My fiancee and I are getting married in June and it’s up to me to get the honeymoon arranged.
We know we want to go to the Caribbean, but we don’t want to go on a cruise. We’d like to find something other than a Sandals resort area. We’d like to stay a week and we have a budget of $3,000.
I’ve never arranged a vacation like this (my experience is pretty much limited to road trips to New Orleans and Florida), and I’d like to get some advice.
My questions:
Should I go through a travel agent or not? If so, who are some good travel agents in the Philadelphia area who would customize my honeymoon.
Should I book my vacation online? If so, what are some good web sites for this purpose?
Any advice would help.
“I never lie, but I don’t always say what I’m thinking.”
I would advise you to ask friends/family for recommendations of travel agents and use one.
My husband arranged our London honeymoon through the web and we ended up at an awful hotel which was nothing like the web site (turns out we booked at a 10-room, bathroom-down-the-hall Dolphin Hotel when we thought we were booking at the really nice, riverside Dolphin SQUARE hotel). So we spent our first day wandering around the city looking for a nicer hotel (eventually ended up spending a great week in a beautiful place called the Grosvenor House).
In a similar vein, I booked an NYC weekend over the web and learned that the room they show on the web site is WAY NICER than the room they actually give you. My brothers and I also sent our parents on a random Carribean cruise we’d spotted (without checking it out with a travel agent) and they ended up having a terrible experience.
So… I would suggest that unless you plan to go with a chain hotel (Westin, etc.), that you find a travel agent who knows something about your destination and can set you up with beautiful accomodations. Some travel agents will even arrange for special honeymoon treatment while you’re there – champagne, flowers, reservations for special tables at restaurants, etc.
In the future, I plan to use a travel agent anytime we’re going someplace new and save the web bookings for repeat visits to places we’ve been.
We need to know a little more about your interests and budget to give you a real answer. I’m no expert, but I’ve gone to the Caribbean a few times in recent years. The two best trips were to St. Thomas/St. John and Jamaica. St. Thomas is nice, because you get the benefit of a somewhat developed island, which means a variety of good restaurants and things to do at night, as well a shopping if that is something that you find important, but you also have St. John a short ferry ride away, which is very undeveloped. Also, you aren’t tied down to an all-inclusive resort like you are in Jamaica. (Unfortunately, most people find that exploring on your own in Jamaica is an unpleasant experience, because you are constantly solicited, and there are safety issues in many areas. This is less of a concern in St. Thomas/St John. Of course, much of the soliciting in Jamaica is people selling the local home-grown product, which may be a plus for you, depending on your interests.)
I always tried to avoid all-inclusives, because I like the freedom to explore on my own. That said, I just returned from a short trip to Jamaica, which we had an amazing time. I highly recommend where we stayed, the Grand Lido Sans Souci near Ocho Rios. Amazing food, amenities and staff. It would be great for honeymooners, because there are lots of private areas where you can be left alone as well as various activities when you want to socialize. In general, Jamaica is the least expensive island, which means you can stay a better resort than you could in The Virgins or St. Lucia with the same money.
Other islands have different advantages, such as gambling or better diving, if those are something that interest you.
Remember, though, you are going at a hot time of the year, you may want to consider staying further north. If so, Key West might be a good call.
Buy all the guidebooks you can find for your destination. I’ve done that in the past, and although having several was somewhat redundant, each had at least a few tidbits that the others, didn’t. If you’re going to spend $3k on the vacation, it’s worth buying several guidebooks. One trick is to just rip out the sections that pertain to where you’re going (for example, if you have a Carribean book, just rip out the section on St. Thomas if that’s where you’re going). This keeps you from having to lug around several books during the trip.
Also, as others have said, a travel agent is very useful.