In early-19th-century Britain, upper-class newlyweds often took a bridal tour, sometimes with friends or family, to visit relatives who had missed the wedding. The custom spread across Europe, where in France it was called a voyage a la facon anglaise from the 1820s. The modern honeymoon, a holiday for just the couple, became widespread during the Belle Epoque in the late 1800s, when railways and steamships made travel affordable for more people. That makes it one of the earliest examples of mass tourism. Some sources connect the word to older traditions, including marriage by capture, where a couple hid until the danger of reprisals from the bride's family passed.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.