Booking Your Honeymoon: How did you do it?

[FlatironGuy]

I''m in the middle of booking my honeymoon (yet to figure out where) and I was just curious, how have most of you booked it, did you call the hotel/resort itself, booked it on their own website, or used Expedia, Travelocity, Hotels.com, BookIt.com, etc.? What''s the best way to go about it? Should I be concerned if a travel site offers the same deals for quite a bit less?

 

[Gypsy]

I would book it through a VERY reputable site with outstanding customer service and a 24 hour eight hundred number.

Personally, if AT ALL possible. I call up resorts, hotels, etc. directly and ask them to price match and book through them. I have had bad experiences with hotels and resorts not honoring the spirit, but only the letter, of reservations plans because they were made through consolidation sites instead of directly. In my personal experience I''ve had the best customer service and responsiveness when I''ve booked directly with someplace.

 

[FlatironGuy]

Date: 3/16/2008 9:53:28 PM
Author: Gypsy
I would book it through a VERY reputable site with outstanding customer service and a 24 hour eight hundred number.

Personally, if AT ALL possible. I call up resorts, hotels, etc. directly and ask them to price match and book through them. I have had bad experiences with hotels and resorts not honoring the spirit, but only the letter, of reservations plans because they were made through consolidation sites instead of directly. In my personal experience I''ve had the best customer service and responsiveness when I''ve booked directly with someplace.

I can see out-of-the-country resorts not honoring deals that are made through Expeida, Travelocity, etc. but I doubt that''s a big problem within the U.S. What about a reptable site like FunJet Vacations?

 

[Gypsy]

Actually, I''ve had problems in the US. In NY and in DE. That''s why we book direct whenever we can.

I''ve never heard of that site though, maybe other''s will chime in.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

We went through a travel agent. Originally I only went to the travel agent because she personally knew many of the destinations we were considering and I thought her insight would be really helpful (it was), but then I realized that the travel agency''s prices were about 15% better than any prices I could find online. She was fantastic about making sure our flights were perfect without too much down time, she gave us several free honeymoon upgrades we wouldn''t have been able to get on our own and she did all of the legwork, so literally all I had to do was drop by and pick up the package she''d put together for us. I used to think that all the best deals were through the major online companies, but after booking our honeymoon I''ll definitely be going back to the travel agent.

 

[FlatironGuy]

Date: 3/16/2008 10:32:39 PM
Author: NewEnglandLady
We went through a travel agent. Originally I only went to the travel agent because she personally knew many of the destinations we were considering and I thought her insight would be really helpful (it was), but then I realized that the travel agency''s prices were about 15% better than any prices I could find online. She was fantastic about making sure our flights were perfect without too much down time, she gave us several free honeymoon upgrades we wouldn''t have been able to get on our own and she did all of the legwork, so literally all I had to do was drop by and pick up the package she''d put together for us. I used to think that all the best deals were through the major online companies, but after booking our honeymoon I''ll definitely be going back to the travel agent.

Wow, that''s great to hear! I''ll have to see what some of the local travel agencies can do for me, including any possible wedding upgrades!

 

[julabean]

We''re going to Costa Rica for our honeymoon, using Marriott points provided to us by my FI''s parents. So, in our case, my FMIL made our hotel reservations, I did the flight reservations, and will take of everything else.

If you''re not much of a seasoned traveler, I would recommend going through a travel agent. Yes, it may be more expensive than some of the "deals" you find online, but if you''re not really sure what you''re looking for online, then a travel agent is the way to go. THEY know what they''re booking. Pictures through expedia or travelocity or any other site are always kind of a risk. If you''ve never been to Europe or are planning your first trip to Europe, I''d go through a travel agent. If you''re planning a week long stay at a resort somewhere tropical, then sites like Expedia and Travelocity might have better deals than through an agent, but I''d spend some quality time googling the name of the hotel you''re looking at with "reviews" on the end to see what you can find. Don''t just go off of what tripadvisor.com says.

I''ve also heard you can get better deals on cruises through an agent, too. Honestly, having a real person that you have sat down and talked with at the other end of the phone is much more satisfying than a 1-800 number.

 

[FlatironGuy]

Date: 3/16/2008 11:36:50 PM
Author: julabean
We''re going to Costa Rica for our honeymoon, using Marriott points provided to us by my FI''s parents. So, in our case, my FMIL made our hotel reservations, I did the flight reservations, and will take of everything else.

If you''re not much of a seasoned traveler, I would recommend going through a travel agent. Yes, it may be more expensive than some of the ''deals'' you find online, but if you''re not really sure what you''re looking for online, then a travel agent is the way to go. THEY know what they''re booking. Pictures through expedia or travelocity or any other site are always kind of a risk. If you''ve never been to Europe or are planning your first trip to Europe, I''d go through a travel agent. If you''re planning a week long stay at a resort somewhere tropical, then sites like Expedia and Travelocity might have better deals than through an agent, but I''d spend some quality time googling the name of the hotel you''re looking at with ''reviews'' on the end to see what you can find. Don''t just go off of what tripadvisor.com says.

I''ve also heard you can get better deals on cruises through an agent, too. Honestly, having a real person that you have sat down and talked with at the other end of the phone is much more satisfying than a 1-800 number.

julabean,

Thanks for chiming in. I''ve actually narrowed it down pretty good, so I know what I''m looking for. With that said, I thought a travel agent might be able to get me a better deal then what I could find online. If you''re telling me otherwise, that''s too bad. I guess I''ll find out either way this week when I call around. Cruises might be out of the question.

 

[bee*]

We''re going to Costa Rica for our honeymoon also and we''re going to book directly with the different hotels and tours ourselves. I hate going through agents and enjoy booking and researching myself.

 

[Courtneylub]

We booked through American Express using our rewards points to redeem some of the cost. They booked our flight and one of the hotels. Since we are staying at 2 different resorts on our honeymoon, the other place wasn''t in Amex''s directory. They did, however, call and book that for us separately. Amex uses Expedia''s services I believe. If I went to Expedia.com, the flight and resort options would be identical.

 

[zoebartlett]

You''re looking for some place tropical, right? I can''t speak about that but I''ll tell you what we did. Originally we were planning on going to Portugal and we were going to book through a travel agent that I know. It was taking more time than I had hoped to get information, prices, etc., so I started looking at flights on my own. The prices to Europe were much higher than we were hoping (and we knew they''d be high), so we went to Plan B.

We ended up canceling our plans (nothing had been booked and we hadn''t paid for anything yet) and began looking for a new destination. We wanted to go some place a little cheaper but somewhere really nice also. We ended up calling hotels in Quebec City, after reading several reviews and the QC forum on Trip Advisor. We''re driving to QC, so we''ll save a lot of money on the trip.

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

we booked our cruise and pre-cruise hotel through our local travel agent. we went in today to book the air and the travel agent told us due to recent skyrocketing prices that we would be better off booking online. his prices at best were 550rtpp and we were able to book online for 395rtpp, i def appreciated his honesty!

 

[Fancy605]

We handled everything on our own, and actually did a good bit better than the travel agency we''ve looked at said their best deal was.

I called the resort myself rather than booking on line, and I am so glad we did because we ended up getting a better rate than was advertised as available. The hotel management was very nice.

We also handled plane tickets ourselves, but we were using sky miles to book those, so we had to do that ourselves as far as I know.

 

[FlatironGuy]

Thanks everyone for chiming in with your experiences. After hearing reading through all your posts, I''ve chosen to just call and deal with the resort directly. This way I''ll know the price, what sort of room we''re getting (with no hidden surprises), and I''ll be able to talk to a wedding coordinator to figure out what our plan should be.

 

[Daydreamer7130]

Just curious.... where did you finally decide to go?

 

[FlatironGuy]

Date: 3/19/2008 1:14:59 AM
Author: Daydreamer7130
Just curious.... where did you finally decide to go?

In the end we decided the Excellence Riviera Cancun.