A honeymoon can be the trip of a lifetime, but if you’re on a budget and trying not to spend too much money, the planning stage can be stressful. It is possible to save on your honeymoon and still not sacrifice the overall quality of your vacation experience. Being open to creative options can save you a lot of money while bringing a lot of excitement to your trip. Here is a list of the top 10 tips for planning affordable honeymoons:
1. Choose an off-peak season to travel to your destination. This can save you as much as 50% on all aspects of your trip, depending on your destination. For instance, you can travel to many Caribbean destinations during the summer for discounted prices.
2. After choosing your destination, be sure to book air travel in advance. Most major airlines will penalize you with higher fares if you book a flight within less than 30 days of your target departure date. If you’re really savvy, be sure to have a frequent flyer account for the airline you’re using, along with a credit card for that carrier. My wife and I recently used our United Airlines frequent flyer miles to take a trip to Italy. We simply use my United Airlines credit card for most of our monthly living expenses, and the miles keep adding up over time!
3. Also be sure to book your hotel as soon as you know where you are going. It’s fairly easy to negotiate prices on rooms during the off-season. You could even look into a short-term apartment stay, or try and find a nice bed and breakfast, and you could save even more money.
4. Decide on the tourist sights in which you are interested and make an effort to choose accommodations centrally located and within a short distance to the locations you most wish to see. Being able to secure accommodations near your priority tourist destinations is a great way to reduce expenses that otherwise might have gone to cab rides. Therefore, you can make the most of your vacation time by cutting down on travel time between points of interest.
5. Watch where the locals are eating, and go where they are going so you can be guaranteed quality. When you visit another country and only want American food, you will find you are going to have to pay more money for it, and you won’t be getting the experience of local cuisine.
6. Perhaps one of the most important rules of planning affordable honeymoons involves being aware of exchange rates with regard to different currencies; moreover, know where to get the best exchanges as well (ATMs often have great exchange rates). Merchants know these rates all too well and will offer you prices in local and US currency that will never be in your favor if you let them.
7. Using your credit card overseas offers several benefits: a credit card offers good exchange rates on purchases, minimizes the need to deal in local currency, makes you less susceptible to pickpockets, and offers a way of scrap booking and cataloging the places you went.
8. Shopping, of course is one of the most fun things to do on any honeymoon, but knowing what to shop for is the key. Have a game plan as to the people you want to shop for and what items are best from the locale that you are visiting. This will cut down on useless, tacky gifts that will either collect dust or just end up being “re-gifted”.
9. Travel light. Regardless of where you go or how long you will be there, you never really need as much as you pack. Besides, odds are you will likely buy some clothing mementos on your trip as well. Often, you’ll find great deals on extraordinary hand-made clothing and crafts from the local vendors.
In most countries, public modes of transport are inexpensive, convenient, and make for safe and enjoyable travel. You will also find it to be a terrific way to learn about the area’s culture and lifestyle.
This list is intended to give honeymooners a great set of tips to use in order to save money, and I hope it has helped. It isn’t always easy to plan affordable honeymoons, but it can be an adventure in itself. What’s best is the more things you have in your control before you actually leave, the better time you will have to relax and enjoy your trip.
Read more on my blog about affordable honeymoons. Find honeymoon stories and honeymoon reviews. This article, 10 Great Ideas To Help Plan A Cost-Effective Honeymoon has free reprint rights.