Honeymoon help please.

Hadley1

Hi Everyone,

So excited as the OH has finally agreed to a honeymoon - yes he might have been pushed a tiny bit by SIL2B asking about it - as people have started to ask about wedding pressies for us (even though wedding not till August next year). We don't need any household thing etc.

Also, my dad sadly past away in April and left me some money. I wanted to do something worthwhile with it and paying for my honey mooon out of it would be wonderful.

So I have the beginnings of a cunning plan... I have always wanted to do a safari and OH has agreed. We would love to book something where people can pay towards the cost of the holiday rather than for specific things (if that makes sense) as that I think would give us more freedom.

Other than that I really don't know where to start...(told you it was going the beginning of a plan)... no idea where to go, when to go, how to arrnge for people to contribute as don't really want to ask people for money.

Apologises for my long post.. but essentially please help!!:)

jtr2803

Hiya,

I have a beach and Safari booked for my holiday in March next year so might be able to offer a bit of advice about planning/booking.

We are heading to Kenya, staying in a hotel called Turtle Bay Beach Club and then doing a three day and two night Safari in Tsavo East & West staying at the Kilaguni Serena and Ashnil Aruba. For the safari drives, guides and a private Safari Van we have paid £383 each. Word of warning - if you book through a UK agent you will be completely ripped off and unless you pay even more for a private Safari you will undoubtedly be stuck with other couples...something I did not want and would not recommend for a honeymoon. Also, generally speaking, if you book a beach and Safari holiday through a UK agent you will have to vacate your room when you go on Safari and have no guarantee of getting the same room when you return. We booked our hotel through Somak and then booked our Safari with a local agent, I appreciate that some people worry about doing this but again, Trip Advisor is an amazingly useful resource. I have only paid a 10% deposit into a UK bank account so far and will pay the rest just before we go or when we arrive in Kenya.

I am already a very active member of trip advisor and would highly recommend that you start looking through the Kenya/Tanzania forums. Aside from Tsavo East/West there is the Masai Mara and Amboseli, as well as a number of other Safari reserves. August is the start of the great migration in the Mara so you may find that prices/availability will vary from other times of the year.

To start planning try and decide how many days you want to go for in total, whether you want to do a Safari & Beach holiday or just a Safari, how much you have to spend and go from there. Do be aware that Kenya does not have private beaches and it is very likely that you will be approached by local beach sellers, this was something I considered when choosing a resort for our beach stay.

Perhaps have a look at a specialist website, like Somak, to get an idea of itineraries and prices for booking from the UK. I won't give the name of our safari company on here but feel free to PM me if you would like to have a look at their site. The owner has been absolutely wonderful and if I had a bit more money to play with I would have got him to book us a hot air balloon flight in the Mara

trying_2_b_good

Hi Hadley - what's your budget? I wanted to do a safari, but found they were all ridiculously expensive - around £5k-6k. Still going to do it, but have to save up!!

Trailfinders do safaris and allow guests to pay towards it. A couple of friends have done this for their honeymoon. It was really easy for guests (me inc.) to use and just pay a bit off towards the honeymoon. Downside is if people don't want to give you cash for that, or they can't get online. Biggest downside as far as I can see is that you don't know exactly how much your guests will contribute! So you may end up with a bigger bill than you'd hoped at the end of it!

I think Kuoni also do the gift list thing that just pays towards the total cost.

Do you want to go straight after the wedding? As Africa is so big, you can pretty much go any time of year - unless you want to see a specific migration or go to a specific country, in which case you'll have to look at the weather patterns. From my research, Kenya is cheaper than others (like Tanzania)

Hope that helps!

jtr2803

Hadley1 wrote: »

Hi Everyone,

So I have the beginnings of a cunning plan... I have always wanted to do a safari and OH has agreed. We would love to book something where people can pay towards the cost of the holiday rather than for specific things (if that makes sense) as that I think would give us more freedom.

Other than that I really don't know where to start...(told you it was going the beginning of a plan)... no idea where to go, when to go, how to arrnge for people to contribute as don't really want to ask people for money.

Apologises for my long post.. but essentially please help!!:)

The bold bit is what may throw a spanner in the works, especially if you would like people to pay towards the holoiday as you will HAVE to book through some sort of very specialist UK agent and I can 100% guarantee you that you will pay a premium over the already expensive UK agent prices just for that service.

LEJC

This topic and type of thing has been discussed quite a bit on here...and in honesty it all revolves around whether you are perpared to pay a commission to someone in a booking capacity to manage your honeymoon or not...The commission varies but its possibly up to 15%...8% being about the average you will be charged by a booking company

Something to consider if you have the funds to cover the cost is to go ahead and book the pachage youy want with a tour operator...that way by doing that now you can probably negotiate an early booking discount and as its your honeymoon if you mention that then there may be room upgrades available which are thrown in free of charge...or a plate of fruit/bottle of wine/meal that sort of thing.

Once youve booked your honeymoon you can then decide how you want to ask your guests for a donation/gift towards it...perhaps you want to split it down to something like £x will buy us a meal at a resturant..£y will buy us a day trip excursion...so that your guests feel as if they are actually contributing to something tangiable rather than "the honeymoon"
You could set up a seperate savings account or online bank account and therefore ask that any gifts be paid to that account so you are able to see what you are getting...
Of course this way of booking only works if you actually have enough money to pay for the honeymoon...because you will possibly find that its not until just before the wedding or even at the reception/evening that the majority of the "cash donations" will be given
Personally I think if its handled well then it doesnt really seem that youre asking foe money...if you make a nice insert or even a seperate card to give to guests detailing your proposed honeymoon and giving them a real insight into what they are helping you achieve, I think you will find that guests will be very receptive to your ideas..

sugarwalsh

You could wait until after your wedding to book it? Then you will know how much you have towards it.
MEgan

LEJC

Just on a very practical note...if you are thinking about a safari or even exotic location honeymoon,dont forget to factor in seeing your doctor or practice nurse to check that all your jabs for the area you are planning to visit are up to date...you may need to factor in a few jabs about 6 weeks before you travel...And as far as I know most doctors dont charge for them...well ours doesn't!

Hadley1

Thanks everyone for your replies. Have just come out of training session, so have not yet had chance to read them yet, But am looking forward to it.

Thanks again.

Hadley.