Honeymoon on the cheap?

stephdonjon

FI brought up honeymoons tonight, which I admit, I sorta forgot about amidst the wedding planning... but also sort've intentionally. I just get overwhelmed everytime I look at HM sites. We really don't know where we want to go, or more importantly where we can afford to go. We were thinking maybe if we have leftover funds from the wedding budget we could use that to pay for our HM. I was wondering if any of you are planning on taking a HM right away and what you're doing, or if you can suggest any inexpensive options?

jelique7

me and  my FI might take a vacation well before our wedding to an all inclusive resort in Mexico because we were invited to a wedding there and we might try to shove a lot of things we want to do in then because it would save money and all inclusive resorts are the best!
good luck i don't think i was much help lol

loves2shop4shoes

Try looking around on travelzoo.com.  My cousin flew roundtrip from New York to Barcelona for $235.  Needless to say, the deals there are unbelievable!

LauraT25

What would your budget be?  It's hard to give suggestions without knowing.

If you're planning on using leftover wedding money, I'd say that you may want to plan on waiting a little while to take your HM, so you know how much money you have to work with and you're not stressed about making plans at the last minute. If you have flexible schedules, and don't need to have the time off planned in advance, it may be worthwhile to check the travel sites (orbit, travelocity, etc - and cheapcaribbean.com is a good one for HMs) shortly before the wedding and see if you get a really good deal booking so close.  And if there isn't anything, no big deal, you can go ahead with your original plan of waiting.

stephdonjon

@jelique7 Ha! Nah, anything helps!

@love2shop: I haven't tried travelzoo so I'll definitely look into them. You can't beat that price for a rountrip!

@ laura: Unfortunately we don't know what our budget is yet, which is probably why we will end up waiting awhile to plan, and maybe even take our honeymoon over winter break or something. It certainly would be less stressful, that's for sure!

LauraT25

I think waiting until winter break would be good for a lot of reasons - like you said, less stress because it gives you more time to plan, you'll have a grip on your budget, an you won't have to worry about missing class. Plus how awesome will it be to get away to someplace sunny while everyone else is stuck in the snow?  (of course, you can choose a cold-weather vacation spot as well!)

aggiebug

you don't have to go out of the continental US to have a fantastic honeymoon for half the price.

Go to Chicago, or New York and get a nice hotel see some shows eat some fantastic food.  You can go to the beach at Hilton Head, or Miami.  Disney world is another popular US honeymoon vacation.  The coast of California has a lot of great places.  National parks are very cheap and can have some surprisingly nice places to stay.


and no you don't have to take a HM right after your wedding, I know several couples that didn't.  You could also do a mini-moon, and just go to a B&B in town or close by for 2-3days.

stephdonjon

@ Laura - That's totally why I'm loving the idea of a winter honeymoon more and more. The lack of stress + escaping that east coast winter chill for awhile.

@ aggie - We're actually leaning toward staying within the U.S. Originally one of our ideas was doing a wine tour in California and hitting up a couple of baseball stadiums for games since we're both wine and baseball afficionados. But a bed and breakfast would be very relaxing too. I'll definitely pass that along. Thanks!

kitkatherine

I love the idea of "staycations".  Or really local.  Finding something fun that isn't too far and doesn't require a plane or a really expensive hotel is always great. We did the Bourbon Trail in Kentucky awhile back and loved it - got a nice hotel for pretty cheap - and had a ton of fun.

kedorsett

We're going on a cruise! You can get pretty good deals (try expedia) and overall, its a good price because its lodging, food and entertainment all included! Plus, you get to travel and see more than one area. They can be as short as 3 days and as long as 14.

Maere

well... if it helps me and my guy are going to wait a month or so before going on our honeymoon. That way we will have some married life experience together as well as more money to be able to enjoy ourselves.

canadianpeapod

We're in the same position. We've been talking about going on a cruise and waiting until we have the food and venues paid for before we book anything.

Either way, I hope you get some alone and relax time after your wedding!