You just had the best day of your life on your wedding day. Now, it’s time to have the best trip of your life on your honeymoon! I’m going to tell you how I get a little thrifty on transportation expenses and share some tips on navigating local transportation. This way, you can spend your trip money on things that are more fun, like food and experiences! And, maybe not spend the whole time lost! While the focus is just on transportation in this post, you can check out my Airbnb tips in my previous post here.

Flights

Of course you will need a destination picked out first. Knowing this information, start by narrowing down a date range, and specific airports you want to travel to. Being flexible on the exact dates of your trip will help you save. Then, it is time for some serious searching for flights that might work in the month you want to go. I start searching at southwest.com, more on that below, but the flight search option in Google is a great place for non-specific airline searches. The more flexible on dates you are before picking the flights, the better deals you can find. Traveling on non-popular days of the week, such as leaving Saturday and returning on a weekday, might also help you save a little.

Southwest Companion Pass

My favorite flight deal is the Companion Pass from Southwest Airlines. It allows you to have one person fly airfare free and only pay taxes and fees for a flight. While Southwest doesn’t have too many international destinations, you can fly domestically to your international departure airport for the price of one! You qualify for a Companion Pass by reaching the required number of points using the Southwest credit card in a year. It is 110,000 points or 100 flights required when I wrote this. Since I fly mostly for pleasure, hitting 100 flights in a year is probably never going to happen for me. So, I use their credit card to earn points. You can use the benefit for the rest of the year you earn it in, and the following year. You can check out the specifics here.

I wish we would have known about this for our honeymoon. I probably would have charged everything for the wedding through the card for the points, and then used them towards earning a Companion Pass. Comment if you have any questions because I’d love to help you figure it out!

International Flights

Since it is such a long flight, I will sometimes “splurge” on certain upgrades. No two airlines are the same when it comes to upgrades though. Being able to sit next to each other with assigned seats is high on my list of things I am willing to pay extra for. I have a little bit of advice for smaller flights inside Europe. Check to make sure the window seat you pick when purchasing the ticket actually has a window! I made this mistake by choosing the seat A10 on the many small Norwegian Air flights we took. I learned my lesson trying to crane my neck around to look out the other windows. Scott’s Cheap Flights is a site to watch for good priced flight options outside of the Southwest Airlines realm.

Navigating Public Transit

I know it can seem scary and daunting at times, but I like taking public transit to get a lay of the land, understand geography, and maybe see a few more locals. I usually stay at an Airbnb when traveling. Before starting the trip I ask the host for some suggestions. These include how to get from the airport to their spot, the best stop to get off on, and any less expensive local transportation options. I choose to stay at an Airbnb to experience and enjoy a destination more like a local does daily. I consider the host the expert, with all the local details.

Costa Rica Adventures

My husband, Justin is the absolute opposite of me. I take the lead on navigating, and he is patient or offers help if I need a little sanity check. He barely knows his way around Phoenix and he grew up less than 8 miles away from downtown, so he mostly takes on the patient role. Good thing he’s cute, right? In all seriousness, if I get stumped he’s the first to ask a local for some direction. So much so that when we were on our way to Costa Rica he made fast friends with his armrest neighbor for the three hour flight. By the time we got off Justin had learned things like which taxis were okay, and which to steer clear of. But he also told me the man’s family was going to take us to our hotel, many miles away from the airport. I looked at Justin like he was crazy. We cautiously accepted the offer though, and met his sweet family, trusting God had a funny story in mind for us to tell once it was all over. Justin might not know which way is north, but he’ll make a friend that will point us in the right direction, if not deliver us to the front door of wherever we need to go. He’s a keeper!

If your dream honeymoon destination seems out of reach, I hope some of my suggestions from experience might bring you a little closer to making it a reality. There are ways to save some serious cash if you are a little flexible and know how to search for deals. Every trip is an experience to come home with memories of. And each trip also makes you a little more of a travel expert. What are some of your favorite transportation tips when traveling? Comment below!