Just getting started..

JJWillis3 · November 2010

My fiance and I are trying to choose where we want to have our honeymoon so that if we end up going through a travel agency we can put a link on our wedding website to our 'account' (or whatever they call it). This way we can ask people to give us money for our honeymoon instead of gifts (we will still register too for people who don't want to do that).

So, I honestly don't know where to even start looking. I've never been outside of the United States. My fiance and I have traveled all over the US and are really good with figuring things out on our own (flights, trains, hotels, etc). But this seems so much bigger. I think it's because I don't know how to figure out what I need to do if we are going out of the country etc.

I had brought up the idea of going to Ireland. A friend of mine and his girlfriend went for about 2,000. My Fiance seems to think that is too low. He thinks it will cost us more. He is all for it if that is how much (or around) it would actually be for the both of us.

Can you tell me where I should start looking for options of places to go? I am really excited but also very overwhelmed by this.

After we choose a place (or places) should we use a travel agent or just do it on our own? Do they actually save you money?

JJWillis3 · November 2010

The idea for putting the link on our wedding website came from the travel agency. We talked to them at a bridal show we had gone to in Jan. They told us that a lot of people are doing this and everyone that I had talked to said that it was a good idea. That's why we were considering it.

Thank you for the recommendations! We will check out the Frommer's guidebooks!

emilyinchile · November 2010

Well of course the travel agency would say it's a good idea - it encourages your wedding guests to spend money with them. It's like Bed, Bath and Beyond giving you registry cards to put in your invitations - they don't care that it makes you look rude, they care about getting more people to buy stuff at their store. HM registries are pretty hotly debated on here, and while some people have no problem with them, personally I'd rather avoid doing something that about half my guests might dislike (based on the split we see on here. people will tell you they love your idea because they don't want to hurt your feelings, doesn't mean they really love it).

In terms of planning, first decide on your budget. How much do you want to spend total, for flights, hotels, activities, food, etc?

Next, what kind of things do you like to do? Beach, culture, history, outdoors, cities? And what's important to you - a luxurious hotel that means spending less on transport/food, blowing it all on gourmet meals and sleeping somewhere less lux, etc?

Based on those things and the time of year you're going - beach in January for example narrows your options a bit - start looking online, reading travel books and/or talking to a TA to see which places might work for you.

kaesha · November 2010

I think Europe is really accessible to do on your own (although how you'd do it for 1000$ each, I don't know - the airfare alone would eat up at least half that budget for me), especially if you do the b&b route.

Chasity08 · December 2010

Hmm...I'm not quite sure how they managed to do the Ireland trip for $2000. That does seem a bit low, as my airfare alone rountrip from Nebraska to London is $2200! However, not counting spending cash, for my 12 dayHM to Europe (London & Paris) our cost for plane tickets, airfare, and train tickets between cities is about $3600. So we're planning on about $6k after spending cash. If you decided to do a week in 1 city in Ireland, you could definitely get that price down!

I personally am not a fan of Travel Agents, mostly because the TA companies get kick-back commission from different hotels when they get their clients to use them, so the TA's mostly push for those hotels, which are usually chain hotels. Nothing wrong with chain hotels of course, but when you're on a budget they can get quite pricey. The cheapest hotel that 2 different TA's I was talking to gave me for London for example were $190-$200 a night. I found a lovely apartment to rent for $150, which is an actual apartment with a kitchen, washer & dryer, etc. It has great reviews on TA, is in a better location for us, and is $50 cheaper a night (which adds up to a $300 savings for us! Awesome!).

I would personally plan the HM yourself. Check out TripAdvisor. You can search for the city at the top (say Cork for example) and then it'll bring up the City and right underneath will have buttons where you can choose "hotels" "B&B" etc...choose one, and then down the left side you can put in a price range. That way you can look at hotels/B&B/apartment rentals in your price range, and they will sort them by reviewed star ratings. I have never gone wrong by trusting the reviews on Trip Advisor. You can also check out Rick Steve's books. He is my favorite travel writer at the moment and he is recommended by a lot of people.

I hope that helps! GL planning your HM! =] =] =]

Just getting started..

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