My fiance and I have been having issues determining where to go on our honeymoon.  We had originally decided that we would wait until the last minute to book the trip and hopefully get a good deal. However looking at the current prices we decided to to start booking now and can you guess where? If you guessed Hawaii then you guessed right.

Why did we decide Hawaii?

We didn’t want to do the Caribbean because its summer time and the last thing we wanted was to have our honeymoon ruined by hurricanes. A two week trip in Europe seemed outrageously expensive, preliminary numbers came to about $10 to $12k. We decided we wanted something in the Pacific and had three options: Fiji, Tahiti, or Hawaii. Since we wanted to be comfortable on our honeymoon we would probably need an all inclusive in Fiji and Tahiti which is outside of our budget and so we were left with Hawaii. We figure we can have all of the beauty of a tropical island with all of the modern conveniences at a better price.

How much will it cost?

We will be there for two weeks. One week in Honolulu and a week in Kauai. We’ve booked the following already:

Flight with American airlines: $1600
Hotel in Honolulu: $1600
Condo in Kauai: $1800

Some additional costs will be car rental on Kauai which will be about $20/day and a a flight between the islands which is about $200 for the both of us. As for food and entertainment we are looking at spending about $3000 for the two weeks we are there. We’ll offset some of our costs by having some picnic lunches and maybe making some of our own meals. Overall we’ve calculated that this will cost us about $8000 Canadian if the dollar holds up for 4 more months.

Why such an extravagant trip?

Two years ago we did the whole backpacking through Europe thing. We spent a month there and it cost us about $11,000. This time we want to be pampered a bit but more importantly it’s the last great adventure before we have kids. We know there won’t be anymore of these costly trips when children come along. It will be cottages and road trips. On top of it all we have the privilege of my fiance’s father helping pay for a large portion of the wedding which means we won’t be taking on any additional debt to make this happen. Some will say we should be taking advantage of this windfall and saving our money instead of spending it on a trip. For us personally we budget so often that we need the occasional outlet to enjoy the finer things in life. The key thing for us is we are doing it with no additional debt.

Any suggestions on things to do in Hawaii?
Does anyone have any savings ideas while we are there?
Are we crazy for spending this much on a trip?

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