Saving money on your Honeymoon

Honeymoon Cost-cutting advice

Choosing a honeymoon package at one of the many exotic honeymoon destinations such as Hong Kong, Thailand, and the Maldives will not be for all of us. Reasons can include a phobia of creepy crawlies infesting where you are going to be staying or the cash drain inflicted by your wedding ceremony, which may encourage you to decide to create your own bespoke package and save a little money in the process. For those of you who choose this route below are a few tips to assist you:

Getting the best deal on cheap airline tickets is hard online. You will find a cheap deal at Expedia or Travelocity, only to check out the less-well known Cheap Flights.com and find cheaper plane tickets at albeit a month later. If you are not familiar with the way online airline ticket sales work across all types of airlines this statement may come as a bit of a shock.

Online travel agencies tend to have fewer costs and can make profit with lower margins, due to the lower number of workers they hire and in most cases the lack of need for prime real estate (the website acts as a shop window). This means that traditional ticket agents, whom you tend to find still on the high street, struggle to keep up. Also online travel agencies acquire tickets in bulk and sell the tickets online for a margin thereby passing the saving onto you. You should not assume that because of the benefits the online agents have that you will always be able to get the best deal from them. In some instances this is not necessarily the case.

You should always try to consult at least three sites that can compare travel deals for you. For ideas on destinations if you haven’t made definitive plans Expedia are a thorough travel site that offer many ideas and tips on popular and niche holidays. Dialaflight.com are a good option for flights to the USA and back again from Britain or Europe with destinations serviced including Florida, Canada and flights to New York.

Contemplate going direct through one of the better budget operators such as Flymonarch. For shorter European flights such as most European destinations, these flights are a great option. FlyMonarch offer cheap flights to a range of popular honeymoon destinations including Cyprus and Spain.

If you observe the following basic advice to keep the airline ticket charges to a minimum:

• Try booking midweek flights which take place on Monday afternoons, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, or else flights scheduled for Saturday afternoons - with lower demand and seats to fill you may well find less expensive flights at these times.
• Don’t insist on flying direct on long haul journeys - you will likely save money if you are prepared to stopover.
• Calculate the cost of travelling to and from any secondary airports - most major cities (in Europe at least) will have a main and secondary airport. Flying into the secondary airport can be cheaper. However you must also work out what it will cost to travel from the airport to your destination as you will be at a loss if the total journey adds up to more than flying directly into and travelling on from the main airport.
• Last Minute Flights - flights booked at the last minute on charter airlines (not low cost airlines!) can often be much cheaper as the charter company struggles to fill the last empty seats on the flight: if you are really fortunate, you can grab a bargain.

The last important thing to do is to book your hotel (unless you have a luxury villa to stay in courtesy of a friend!). Many sites that you look at will get their data from a select (i.e. small) set of data sources. A big mistake made by many people is that they have shopped around and found that the prices are similar and therefore there is not much variation from hotel to hotel.

A way around being duped into following the market is to use less well-known comparison sites, such as Travel XL, or to use localised hotel finders i.e. if travelling to Athens you can use a site called Athens Hotels to look for hotels in the area. From comparison sites you can always contact the hotels directly and try to get an even better deal.

The final piece in the puzzle is travel insurance, but do try and avoid getting it from the travel agent or website and try to shop around for the best deal. The fluctuation in prices for travel insurance can be a real eye opener. Buy your travel insurance directly from Go Travel Insurance, AA Travel Insurance or the Post Office for the best deals.