Honeymoon budget: average cost and how much to spend

A honeymoon is usually the second-biggest thing couples pay for in their wedding year, and the easiest to leave unplanned. The wedding gets a budget, a spreadsheet and months of quotes; the trip gets "we'll see what's left". This guide gives you the figures to start from, a way to decide your own number, and a simple split from flights to food, so the honeymoon has a plan of its own.

The short answer: what a honeymoon costs

The average honeymoon cost about $5,300 for couples who married in 2024, according to The Knot's survey of nearly 17,000 couples. The same survey found that 69% of couples planned a honeymoon at all, so if you're still deciding whether to go, you're not alone in asking.

The average hides a wide spread. Zola's honeymoon cost guide puts most honeymoons between $3,000 and $8,000, and the gap comes down to three things: how far you fly, how many nights you stay, and how you like to travel. A week's road trip a few hours from home and ten days on another continent can both be the right honeymoon, at very different prices.

How much should you spend on a honeymoon?

Start from your own money, not the average. The right number is what you can pay for without debt once the wedding is paid for, and the honeymoon comes out of the same savings, so set the two budgets together. Our guide to setting a wedding budget starts with the same question: what you have saved, what you'll save between now and the date, and what family is giving.

Then weigh what changes the figure:

• Savings left after the wedding. Take the wedding's total and its buffer off what you'll have, and see what remains. That's the honest ceiling.
• A honeymoon fund. Many couples ask guests to give towards the trip instead of registry gifts. Count only what you're fairly sure of; a fund often comes in after the wedding, when the flights are long since paid.
• Points and miles. Card points and airline miles can cover the flights or a few nights. Check what you have before you price the trip, not after.
• Length. Every extra night adds a night's room and a day's food and things to do. It's the simplest lever you have.
• Season. The same place costs far less a few weeks either side of its busy season.

If the trip you want doesn't fit the number, change the length, the season or the place first. Cutting every line a little usually gives you a trip that feels short of money everywhere.

Where the money goes

A honeymoon budget falls into six groups. These are the shares our free honeymoon budget calculator uses for its typical split, a starting point before you have real quotes:

Group	Typical share	What's in it
Where you stay	35%	The hotel or resort, resort fees
Getting there and around	27%	Flights, airport transfers, car hire, trains and buses
Food and drinks	17%	Restaurants, cafés and snacks, groceries, drinks
Things to do	10%	Tours and tickets, a spa, activities
Before you go	6%	Passports and visas, travel insurance, vaccinations, luggage
Shopping and extras	5%	Souvenirs, gifts for family, clothes

Where you stay and getting there are the big two, together more than half the budget. Zola puts lodging at 35 to 50% of a honeymoon budget on its own, and the flights are usually next. That's why the split above is only a starting point: on a trip with a long flight, or a stay at an all-inclusive resort where the food is part of the room, the shares move a long way.

The small groups matter more than their size suggests. Passports, visas and vaccinations have deadlines, and travel insurance is cheapest bought when you book. Put them on the list early, even at a few dollars each.

Building your honeymoon budget

1. Set the total. The number from the section above, in the currency you'll pay most of it in.
2. Split it. Share the total out across the six groups. The honeymoon budget calculator does this in one press; try it with $7,500 and it will split $7,500 for you.
3. Replace the big two with real quotes. Price the flights and the nights first, because they move everything else. If they come in above their share, the rest of the plan has to shrink, or the total has to grow.
4. Give every line a job. Planned against each line should add up to the total. Whatever isn't planned yet is money without a job, and it tends to disappear into the first expensive dinner.
5. Keep a little back. A small amount left unplanned covers the taxi you didn't expect and the tour you didn't know about until you arrived.

The calculator keeps your budget in your browser, prints as a worksheet and downloads as a spreadsheet, with no sign-up.

Ways to make it go further

• Travel in the shoulder season. The weeks just before and after a destination's busy season often bring lower prices on the same rooms and flights, and fewer crowds.
• Move less. Every change of hotel is a transfer, a half-day lost and often a pricier first night. Two places in ten days is calmer and cheaper than four.
• Use points for the biggest line. Points usually go furthest on long flights or on the most expensive nights.
• Say it's your honeymoon. Hotels and restaurants often add a small extra for honeymooners: an upgrade, a dessert, a late check-out. It costs nothing to mention.
• Set up a honeymoon fund. Guests who'd rather give towards an experience than a gift can pay for a dinner or a day trip. When you write your thank-yous, name what their gift paid for; our thank-you card wording guide has lines for it.
• Make the wedding part of the trip. Couples who elope often marry at the destination, so one budget covers both; our guide to how to plan an elopement has the steps.
• Take a mini-moon now and the big trip later. A few days away straight after the wedding, and the long trip in a year, when your savings have caught up and the season is better.

Tracking it on the trip

A budget made before you go only helps if you look at it while you're there. Log what you spend as you go, once a day is enough, against the line it belongs to. The figure to watch is left to spend: your total minus everything spent so far. Divide it by the days you have left and you know what each remaining day can cost.

The calculator works on a phone, so you can open it at dinner and type the bill in. If a group runs over its plan, look at the next group before the total: an expensive dinner can come out of the souvenirs.

Who pays for the honeymoon?

By tradition, the groom's family paid for the honeymoon, along with the rehearsal dinner and the rings. Today most couples pay for it themselves, often with help from a honeymoon fund, and some parents choose to give towards the trip as their wedding gift. Our guide to who pays for the wedding covers the traditional split line by line and how to talk about money with both families.

Your honeymoon budget in Linenfold

The free calculator is all most couples need to plan the trip. If you're planning the wedding in Linenfold, the Honeymoon Budget sits beside the wedding's own budget, with the same six groups, Expected and Actual on each category, every transaction logged against its group, and the total left over. It's part of Complete; see what each plan includes on the pricing page.

Already using the calculator? Keep it in a free account and it comes across into your wedding: on Complete it fills the Honeymoon Budget, and on Free it's kept until you upgrade. When you're ready, create a free account, and the free wedding budget calculator will split the wedding's own total the same way.