AIBU and delusional RE honeymoon

[GreenVoyage]

I'm trying and failing here! I'm looking for a honeymoon to Mexico for the pair of us. I'm looking for around 10-14 nights, all inclusive between Aug 11-31. Our budget is £2000.

I'm being delusional right? The cheapest I've found is £3200.

Manchester is our closest airport, I think I'll look elsewhere!

August school holidays, you won’t get it for that price. Can you go 2 weeks later?

£2000 total you need to look closer to home and I think for AI that’s ambitious to be honest.

If you have specific dates in mind, Id use Skyscanner - you can leave destination blank and see what comes up.
We flew to Costa Rica for £360 return after searching on there for fare deals!

Nope, no chance! Not anywhere decent anyway.

But it’s August, so why do you need to go long haul??? You’ll be spending lots of money on flights when you don’t need to. It’ll be lovely weather in Europe!

What about Italy? Tuscany, Sardinia, Sicily? Or Madeira? Santorini? All beautiful places.

You won't get anything for £2000 for the both of you to Mexico in August its peak time - school holidays
Ive been many times often for 3-4 weeks at a time but always go out of season and get great deals

I've been looking for myself and my son in August and the hotel we want is close to £4000 for two weeks but out of season we can get 3 weeks for £3200. School holidays bump the prices up massively .

The cheapest ive seen is the Rui Lupita & Tequila in Playacar for 10 nights and that around £1350 -£1450
When you add insurance travel to airport and spending money for trips , excursions which aren't cheap you will be easily adding a further few hundred pounds .
Most of the trips if you do organised rep tours in Mexico are between £60-£80 per person .
You really need to up your budget to around £1500 each to get a decent beach front AI hotel in the main resorts of Cancun Playacar and Playa Riveria

Even Cuba is similar prices for the same time
The price isn't that much different for 10 nights to 14 nights

Groupon? Do you guys have it in UK? I'm pretty sure you don't have Costco, they have great vacation deals. Maybe you could honeymoon in Iceland for a couple day, get cheap fare from Iceland to US, and then fly out from US, which is closer?

How about Thailand? We were going to go to the Maldives for our honeymoon but finances changed so we went to Koh Samui. Stayed in a beach front hut with with air con for peanuts. Did half board and ate out every night. Loved it so much we went back a few years later!

I hated cancun and playa del carmen - super hot, tourist dominated and hostile atmosphere towards tourists. Plenty of warm places to go much closer / cheaper to get to in August.

Further isn't always better! I'm sure you'll find somewhere lovely to go, and it won't need you to spend 10 hours flying. There are lots of stunning place to go. They might not sound so exotic but Europe has some magnificent, beautiful places.

Why do you want all inclusive? If you’re not going to experience anywhere authentic and contribute to the local economy you might as well save money and go to Europe.

@hotsouple UK has CostCo and Groupon

Buy a sandpit and loads of champagne and just stay at home and bonk, drink and eat for a week. Sounds good if no little ones involved.

I am joking but honestly staying at home when everyone thinks you are gone away is secretive subversion!

Mexico is not an option on that budget really, sorry.

But realistically at that time of year everything is v v Expensive!

Stay at home as I said, and book something for later.

Sure even Harry and Meghan are having a mini moon. So can you!

Congratulations on the wedding, and I hope you understand that I am being a teeny bit tongue in cheek!

Mexico has a tourist tax departure of £50 per person in payable in cash when you leave
You really won't get anywhere in the Caribbean for £2000 for two weeks for two people .
You might get something If you can leave it right to the very very last minute
There were people in Cancun in Dec who had paid £750 for a week all inclusive and £900 for 10 nights but you still have to factor In the £100 tax to leave Mexico for you both , insurance, and spending money even if you plan to spend the whole time at the hotel you will spend some money on bits and pieces

Try searching leaving Dublin and leaving Inverness. Both have some sort of tax thing going on which means on longer haul they can be significantly cheaper. You can the add the manchester link flight on, but worth checking Liverpool too.

Ooh Bali, fantastic honeymoon destination, cheap food, fantastic hotels for peanuts

Costco in the US does great holiday deals. I don’t Think they offer that in the U.K.

I think you’re being a bit too ambitious here. Long haul, AI, school holidays for under £1k pp? Keep an eye on the holiday pirates website you might get lucky and get a good deal, but if you want to book in advance, I’d lower your expectations or increase your budget.

You could look at Koh Samui but you're looking at about £2300 for 2 B&B ( although eating out is reasonable) ... long haul AI at that time of year would be a good £3500-£4000
Croatia might be worth a look but anywhere in August is going to be pricey because of school hols

In August the whole of Europe is hot, you've got myriad beautiful places to choose from with cheaper airfares.

A whole.month search of August on Skyscanner from Manchester gets you this:
www.skyscanner.net/transport/flights/man/cun?adults=2&children=0&adultsv2=2&childrenv2&infants=0&cabinclass=economy&rtn=1&preferdirects=false&outboundaltsenabled=true&inboundaltsenabled=true&oym=1808&iym=1808&ref=home&selectedoday=01&selectediday=01
£1400 is about the cheapest for flights I believe but if you are flexible on flying indirect you will have more luck.

It leaves you with about £600 for a room. You can easily get lovely B&Bs for that but probably not AI in August.

In August there is really no need to go long haul, you'd be using a huge proportion of your budget on flights.

A self catering apartment or a nice B&B room somewhere in southern/Eastern Europe will probably work out cheaper, even if you eat out for most meals. Use skyscanner first to look for decent price flight destinations, avoid flying at weekends. Avoid anywhere too child friendly eg in Greece look at islands that you need to get flight & boat to.

Caribbean has hurricanes in late summer anyway, doesn't it?

Don't fly from the UK. We usually fly Manchester to Orlando but as we are now flying it August school holidays it pushed the price up.

We are now flying Dublin to Orlando, still direct but for half the price and the flight from Manchester to Dublin return is about £350. The luggage is the killer but there are 4 of us and I am assuming that there are just 2 of you.

Lots of people fly into Europe and then out to fly into Florida, also Jersey has some cheaper flights too.

Don't just look at Manchester and don't just look at direct flights.

Get on Skyscanner and fudge about with dates and airports.

I'd have a mini moon here. We spent four nights at a lovely (ok rather extravagant) hotel in this country and then had three weeks in Botswana and Africa later on when the weather was better.

I'd do Rome or Florence In August and go away AI over Christmas or next Easter.

Mexico city rocks like nowhere else

I totally agree, but not in August, that is the middle of the rainy season and we often have floods

Could you maybe go over Christmas to make it cheaper? Or if it has to be August you'll probably need to choose a different destination I'm afraid.
Hope you have a lovely honeymoon whatever you decide to do!