Attend a Destination Wedding or Take a Personal Vacation? How About Both?
By Sarah Freeman Junior Marketing Associate, Hospitality and Tourism Specialist
Destination weddings are far more time consuming and of course expensive than the traditional route.
Most people opt out of going to these weddings because of financial reasons, work, kids, and so on. It is important to weigh the options and decide if making the trip is worth it. What about making the second half of the trip into a personal vacation? Here are some things to consider and a few tips to help you out.
1. Money
Plane ticket, hotel, wedding gift, rental car, and the list goes on. These things add up, QUICK. However, if you budget properly and start planning enough time in advance you can probably swing it. (Start saving now!) Use apps like Hopper to track the price of flights, and Air B&B to save on hotel rooms. Hopper is a great little app that allows you to put in you travel dates and destination and will send you notifications about flights. It will let you know if prices are expected to rise or drop, and will let you know when the best time to book is. And don’t forget about those travel points you have been racking up if you have a travel rewards credit card!
2. Vacation time
Do you feel like taking time off from work to attend a wedding is a waste of time? Most people do. However, if you decide to shift the priority of the trip to a personal vacation and make the wedding a secondary priority, you would look at the trip differently, right? Combining a personal vacation with a destination wedding can save you money and vacation days by turning two trips into one.
3. The Destination
OK, so maybe you don’t want to spend all 10 days in Jamaica or Mexico. I have good news for you, you don’t have to! After you spend a couple days celebrating the new couple, the vacation then becomes yours. This means you can stay and enjoy the rest of your time off where you are, or move on to another location. Look up flights or even cruises to nearby places that you would rather spend the rest of your time at. Before you knock the idea of buying yet another plane ticket, remember if you are only going to short distance the low-cost airlines have VERY reasonable prices. From personal experience, I can tell you that I bought a flight from Ibiza to Madrid for $80. Europe is easy and cheap to travel around so if your destination wedding happens to fall somewhere over there, your options are endless! Research all possibilities and really think about where you want to go, don’t spend money on going somewhere that you aren’t really interested in.
A wedding is a great excuse to take a vacation, if you have the time and money to do so. I am swinging a 3-week vacation to Europe all thanks to the fact that my Boyfriend’s brother is getting married. I truly believe exploring your options and allowing yourself enough time to plan can make all the difference when it comes to arranging a trip with more than one purpose. Take your time, be smart, and most importantly, have fun!