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Honeymoons to Match Your Budget - Pt 2

The average honeymoon cost $6,011 in 2007. This wrap-up of my honeymoon budget posts explores honeymoons around that figure and above.

The general consensus is you can take any of the ideas presented in the previous post and simply stay longer to approach this budget level. But that is not the only thing you can do. When you increase your budget from $4,000 by 50%, you can now explore more exotic locales like Fiji, Samoa, the Caribbean or one night in Paris. (just kidding) My suggestion is to choose a location agreeable to both of you and then spice it up once there by taking cruises or overnight tours. Touring the Caribbean in a charter yacht for a week should not cost more than $1200-$1500, so once there, simply use the money you would spend in a hotel and rent a yacht. You can explore all that Alaska has to offer with a budget of $6,000 as long as you don't stay more than 2 weeks.

With budgets approaching $10,000, consider visiting several countries in Europe. Once there, you can explore exciting options like barge tours or cruises on all the major rivers, perhaps getting married in a castle or renting a room in a castle at the least or taking a cruise from points in Greece like Santorini or Athens.

For those with even more income to dispose of, consider renting a yacht in Europe or in the Caribbean. Some yachts you can rent alone, others take 8-12 passengers. You can also easily honeymoon in Japan with an expanded budget and perhaps stay in a resort near Mt. Fuji. Other ideas include renting private planes, taking month long cruises or even going over the 'pond' from Europe to New York on one of the new liners plying the ocean.

If you would like a detailed e-book outlining literally hundreds of options for every budget, go to http://www.honeymoonsforyourbudget.com and order your download. Great as a gift too!

Honeymoons to Match Your Budget - Pt. 1

 If you are planning your marriage and honeymoon and wonder what choices you have for a memorable honeymoon, here are just a few ideas for you. They are not going to include the usual spots like Tahiti or Mexico or Hawaii since they are already well known and perhaps overdone. The following ideas are for honeymoons on every kind of budget - from $1,500 to $20,000.

For the budget conscious (under $2,000) who don't want to simply stay home, consider camping or simply driving to National Parks and staying in motels for a week. Very nice trips can be taken to nearby Parks where motels might only cost $80 per night on the road and double that for motels in or near National Parks. Gas may cost $300 for a reasonable length honeymoon of 7-10 days, and 10 nights at an average of $100 plus food and misc. expenses should bring you in for under $2,000. If you live fairly near a big city and want to experience the vibrancy of a major location like New York or San Francisco, simply reserve a room at pleasant hotels charging $200 per night and stay for a week. Keep in mind that parking at downtown hotels can cost $40 per night as well and add for food. You may need to scale back your budget in that case but many desirable hotels in nice areas can rent for only $150 per night.

With a  larger budget of say $4,000, think about some of the newer hot spots where getting there is most of the cost. Exotic locations like Costa Rica or the Dominican Republic. Flights from anywhere in the US should run no more than $800-$1200 for both of you (unless you live in Alaska or Maine) and many hotels can cost as little as $60 per night. You could conceivably stay for 2 weeks or more and have money for excursions like tours, snorkeling and maybe even gambling. You can consider Alaska also, as many cruises originate out of Vancouver B.C. and Seattle in addition to Anchorage and other ports within Alaska's borders. Flights to Seattle or B.C. and cruise reservations should not cost more than $2,000 to $2,500 and that also leaves plenty of spending money for tours, gratuities, alcohol and gambling.

See my next post for more expensive options. And if you are currently planning your honeymoon or want to buy a wedding/honeymoon gift for someone, see the e-book I co-wrote with a Wedding Planner expert at http://www.honeymoonsforyourbudget.com.

How to Rent Quality Golf Clubs When Traveling

All of us golfers know there is no point to traveling to a golf resort or go on a golf vacation unless you bring your own clubs. But with the airlines now charging up to $100 for a 3rd bag, how do you tell your wife to throw her things into your one bag and leave her luggage behind? The answer is you don't, so therefore you have to pay the piper. Or do you?

Once Again, Why Hotels Don't SLASH Rates in a Recession

It is quite the common theme these days to pick up a paper or read an Internet Travel column and the article writer boldly predicts lots of sales everywhere and anywhere you want to go. Forget the fact that over the last year airlines have slashed capacity so much and laid off so many workers that fares are more likely to firm up than drop any more. They brazenly say that hotel rooms are going vacant in this recession/depression and that hotel operators would do anything to fill rooms, even by discounting them severely.

While this may well be true for some, it is a limited some in my opinion. Hotels would actually rather chance vacant rooms than to lose the hard earned gains they made since 2001 nearly destroyed the travel industry. Why?

Glad you asked. It's called playing the rate game and it goes like this.

Alaska - Everything You Want to Know

My brother has an idea for me next summer - fly to Oregon, where he lives, and then we embark on a quick trip to Alaska in June in order to see almost 24 hours of daylight just once in our lives. Sounds like a great idea and I may do it too. Just to get ready though and start planning properly, I went through the resources I had used about Alaska to write my honeymoon budget book. One of the sites is worth seeing just for basic (and more involved) information about what is available in Alaska.

Including yacht charters, tons of cruises, Denali tours, air and water taxis, bus tours, railroad trips - the list is almost endless. It is called AlaskaOne and is a fantastic website/resource. For instance, here you find informatuion about flying to Anchorage or SouthCentral Alaska and then rent an RV. They have lodging information about every area of Alaska - Prince William Sound, Valdez, Copper River Valley, the Kenai Peninsula just to name a few. There are salmon (boat/excursion) rentals, glacier tours and cruises, wilderness lodges and much more.

If you have never thought about vacationing in Alaska, this site just may spark your interest.

Discount International Airline Tickets

From time to time, I will re-post articles from the archives that I feel will help travelers, because I am 99.9% confident that very few peruse my archives for stories. This is one of those posts, about buying discount tickets through airline consolidators.

In my research on the internet, I have found a great resource that pertains to international travel booking. This guide book is packed with relevant information and valuable tips for saving on international airfares by using airline consolidators. What exactly are consolidators?

True consolidators are those agents who purchase a block of discount tickets for future sale before the airlines close off the fare sale window. They then can sell tickets at a discount when you cannot get that rate by going direct to the airlines. For instance, Aeromexico recently announced a fare sale to many cities in Mexico at very good prices. But you had to buy within 7 days. What if you are not sure exactly when you wanted to go to Cabo however and couldn't risk making a reservation and finding you needed to change it, thus incurring a change fee?

This is where consolidators can help. Since they bought a block of these type tickets before the fare sale window closed, they can sell you a last minute ticket at a substantial discount to the airfare shown by Aeromexico on their site!. Sometimes, the later you book, the more discount the consolidator gives, since any unused tickets are simply swallowed by the consolidator at a total loss.

Check out this TravelSecretsGuide and see if you think it would make for a sensible purchase. I have personally read it and vouch for it - the information is extensive and extremely money saving and the research that went into the book is top notch. Like my books, there is a complete money back guarantee so you have nothing to lose if you don't find it as helpful as I have found it to be.

Reprint of Travel Gadgets Advice

   
...pack the sunscreen... grab the camera ...don't forget the sunglasses. When we pack for a trip, it all seems to come together at the end because we've done it so many times. Nowadays however it's about electronics and the supporting cast of gadgets they encompass. Here's a few to ponder.

A Cruise Ship 5 Times the Size of the Titanic

You have probably already heard of the largest cruise ship ever built - the Oasis of the Seas. I

 
remember seeing shows on A&E or the History channel that documented this behemoth as it was being built. Yes, 5 times larger than the Titanic and it sails with 5 times the passengers (not including staff). It is 40% larger than the next largest cruise ship.

Well, it left its home near Helsinki and is making its way toward Florida in order to get last minute fittings. (Such as 12,000 PLANTS). From there, the first cruise is scheduled out of Ft. Lauderdale in December and there are a few staterooms left if you are interested.

This mega-ship actually has 'neighborhoods' on it - such as Central Park, Boardwalk and the Royal Promenade and each neighborhood has so much of its own entertainment, you may never venture into another 'neighborhood' while on board. The ship boasts an ice rink, golf course and outdoor amphitheater. (I'm surprised it doesn't have a 'subway' from one neighborhood to another!) 

You can read about the ship on the Royal Caribbean website or this story from the AP out of Helsinki.

Thanksgiving Sales

While most people are preoccupied with serving Thanksgiving meals and/or flying cross country to loved ones homes for the holidays, most airlines find the exotic destinations going begging. So, it is not unusual to find higher airfares for domestic flights near Thanksgiving and cheaper fares to Europe or the Caribbean. Or Vermont. OK, not so exotic but there is a great sale for a luxury Vermont resort anyway.

From Travelzoo comes this pre-holiday arrangement of sales on certain hotels, cruises and air fares. What is required is a person or persons desperate to get AWAY from Thanksgiving with family and willing to go on a 7 night Mediterranean cruise. Or to the Cancun for $79 per night. Or get 30% off a 6 night Ireland Stay and Drive package. Look no further.

View the Travelzoo report here.

New Fees for Holiday Travel

If you think this is a regurgitated post from this time last year, you would be wrong. Another year, another new set of annoying 'fees' that the airlines make you pay for the simplest things: like reserving a seat, not pre-paying baggage fees (I'm not sure I understand that one - you pay $25 to check a bag and another $5 fee for not pre-paying the baggage fee online?) among other new fees. It was inevitable of course - last year when fuel surcharges were all the rage, airlines found that they could maintain low priced tickets and then sock you with user fees that helped raise the ticket price to what they really wanted all along.

Not that I don't have sympathy for them. The reason they don't just raise ticket fees is because not all airlines would do it and then some would 'appear' to have better prices because they quote the base fares and then add on the surcharges. And the reason some airlines do THAT is because these are user fees - if you aren't checking bags, you won't be charged luggage surcharges much less the pre-payment penalty.

I have hesitated to even write about these fees, since they seem so common now but perhaps the occasional holiday traveler will be taken aback at all the minor surcharges. For them I pass along the N. Y. Times article detailing the state of fees for this holiday period and into next year to boot. The article is titled "Even as Fares Creep Up, AIrlines Tack on Fees Too" and may be a primer for some novice travelers. The rest of the well learned traveling public will no doubt shrug and pay - after all, did you want to WALK to Cincinnati from San Diego with your luggage trailing behind you? What choices do you really have?

And that's what the airlines know and we are learning!