How much did you spend while on honeymoon?

osuchica85 · April 2012

My fiance is trying to figure out where we should go for our honeymoon. I am always for all inclusive because it limits the extra expenditures you end up having to some extent. How much did you spend while on your honeymoon on other stuff like food/drinks/activities? He wants to do Hawaii and I heard it is super expensive. So Anyway, please provide how many days you were there and where you went. Thanks. If you don't want to quite say, I'll put down a poll.

Summer2011Bride · April 2012

We went to Hawaii (Oahu) for 9 days. Hawaii is very expensive--the plane tickets, food, etc. All of it is pricey. We thought of this as a splurge trip and could have done it for much cheaper, so there is that.

I would say we spent more than $200/day on average. We drank heavily at the pool bar (where drinks were around $12 a pop) and ate out for lunch and dinner every day (buffet was included for breakfast at our hotel). We did a lot of activities/excursions as well and I did some shopping in downtown Waikiki. So averaged out, I'd say $200 a day. The really expensive dinner we did one day was averaged out by two lunches at a shrimp shack on the side of the road for around $10.

ETA: Hawaii doesn't have any AIs and the prices I listed did not include rental car, airfare, or hotel.

LesaAdams · April 2012

I decided on a short cruise Mon-Fri from Los Angeles to Catalina and Mexico. It is so inexpensive - we didn't have a lot of choice. Afer all that's going into the wedding we are just looking forward to a little getaway time. With a cruise it's pretty all inclusive but I will need spending money. Probably at least $150-300 per day. Mostly for shopping.

My first cruise-hopefully I'm not in denial about what I'll need.

Jells2dot0 · April 2012

How much you spend will depend alot on where you go. When I got married the first time, we spent around $4K across ten nights in French Polynesia. I bought about $1800 worth of black pearls, though I'm not a drinker and not a big eater, so that saved some money. However, we did a lot of excursions. A 30 minute jet ski tour in Taha'a cost us around $400! The other times I've been to French Polynesia, I maybe spent closer to $200/day. We've spent time on Maui and probably spent $800-$1000 across 5 nights and that included a car rental for a day. We were 4 nights in Kauai and spent a lot less because we had a Westin timeshare villa and cooked a lot of our own meals and did a lot of free activities (hiking, for instance.) I think including a car for the entire time, we spent maybe $400. We've also been to Jamaica for 5 nights at an all-inclusive and spent less than $200 at the spa. Everything else was covered! Europe is expensive, too, but it doesn't sound like you are heading some place like that. We've been over there a few times and spent anywhere from $100/day to over $200/day.

mica178 · April 2012

HI is great because you can spend as little or as much as you want. From super expensive restaurants to loco moko from the nearby food court, you can spend a few dollars to a few hundred per person. A lot of HI's attractions are cheap or free -- when I was in grad school, my parents would let me have their place for a week, and we'd drive around the island looking for the sea turtles or the best hiking or snorkeling. More recently, we probably eat out a lot more, so it's more expensive, but prices are on-par with San Francisco or New York, so not out of this world, but not cheap (remember, what they don't produce on the islands needs to be flown in from somewhere else!). Gas is more expensive. Right now, I'd expect to pay $5/gal.

For my HM, we went to Fiji. During the parts when meals weren't covered, we didn't spend much because the most expensive restaurant in Savu Savu was maybe $30/pp with beer.

AdeleDazeem · April 2012

We went to Bermuda for ten days. Our hotel included breakfast and dinner, which I didn't like (much too AI-y for me), but didn't include alcohol. Sooo, each night we probably spent about $50 on drinks with dinner.

We never spent days at the hotel - we were off somewhere like a museum or exploring a town. Transportation and entrance fees into those places was probably ~ $100 for both of us. We usually ate lunch while we were out and spent another $50 or so on that.

Traveling without going AI allows you a lot of freedom. I infinitely prefer it. There are ways to cut costs, however. You could consider doing a rental or staying at a hotel with kitchens in the room. This way, you can make your own meals some times or pack up your own lunches for the day. Driving to your own things is less money than taking a cab everywhere.

Also, look at your budget. Flights, hotel and rental car are all set prices and can immediately be subtracted from your budget. Take the left over money and divide it by how many days you are there - that's how much money you have to spend every day.

Good luck!

Beverly8 · April 2012

We went to Hawaii for two weeks and it is very expensive. There are no all inclusive resorts in Hawaii. We stayed on two different islands. We had a hotel room on the first island that had just a mini fridge and a microwave so we ate out for most of our meals, which got very expensive. On the second island we had a condo with a full kitchen. We went to a local super-market (try to find one that isn't so close to the hotels, the prices are cheaper) and got enough food for the week. With the full kitchen we only paid to eat one meal out per day and saved so much money this way.

The excursions are expensive on the island as well as the alcohol. If Hawaii is the destination you want to go to, I do suggest having a much larger spending budget then you would for an all inclusive island. I also highly recommend staying in a condo or hotel that has full kitchens in them.

You will most likely need a rental car in Hawaii also. The cab fare will get you!

Good luck and have fun where ever you decide to go!!!

fallbride1109 · April 2012

We went to Maui and budgeted 300/day. We are big foodies and light to moderate drinkers.

LADY324 · April 2012

We are budgeting $300/day for Aruba. We are not staying at an AI.

M6girl · April 2012

Just lurking over here. Not including hotel or airfare, we spend about $400-500/day in Bora Bora. Dinners run about $80-$100 per person and lunch around $20-30 per person alone. Each excursion we did was probably about $100 per person. We spent a total of about $11k for 5 nights after all said and done.

We've been to O'ahu a few times and probably spent $150/day average between car rental which you'll want to do, gas, lunch, dinner and a few excursions like scuba diving, snorkeling, luaus etc. It's not too terribly expensive.

How much did you spend while on honeymoon?

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