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January 1, 2021

Major Traveler Honeymoon Guide: How to Start Planning Your Honeymoon

Honeymoons are some of our favorite trips to plan! As if planning a wedding doesn’t involve enough decisions, top it off with honeymoon decisions! Odds are, you both have different travel experience. Maybe he traveled abroad in Europe and she spent summers in the Caribbean. Maybe neither of you have traveled internationally before and need to get some expert advice on what that is like. Just like bringing two families together with planning a wedding, you are bringing two backgrounds and two travel preferences together in planning a honeymoon. Of course, we think the best plan of action is to reach out to Major Traveler to help with your honeymoon decisions, but first, it’s helpful for you to do a little soul searching.

Everyone will tell you different things about planning your honeymoon. In planning my own honeymoon the most common theme we heard from friends was rest. After a long season of wedding planning coupled with a full wedding weekend, I can confirm that the post-wedding exhaustion hits hard.

There are conversations that I believe are important to have with your fiancé in the honeymoon planning process. Here are our top tips on topics to guide your conversations around what you want in a honeymoon. Before getting to honeymoon location, we need decide on your priorities.

All-inclusive vs Not all-inclusive

If you’re venturing to the Caribbean, this is a major topic of conversation. By all-inclusive, we mean all food and beverage included and paid for up front in a resort package. Mexico, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic are home to some of the highest quality all-inclusive resorts. As you venture into other Caribbean islands, there are fewer value all-inclusives and more highend all-inclusives (read: higher price).

We love a good all-inclusive resort that allows clients to unwind and not think about price when ordering food and drink. However, we also love the elevated quality that can come from a unique non-all-inclusive resort. Some of the best resorts do not have all-inclusive plans available and by landing on solely all-inclusive, you can pigeon hole yourself to a specific destination.

At the end of the day, this comes down to MANY factors (budget, destination, your specific preferences), but that’s why we’re here – to help you weigh the options! 

The Cloister Sea Island pool

Fully Planned Itinerary vs Down Time:

Many of our honeymoon inquiries go like this – I’m a lay-on-the-beach person, he needs ample activities. Asking your fiancé, “what do you want your day to look like on our honeymoon” can be a helpful place to start. With my honeymoon specifically, I asked my husband to meet in the middle. I asked for 2 days on the beach and one day in the spa in return for 3 days packed with activities. In the end, we cancelled our activities and landed on 6 days on the beach because we were exhausted from the season. However, going into our honeymoon, we had peace of mind that we would have our preferred mix of activity and relaxation.

If you’re nervous about what to do when, fear not. We always include a guide of activities and restaurants so that you have one concise resource to go to when you and your new husband feel lost, bored or in need of some activity. 

Dates and Timing

One of the biggest questions we get asked is “should we leave on Sunday or Monday after our wedding?”. Are you getting married in your hometown or out of town (must factor in an extra hotel night for a Monday departure)? Early risers (must check those flight times, especially to the Caribbean, as many leave in the morning)? Planning to have an after-party (will you be out late and stressed about an early departure)? Do you have unlimited PTO or will you be stretched on your time off? All of these are good questions to ask when determining your dates.

The amount of days you stay is dependent on your destination and time off! If you’re heading to the Caribbean, we recommend 5-7 days at one resort. If you want to take a longer honeymoon, it’s fun to split things up! Stay 4 nights at one resort and 5 nights at another resort to keep it exciting and give you the opportunity to see two different areas or sides of an island. If you’re traveling to Europe, Bora Bora, Asia, or the likes, you’ll want to think about 10-14 days to factor in travel time. Typically it takes a day or so to get across the world and you must allow time to get over jet lag! 

Budget

What is the minimum you want to spend and what is the maximum you are willing to spend? Does your budget include flights? Does your budget include additional items for transportation, activities, food and drink? Do you want to spend your money on a nice resort in Mexico with a cheaper flight, or would you want to spend more on a flight for a further away destination and spend less on the resort experience? It’s helpful to decide on a range of minimum to maximum spend. This will help give you a standard as well as a limit for planning your honeymoon. We have price ranges for each destination and can always help you narrow down based on your budget range! 

Major recap puerto vallarta Four Seasons

Most Importantly

What is your ideal honeymoon? Spend some time talking about this together! Make a list of destinations. Make a list of your hopes and dreams. Is this a one time only trip or will we take bigger anniversary trips together in the future? What do you envision in your travel future? Discussing these things can be helpful to set expectations in your honeymoon! 

Everyone travels differently. You will enjoy different things from what your friends did on their honeymoon. Your friends who just got married might have loved their honeymoon at an all-inclusive resort because it was their first time experiencing the all-inclusive magic and their first time out of the country! If you’re well-traveled and have been to a few different Caribbean islands before, you might have a different set of expectations. 

Honeymoon Planning Timeline 

This is our go-to, live-by honeymoon planning timeline. We’ve found it fits in with the rhythm of wedding planning and also helps you to secure the best rates and availability for your destination. If you’re ready to get to planning, reach out to us! We would love to help you on your way to becoming Major Travelers!

Don’t forget that we can also add our preferred perks to many honeymoon itineraries – think resort credits, daily breakfast, room upgrades and more.

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