I chatted with a good friend of mine earlier this week about her upcoming honeymoon in Italy and Spain. Since she and her fiancé are still finalizing the details of their wedding, her mom suggested that they contact a travel agent who specializes in Italian travel to help with the honeymoon planning, so they did.

The problem is that my friend wasn’t blown away by the agent’s suggestions thus far, and now she isn’t sure if working with an agent was the right decision. Another related issue that they’re having is that my friend and her fiancé really like the idea of planning their own honeymoon, and it’s hard to put that responsibility into a stranger’s hands. She wanted to know what I thought they should do: continue working with the travel agent, or just plan things on their own.

A lot of people think that travel agents are obsolete these days, but I don’t necessarily agree, especially for those who are stressed out with simultaneously planning other major events (SUCH AS WEDDINGS). However, hiring a professional is not the right decision for everyone. I’ve already blogged about why I think that working with a travel agent can be a smart move for certain couples, but here are some additional tips for those of you who do decide you want to hire one:

• Try to find a travel agent who specifically plans honeymoons for people in your age group. Agents oftentimes get the majority of their business from older folks and retirees (whose interests are much different than young newlyweds), so you’ll be happier if you work with someone who will understand your priorities.
• Tell the travel agent as much as you can about the honeymoon you’re envisioning, and be as specific as possible. This includes  your preferences for your accommodations, activities you’re interested in, and especially your budgetary restrictions. You can also let them know how much of your trip you actually want planned.*
• If you’ve been referred by a friend, let the agent know that, but also make sure to explain if you and your friend have different tastes or budgets.**
• Unhappy with the first itinerary that your agent shows you? Speak up! You’re paying them to plan the best trip possible for you, and they should revise your itinerary accordingly (multiple times, if necessary). Do not feel obligated to accept a cookie-cutter trip that doesn’t seem personalized to your interests.
• Using your travel agent’s itinerary is not an all-or-nothing proposition. For example, our agent’s original itinerary included our flights to/from Asia, but we found a much better deal on kayak.com, so we told her we’d just book those flights ourselves.
• Still unhappy after lots of revisions to the itinerary? It’s okay to say “thanks but no thanks,” and just lose your deposit. In the long run, you’ll be happier that you lost a couple hundred bucks but your honeymoon was awesome.

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This week’s real honeymooners planned most of their trip just two weeks before they flew to Italy.   That’s right.  Two weeks before they flew to Italy.  If planning a honeymoon at the last minute makes you feel like you’re about to have a panic attack, you’re certainly not alone.  While I don’t like to think of myself as an obsessive-compulsive planner, I do like to make the most out of my trips, and I certainly wanted to make sure that a trip as important as my honeymoon was well thought out.

Every honeymoon requires different types and amounts of planning, but Real Simple published a generic Honeymoon Planning Checklist that’s a good place to start.   Check out that link for their full details, but below is an annotated version of their tips with my (hopefully brilliant insightful) commentary in blue:

Eight Months to One Year Before:

• Make [Think about] your budget.
• Decide [Consider] whether to use a travel agent.
• Decide [Brainstorm options] for where to go.
• [If you already know where you want to go…] Buy plane tickets & book hotel.  The sooner you can book, the better.

Six Months Before:

• Do any of the above if you haven’t already [but don’t freak out if you still haven’t made any major decisions!  Six months is still a lot of time to plan a honeymoon, I promise.]
• Schedule transportation (e.g. purchase any necessary train or ferry tickets, reserve a rental car, arrange for a driver to take you between airports and hotels, etc.) [If you go through a travel agent, ask him/her to make these arrangements for you.  If you decide to book them yourself though, making these plans six months before your honeymoon might be a bit too OCD, but whatever.]
• Make important dinner reservations.  [I do agree with this suggestion.  If your whole Parisian honeymoon must revolve around meals at Joël Robuchon or Le Jules Verne, so be it!  Book your tables ASAP.]
• Get or renew your passport.  [YESSSSSSSS]
• Apply for visas or any other necessary travel documentation.  [YESSSSSSSS]
• Get travel insurance.  [I haven’t written on this topic yet, but yes, you should get travel insurance.]
• Get any necessary vaccinations.

Three Months Before:

• Okay, now’s the time for you to really make sure you have made decisions on the destination(s), booked your airfare and hotels, and made sure that your passport is up to date.
• Plan your activities.  [Planning activities three months in advance sounds WAY too excessive to me.  Most of the real honeymooners on this blog preferred to relax and play things by ear throughout their trips, so don’t sweat if you don’t have activities planned before you go, let alone three months in advance.]
• Make basic packing lists and figure out what major items (like luggage) you still need to buy.  [You can add these items to your gift registries, too, in the hopes that they will be purchased for you before the honeymoon.]

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Frequent fliers will often tell you that the first rule of traveling is to never check your luggage; however, that’s not always feasible when going on longer trips like honeymoons.  So when I need to check my bag, I always refer to the following checklist when packing my carry-on.  While some of the items on the list are certainly more crucial than others, you’ll always be glad to have them with you in case (god forbid!) an airline loses your checked luggage.

Carry-on bag packing checklist:

• Airline boarding passes
• Passport and visa(s)
• Wallet: driver’s license, credit card(s), ATM card, some cash, insurance cards.  (I take out all unnecessary cards before I travel to lighten my wallet and ensure that I don’t lose them on a trip when I’m certain I won’t be using them anyway.)
• Hotel confirmation docs (and directions, if necessary.)
• Medicine (in the original bottle) – prescriptions, allergy medication, sleeping pills (if taking a red-eye.)
• Contact lenses & glasses (I’m totally blind without them.)
• Sunglasses
• Toothbrush + 3 oz toothpaste in a plastic baggie
• Hair brush
• Digital camera
• Make-up “essentials” (i.e. just a small bag with the basics.)
• In-flight entertainment: headphones, iPhone, book(s), magazine(s), Kindle, iPad, laptop, etc.
• Light sweater or wrap
• Socks (if I plan to wear sandals on the flight.)
• Change of clothes (when flying from foggy SF to a tropical destination where I’ll want to change out of long pants as soon as I land.)
• Electronics chargers (iPhone, camera, Kindle, laptop, etc.)
• Electrical adapters (when flying to a foreign country.)
• Jewelry (I always try to leave the expensive stuff at home, but when I need to bring it with me I never leave it in a checked bag.)
• Apartment & car keys.  (You don’t want to lose those either!)

Am I missing any important items?  Let me know if there’s anything else you always take with you in your carry-on.

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Earlier this week I wrote about the new honeymoon vocabulary and I thought to myself, since Jetsetter got to to make up some of their own honeymoon labels, why can’t I?  So ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the <<drum roll>> MULTI-MOON!

That’s right, the multi-moon.  I just made up the term, so I better offer a definition.  A multi-moon is a honeymoon that involves destinations in more than one country.  It seems to be a pretty popular option as there there have been many multi-moon combinations on this blog already, including honeymoons in Greece & Turkey, France & Italy, and my own honeymoon in Bali & Vietnam.

Destination #1: Ubud, Bali

Destination #3: Hoi An, Vietnam

While I myself am a big fan of multi-moons*, I completely understand that they are not for everyone.  That’s why I created the following list of multi-moon pros and cons:

Pros:

• What’s marriage all about?  Compromise!  Let’s say your ideal vacation is doing nothing on the beach while your spouse prefers active sightseeing.  There are some destinations out there that will allow you to do both (I foresee a blog post on this topic in your near future…), but you can also just choose to visit two or more destinations instead.
• Even if you and your spouse do have the same vacation style, you may have a difficult time finding a destination that satisfies all of your requests.  For example, I really wanted to visit Bali but we hadn’t heard spectacular things about the food there, which was a big deal for us.  Vietnam on the other hand is known for its cuisine, so Bali PLUS Vietnam was our solution.
• Going to more than one destination during your honeymoon gives you something to look forward to even when you’re midway through your trip.  Each time we arrived at a new resort, we got even more excited to see what was coming next.
• If you need to do a layover on the way to your final destination, you can consider turning the layover city into a destination in and of itself.  Check out this previous post about how to make the most of a layover.

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