Honeymoon savings—Part II
« Honeymoon tips 1-10
11. Ask for discounts
Is it off-season? Are you staying more than three nights? Are you a member of AAA, AARP, or a frequent-flier club?
Are you a student, teacher, employee of the government or of a company with a corporate rate?
You never know which one might ring that discount bell. And here's the big one: Are you on your honeymoon? Work that one to death. However...
12. Play the Honeymoon Card wisely
Get a price quote first, then breathlessly confide that this is your honeymoon. Sometimes "Honeymoon Package" add-ons— an automatic upgrade, flowers and champagne in your room—come free or cheap. Sometimes not.
Prices can get padded needlessly if the words "wedding" or "honeymoon" enter the conversation too early.
Once you've settled on a price, though, go hog-wild with the honeymoon schtick. Approach every check-in counter (airline, hotel, car rental) a tangle of loving arms and stolen kisses.
Ooze romance and let them know you're newlyweds.
The good folk behind these counters are the ones with the keys to business-class seats, luxury model vehicles, and ocean-view suites—and they'd much rather give free upgrades to a cute new couple than another grumpy member of their Supremely Elite Club.
13. Consider a package
Travel companies often buy plane tickets, hotel rooms, and rental cars at bulk rates, then pass the savings along to you as a package vacation.
Regular airfare to Paris rarely dips below $350, even in low season, but packager Go-Today.com sells airfare plus six nights' lodging starting at $399 (they cover all of Europe, Latin America, and Asia).
There are hundreds out there in addition to those mentioned in Tip 4. Check ads in your newspaper's travel section, the sales-alert sites in Tip 9, and magazines like Budget Travel.
14. Check the "all-inclusive" fine print
Is a resort truly "all-inclusive" if you have to pay $12 for a poolside mai tai or $120 for an hour diving the reef?
Here's the fine print to watch out for: "non-motorized watersports" (scuba and jet skis extra), "wine with dinner" (you pay outside mealtime, and at all times for the stronger stuff), and "non-alcoholic drinks" (only soda and juice are free).
Resort chains Couples, Sandals, Breezes, and Hedonism are truly all-inclusive, throwing in free scuba lessons and all the name-brand booze you can handle.
Club Med, in catch-up mode, has recently upgraded most U.S., Mexican, Caribbean, and Polynesian resorts to what they have redundantly dubbed "Totally all-inclusive."
Of course, if you and your groom are teetotalers who don't scuba, reconsider paying the premium for all-inclusive.
15. Go condo
Why condo? One word: kitchenette. Think of the savings when you don't have to pay $25 per person per day for the hotel's buffet breakfast.
Go ahead, eat out at restaurants and enjoy yourselves, but use the kitchenette to whip up sandwiches to take to the beach rather than chewing on $15 burgers from the lunch grill.
Bonus: you can plan a couple of romantic dinners to enjoy in your room.
16. Go local
Forget hotels. They're pricey, and too, well, similar to every other hotel you've ever stayed in. Your honeymoon should be special.
Rent your own pad—villa, cottage, bungalow, apartment, whatever—and play house for a week or two.
It'd be impossible to list the hundreds of rental specialists here (though I list many here), but a few standouts include www.homeaway.com, www.rentalo.com, www.VRBO.com
, and www.belvilla.org.
17. Forget 800 numbers
Most hotel chains' toll-free lines can book rooms only at the rack rate.
Call the hotel directly and bargain with the manager for a long-stay discount, find out if cheaper rooms are available, and play that honeymoon card for all it's worth.
18. Lose the penthouse
Get a nice room, yes, but skip the super-mega-deluxe presidential suite. You need a big, comfy bed. The rest of the room's just icing. The same applies to luxury staterooms on cruise ships.
Sure, spend for an ocean view—a balcony if you can swing it—but a stateroom? Use the extra cash for day trips and souvenirs at ports of call; that’s what you'll remember.
19. Avoid hotel money pits
That telephone by the bed? Doesn't exist. Hotels inflate phone bills by as much as 400%, even on local and toll-free calls, so share the honeymoon stories with bridesmaids after you're home!
Ignore the minibar, too (though do shove the overpriced peanuts aside so you can chill your own goodies, purchased for a fraction of the price at a local shop).
I'd say forget the room-service menu, too, but hey: this is your honeymoon. Breakfast in bed is practically required, and if you feel the need to order strawberries with plenty of extra whipped cream after midnight, we won't tell.
20. Get out of the resort
Eat at the little local joints up the street instead of overpaying for internationalized cuisine at the hotel restaurant. And if it's fine dining you're after, here's another tip:
21. Feast on five-star meals at two-star prices
Dress up for expensive restaurants at lunch, when the same exquisite meals often cost 30% 50% less than at dinner.
Come dinnertime, arrange for a romantic picnic in your room? That way you can get to, um, dessert that much more quickly.
22. Pay bottom dollar for your cabin
Just as no two people on the plane pay the same price for their ticket, identical cabins on a cruise ship go for radically different rates.
It doesn't matter if you need to pinch pennies on an inside cabin or can splurge on a balcony suite, there's one way to ensure you get the lowest price on any berth, any ship, any sailing: go directly to the discounters like www.cruisedirect.com, ignoring the cruise lines themselves entirely.
23. Forego the Ferrari
Rent only as much car as you need. I've never paid for a full-size in my life because a compact gets the job done.
If you're going to Europe, book through the consolidator AutoEurope.com, which sells Hertz or Avis rentals at bulk-purchase rates.
And don’t over-rent. If you're flying into Rome for a few days, then spending a week driving the Tuscan countryside to Florence for several more days, don't pay for a two-week rental!
A car is useless in the city (terrible traffic, pricey parking). Pick up the car the first day you need it (leaving Rome) and drop it off as soon as you hit Florence.
24. Adventure cheaply
Start the adventure of marriage with an adventurous honeymoon. Not everyone wants a veg-on-the-beach honeymoon.
If you'd rather go tandem kayaking, hike the Inca trail through Peru, or put those trust exercises to the test rock climbing, check out adventure tour aggregators like www.iExplore.com and www.realadventures.com.
Most adventure tours are limited to groups of eight to twelve people. Both G Adventures (www.gadventures.com) and Intrepid Travel (www.intrepidtravel.com) run such small group trips, but can also set up solo itineraries around the globe so you two can canoodle on your own.
Cream of the crop Mountain Travel Sobek (www.mtsobek.com) is rather more expensive, but does offer a bridal registry (see Tip 1).
25. Never shortchange the honeymoon
This is a once-in-a-lifetime trip. No matter how tight money is, give yourself as generous a budget as you can and let yourself enjoy the honeymoon.
Go ahead. Take that helicopter tour over the volcano. Splurge on an over-water bungalow. Fly first class.
Years from now, you'll have forgotten the extra cost. But the memories you create—those you'll still be talking about on your 50th wedding anniversary.
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This article was last updated in January 2010. All information was accurate at the time.
Copyright © 1998–2010 by Reid Bramblett. Author: Reid Bramblett.
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