Tips for Planning a Month-Long Honeymoon in Europe

Oh, whata time.

Initially, Cole and I had thought about honeymooning in Bora Bora, or Bali, or somewhere far and honeymoon-y. But then we said: we’re getting married IN Europe, let’s just STAY in Europe. I asked Cole where he wanted to go and he said “wherever you haven’t been.” Little did he know, every location we went to, I had been. Traveling with family, alone, with friends, etc is all great… but when you visit those places with the lovey of your lifey, it’s TOTALLY different. In the best way possible.

I am a visual person. So, first things first. I needed to see map, a calendar, and photos of all these places.

Our wedding was on October 8 and we arrived to Italy on October 3rd with our families. We planned to be in Europe for exactly one month, so we booked our return on November 3rd.

TIP #1 : INSPO

Start finding inspo NOW/always/forever. Social media has changed the travel game, and I think that’s awesome. If you see a spot that you dream of visiting - save it, and you probably will! This is also an amazing way to get inspiration for photos to take while you’re there. And don’t be shy — take pics, even if it’s a crowded beach, you won’t regret it.

TIP #2 : GOOGLE FLIGHTS

I love love love love Google Flights. When searching for flights to and from Europe, we’re always flexible on where we fly into. Getting around once your there is inexpensive. PRO TIP (that I learned from my sis, Mayela), when doing a Google Flights search: type in all nearby airports around your home and type in “Europe” for your destination. You’ll be surprised. Once you do this, maybe you’ll see Miami->Milan is the cheapest way to get to Italy (that was our case). Oh, but you needed to go to Rome? No prob - take the train (train rides are so beautiful in Europe, especially for first timers) or even a short flight once you get there. And do the same for the return. For us, we flew back from Milan so we made sure to plan around that. Aka what’s relatively close (a train ride away) to Milano that we’d LOVE to see? Venice, Liguria, Como.. yes!

TIP #3 : MAP

Look at the map. Sounds obvious but some people don’t. Pick locations that geographically make sense to make the most of your time there. And visit each place in the right order. Each location we picked was based off of what was around us and what made sense for our route.

For example, was Greece out of the way? Not really! We flew to Santorini from Naples airport which was right next to Amalfi, then flew from Mykonos to Milan which is (relatively) near to Venice and Como. And these were all places we wanted to visit!

TIP #4 : CALENDAR

Again, I’m a visual person. So not only do I need to look at map, but I need to look at a calendar so I can see how much time we have to work with. It can be a physical calendar with pen and paper, or a digital calendar! I highly recommend it. I used PicMonkey for mine because it changed… often!

I kid you not, this is how we planned our honeymoon LOL.

TIP #5 : TRAVEL LIGHT

When I’m traveling and posting photos on social media, I often get questions about my outfits/bathing suits/accessories. Well, the truth is… Europe has pretty amazing shopping so if you’re feeling a shopping spree — pack light! And when I say light, I mean light. If you’ve ever flown low-cost carriers like Ryanair or EasyJet, you know you can only bring on a teeny tiny carry-on. That’s what we travelled with, for a whole month!

My family took home my wedding dress and a few of the outfits I wore in Rome, but other than that — our tiny suitcases were our best friends.

TIP #6 : BUDGET

This might sound a little shocking, but… Right before our wedding/honeymoon, Cole and I started the construction of our home. We had no financial help and put pretty much all of our savings into a down payment aka we were broke.

So how in the world did we travel? Well, when planning our wedding we decided not to do a wedding registry, we had a newlywed fund instead. We used our wedding money from generous gifts of our friends and family to travel, but we didn’t splurge the whole time. We wanted to put a good chunk of that into our savings so we were still ballin’ on a budget. And re: the no registry thing, I actually enjoyed shopping for our home goods on my own time/budget as we got settled into our home without having to worry about returns etc. So, if you’re getting married and considering this option — I 10/10 recommend it.

Where did we splurge? Greece. We both dreamed about having a cool suite with a personal hot tub and crazy view and all that jazz, so we booked six nights that hurt$our$pockets$, but everywhere else we weren’t picky about our hotels. Because the truth is — you don’t spend THAT much time in the hotel room. Unless you’re cuddling all day cause you’re on that honeymoon high, but that’s what the fancy Greece suites are for.

I started a Google Doc with screenshots of train, flight, hotel confirmations and kept track of everything in there (right under my lil’ calendar). Seeing it all kept us aware of what we were spending where BEFORE we got there. Because when you arrive, that’s when a lot of the spending happens hehe. It was also nice having alllll of our confirmation numbers in one place so our little doc was our go-to for everything. Personally, spreadsheets aren’t my thing. They stress me out and I think your honeymoon is a time to go with the flow and have fun with your love and be spontaneous (!!). Keeping it fun is key. Once you start stressing… that’s when it gets stressful LOL.

Hole is the wall restaurants, cute bed and breakfasts, cheap (delicious) wine on the beach during sunset, 1 euro beer and 2 euro paninis - all of these things were our faves. One night, we went to a fancy dinner where the cheapest cocktail was 51 euros. Sure, it was fun. But we left there still starving and hopped into a cutie family owned restaurant on a cliff with a way better view. You know what I mean? It’s not about the fanciest most expensive thing - it’s about the culture, the food, the beauty, the art, and obv your person is right there with you. Make a list of things you MUST visit/do and add them to your doc. Like, yes I’d pay 80 euros for 20 mins on a gondola over and over again. But not everyday.

AND NOW FOR THE FUN PART! Where’d we go? Where’d we stay? What did we do?

Head here for all that goodness.