Amidst everything else you'll be organising for your big day, booking your Honeymoon is definitely one of the most exciting. Lewis and I spent hours searching online for what destination, hotel, travel provider and airline we wanted to go through before we settled on where we wanted to go. Now, this post is by no means sponsored by any travel provider or airline (just to cover myself) and this is just my opinion, based on my experience of what makes a great honeymoon and honeymoon booking experience. I hope you find it useful!
1. Set A Budget
There's no point getting yourself into heaps of debt for your Honeymoon, it just makes it a worry for when you get back. In your wedding day budget planning, make sure you factor a realistic and sizeable amount for your Honeymoon. Generally speaking the 'average' honeymoon in the UK will cost you between £4,000 - £7,000, which is a pretty hefty cost! You can of course do it cheaper, and if you find a great deal that's even better. There are heaps of travel deal website nows like Secret Escapes and Voyage Prive that really do offer luxury holidays for less.
2. Getting to know the climate
Lewis and I were really keen on staying somewhere warm and sunny for our Honeymoon, as all we really wanted to do was drink Mojito's and lay by the pool all day after the Wedding build-up was over. We had a look online, and asked a few travel agents where would be good to go that would guarantee the weather at that time of year. After all, there's no point heading to Greece for a beach holiday if you're getting married in December, right?!
3. Get asking!
We actually ended up settling on Secrets Maroma Beach in Mexico off the back of a recommendation from good friends of ours who had also stayed there for their Honeymoon. There's absolutely no harm in staying in the same place as your friends for your honeymoon, in fact I'd highly recommend it. We had no concerns over nasty surprises when we arrived or what to expect because we'd heard real reviews, from real people. That's not be discounting the power of Trip Advisor, but it certainly made us all the more excited hearing about it first hand.
4. It's okay to shop around
Yep, sounds pretty simple and probably what you'd do for any holiday, but I mean this in a slightly different way. I'm not going to name and shame, but the first travel agent we walked into to book our trip to Mexico were appalling. Given that it was one of the UK's largest holiday providers, I was in shock. In fact, I left half way through the discussion it was that awful. The travel agent insisted on giving my Husband and I the 'why on earth are you getting married you're so young' talk before we even got in to the details of what we wanted. Needless to say, she wasn't joking and we were both horrified. So, we took our business else where and not surprisingly got a good deal and amazing service from Kuoni who were located next door.
5. Service vs Money
Continuing on from point 4, this was a huge lesson for us. When you're spending that much money on a Honeymoon, I'd argue the service when you book is just as important as the holiday itself. Kuoni were absolutely fantastic with us, and really made us feel like spending the £5k we did for 10 nights in Mexico was important. Yes, we ended up paying a few pennies more for the holiday, but we knew we were guaranteeing excellent service throughout the holiday too. But this is dependant on what you value, and whether you consider cost to be significantly greater importance than service.
6. Getting Organised
With everything else going on, the last thing you want to be worrying about before your big day is whether or not you've checked-in online. Get yourself a good travel organiser and get everything ready to go/printed pretty much as soon as you've booked. This made a huge difference for us, considering we flew out the morning after we got married.
Where did you go on your honeymoon if you've already been?
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