The Cost & Logistics of a (Almost) Month Long Honeymoon in Nepal & Bali

I think I’ve briefly touched upon our honeymoon, but I haven’t gone into detail about where we are going, and how much it costs.

I get a lot of weird looks when I tell people that J and I are going to Nepal for our honeymoon.

I’ll admit that it’s an unusual choice for a honeymoon, especially being that neither of us has ever left the continent, but the tickets are booked and we’ll be on our way in less than a month.

We struggled, at first, with deciding where to honeymoon. We both knew we wanted to go on a trip after the wedding to celebrate our successful wedding and the green beginnings of our marriage. Even so, we had differing opinions on where to go.

The discussion and decision were made on the same night: the night we tasked ourselves with booking something – anything – to guarantee our departure. We feared that if we didn’t make a decision, we’d put it off until we were married and ticketless, acting as if nothing significant had just happened back there.

“Italy?” I suggested, picturing myself knee deep in pasta. J declined. “Jamaica?” He asked, but was quickly shot down. “I actually want to travel. See some of the world, not just a resort.”

We let it settle between us, as I picked up my laptop. “Let’s see if there are any deals”.

After a few Google searches, I looked up at J over the top of my MacBook Air with a proposal:

“Let’s hike for 10 days in a third world country.”

Maybe it was the wine, but it was settled.

We would start in Kathmandu, spend two days exploring the city, then head off to Pohkara to begin a 10 day trek through part of the Annapurna circuit. After a short stay at Chitwan National Park at the tail end of the trek, we’ll circle back to Kathmandu where we’ll stay for an additional two glorious days before hopping on a flight to the next leg of our trip: Bali.

Choosing Bali was easy. After two weeks at the tail end of monsoon season in the Himalayas, J and I knew we’d need an actual honeymoon. One where we can shed the altitude sickness, water purification tablets and hiking boots for sun, beaches, and culture.

Don’t get me wrong, we are both ecstatic to be going on such an epic adventure during our first time out of the country as a married couple. I suspect that hiking for two weeks with few creature comforts will be a great relationship builder. Even so, rest and relaxation is just what the doctor ordered after the intense strain of a DIY out of town wedding and the stress of starting a new job.

Being that we will be in Asia, a heavy emphasis on the culture was important to me. I’m not somebody who can lie on the beach for more than a day of my travels, as I tend to get bored. While we wanted something close to a beach so that we could soak in that beach culture and of course relax, we also sought entertainment. Bali fit the bill.

Luckily, Bali is also dirt cheap to visit, if you play your cards right.

10 Nights, $214 and No Hostels

I’ve never stayed in a hostel, so I don’t have much to say about them except for that they probably aren’t honeymoon appropriate.

Or maybe they are, but we didn’t consider staying in hostels on ours. Turns out that our budget is none the wiser, because we managed to score 10 nights of great, comfortable accommodation for $21.40 per night, all fees and taxes included. Plus airport pickup.

When I say comfortable accommodation, I mean a queen or king sized bed, large, clean bathroom, near or at the beach or other attractions, including a pool and hot tub. I would say we did pretty well for ourselves.

How did we manage to snag a deal like that?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you’ll have heard of AirBNB. I’ve used AirBNB extensively before, with stays around North America but never have I snapped up such an amazing deal.

I suspect we are going at the right time, AirBNB hasn’t caught on over there as much, and Bali is just cheap in general. I’d never stay in a hotel again, unless I managed to get the room for free. AirBNB offers great deals that you just can’t get through a hotel.

AirAsia for $250 flights

Where Europe has amazing country hopper flight deals with small, inexpensive airlines like Ryan Air, Asia isn’t so lucky. At least, I didn’t find any of those incredibly cheap flight deals.

I did, however, find out about AirAsia by asking around, and found two flights from Kathmandu to Bali (THV to DPS) for $250 apiece. We booked fairly early (almost a year early, actually) so we got a great deal.

We opened an American Express Gold Rewards card so we could get this flight for free, but since we got such a good deal on the flight and we plan on doing  a substantial amount of travel in the near future, we left our points to accumulate for the next flight.

The Cost of the Trek

Being that neither of us have ever been to Nepal, let alone off of the continent, we hired a guide and porter for the trek. At $899 each, it includes our accommodations at tea houses during the trek, and our stay in Chitwan National Park, including food and transportation to and from Pohkara. We probably could have just hired a porter for far cheaper, but it will be nice to have a guide. Plus, as an inexperienced international traveller, hopefully it will better equip me for the next time I’m travelling.

Flights to Nepal, From Bali

We lucked out and got really affordable flights; instead of using our rewards points we saved those for another time and instead booked really early and took advantage of the lower prices.

All together, it cost just under $1,600 for the both of us to fly out of YVR, into KTM, and them from DPS to YVR.

We’ll be gone for a half of September and almost half of October, and we could have certainly gone on a cheaper vacation instead of a month long adventure to different corners of Asia, but I think it will be the perfect trip to kick off our marriage.