How can you plan a honeymoon on a budget?

The two indices and how we used them

Eurostat's dataset prc_ppp_ind publishes price level indices with the EU27 average set to 100. We took the category labelled restaurants and hotels for 2024. The dataset page shows its data last updated in July 2025. It covers 36 countries, including several non-EU states. A value of 75 means the category costs about three quarters of the EU27 average, once converted at market exchange rates.

The World Bank series PA.NUS.PRVT.PLI is the price level index for households and non-profit institutions' final consumption expenditure, with the United States as the base of 100. We read it through the Bank's API in October 2026, where the source was listed as last updated on 13 July 2026, and found 2024 values for 171 economies. The two scales are not comparable with each other: one is anchored on the EU27 and one on the United States, and they cover different baskets.

Within each table the rows are our selection. We picked places that many couples consider for a honeymoon, spread over coasts, islands and regions, and then read their values. We did not choose them for being the cheapest, and several economies score lower than our picks.

Europe: where the restaurants-and-hotels index is lower

Across the 36 countries, the lowest restaurants-and-hotels values in 2024 are North Macedonia at 49.5, Albania at 52.3 and Bulgaria at 53.2. The highest are Switzerland at 170.8, Iceland at 167.3 and Denmark at 147.6. Our rows sit between: Portugal is at 75.5, Spain at 83.9, Greece at 86.4 and Croatia at 95.4, the last just under the EU average.

For couples, the useful reading is the gap between neighbours on the same sea. Albania and Montenegro are on the Adriatic like Croatia, yet the table puts Albania at 52.3 and Croatia at 95.4, a difference of more than 40 points. Within the EU, Bulgaria is the lowest at 53.2. Portugal is the cheapest of our western rows by this measure. See Albania and Portugal for what we list.

Eurostat's category is the closest to visitor spending of the two indices, but it measures prices of restaurants and hotels for everyone, not tourist-district prices or seasonal peaks. Turkiye is a useful reminder: its restaurants-and-hotels figure is 68.9, which is not far from the other rows, while its World Bank household figure is far lower, at 38.3 in 2024.

Beyond Europe: the World Bank household index

The World Bank table has a different shape, because it compares household consumption with the United States. Sri Lanka is at 29.0 and Vietnam at 29.6, in the lowest 25 of 171 economies. Thailand is at 30.9, Indonesia at 32.2, Cambodia at 36.3 and Colombia at 37.9. Further up, Mauritius is at 42.9 and Mexico at 59.0.

The Maldives is at 61.4 and Costa Rica at 63.7, about double the Vietnam and Thailand values, and close to Spain's 63.7 on the same World Bank scale (rounded values). That is why this index suits country shortlists more than island-by-island comparisons: it averages the whole country. Our pages on Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Bali list the stays we hold in those places.

How stable are the numbers?

The World Bank index divides a purchasing-power factor by the market exchange rate, so currency moves shift it even when shop prices barely change. Turkiye is the clearest case in the data we read: 29.4 in 2022, 32.4 in 2023, 38.3 in 2024 and 45.0 in 2025. Japan went from 99.7 in 2021 to 65.7 in 2024 and 69.0 in 2025.

Other countries barely move. Mexico stays between 54.7 and 59.1 over five years. For a honeymoon booked months ahead, the lesson is to treat a country's index as a position on a moving scale, and to check the exchange rate for the month you travel.

Timing: rain patterns at four stations

A cheaper index does not mean the weather suits your dates. The table below shows the lowest-rain and wettest months at four stations in countries covered above, taken from national normals on the WMO World Weather Information Service. Colombo, in the 1961 to 1990 normals, has two months under 75 mm (January and February) and three months above 365 mm; Hanoi's rain peaks in July and August.

We have no official series for how hotel or flight prices move by month, so we make no claim that a wetter month is cheaper. If your wedding date is fixed, use the table to see what the weather is likely to be, then compare quotes for the dates you actually need. Our wider climate page for honeymoon destinations uses the same method for nine other places.

What these indices leave out

Neither index prices a flight. For a honeymoon far from home, the fare can outweigh a month of local costs, and it is not captured in a household or restaurant-and-hotel index. Neither covers guided tours, park fees, diving or spa packages, which can make up much of the spending in low-index destinations. And both measure national averages, so a well-known resort can sit well above its country's figure.

The Bank's own programme page, read in October 2026, lists the 2021 International Comparison Program round, released in May 2024, as its latest benchmark, and mentions extrapolated GDP purchasing-power factors for 2022 and 2023. We did not find a method note for the 2024 and 2025 values in this series, so treat them as estimates built on that benchmark. Use the indices to decide which countries to research, then price your own dates.

Practical ways a couple can lower the bill

Without a published price series for trips, the sound levers are the ones the data does support. Choose a lower-index country; pick a date in a lower-rain stretch so outdoor plans are not lost to weather; and consider a longer stay in one base instead of several short hops. Our guide to whether serviced apartments are cheaper long term explains when a longer booking changes the maths.

A kitchen lets you cook some meals, which can matter most where food markets are priced for residents. Our guide to cooking in an aparthotel kitchen covers what to expect, and aparthotels for couples covers the other trade-offs. The table of our own data below is sorted by median nightly price, lowest first, for the countries on this page. It reflects what we list, not a market-wide average.

Limits of this page

This page does not rank honeymoon destinations, estimate a total cost, or check anything about safety, health or entry rules. For entry rules, use each country's official immigration website; for safety, read your government's travel advice for the dates. Index positions are statistics for 2024, and we describe each as a position among the countries the source covers, not as an endorsement.

Where we compare a value across years, it is the series as the World Bank published it in July 2026; later revisions may change the figures. We left out countries whose values we could not read in the data, and we did not use any forum or crowd-sourced price site.