Author Topic: Mustachian honeymoon ideas?  (Read 5702 times)

anastrophe

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Mustachian honeymoon ideas?
« on: January 30, 2013, 01:30:57 PM »
Yay, I'm getting married! We are paying for the wedding out of savings, and it will be a pretty frugal event (small guest list, no liquor, no fancy dress, etc). But I need some mustachian honeymoon ideas. We would really like to take a trip: we've been together 7 years and have never had more than a long weekend together. And I've been living in the same area for my entire life so the idea of Getting Away is very appealing.

But every idea I come up with sounds too expensive. We are busting ass to pay down student loan debt, making our own laundry detergent, and eating out of a 50-lb bag of rice. And a honeymoon--I mean, there's:

  • Travel. We're car-free but the future spouse would never go for a bike touring honeymoon. Airfare is ludicrous. Someplace we can get to by train or bus is probably it.
  • Replacement lost income--future spouse has a shitty retail job with no paid time off.
  • Housing. Gotta stay somewhere.

And considering I don't want to spend more than $1,000, I start to despair of having any kind of memorable, relaxing trip.

Ideas? We're in rural New England and it'll be late October. I don't know that the future spouse would go for camping and it'll be off-season in the Northeast, but that's one thing I thought of...also, a friend has an apartment in San Francisco she could sublet us, but airfare would be over our budget...

Jill the Pill

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Re: Mustachian honeymoon ideas?
« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2013, 01:35:13 PM »
http://cabinscottages.com/

Long Pond Cabins on the New York side of Lake Champlain.  If you go before the summer season, you can rent a cabin for a week for $600.  It has a kitchen, so you can cook in.  You get to use the lake, and they provide boats.  Very nice place.

MountainFlower

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Re: Mustachian honeymoon ideas?
« Reply #2 on: January 30, 2013, 01:37:54 PM »
Congratulations!

Could you rent a car and drive to a beach house down the coast?  Rates would be cheap.  Obviously, you wouldn't go swimming, but you would still be at the ocean where you could go for long walks. 

I think you can get 50K miles by signing up for a Southwest card right now.  Use it for all your bills and expenses and you would easily have two tickets.  Pay off your balance once a week. 

Isn't October prime tourist season in the Northeast?  Maybe you could come up with a house trade with someone, or find a local destination. 

I do think that exploring someplace fun and new with your new spouse is great.  We went backpacking right after the wedding with a bunch of people, which was fun, but I consider our "real" honeymoon our weekend in Aspen about 3 weeks later.  Some friends pooled their resources and gave us a couple of nights lodging and it was only a 3 hour drive.  It still felt like a world away because neither of us had been there. 

anastrophe

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Re: Mustachian honeymoon ideas?
« Reply #3 on: January 30, 2013, 01:50:22 PM »
Isn't October prime tourist season in the Northeast?  Maybe you could come up with a house trade with someone, or find a local destination.

October is prime tourist season, which usually just means prices are higher. We rent an apartment that we can't sublet or trade.

I kinda want an urban destination but I know future spouse would love a beach.

mushroom

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Re: Mustachian honeymoon ideas?
« Reply #4 on: January 30, 2013, 01:52:22 PM »
Do you have any interest in signing up for a rewards credit card with a big signup bonus? You could easily get free round trip tickets somewhere. Train and bus could actually be more expensive! I believe the Southwest card has an annual fee but there are lots of others that waive the annual fee for the first year. I'm currently working on an AA Citi card that gives 40,000 miles for spending $1000 plus free checked bags.

I love https://www.airbnb.com for finding lodging - you can find some really fun, unique places and rent an entire apartment for cheaper than a hotel, plus you can save money on food by having a fridge and being able to cook for yourselves. I wrote a blog post on why I love renting apartments here: http://purplmarsh.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/how-to-find-an-apartment-vacation-rental/ and the post before it talks about some of our favorite rentals, many of which we found through Airbnb.

KingCoin

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Re: Mustachian honeymoon ideas?
« Reply #5 on: January 30, 2013, 02:23:03 PM »
You can get flights to FL from most places in the Northeast for <$270 and rent a 1bd condo for a week for ~$300 (https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/504336). The condo will have a kitchen, so you can do your own cooking (even bring some of that rice with you!).  A car and gas will run you around $250 for the week. From there, you'll have lots of options for low cost or free activities like beach hopping, exploring the Everglades, visiting Miami to get a taste of the city. Plenty to keep you occupied.

That totals around $1090. Slightly over budget, but not bad considering that you don't have to make many compromises.


Gerard

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Re: Mustachian honeymoon ideas?
« Reply #6 on: January 30, 2013, 02:24:14 PM »
Airfare is ludicrous. Someplace we can get to by train or bus is probably it.
[...]
And considering I don't want to spend more than $1,000, I start to despair of having any kind of memorable, relaxing trip.
[...] a friend has an apartment in San Francisco she could sublet us, but airfare would be over our budget...

Return airfare boston-san francisco is $336 per person on united, all fees and taxes included (and you'd earn about 6000 miles each toward a future trip). Cook in, work out a price with your friend, and you're under $1000, I think.

But I bet people can come up with other better cheaper trips!

tooqk4u22

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Re: Mustachian honeymoon ideas?
« Reply #7 on: January 30, 2013, 02:26:02 PM »
Prices after labor day in coastal NJ and DE are rather cheap and my favorite time of year at the beach is in September and October - as the water is still warm, the beaches are empty, and the air temp is mild.  Although the later you get in October there is a chance for colder days. Although last October we got down there three times (day trips) and the weather was awesome.

stealmystapler

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Re: Mustachian honeymoon ideas?
« Reply #8 on: January 31, 2013, 07:24:02 AM »
It might be a little chilly for October, but we ended up spending a week driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway and camping for our Honeymoon! I don't think we spent more than $400-500 in total, and it was perfect.

I also second suggestions to look into airbnb and homeaway. We've found really good deals, and the trip always seems a little better when you get to stay in a house instead of a hotel! Livingsocial escapes can offer a good deal every now and then too - maybe an urban area close to the beach like Charleston or Savannah would be a good bet. Neither would be as far as San Francisco!

jrhampt

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Re: Mustachian honeymoon ideas?
« Reply #9 on: January 31, 2013, 07:42:57 AM »
Last summer we did a drive/camp trip up the coast from CT.  We stayed in Nickerson State Park in Cape Cod (full plumbing/showers, on bike trail, can walk/bike to a number of beaches, $15/night), got a hotel for a night in Portland, ME (I love this town!), bypassed Acadia Natl Park this time, but have done it before and really enjoyed it, spent a couple of nights in New Brunswick at Fundy Natl Park, and continued up to Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia for hiking and moose watching.  Also, you're probably not that far from Montreal or Quebec City, and I really enjoy both of those destinations. 

kolorado

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Re: Mustachian honeymoon ideas?
« Reply #10 on: January 31, 2013, 07:52:11 AM »
We took a cruise for our honeymoon and although we spent about $2500 it included a week in the Caribbean and airfare. What was really nice was that it was all-inclusive. It was so nice to not have to lift a finger during the trip. We really got to focus just on our time together which was perfect.
New England cruises are supposed to be spectacular in New England in October. Carnival cruises start at around $450 per person. ;)
Another option, which is what we chose for our first anniversary, is to book a vacation cabin rental. We rented a mountain cabin(with a hot tub and fireplace of course)for $600 for the week. We brought our own food to cook in the kitchenette which I will say cost $0 since it is what we would have spent at home anyway, and the gas to get to the cabin was less than $50. It also was a wonderful vacation because the focus was on spending time together without a million distractions.