My bank must think I’ve lost the plot… I’ve worked so hard since we bought our house to keep my credit card at zero - I’m really good and only use it occasionally (and pay it off straight away)…. until this month!

We’ve been researching our dream honeymoon for a few months now - we know where we want to go so it was just a question of fitting it into our (limited) budget. I got quotes from a number of travel agents and tour operators and it was getting rather pricey so over Christmas I decided to see if booking direct could save us money… and it did! Our honeymoon itinerary is 4 nights in New York, a week in Cape Cod and 3 nights in Boston - USA all the way.

Admittedly I used to be a travel agent so I knew where to look and how to sniff out a bargain. I started with the flights - most airlines have January sales so we checked out the major airlines to New York - it was much cheaper to fly via London but seeing as Russell isn’t too fond of flying, speed took precedence over cost! Therefore we got a flight direct from Dublin to JFK and we’re flying home from Boston to Dublin with American Airlines/Aer Lingus. It was cheaper to ring American Airlines than book online (not all their sale fares are on the website..).

Then we needed somewhere to stay…. and this is where the research (and some sheer luck) paid off. I had emailed the tourist boards in NY & Massachusetts for their visitor guides. These are similar to the Discover Ireland brochure - full of information on accommodation, things to do and transportation options - so I read through them and marked all the places we were interested in. Two Post-it pads later, we began to narrow down the choices. I emailed the hotels & inns that caught our eye on Cape Cod and waited… and waited for their responses. A few days later, our #1 choice came back to us and we were very impressed by their friendliness and professionalism - so we’ve booked a gorgeous king suite overlooking the harbour in Hyannisport for a week. Ken the owner even gave us tips on how to get there from Boston… such a nice man!

Once Cape Cod was booked, we started researching car hire - we don’t need a car in New York, and we’re going to travel to Boston by train (first class!!) so it’s just the Cape Cod part that we need wheels for. Originally we had planned to arrive into Boston, get a cab to the airport & collect a car there for the 2-hour drive to the Cape... but that was a bit of a hassle considering that I’d have to go on the dry on the train - and with a free bar, it wouldn’t really suit me! Anyway, Ken suggested that we get a bus from the train station in Boston to Hyannis - no hassle at all - and collect the car the next day. What a clever man!

Car hire… I checked this out on Expedia and other travel websites and it was reasonable enough but then I decided to check the car hire companies websites directly (just to see) - and it saved us $130! www.thrifty.com was the cheapest of the lot - nearly half the price of Avis and Hertz!

I was on a roll then and decided to try and sort out the accommodation in New York. Now hotels in NYC aren’t the cheapest (especially when you have to add 13.25% tax to the rates… eek!) and I knew that this would eat up a huge chunk of the budget if I wasn’t careful. I had heard about an auction website called www.priceline.com which is very popular in the US. Firstly, you pick your city and the dates you want to travel and then you’re offered a choice of “zones” in the city, next you’re asked to choose a category of hotel (5*, 4* etc), before submitting a bid per night. You enter your credit card details and Priceline goes off to see if any of the hotels on its database will accept your bid. If they do, you pay straight away.

Well, I really struck it lucky on this - I chanced my arm and bid for a 4* hotel anywhere in Manhattan for $110 per night (excl. taxes), expecting the PC to start laughing at me… but it didn’t. We are staying in the Marriott New York Marquis on Broadway (just off Times Square) for €416 - yes, for two of us for FOUR NIGHTS. The standard rate for this hotel works out at about €1100 so we are saving an absolute fortune! The funny thing is that we saw a programme on TV over Christmas about Irish people working in the US and there was a guy who was the manager of the only revolving restaurant in New York. It looked gorgeous & we vowed to go there, even just for a drink…. well the restaurant is called The View, and it’s in the hotel we’re staying at!

All we need to do now is sort out the accommodation in Boston - Priceline is laughing at my bids, but I’ll just persevere!!!! Thank goodness for my trusty credit care, because I needed it to book everything - now we just have to pay it all off before I start the next batch of wedding planning… the Bridesmaids dresses

Take care,

Aoife