How early should you be planning your honeymoon and what should you consider?

Many couples either plan their honeymoon together with their wedding, or put it off till a later date when they have more breathing space. But how late is too late?

Either way, a honeymoon trip with your honeybunny can still be a huge cost on top of your wedding. So how early should we start making the necessary preparations if (I'm assuming) we want our honeymoon to be cheap and good?

Depending on what kind of honeymoon you plan to have, preparations can last between several months to over a year. Here're some factors you should consider:

When you're going for your honeymoon

When do you plan to go for your honeymoon? Is it right after your wedding banquet? Or are you planning to go a few months after?

If it's right after your wedding, it's a given you need to book in advance lah. If it's going to be a while after your wedding, you can put off planning the honeymoon for a little longer.

In general, I would advise couples to go for their honeymoon a few months after the wedding celebrations. Besides giving yourselves time to breathe from all the hectic planning, going a few months after can also help you accumulate more air miles.

Charging your wedding expenses to credit cards such as Standard Chartered's Visa Infinite card and the Citi PremierMiles Visa card are great for accumulating air miles.

Already spending so much buy proposal ring, pay table etc, might as well maximise your spending benefits, right?

When to book your flight

According to Skyscanner's research, the best time to book flight tickets for the lowest prices would be 21 to 25 weeks prior to departure date. However, because prices usually do not rise sharply until a month before flights, you can still get a good price 4 to 8 weeks before departure.

Do note that while air miles can be used to off-set flight tickets, most air miles can only be used to redeem full-priced flight tickets.

Hence, although maximising your wedding costs for air miles is a clever idea, if you have no time to accumulate them, forget the air miles and just look out for budget promotions instead.

This is especially so if you're only travelling within the region, since you don't need that much frills travelling short-haul.

Budget carriers such as Jetstar, Scoot, and Tigerair usually have promotions every week for flights flying to cities in South-East Asia, Australia, and even as far away as Moscow, Russia.

Even if you're flying further to cities in the US or Europe, booking a stopover flight in Taipei or Moscow can help you save money.

Type of accommodation

Luxurious Instagram-worthy resorts, especially those that cater specifically to honeymooners such as the Kakslauttanen Resort, can be booked up to a year in advance.

And if you delay too long, you can forget about Airbnbs, atas castles, and popular budget hotels during peak seasons.

So, if you're really deadset on a place, of course book ASAP lah!

List down a few comparable hotels that you could stay in case your first-choice gets booked up before you can confirm your travel dates. For example, if Kakslauttanen were full, the Icehotel in Sweden makes a nice alternative stay for catching the romantic Northern Lights.

Otherwise, if you're just chin-chai planning to stay at a hotel with no particular preferences for your accommodation, you can afford to book later.

Even when rooms aren't available on third-party booking sites, travel and tour companies would still be able to get you a room due to their own business tie-ups with several hotels.

Be sure to check with the travel companies if you're a last-minute kancheong spider.

Honeymoon activities

It's general knowledge that activities and events are the first thing you consider before you decide on when your honeymoon is. Think of what types of activities you'll want to do once you reach your destination.

An artsy-fartsy couple may love bonding over free visits to the local museum, but another might enjoy schmoozing on paid seats at a football game instead.

Are you and your honey one of those derpy couples that share a mutual love for superheroes and Marvel comics? Or are you one of those couples that enjoy walking around taking in simple sights of skyscrapers and ancient ruins?

Activities such as mountain hikes usually require advanced booking of guides, while huge festivals such as Coachella, Fuji Rock, and Comic-Con International can be fully booked as early as a year before as soon as tickets are open for purchase.

 

There are really many factors to consider when it comes to planning as something as big as a honeymoon. With so many things that can go awry, it's best you do your homework as soon you've discussed your honeymoon plans with your dear.

After all, whether there's still time or not left for your honeymoon planning, it never hurts to be kiasu abit wat, airmirite?