What are your honeymoon plans?

By Julie Ndagire

Too often, a honeymoon takes a backseat to all the wedding planning. But shouldn’t you give it just a little more attention? After all, the wedding is for your family and friends, but the honeymoon is just for you. It is a time to relax and reflect, but most of all, enjoy each other. Here are the basic things you need to know.

Decide on honeymoon budget.
You may have already decided this when planning your wedding budget. If not, sit down and do this before you decide anything else. Figure out if you have frequent flier miles or hotels miles that can be used towards your trip. Consider putting all of the wedding expenses on a credit card that earns frequent flier miles for your honeymoon. (Be sure to pay it off every month – you don’t want to start a new marriage with a ton of new debt.)

Decide when to go and for how long
First, figure out how many vacation days you have accrued and how many of them you will need before the wedding for last minute planning. (it is common for brides and grooms to take a couple of days off.)
Do you want to leave the morning after your wedding? Or do you want to go on honeymoon sometime after the wedding to unwind and pack when you’ll be more focused on it, and take your honeymoon a few days or even a few weeks later?
Another option, for those whp don’t have a lot of vacation days, is to take a weekend “mini moon” after the wedding and then take a long second honeymoon on your first anniversary.

Decide where to go on you honeymoon
Each of you should take a few minutes to separately write down what you envision doing on your honeymoon. Do you want somewhere warm or Cold? Do you want to go some place far away and new, or someplace close to home? Do you want a resort where there will be other honeymooners to socialize with, or someplace secluded where it will be just be the two of you? Do you want to be in a city with museum, restaurants and night life or, do you want there to be lots of athletic activities available? Perhaps you’ll just want to spend a lot of time in the room! Once each of you has your list, compare. Where there are differences, see if there’s one place that might have the best or both worlds.

Consider visiting a travel agent
While most people are booking travel online these days, a travel agent can be extremely helpful when planning a honeymoon. Not only will he or she have ideas about places you might not have thought of but they will be familiar with those details like “do you need a visa?” and when the rainy season is. They might also have special packages or deals to pass onto you.

Learn more about where you are going
It is never too early to get excited. As soon as you have picked a spot, buy a travel book, so you can read about all there is to and see.

Arrange for passports and Visas, if necessary
Make sure your driver’s licence is up to date.
These pesky little details can take time and therefore are on of the first things you should do, once you know where you are going. I will never forget the trip where I got to the counter of the rental car agency only to be told that my driver’s licence had expired only days before. Luckily the person I was with could rent the car, but I would have been better off with a little forethought.