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Travel Question
DH and I never got to go on a honeymoon, for several reasons. We've recently been looking into going on an anniversary "honeymoon," but neither of us has ever set up a trip. We've found some good, in our opinion, prices on some all inclusive places in Riviera Maya and Cancun via orbitz and price line, but don't really know how to go about booking the trip/flights.
We don't have the money to pay the whole trip off right away; we'd be pretty broke if we did. When any of you ladies have gone on trips or your honeymoon, did you go through a travel agent? Did you throw it on your credit card and pay it off a little at a time? How do I go about booking this trip? We have a feeling that if we don't book it and go now, we're never going to go on our "honeymoon."
Re: Travel Question
So you have a couple of options....
If you like the deal on a site like Travelocity, priceline, expedia, orbitz etc... You have to pay all at once upfront.
If you just call an airline, you pay for the whole flight upfront.
If you call and book a hotel or AI through the resort itself you will most likely just give a CC # and they will hold your room to pay on arrival.
My experience with Travel agents is limited but the one time I went through one we had to give a deposit I think 30% and then make 2 more payments with the final one 1 month before we left.
I would suggest looking at online sites finding good deals, then calling the airlines and hotels. Most hotels will match that rate and some airlines will.
HAVE FUN!!!!!!! Keep us posted on what you book!
Lindsey has some good advice there. (see above)
In general, DH and I always charge the bulk of our vacays on a CC, and take some cash, but not too much, especially for foreign travel cuz the exchange rate isn't so hot for Americans.
We always pay the balance off in full every month anyways. We'll be going to Italy next month tho, and the odds of paying THAT amount off in full at one time is unlikely, even with our fortunate income. It will be paid off probably in two installments, and we won't be beating ourselves up over it, because the trip is well worth the cost!
I think if you are responsible with your finances, and are aware of how imperative it is to pay off your credit cards in full every billing cycle (or give yourselves a couple of them, max) there is no reason why you shouldn't take your honeymoon already, and enjoy yourselves!
Just don't charge more then you can afford to cover on next month's bill. Or if that is inevitable, be sure you set up a pay plan to finish paying off the balance before the cut off for the next cycle. You can make weekly payments during the month before the bill is due, after you pay an initial large chunk, if that makes sense. That's actually quite a long time to pay if off before interest accumulates!
You might ask the MM girls too, they are often wise with credit card questions. I've only lurked tho.
I didn't read the other responses yet, so I'm sorry if this is redundant.
I'd really think about booking a trip through the resorts themselves. Whenever DH and I go on trips, we book through the resort because we get special deals and sometimes there is a 'resort card' that gets you access to certain amenities we would otherwise have to pay for per use. Booking through a travel site, we wouldn't have gotten the resort card. Hope that makes sense.
As for a travel agent, only go that route if you really have to. Lots of my friends use travel agents for Spring Break trips and there are lots of fees since the person is providing a service. You would pay a certain percentage up front and you would have to pay the outstanding balance by trip time.
We stayed at a resort for our HHI honeymoon and DH had to pay a deposit to book our suite. He used a credit card we designated we were going to use for everything on the trip.
Do the creep.
If you want to go to the Caribbean or Mexico I strongly suggest cheapcaribbean.com That is where we booked our all inclusive honeymoon to Puerto Vallarta in August.
What I like about the site is that you can book everything in one place: hotel, flight, excusions, airport transfers, etc. Plus they do a pay some now, and the rest later option. We did that because like you, were not ready to pay the whole thing right away - and then we could save to pay for the rest.
For our honeymoon we stayed 7days - 6 nights at an adult only all inclusive resort, did two day excursions, included airfare and hotel transfers for under $1900 for the both of us. Which I think is a pretty good deal!!
Do the creep.
Try travelzoo.com, lot's of good deals there and cheapcaribbean.com. In my experience, TA's seem to be more expensive than if you book through a site. DH and I booked our Hotel on priceline.com when we went to Aruba in November and got a pretty good deal. I think you can absolutely have a great Honeymoon for under $2000. Good luck!