Travell

How to Choose a Honeymoon Destination

When it comes to honeymoons, the world is wide open, offering almost limitless destination choices for the bride and groom. Marshall Calder from leading hotels of the world, a marketing firm that represents hotels around the world, offers a few hints to help fine-tune your honeymoon plans.

Begin by asking yourselves which type of honeymoon experience you want: rest and relaxation, culture, or adventure. Does recuperating on a beach in the Caribbean or some other exotic locale sound like a dream come true? Or is sight-seeing and shopping in an old-world city such as Venice, Paris, or Rome more your style? Perhaps you want to focus your trip on learning how to do a new skill like Italian cooking in Tuscany? Or maybe an active vacation with ballooning, kayaking, or hiking in places like South Africa, New Zealand, or the Himalayas makes your heart race with excitement? Whatever your choice of honeymoon, consider, too, the distance away and your length of stay as these factors may influence your end decision. And if you and your spouse have differing ideas of the ideal vacation, try a compromise; for example, a trip to Greece or France can include a few days of city exploring, as well as time at a beach resort.

It's important to set a budget -- and to keep it realistic. Most newlyweds want a touch of luxury, but if an entire vacation at a five-star hotel or resort is too prohibitively priced, stay at one for just a few days, and then seek less expensive accommodations. You can also register for a honeymoon to let friends and family contribute toward the trip. Stay away from pre-packaged honeymoon deals as they're often less flexible and not tailored to suit your choices.

Travel agents are experienced time-savers that can help streamline the process. Ask friends and family for good recommendations, or search for agents who are bonded and members of the American Society of Travel Agents.

As for final preparations, be sure the name on your passport matches that on your airline ticket. Get immunization shots or any necessary medications well in advance, and take jet lag into account; if you aren't used to traveling, don't arrange a full day of sight-seeing right after your arrival. Lastly, don't overplan; give yourself ample opportunity to relax and explore.

Planning Your Honeymoon

When planning your wedding, it's easy to become overwhelmed by the details -- and the need to please many people at once. By comparison, planning the honeymoon is unencumbered joy; it is a vacation, after all, and it's just for the two of you.

Wherever you go, make major reservations -- air, hotel, and rental car -- at least six months in advance. Popular honeymoon sites can be booked as far as a year in advance, especially during peak seasons such as summer or holidays.

Budgeting and Brainstorming
Do not go into debt to finance the honeymoon. Figure out what you have -- or can save -- and use that as your guideline. Then you can start talking about where you want to go. It could be a South Seas getaway with nothing but a bungalow and miles of beach, or you may prefer to spend your first weeks together shooting the rapids in the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho. Try to anticipate your state of mind just after the wedding. All couples are ecstatic, but some feel emotionally and physically exhausted after going through such a life-changing event. Before embarking on a 12-day, 12-city European tour, you should remember that you'll want to set aside time in your travels to enjoy each other.

Research
Spend a Saturday at the bookstore, browsing through travel books and jotting down the names of intriguing places. Explore the Internet, which offers seemingly limitless information on places to stay and things to do. Many countries and states have official websites, where browsers can request brochures and maps to be sent to their homes. Or stop by a travel agency, and fish through brochures in person. You shouldn't expect to make any decisions overnight -- take a few weeks to have fun dreaming.

After you've narrowed your search, start pricing destinations and determining the availability of transportation and accommodations for each trip. You can continue to get information online, start making phone calls on your own, or use a good travel agent. Get the recommendations of friends or family, or call the American Society of Travel Agents (800-965-2782) to find one in the area. A travel agent will be able take care of all the details: booking flights, accommodations, and any necessary ground transportation.

Finalizing Your Plans
When you are ready to reserve plane tickets, hotel rooms, a car, and other necessities, consider making reservations for activities such as scuba diving, attending the theater, visiting a museum, or dining at a special restaurant. If any of these activities require advance planning, ask your travel agent for assistance; or if you are staying in a hotel or resort, call a couple of months before your arrival to ask if there is a concierge.