Secret honeymoon/Destination wedding dream: The seychelles!

For example, I have a long list of places I want to go, so when my boyfriend said he wanted to do a trip for ideally no more than $1200, I was able to come up with a couple of options, including a late April week at an all-inclusive resort in Mexico that would have cost us maybe $950 apiece plus some sum for tips, airport transportation, souvenirs and other miscellaneous expenses. He ended up deciding on Iceland instead (in early May, which was a bit before peak season), and we just returned from a seven-day, six-night trip there that cost about $1400 each including airfare — and that included a glacier hike, a rafting trip and an evening trip to view the volcano, plus lodging in an apartment that’s bigger than the one I live in.

A few thoughts: Try Greece in June; its high season is July and August, but things are open by June, and I personally think the temperatures are much more manageable in June. May and September are great months for traveling in France, Italy and Spain. For cruises, look for last-minute specials. (I personally wouldn’t favor the Mediterranean cruises, though, because I think there’s so much you’d miss in each country that you’d feel you’d have to go back anyway to see more of it.) China and Southeast Asia are extremely cheap in terms of daily expenses, which can often make up for the airfare. Use Kayak.com to hunt for airfares, but do check Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity, and buy if possible directly from the airline to save fees. Collect frequent flyer miles from your Europe trips and use them for South America (often just 35K miles for a RT ticket that would have cost you $500-$800 otherwise, whereas you’ll need 60K miles for a Europe trip that you could have purchased for $500-$600) or Australia. The Lonely Planet is the Bible for inexpensive independent travel (and has a great forum, which I used to select my Galapagos cruise), while Fodor’s and Frommers will look at more expensive options; I also like the TripAdvisor forums (though they can be geared toward travelers who’ll spend a bit more).

Hope you don’t mind the long comment — as you can probably tell, I love to talk travel, and my friends joke that I should have been a travel agent in another life. (I’ve been to about 50 countries so far, and I think all of my trips of 10 days or less have been budgeted between $1000 and $2000 per person including airfare except for the Galapagos.) The only problem about living your travel dreams will be that you’ll get addicted and will need to spend even more time and money traveling. Good luck, and enjoy!

Are you kidding me???

I travel somewhat frequently and have never, ever had those kind of expenses. Your methods of travel must be considerably different from mine because on $7,000 dollars I could probably spend a couple of months traveling all around Europe or Asia. If you really want to visit these places, you could do so on a much smaller budget and still have a great time. I guess it just depends on what your personal demands are. I have no problem with sleeping in hostels, etc. I'm not there for a bed, I'm there to see the country and engage in the culture.

I have a goal of traveling 50,000 miles this year and have so far been to (since January) Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Grand Cayman, Germany and upcoming trips include Iceland (next week), Hawaii (Kauai) for two weeks at the end of June, and Orlando, Florida for a week in August and who knows what else in the meantime. There is no way I would be able to do this if I spent as much money as what you expect your trips to cost.

Yes, it does stink when somewhere doesn't have a "true" off-season, but there's generally always a low period. My fiance and I were initially looking at Tahiti & Bali for our honeymoons…its still pricey either way – but there were variations between seasons.

True about maximizing your vacation days. Makes sense only if the amount you're saving on the flight is more than your daily wage rate.

I'd definitely want to travel off-season if possible.. but places like the Galapagos, well, doesn't HAVE an off-season. It's paradise year-round! As for Europe, I'm not sure what would be an "off"-season. If I were to want to take advantages of holidays to tack on to my vacation days, then everyone else will be thinking the same thing. It's like the fact that flying on a Tuesday or a Wednesday can save you hundreds of dollars. Which is great, unless it's not feasible to go on a Tuesday/Wednesday because you want to maximize your vacation days.