What to book before your honeymoon (and what to skip)

Updated June 2026

Short answer: book the room and the flights first, and book them direct — that is where you want control, the best cancellation terms and any loyalty points. Locking the resort or villa early is the real priority, because the best honeymoon rooms sell out first. Buy travel insurance the day you book, not the day you fly. Everything else — an eSIM, an airport transfer, a hire car, a tour — is a smaller add-on you can sort closer to the trip, and some of it you can skip entirely depending on where you are going.

There is a whole industry built on selling newlyweds extras, and a honeymoon is exactly the trip where it is easy to over-book out of excitement. So here is the honest version: what genuinely earns its place, what only sometimes does, and what you can quietly skip. We make a small commission on some of the links below, at no extra cost to you — so we have been straight about where each one is and is not worth it.

Book these first, and book them direct

Two things carry almost the entire trip, and neither should go through an affiliate link or a middleman if you can help it.

Book direct

The room — resort or villa

This is the single biggest line on the trip and the one decision that makes or breaks a honeymoon. Book it as early as you reasonably can, directly with the resort or a reputable booking site, because honeymoon-favourite properties sell their best rooms and prime dates first. Booking direct also lets you add a note that it is your honeymoon — many hotels respond with a complimentary upgrade or a small extra — and keeps the cancellation terms clear and in your name. This is the priority; sort it before anything else on this page.

Book direct

The flights

Book flights direct with the airline rather than through a third party. If anything changes — a schedule shift, a cancellation, a name correction — dealing with the airline directly is far less painful than dealing with an intermediary, and you keep any frequent-flyer points and status. Book in your current passport name, not a new married name, or you may not be allowed to board. Change your documents after the trip.

The honest verdicts on the rest

These are the add-ons we actually have partner links for. Each gets a straight verdict.

Book it

An eSIM for data the moment you land

This is the rare extra that is close to a no-brainer. An eSIM from Airalo gives you mobile data the second you step off the plane — maps, translation, restaurant bookings, sharing the moment, and a safety lifeline if anything goes wrong — without hunting for a local SIM or paying eye-watering roaming fees. It is cheap relative to everything else on a honeymoon, installs before you fly, and one of you having working data is genuinely reassuring on an unfamiliar trip. The only reasons to skip: your phone is not eSIM-compatible (most newer ones are), your own plan already includes generous roaming at your destination, or you are deliberately going off-grid. Honey, Just Us earns a commission if you buy through this link.

Worth it (sometimes)

An airport transfer

Whether this earns its place depends entirely on the arrival. After a long-haul flight, a late-night landing, or arriving somewhere with a language barrier or a reputation for taxi haggling, a pre-booked transfer with Kiwitaxi — a driver waiting at arrivals, a fixed price agreed in advance, no negotiating while jet-lagged — is a small, genuinely calming bit of friction removed at the worst possible moment to deal with it. But be honest about your arrival: if you are landing somewhere easy with reliable metered taxis, a cheap ride-hailing app, or a free hotel shuttle (many resorts include transfers), you can skip this and sort it on the spot for less. Many island resorts also handle the transfer by boat or seaplane themselves — check what your room rate already includes before booking a separate car. Honey, Just Us earns a commission if you book through this link.

Maybe — only if you'll really use it

A hire car

For a classic switch-off honeymoon — one resort, one island, your feet barely leaving the sand — a hire car via Getrentacar is money you do not need to spend, and a parked, unused car is just a daily charge plus a fuel and insurance worry. It earns its place only on the trips where you genuinely plan to explore: a road trip along a coast, a multi-stop itinerary, a villa somewhere rural where you want to reach restaurants and villages on your own schedule. If that is your trip, compare prices early. If it is not, this is an easy skip — and even when you do want to roam, weigh it against day tours, which spare you driving on unfamiliar roads on the one holiday you most want to relax. Honey, Just Us earns a commission if you book through this link.

Worth it for the right days

A tour or experience

The sweet spot for a honeymoon is mostly unstructured time with one or two standout experiences booked in — a sunset cruise, a private dinner, a snorkelling trip, a cooking class. Browsing tours and tickets on Klook is a good way to lock in the handful of things that would sting to miss, and the marquee experiences (a specific reef trip, a popular restaurant, a hot-air balloon) genuinely do sell out, so the ones you care about are worth booking two to three months ahead. The honest caveat: do not over-schedule. A honeymoon packed with timed activities stops feeling like a honeymoon. Book the few that matter; leave the rest of the days open. Honey, Just Us earns a commission if you book through this link.

Travel insurance — yes, but book it direct

We do not have an insurance partner, so there is nothing for us to sell you here — which makes this the most straightforward advice on the page. Buy travel insurance, and buy it the day you book the trip, not the day you fly. A honeymoon is usually the most expensive trip a couple ever takes, often with non-refundable deposits committed months in advance — exactly the kind of money you do not want to lose to a cancellation, an illness, a missed connection, or a medical bill abroad. Cover bought at booking protects what you have already paid in the vulnerable months before departure, which is the whole point. Buy it directly from a reputable insurer or a trusted comparison site, and actually read what is covered — especially the medical limit and the cancellation terms. It is the cheapest peace of mind on a big-ticket trip.

The quick verdict table

Not sure which trip you're booking yet?

All of the above assumes you have settled on the trip. If you are still deciding the destination, the month and the budget, our honeymoon finder takes your vibe, budget, month and number of nights and matches you to a destination — with a rough total budget range and a tailored what-to-do-next checklist. It is free and takes a minute, and it makes the booking decisions above much easier because you will know exactly what you are booking for.

The honest takeaway

Get the two big things right and book them direct — the room and the flights — buy insurance the day you book, and add an eSIM. After that, only book what your specific trip actually needs: a transfer if the arrival is tiring, a tour or two for the days you want planned, and a hire car only if you are genuinely going to drive. The best honeymoon is not the most-booked one; it is the one where the money and the planning went to the moments that mattered.

Related guides

• Find your honeymoon (free finder)
• The complete guide to planning your honeymoon
• How much does a honeymoon really cost?
• How far ahead should you plan a honeymoon?

Next steps: if the trip itself isn't locked yet, start with the honeymoon finder, then read what a honeymoon really costs and how far ahead to book it so the room and flights above go in at the right time.