Our Minimoon In Cromford

April 28, 2022

A minimoon is basically a shorter version of a honeymoon, but with less travelling. It’s still an opportunity to spend some romantic, quality time together, to relax and recharge and it enables you to save money. Apparently they are very popular now! A minimoon is a few days long and is usually spent in your home country, not travelling abroad. David and I both knew that we wanted to stay fairly local, to not have to travel far, and it also meant that we could take time out to just be with each other the week before, the week of our wedding and the week after too, rather than booking time off work for specifically after our wedding.

There are so many beautiful places around us that are just up to an hour away. We both have a strong love for the Peak District/Derbyshire area and were able to find an AirBnB in a village called Cromford. We actually spent a mini break away together last year in Matlock Bath, which is just up the road from Cromford, so it’s an area that also holds special memories for us. We just wanted somewhere quiet, peaceful and in the countryside, and Cromford was perfect for just that. FYI… Cromford has the most amazing bookshop!

As we have been quite conscious of the costs for our wedding and we wanted to try and save as much as possible, we both wanted to keep it the same for our minimoon too. This in no way made it any less special, we absolutely loved our minimoon, it was in an area that we both really love, and we didn’t have to worry about travelling far, taking lots of luggage, and it was what we both wanted. I think sometimes there’s a big hype for having long honeymoons abroad in a nice hot country, which there is definitely nothing wrong with. But for us, we just wanted to keep it simple and explore the beauty around us.

I think my favourite thing about being in Cromford is that although it’s a village, you’ve got everything you need. There are lovely places to go and eat, including takeaways, there are some lovely shops and a convenience shop, which literally sold everything! There are also some wonderful places to go and look round, including Cromford Mill, which is quite amazing and has lots to see. There are also some very beautiful walks to go on and views to see, including lots and lots of greenery (one of the things I really love about Derbyshire). Lastly, Cromford has a train station. Although it’s a bit of a walk from the village centre, it’s on a bus route and you can always get a taxi, but it’s a very lovely walk. On one of the days, we went to Matlock, as it’s not very many minutes on the train. I think I managed to get a lot of steps in on our mini-moon, and exercise walking up and down the hills!

There is a lot of history in Cromford. It’s very fascinating to read about. Placed in our AirBnB was a booklet telling us about the history of where we were staying. Coincidentally, right next to where we were staying, was a primary school, where David’s Great-Grandmother was headmistress in the early-1900s! I took a photo of David standing next to the school, holding up his phone with a photo of his Great-Grandmother standing outside of the school building.