The 101 of Honeymoon Travel Planning
You just got engaged - congratulations!
After coming down from the high of the news, many couples find themselves buried in the coordination of engagement parties, showers, bachelorette/bachelor parties, guest lists, decor, dress shopping, cake sampling, developing a ceremony, making all the bridal party/ceremony participant asks, and more. And then the bright spot at the other end of all this planning: the honeymoon :)
While at first glance all this planning sounds exciting and fun, but to get real for a minute: your days are also full of work, maybe kids, taking care of a home, pets, family members, extracurricular interests, etc.
If our team can help lighten your to-do list, and take the lead on bringing your honeymoon to life, we’d love to - just drop us a note to learn more and get started! But if you’ll be tackling honeymoon planning on your own, here are a few things to keep in mind:
BUDGET: factor the budget of your honeymoon into the overall wedding budget. Doing so will help you view all the costs as holistically as possible, prioritize as needed, and plan for cashflow.
EARN THOSE POINTS: if you’re shelling out lots of cash for wedding expenses (i.e. your dress, travel to a bachelor party, vendor payments, etc.) try to use a credit card that gives you stellar travel perks. A traveler fav is always the collection of Chase Sapphire Travel credit cards. And then you can use those points down the road to help cover costs of honeymoon expenses, such as your flight, lodging, rental cars and even tours/experiences.
CONSIDER GROUP EXPERIENCES: now I’m not talking about a 14 day tour with 20 people for your honeymoon, but for some of your must-have experiences that are just too darn complicated or time-consuming to figure out, consider hitting the easy button and joining a small group tour to bring these select experiences to life, such as a sunrise hike that’s an hour outside of town, a tapas crawl, kayaking in Croatia, etc. You can quickly find great options through AirB&B Experiences and local tour operators.
CHECK YOUR PASSPORT: if you’re going through the hoops to legally change your name, just be sure that your full legal name is the same across your flight confirmation AND Passport. In other words, if you book your flight under your soon to be last name, just make sure you have a Passport in hand with that new name well before you travel (and in some cases, before you book your flight!)
COMPROMISE: if you don’t have a lot of experience traveling with the new Mr./Mrs. then take a few moments to make sure you’re on the same page with your vision for the trip (this list of questions will help) and together focus on how to best bring to life the top 2-3 priorities for each person.
Honeymoons can really be magical; I’m still glowing from my own honeymoon! But they do take care, time to plan, budget and compromise. And if my team can help lighten your pre-wedding task list, we’d love to help bring what you see in your head to life :) Just drop us a note to learn more and get started!
Mary
Founder, Living Big Travel
PS: if you’re looking for a unique wedding gift, considering gift’ing an expertly planned honeymoon :) Click here to learn more about Living Big Travel Gifts.