Honeymoon Budget Go Tos

I'm not so sure about Italy itself, but do you know what city you'd be flying into? If so, look up what airlines usually run those routes and get their credit card. There's awesome sign on bonuses for spending $2000-$5000 in the first 3 months, which is super doable when paying for wedding and honeymoon things. Make sure it's paid off every month so you don't pay interest. Then you could use the sign on bonus to get your flights on points.


If you don't know your city yet, a Chase Sapphire Reserve/Preferred card is always a good bet because they have so many partners. Reserve also has a Global entry credit so you can have a faster customs experience. I put everything I buy on my Reserve even before wedding planning.

I agree with PP. My FH and I signed up for the AMerican Airlines Aviator RedCard and received 60k bonus miles for just paying a $99 annual fee and making a purchase. This paid for his ticket to Italy and we just bought extra miles($750) so we both can fly together. So two round trip flights from Springfield, MO to Rome was $750. Plus the card gives both of us priority boarding and a free checked bag, carry on, and personal item.


We are staying for three weeks. Week in Rome, Florence, and Venice. We are taking day trips to Pompeii and Cirque Terre.
Since we are staying a longer period of time, we hopped on Expedia.com and book BnBs/apartments with a kitchen so we can make food some nights instead of eating out! For three weeks, room costs us about $1,500. So we spent a total of $2,250 for lodging and flights. This doesn’t include food, souvenirs, any kind of museum, tours we want to do. I don’t plan on spending more than $700-$1,000 on that stuff though. Maybe even less, honestly! Only tour I have found to do so far was of the Colosseum which everyone is saying is a must!
I don’t think $3,000 is too bad for three weeks. Also if you fly out a bigger city, flights may be cheaper. It also depends on when you are going. Sept-December are off months. Where as May-August are peak and everything is more expensive.
I love planning trips and booking things so if you need help, please let me know. I can also send you our itinerary if you want to see.

My fiancé and I are planning the same thing, but we can probably only go for a week so I would also love tips on best deals and places to go.

I spent 5 days in Italy when I was in college. I realize the circumstances are vastly different for your honeymoon (I highly doubt you'll want to stay in hostels!). But my best piece of advice would be to take advantage of trains and being able to travel to many cities this way (and plan it out ahead of time if you can). Know there will be a language barrier, especially in smaller, more remote locations, so plan accordingly. We almost got stuck in a train station at night because they actually stopped running at a certain point and we weren't aware, and couldn't communicate with the officer patrolling the station. As far as cities, Rome is cool for the history, as is Pompeii (we travelled by way of Naples, which is where my family is from and is dirty and not so safe LOL). Venice was my absolute favorite! I would have spent all 5 days there had I known how much I'd love it (it was at the end of our trip). Pisa was also a cool city. There are really so many great places to see, you just need to prioritize. Have fun!

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Thank you so much for the tip Brittany! I've been looking into a new credit card and this might just be the perfect timing.

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Hi Emily,

I appreciate your insight. We were thinking about booking tours and whatnot because we've never been there before, and want to see some sights but make sure we have a guide so we can have some days planned while others just lounge about. We'd appreciate an itinerary if you don't mind!

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Thanks Julia! I think our main stop will be Venice (gotta kick up the romance on a honeymoon amirite?!) and I've heard travelling by train is the best as it's cheaper and you can go all around the country. And good to know about the language barrier, I'm hoping we get a bit of luck with knowing Spanish and google translate?

View Quoted Comment Of course! If you're choosing between Preferred and Reserve, I'd say you should do Reserve. The large annual fee may be scary, but it definitely pays for itself between the $300 travel credit (deducted from your bill as you spend in that category), the Global Entry/TSA pre credit (go Global Entry if you can, it includes TSA and is only like $15 more), and now free memberships with DoorDash ($10/month value) and Lyft ($200 value). Plus higher earning rate than the Preferred.


But as a previous poster mentioned, you could find a really sweet deal out there like that American Airlines Aviator RedCard where you don't have to spend much at all!
The points guy / nerdwallet should be your friend