Setting Honeymoon budget

Hermia

Hey folks,
So what are people paying for their honeymoon? We want to go for luxury and looking online at the Amalfi coast, you could pay upwards of €500 a night for a 5 star hotel. I know it's our honeymoon and we should be splashing out but I'm finding it hard to think about spending that kind of money after years of looking for great deals on hotels for holidays!

pwurple

I wouldn't cripple yourself with it anyway, because if it's too excruciatingly expensive you won't be able to enjoy it. We had been thinking about the holiday for years, and had it planned better than our wedding to be honest, which was a bit of a heck ya, let's do it, 3 month engagement jobbie.

I'm a spreadsheet nut, still have all the records. We spent 1600 per person, back in the noughties. It was 4 weeks, tanzania and across south africa. Obvoiusly africa is a heck of a lot cheaper than european 5 star. That's why you see a lot of honeymooners going to south east asia, south america, africa and similar destinations. That amount above covered flights, hotels, safari and some food...

You could just as easily spend that on a weekend in dublin or any other of the super-posh places in Ireland. If you go for suites etc, you can spend thousands a night.

StupidLikeAFox

I would save the money and try get an extra few days, more experiences or maybe a michelin star restaurant - in years to come you won't care what the hotel was like but you will remember the stuff you did

pwurple wrote: »

I'm a spreadsheet nut, still have all the records. We spent 1600 per person, back in the noughties.

Thought you were talking about your wedding there at first! :eek:

mcgiggles

We decided to guestimate at prices of everything before we even started planning and any money we saved along the way would go on the honeymoon, I don't want to spend more than 3k on it, as people said for hte tiem that you spend in the hotel you don't need to go above board on it, unless you're in thailand where I've heard 5 star hotels are like 50euro a night  lol... spend the money on experiences, fancy food, a bottle of bubbly with every dinner, cos **** it its your honeymoon! thats the stuff you will remember! As long as the room I'm staying in is clean and has a bed I'm happy out!

Hermia

Thanks guys, you've put it into perspective for me!

dudara

We stayed at the Palazzo Murat during the summer in Positano and it was gorgeous. We only did two nights though, and did the rest of the time in cheaper hotels.

I'd probably recommend setting an overall budget and seeing what you can get for it. There are some really luxurious all-inclusive resorts in places like Mexico and Thailand, that are postcard perfect, and are actually reasonably priced.

Faith

StupidLikeAFox wrote: »

I would save the money and try get an extra few days, more experiences or maybe a michelin star restaurant - in years to come you won't care what the hotel was like but you will remember the stuff you did

That depends - we stayed in a really high-end, all-inclusive 5* resort and I think we'll be talking about it until the end of our days. That being said, a big attraction for us was the variety of food and restaurants in the hotel, so we never got bored.

Jude13

If you recently won that 11 million in the lotta grand but we generally only stay in really swanky places if the swanky place in itself is the destination. Think Maldives on a little atoll where the only thing to see is your room or on its doorstep so you'll be spending allot of time using it.

However your destination is a exploring type, nice good clean hotel, you'll probably only be sleeping there. So get a nice one but dont feel the need to go mad.

Hope you have a great time.

fits

You can mix it up. We did a week in a super swanky spot, ten days budget backpacking and finished off with a swanky spot for two nights. Booked everything direct ourselves.

SarahMollie

We're at the same stage as yourself OP, but trying to figure out exactly what we want to do and figuring out costings etc.

I've no objections to spending a small fortune, I think I'm comfortable enough with anything up to €10k for the 2 of us - but that is a budget and not a target! I was to do something adventurous so I'm not particular about things being 5* all the way, but where our money will go will be moving around and getting to far flung places (Patagonia is being mentioned!).

When I price up everything we want, if it comes to maybe €7k, I won't be looking for ways to spend the other €3k if that makes sense?

baby and crumble

fits wrote: »

You can mix it up. We did a week in a super swanky spot, ten days budget backpacking and finished off with a swanky spot for two nights. Booked everything direct ourselves.

We're planning something similar. At the moment its a week on a nordic cruise (we will splash out on the cabin upgrade, I'm fecked if I'm not getting an outside cabin on a cruise specifically designed for hunting the Northern Lights!), then a few days on trains checking out Christmas markets and then a few days in Paris, possibly splashing out on a room in the main Eurodisney hotel if we can manage it.

The cruise is something I WILL spend the money on because we'll never do it again and tbh you're on the boat for a week. We will spend time in the cabin and you want to be comfortable.

But the markets bit will be hostels all the way, the hostels in Europe are fab for the price, you wouldn't get a dorm bed here for the price of a double private en-suite hostel in Germany!

mcgiggles

That sounds awesome babyandcrumble! We were thinking of doing the whole glass igloo thing in Norway for 2 nights maybe and catch the northern lights and get a bit of snow activities in, then fly down somewhere hot to thaw out  (our honeymoon will be Jan2018)

Sarah1916

I actually just priced a 3 week holiday to Sri Lanka and Dubai today for 3650 for b&b for 3 weeks.
Emirates have cheap flights going so only 680 each and then in Sri Lanka we will travel around a bit but mainly 5 star hotels. The most expensive is 110 a night. Getting a good deal in Dubai as well, only about 150 a night for b&b.

Stay away from travel agents. I asked them to price a similar holiday for me and they came back at almost 7k! and that was on the same flights as well!!

Hermia

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions!
I was interrailing years ago and know how easy it is to get around Italy so defo thinking of having a week of cheaper hotels and exploring and then a week of somewhere along the coast to relax. Now to decide whether we go all out in a 5 star for a couple of days or choose somewhere a little less swanky for the whole week.
We will have saved our wedding budget so the honeymoon is gonna be funded by gifts we receive at the wedding so I think himself is just finding it hard to budget with money we don't actually have! It's hard to envision!

Hermia

Loveinapril wrote:

Will you take me with you? Depending on your budget, of course!

Into the suitcase you go! Personal tour guide! Sounds fab, will have a look all round Tuscany!

Gatica

A quarter of our spend went on the honeymoon. We did a month in SE Asia. Most of it was on flights and a few days in a luxury beach resort at the end. The rest of the time was decent hotels, but not 5 star, and mostly tours, walks and junk boat cruise.