Your Honeymoon: Cost-Cutting Advice

Want to live large without the big bills? Your honeymoon should be a blissfully relaxing antidote to all the wedding planning mania, and it shouldn't have to break the budget. Here are some clever ways to save without settling for less.

-Airfare to your destination may be significantly cheaper if you travel to a less congested, smaller airport farther away from the city. For example, flights to Miami International are generally more expensive than those to neighboring Fort Lauderdale.

-Use an online consolidator, such as hoteldiscounts.com or hotels.com, to find reduced room rates. Or, bid on your travel needs at hotwire.com, priceline.com or ebay.com/travel. The site's new "seller verify" system guarantees that only legitimate travel vendors put vacation packages on the auction block.

-Book a guest room in an inexpensive, no-frills hotel, then pay a nominal non-guest fee (usually about $25)at a resort to use the swimming pool, spa and fitness center.

-If you need to call locally to make restaurant or theater reservations, ask the hotel concierge to do it for you. You'll save yourselves those expensive hotel surcharges for outgoing calls, which can add up quickly.

-Consider staying somewhere with a full kitchen. You can save money by preparing some of your own meals-especially breakfast, which can be expensive to eat out. Instead of dropping big bucks on the hotel's $30 breakfaast buffet, pick up some local treats, such as bagels if you're in New York City, baguettes in Paris or sourdough bread in San Francisco, toast them in your room and eat them with some locally gorwn fruit that you can pick up at the neighborhood market.

-if you're going to be traveling around a city by bus or subway, look into special all-day ore weekend transit passes. In New York City, for example, a one-day Fun Pass offers unlimited bus and train trips for $7, while a signle ride costs $2.

-Before you go, request a packet of travel information from your destination's tourism board. You'll receive suggestions for walking tours, coupons, calendars and, best of all, free maps.

-When you arrive at your destination, pick up a free newspaper and check the listings for free events. For example, many museums waive admission once a week. Or, perhaps there's a night when the galleries are open late; often, a museum serves cocktails and hosts live music, and it's a wonderful, inexpensive evening.

-Set up a registry for your honeymoon at honeyluna.com, globalphilosophytravel.com or the thehoneymoon.com. Once you've planned your vacation, friends and family can purchase meals and activities, such as spa treatments, hiking excursions and Jet Ski rentals, as wedding gifts. The sites provide registry cards that can be tucked into shower invitations and, best of all, you can enjoy your adventures without guilt.

(From Bridal Guide magazine:
http://www.bridalguide.com/honeymoon-travel/article.cfm?aID=1022)