perfect fit.

Fly in to Croatia for 1 week
Fly from Split/Dubrovnik to Nice and the Cote d'Azur for 5 days (staying Cannes/Antibes)
Train to Provence for 5 days (staying Arles/Avignon)
Train to Barcelona for 4 days

Your budget is ample for france and switzerland minus fancy restaurants and lux hotels.
Arrive Paris, loire valley, provence , dordogne, fr riveria. Then to laussane, luzern, berner oberland and exit from zurich airport. I have been to all these places and they are beautiful and all quite diff from one another. I wish u the best of planning. The best planning equals a very successful trip.

I enjoy Central / Eastern Europe a lot. From what you described you might enjoy Budapest, Vienna, Prague. Yes, you said no big cities, but these, especially Budapest are very accessible walking towns. More rural you might be interested in Slovakia or Montenegro. Or mix the rural with the cities. Here is a link to some photos of the region. It starts in Montenegro but look for the country links at the top for more: https://vasvaripalvacationphotos.shutterfly.com/montenegro

Don't forget that there are cheap flights within Europe that can make short work of long distances. We just go back from Dubrovnik, then drive to and through Montenegro, then flight to Belgrade and then flight to Budapest. Total cost was maybe $250 a day and we travel "pretty well". We drove from Sofia to Istanbul over a six day period once for about the same cost and have done Budapest, Vienna, and the mountains of Slovakia a few times. We've also paired Budapest with Israel and Budapest with Moscow for the cost of $300 RT ticket

mid September to mid October is my favorite time to be in Central/Eastern Europe. If any of this looks interesting let me know and I will share details.

Southern France, Andorra (possibly if you really need to add another country) and Spain. You won't like Madrid but Barcelona is fun and doesn't feel like a big city. Spanish food is excellent, Spain is not expensive and Andalusia is wonderful - history, small towns, Moorish architecture, hiking with scenery. While seafood is everywhere, the Iberian ham is king.

I was in Croatia in September and by the end of the holiday, the islands had a very out of season feel to them and the weather was beginning to break, so I would suggest not Croatia. Greece will have similar weather.

I would choose France as there is so much variety there. Paris, then the champagne region then the southern coast. If you have to cover a second country, visit the northern coast of Spain and go to Santiago de Compostela and the Picos de Europa. Great scenery, interesting cities, beaches and good food.

"We enjoy eating, drinking, general sightseeing, history, and just finding fun activities to do. Good food is a must! We are not interested in seeing art, churches, or (most) museums".

I'm curious... how do you learn more European history without museums, or without looking into the art and churches that Europeans of long ago left behind? And what periods of history interest you?

And I wonder what kind of museums you might like if you don't like most of them. What about "open-air" or "open-land" historical museums... do you know about those? You take a walk through local historical buildings relocated to a specific site and learn how locals lived over the past 5-6 centuries. Here's one in Germany.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g198421-d284746-Reviews-Frankish_Open_Land_Museum_Fraenkisches_Freilandmuseum-Bad_Windsheim_Middle_Francon.html

What about a medieval castle tour?
Burg Eltz

I'd actually suggest Germany for a week or so if you're on a moderate budget. "FUN ACTIVITIES"?? There are plenty of small-town wine/harvest festivals in September - every weekend in the Rhine River Valley towns. Saturday night fests include some incredible fireworks shows. For 3-4 days, an old-world town like Boppard has a good location for exploring similar towns, Burg Eltz, other castles, an open-land museum, and more over a few days.

Rhine Valley (UNESCO World Heritage site)
Boppard, river promenade
Boppard, main square cafes
Boppard, Gedeonseck lookout
Oberwesel
Book a room for a night at that hilltop castle/hotel in Oberwesel. It's well-reviewed and perfect for honeymooners.
Wine Fest in Oberwesel
Severus Stube restaurant in Boppard
Rheinfels Castle in nearby St. Goar
Marksburg Castle in Braubach
Al fresco dining in Braubach's old town center

Then maybe you move on to Bamberg and/or Nuremberg for a few days on your way to Prague.

Bamberg's town hall
Bamberg info

Nuremberg
Nuremberg info

Thank you for all of these awesome suggestions!

I think so far it sounds like 2 of the 3 places will be Spain (although not sure where in Spain as I don't know much about it yet), and the Amalfi coast since we would love to go back to Italy. From the Amalfi coast, I thought we could relax, see Positano, Amalfi, Sorrento,take day trips to Pompeii, Herculaneum, Capri.

Now I just need to decide where to go for the third place. So many people rave about France that I think we should go there, and then if we like it we can make a whole second trip for it. Paris I've heard from some people is a filthy, awful smelling city, but then other people say it's the most romantic place on earth, so I honestly can't tell if we'd like it or not.

Russ, your suggestions for Germany are really tempting so I think I'll have to decide between Germany and France. The castle tour and the festivals sound great.

We both like wine, he likes beer. We both loved the food in Italy. I would say that we're not looking for a ton of active things to do, but a few would be fine (canoeing or other water activities mostly, maybe jet skiing?). Sightseeing, castles would be great, we saw the Coliseum and liked that. We took a night "ghost, history, myths, etc" type tour in Rome and that was fun. We also took a cooking class and went to the Capuchin Crypt and enjoyed both of those. We loved walking around Trastevere in Rome. We took a free tour in Venice that we loved that had interesting facts about the history of Venice. We like to walk around, shopping, etc.

I think a town or small city would be better for us so that there's more options of things to do. Although, we did love the agriturismo we stayed at because we got to meet other travelers from all over at the family-style dinners, so if there's other places that offer similar accommodations closer to or in a town where we can have meet other travelers, that would be great.

Fly in to Rome/Naples for 1 week on the Amalfi Coast (staying Sorrento/Positano)
Fly from Naples to Nice and the Cote d'Azur for 5 days (staying Cannes/Antibes)
Train to Provence for 5 days (staying Arles/Avignon)
Train to Barcelona for 4 days
Fly home from Barcelona

Hello kbmtravel. In some of the replies to you here, the suggestions were to travel to several places, travelling frequently, having overnight accomodatons at several different places. Is that the kind of trip that you want ? For a honeymoon trip in Europe, my first suggestion is to go on a day time flight to Europe (arriving at an airport in Europe in the evening of the day you depart from your home). Will you fly from an airport in the United States of America ? I will look for your reply here, November 11.

Yes, I think we want to go to 3 different countries and stay in different places. Why a daytime flight? On our trip to Italy, we took an overnight flight and that seemed to work well for us, that way we didn't have to take an extra day off of work. We wil be flying out of JFK

You seem to enjoy the medium to smaller towns and villages. That being said, fly into somewhere with a direct flight (Milan, for example), rent a car and begin your trip in the Bernese Oberland Switzerland. Interlaken is a 3 1/2 drive from Milan (again using Milan as an example).
Plan your visit to the Lauterbrunnen Valley, staying in Interlaken, or even better, staying in Grindelwald. You can spend days hiking here, or taking the train through Murren up to the Schilthorn, or the Jungfraujoch taking the highest train in Europe.
http://www.myswissalps.com/berneseoberland
4 Days.
When you tire of the beauty of Switzerland, head south to Nice (6 hour drive) and the Cote d'Azur. Whether you stay in Nice or Menton, you can easily visit Monaco, Antibe, Eze and the other attractions on the French Riviera.
3 Days.
From Nice, drive west into Provence. RS likes Isle sur La Sorgue (2 1/2 hour drive) for its location just south of the Cotes du Rhone Vineyards, west of the Luberon villages, north of St. Remy and La Baux de Provence, and just east of Avignon.
4 Days.
Driving further west you come into the Dordogne region of SW France. Again, RS likes Sarlat-la-Canada (5 1/2 hour drive). In the Dordogne, you can take cave tours, visit famous castles, canoe "la Dordogne" past "100 prettiest villages in France" such as La Roque-Gageac and Beynac-et-Cazenac.
4 Days.
Head south through the walled city of Carcassonne in the Languedoc for a mid-day visit planning on a couple of nights either in the coastal villages of Collioure, France or Cadaques, Spain (4 hour drive).
2 Days.
Now on to Barcelona (2 hour drive), planning to fly back to JFK from Catalonia. Pick your favorite "barri" and enjoy all Barcelona has to offer.
4 Days.
*I am suggesting you rent a car because many of my listings are not served by trains. In some areas, bus service is limited as well.
Happy Honeymoon!

I would recommend just 2-3 countries. Of the countries you mentioned, i would suggest flying open jaw to and out of either:

France (Paris) to Spain (Barcelona) or

France (Paris) ( and through Germany) to Czech Republic (Prague)

I am a fan of France obviously. We honeymooned for almost 3 weeks just in France anf Paris is a great romantic city to start a honeymoon.

You just spent two weeks Italy. If it were me, I would not want to eat more pizza and pasta. I love Italy. We just spent about two weeks there last year. But I would prefer to experience some different peoples, cultures, languages and food, especially if i had never been before. If you want beaches or scenic seaside towns, there are plenty in both France and Spain.

Whenever possible, cut down on the miles travelled. Just look at the map and see where each itineary starts and stops. If you want to add in Southern Italy to the above, you will easily double the miles travelled. Of course you can fly, but that still adds costs and time spent in sterile airports, transferring to and from city, etc.

In the two itineraries i suggested, there are lots (and lots) of very interesting places to visit and stay. You will have no problem filling in the itinerary. You could stay in a different town every night for 3 weeks, if that is your bent, and i am sure others on the forum could still recommend at least 10 other towns you should stop and visit on either of those two routes.

Congrats on your upcoming nuptials. Part of the fun of a vacation is the planning. A few notches below that is telling other people what to do on their vacations. LOL.