So many of My Vacation Lady‘s honeymooners tell us that with the stress of planning the wedding, they are even more excited to go on their honeymoons and we hear this regardless of whether they are taking an exotic honeymoon or one closer to home.

So what are some tips when trying to figure out where you should go for your honeymoon?

There are 2 questions that you need to address first:

  1. How much time do you have for your honeymoon?
  2. How much are you comfortable spending on your honeymoon?

If you only have a week or less, you need to consider the travel time to get to your honeymoon destination.  If you live in an area or are dreaming of a honeymoon in a place where there are only connecting flights, you need to consider the length of the flights to see if it is even realistic to go there.

For an example:  You live on the East Coast and are dreaming of a honeymoon to Fiji.  You have only 1 week of vacation time left and can’t afford to take any more time.

Let’s consider the flights:

  • You must get to Los Angeles to fly to Fiji.  So IF you can fly out on Sunday afternoon and get to LAX in the early evening, you can catch the late evening flight to Fiji on Sunday.
  • You will arrive in Fiji on Tuesday morning.  YES, you are crossing the international date line so you are losing a day going out.  map-of-fiji
  • If you opt for a resort on the main island of Viti Levu or one of the island resorts that you can take a ferry to (like the Mamanuca or Yasawa Islands), you can be at your resort in time for a late lunch on Tuesday.
  • If you decide to stay at a resort in Vanua Levu or Tavenui or the northern islands, you need to take another flight and then a ferry, bus, or car to the resort.
  • On the return, if you leave Fiji on Sunday evening, you’ll return to LAX on Sunday morning.  YES you gain the day back coming home but you still need to get a flight back to your home airport and with the time change, it might be late Sunday evening or early Monday morning.

You need to think about whether you want to only spend 6 days/5 nights in Fiji for your dream honeymoon—- and then there is the budget to consider.

Airfare from the NY metro region to LAX can run anywhere from $300-600+ per person round trip and then the flights from LAX to Fiji are about $1000-1400 per person (on average) so you can be looking at $3000 in airfare before your feet touch the sand.

If you only have 1 week for your honeymoon is you go right after the wedding, it might make sense to go somewhere closer to home

So let’s look at a destination closer to home but still a great honeymoon destination—- like the Caribbean or Mexico.

Look for destinations which offer non stop or short flights.

You can go from the NY metro region to

  • Cancun/Riviera Maya
  • St Lucia, Antigua
  • Barbados
  • the Dominican Republic
  • Turks and Caicos
  • St Maarten and Anguilla
  • St Thomas/St John,
  • Puerto Rico
  • Aruba
  • Jamaica
  • Grand Cayman

and other islands or destinations in less than 5 or so, if you can get a nonstop flight.

The beach at Hermitage Bay, Antigua

Airfare will usually be a good deal less than a flight to Fiji, as well.  Some resorts have wonderful all inclusive packages that will help on the budget as well by including your meals and beverages.

Who says you can’t get to Fiji next year, for your 1 year anniversary?

My Vacation Lady has been working with honeymoon couples plan their dream honeymoon since 1994.  We can help guide you to destinations that will fit your dreams, budget and time frame.  We won’t be the first to tell you that your honeymoon should be special but, as the top rated honeymoon specialist located in New Jersey according to the couples on Wedding Wire and the Knot, we the best honeymoon specialists to help make your honeymoon special.