Please visit Suzanne's site at http://www.worldsgreatesthoneymoons.com/
Honeymoon registries are a newish take on the old bridal registry formula. Instead of registering for table place-settings and stainless steel pots that friends and family will buy as your wedding present, you register for honeymoon goodies—one or more nights in a hotel room, room upgrades, a couples massage, an all-day jeep safari or kayak tour, a champagne breakfast delivered to your room, all or a portion of your air flight, or whatever else you might ask for.
Establishing your registry is easily done online. You'll end up with your own Web page which friends and family can visit. They'll see your wish list (with prices of each item), choose their gift, and pay by credit card. The registry informs you each time you receive a gift, keeps track online of what’s been purchased for everyone to see, and sends you a check before the wedding for the account balance.
How can registries afford to do this? They charge a fee (see individual registries below).
Some hotel/resort chains, airlines, and tourism destinations offer something similar to the registries described above. Be forewarned, however, that they typically allow you to select only items and activities falling under their umbrella. Rather than send a check or other form of straightforward monetary payment---which allows you to spend the money as you like---they send a gift card or a company credit to be applied against your bill. Often they charge the top rate for everything purchased through their registry—rather than the bargain rates you might get were you to book ordinarily.
A completely different take is the wedding/honeymoon registry offered by adventure tour company Mountain Travel Sobek. Friends and family can contribute money toward the kind of adventure honeymoon you’ll never forget—crusing the Galapagos, or climbing Kilimanjaro, or any of the other adventures they undertake in 65 countries around the world. Best thing: MTS charges no fee for their registry service.
And for couples who already have everything they need, consider this idea: register with Britain's Carbon Footprint, where friends/family can buy one or more trees in your name to be planted in Kenya's Great Rift Valley. The service is free; gift-givers pay no fees aside from the modest per-tree cost of around $13.
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The following companies have reliable reputations in the traditional honeymoon registry business. Each has a unique fee structure, and extra charges may apply for some services, so read the fine print carefully (which you should always do anyway). Keep in mind that most of these services charge a credit card transaction fee, which, when combined with the typical 7% service charge per transaction, amounts to a 10% fee.
HoneyLuna charges a 7% service fee that can either be added to or deducted from the cost of the gift. If credit cards are used to fund the purchase, an additional 3% credit card fee is imposed.
Honeymoon Wishes lets you choose whether you want the 7% fee added to or deducted from the gift amounts. An additional 3% credit card transaction fee applies.
- Rodriguez, the Founder and Editorial Director of WGH, specializes in luxury, romantic, and historic travel; culinary & wine exploration; and outdoor adventure. She is the author of three books, including Checklist For A Perfect Honeymoon (Doubleday), and is the Honeymoon Travel Examiner at Examiner.com.
Suzie's articles have appeared in many national magazines and newspapers, including Bride's, Gourmet, Woman's World, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and The Chicago Tribune.
A member of the American Society of Journalists & Authors (ASJA) and Bay Area Travel Writers (BATW), Suzie lives and works in Sonoma, California.
