I'm Honeymoon Obsessed! Are Any of You?

orwhatuwill

We both work at schools, we're taking our HM 5 months after our wedding (got married 12/31/13) which will be after our seniors graduate. We're roughly 99 days away and I'm super excited/obsessed with finding good deals and mapping things out. We're flying from Boston, USA to London, spending 6 nights there and then traveling to Scotland for an additional 5 days. We are planning 4 day trips from different departures. 

I've signed-up for livingsocial, groupon, amazon local, travel zoo in the postal codes near our hotels. Tickets and hotels are booked. I'm constantly searching for the best prices for our trips. I've even bought some currency (under the current exchange rate!) on ebay from other travelers with extra change. I'm loving this planning. DW is excited and is happy to let me do my obsessive research!

Anyone else out there super obsessed with their planning?

tcnoble

Your trip sounds so exciting!!! I'm a teacher too but we are using spring break 2015 for our honeymoon I'm obsessed in that I'm constantly reading reviews and checking pricing, hopefully we make a decision on a location soon - I just want to book it!!

Jells2dot0

I've already been on my HM, but I'm a total obsessive trip planner! I am trying to pull together two trips right now, but we're probably moving in a month or two, so I know I shouldn't be doing that! I just can't help myself

AprilH81

I obsess over vacations, but I was so busy with wedding planning that I didn't get a chance to obsess over the honeymoon once we decided on a resort.  It was actually kind of nice.  I prebooked our airport transfers and one excursion.  Everything else we played by ear...

emmyg65

Another totally obsessive trip planner here. I actually also like planning vacations that I can't take—checking flights, looking at hotels, researching stuff to do. It's just fun!

MayDay513

Honestly, I love trips. I'm always planning another vacation. We are going to Hawaii in May, and are for sure going to the coast in August, but might add something small in July.

delujm0

I am constantly planning trips.  I'm going to Hong Kong and Tokyo in March to visit a friend that is in Hong Kong for work right now, and i'm also in the middle of planning my Honeymoon to Mauritius and South Africa in June.  I did get a travel agent to do the heavy lifting for the Honeymoon (flights, hotels, rental cars, etc) simply because I don't have any prior experience in the area, and it was all a bit complicated.  But i'm still planning out the day trips and activities myself.  Even though the trip to Asia is happening first, I fell into a Mauritius wormhole yesterday for several hours. :-)

 

It's not helping that i had to skip a big international trip in 2013 in order to save up for the honeymoon...it was the first year in 5 years that i hadn't taken a 2 week vacation somewhere out of the country.  So i'm coming off a dry spell.

 

A week ago i also started thinking about taking a big trip in early 2015 because i can't help myself.  One of my girlfriends and i really feel like we need to go back to Europe before we have kids because we likely won't make it there again for the 18-20 years after that starts happening.  Both of our FIs aren't big Europe guys (they prefer North American ski resorts to European museum hopping) so we typically split up by gender for winter trips.

 

FI has already agreed to take a big trip with me every 5 years to celebrate anniversaries, even after we start having kids (we would bring them with us once they are old enough).  And i have basically planned out what several of those trips will be in my head.  We're talking like 30 years out.  I'm crazy. :-)

JoanE2012

I'm done with my honeymoon, but I love vacations!  I really think planning is at least half the fun.  We have 2 trips booked for the coming months and I'm already thinking about our fall vacation.  

cruffino

We are leaving for our honeymoon (Costa Rica) on Saturday. I can. not. wait. to get out of this cold! We have a few things planned but will play a lot of it by ear.

We are big trip planners too. Right now we have 4 trips booked betweeen April and August, in addition to our honeymoon.

jenna8984

YES to all of the above! My mom's a travel agent and I've been to 36 states, 25 countries, and 5 continents. So I'm constantly dreaming up the next place I can go. During odd numbered years I do 1 domestic and 1 international trip. During even numbered years I do 2 domestic trips. (would love them all to be international but it's really expensive).

I planned the ever living shit out of my trip to Japan and China last year. This year is pretty low key- Vegas in May, Jamaica honeymoon in fall. 2015 since it's an odd year I'll be planning Italy & France. I'm dying to see Petra in Jordan but FI refuses to go to an Arab nation which I agree with and will pray it becomes safe to visit in the next 10 years

[Deleted User]

Your trip sounds absolutely fantastic!

FI took over the honeymoon planning which I am extremely grateful for- We're doing an all-inclusive to St Lucia and I cannot WAIT to get a week alone on the island with my husband. Usually I'm the planner though and YES I get obsessed over planning the details!

delujm0

jenna8984 said:

YES to all of the above! My mom's a travel agent and I've been to 36 states, 25 countries, and 5 continents. So I'm constantly dreaming up the next place I can go. During odd numbered years I do 1 domestic and 1 international trip. During even numbered years I do 2 domestic trips. (would love them all to be international but it's really expensive).

I planned the ever living shit out of my trip to Japan and China last year. This year is pretty low key- Vegas in May, Jamaica honeymoon in fall. 2015 since it's an odd year I'll be planning Italy & France. I'm dying to see Petra in Jordan but FI refuses to go to an Arab nation which I agree with and will pray it becomes safe to visit in the next 10 years

That's like me with Egypt.  Really want to go but it's not super safe right now.  I'd probably still go (on a cruise or something, where i knew that the excursions were in armored vehicles and therefore pretty safe) but no one i know would come with me the way it is right now!

 

Italy and France are my faves and the front runners for my 2015 trip to Europe too. :-)

Pepper6

I love planning trips.  We usually do two 'big' trips per year so I'm kind of bummed that we won't get to do any 'big' trips this year (we're having a baby in June).  We're still trying to plan a short trip before baby though, and already looking at our options for going on vacation with the baby next year.  

thejucheidea

I was definitely obsessed leading up to our honeymoon, and it made for a great, laid back honeymoon because everything was so meticulously planned. We spent two weeks in NYC, Norway, Sweden and Iceland, and all of my planning made it very affordable. We had a fabulous time, and now I'm trying to think about where to go next now that my husband finally has a passport!

thisismynickname2

I'm officially more excited for my honeymoon than for the wedding!  

To PP's--- I'm huge on Europe too. I love seeing places with more history than the US.  My sister and her husband adored their trip to St. Lucia. They're big fans of Sandals and have been to St. Lucia's and Antigua's resorts. 

carliealissa

delujm0 said:

jenna8984 said:

YES to all of the above! My mom's a travel agent and I've been to 36 states, 25 countries, and 5 continents. So I'm constantly dreaming up the next place I can go. During odd numbered years I do 1 domestic and 1 international trip. During even numbered years I do 2 domestic trips. (would love them all to be international but it's really expensive).

I planned the ever living shit out of my trip to Japan and China last year. This year is pretty low key- Vegas in May, Jamaica honeymoon in fall. 2015 since it's an odd year I'll be planning Italy & France. I'm dying to see Petra in Jordan but FI refuses to go to an Arab nation which I agree with and will pray it becomes safe to visit in the next 10 years

That's like me with Egypt.  Really want to go but it's not super safe right now.  I'd probably still go (on a cruise or something, where i knew that the excursions were in armored vehicles and therefore pretty safe) but no one i know would come with me the way it is right now!

 

Italy and France are my faves and the front runners for my 2015 trip to Europe too. :-)

What's unsafe about Jordan?  I spent May-August 2011 (6 months after Arab Spring began) studying abroad in the middle east.  I spent a full month living in Jordan, and took two trips to Egypt- one completely alone.  I am female, American, and was 25 years old.  I went to Petra, the pyramids.. Every place was nothing short of amazing and not once did I feel unsafe. In fact I loved it so much I spent the following year trying to make arrangements to move there.  I really recommend the middle east as a travel destination, I can't imagine any other place could be better.

carliealissa

Just wanted to add- one thing to always keep in mind is how skewed the information we get from the media is.  Everywhere I went in Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt etc.- the people there thought it was scary that I lived in the U.S.

NotATotalBetty

thejucheidea said:

I was definitely obsessed leading up to our honeymoon, and it made for a great, laid back honeymoon because everything was so meticulously planned. We spent two weeks in NYC, Norway, Sweden and Iceland, and all of my planning made it very affordable. We had a fabulous time, and now I'm trying to think about where to go next now that my husband finally has a passport!

@thejucheidea - I'd love to hear more about your Scandinavian honeymoon. Did you go in winter, or a shoulder season? I'm trying to find some time to get to Iceland soon, probably fall or winter (late 2014 early 2015).
And I'm also a compulsive trip planner... I plan trips I don't even TAKE. I've got a green season trip to Cambodia and Vietnam, one to Milan, Lake Como, smaller towns in the Veneto and Venice, and a Namibia, Botswana, and Victoria Falls extravaganza (which would make an excellent honeymoon I think, but I'm NEY so oh well).
Right now I have a trip to the UK in April, Charleston and Savannah in May, a small domestic trip with BF in the summer, the Côte d'Azur, Provence and Paris in October. But I'm still trying to scheme and work Iceland in later in winter!

thejucheidea

@NotATotalBetty, my husband and I actually got back on Sunday, so we were there during the winter. We managed to do two weeks in Norway, Sweden and Iceland for $4400 total for accommodations and travel expenses, so we did pretty well, and I think a lot of that had to do with going during the off season. Norwegian also has some wicked deals to get to Oslo right now, so we were able to use that to our advantage. I recommend looking at airbnb for places to stay -- that's how we found all of our accommodations in Iceland and couldn't have been happier.

In Iceland, keep in mind, if you want to go outside of Reykjavik and not pay out the ass for a guided vacation, you'll need to rent a car. To rent a car, you'll need an international driver's license. It's also helpful to know how to drive stick, as only the SUVs available for rent were automatic and with gas at $8 a gallon, I wasn't about to drive a damn SUV.

NotATotalBetty

Wow, $4400 for two weeks in those countries is incredible, even with the offseason!

The rental car info is extremely helpful, so thank you for that!  Better brush up on my stick skills...

Did you find there were enough things to do in the offseason?  How were the limited hours of daylight?  Were you primarily in Reykjavik or did you get to other areas of the country? Of the three countries you visited, did you and your husband have a favorite?  Also curious how you found Icelandic food: I've heard mixed things about it, and while it's clearly not a destination for a foodie vacation, I'm just hoping there are warm, satisfying meals for cold winter days.

Sorry for all the questions, but the only people I know who've been to Iceland went in summer, so I don't find their information all that helpful for planning a winter focused trip.

Oh, and congrats on your marriage and honeymoon!

JoanE2012

NotATotalBetty said:

Wow, $4400 for two weeks in those countries is incredible, even with the offseason!

The rental car info is extremely helpful, so thank you for that!  Better brush up on my stick skills...

Did you find there were enough things to do in the offseason?  How were the limited hours of daylight?  Were you primarily in Reykjavik or did you get to other areas of the country? Of the three countries you visited, did you and your husband have a favorite?  Also curious how you found Icelandic food: I've heard mixed things about it, and while it's clearly not a destination for a foodie vacation, I'm just hoping there are warm, satisfying meals for cold winter days.

Sorry for all the questions, but the only people I know who've been to Iceland went in summer, so I don't find their information all that helpful for planning a winter focused trip.

Oh, and congrats on your marriage and honeymoon!

We went to Iceland a couple years ago at the end of November.  We only went for a long weekend from the east coast, and we found the jet lag to be awful.  I think part of it was the lack of daylight......I remember sunrise wasn't until 10:30am or so and by 3:45pm the sun was setting.   If you go this time of year, you'll get more sunlight.