Honeymoon budget?

[BingBot]

I was wondering, how do you figure out your honeymoon budget? FH and I would love to go away for a week to Florida, but I'm not sure if it's possible. I hope we can at least go for a few days. How do you figure out all the costs and stick to a budget? There is food, airfare, hotel stay, activities, etc. We don't travel much so I don't have a clue. Any help is appreciated!

[Jacklynn]

Well we drove (17 hours... it was a last min. honeymoon change) to Clearwater Beach, Fl. We loved it. It was great. Including everything, gas, good, hotel we only spent:

$900 - hotel
$300 - Gas
And food varies, we spent probably only like $400 total on food, we had a fridge in our hotel room.

[firespirit]

We travel a lot and we think of ourselves as budget (low cost) travelers. We tend to stay at Best Westerns because we have run into very few where we have had problems. If you are feeling adventurous you could do what the Europeans do and stay at a hostel http://www.hostels.com/en/us.html. Another option that can be romantic and most of the time reasonable prices is bed and breakfasts http://www.bbonline.com/usa.html. For airfare, look for sales http://www.farecompare.com is a good site and if you sign up for the newsletter you get weekly emails with tips. Don't forget when searching to check southwest.com since their fares are only on their site and don't show up on orbitz and stuff.

Air fare is the biggest pain since you either have to gamble or hit some luck. Most hotels you can cancel at the last minute if you can find a better deal. I'm hoping the Bed and Breakfasts we are staying at for our honeymoon might know the best deals on local activities, but I'm looking some of them up now to get an idea of what we will be paying. It's a lot of internet browsing. Food costs pretty much about the same in most major cities at chains. The midwest is probably the cheapest, but we could still get a good breakfast on "the strand" in california for less than $10 a person. Since you are looking at a longer trip, you might consider eating in, buying sandwich supplies at a grocery store.

[val24]

depends on where you go....

sometimes the all-inclusive is a good option.

you can eat cereal at the hotel. or eat a big lunch and light dinner since dinners are usually more expensive. eat sandwhiches for dinner.

look for deals on the internet or the newspaper (i always check the sunday paper for deals)

i hate paying lots of money for a hotel room. seriously all i do is shower, sleep (and sex) but that is it.
we stay at cheap places when traveling by car. but when we went to cancun we did the all inclusive and it was pretty cheap and included everything.

[frenchie]

I think it all depends. If you have your own home, and live in a nice place, you can "trade vacations" with someone. I have friends who do this - a couple in the Alps loans them their home, while they stay in their beach house. It's a win-win - and cheap. You can find people through your church or by asking friends.