P. Hughes, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Travelling to a wedding
Invited to a wedding somewhere else in the region? Tell me where you are starting and I will sort the flight, the room and the arrival, so you turn up on the right day in the right place.
Forty people, forty different plans
A wedding abroad is not one trip, it is as many trips as there are guests, leaving from as many places. Left alone, half the group books late and pays double, a few land at an airport four hours from the hotel, and somebody arrives the morning after the wedding.
You do not have to work any of that out. Tell me where you are starting from and which wedding you are going to, and I will come back with what it costs and what you need.
What I sort out for you
You are going to a wedding. You should not need to become an expert in connecting flights to get there.
- Flights from your nearest airport, not just the one the couple flew from
- The room block, the rate and the date it is released
- Connections that actually work, including the ones that need an overnight
- Airport transfers, so nobody lands at 11pm and starts negotiating with a taxi
- What to have ready at immigration, and what a CARICOM passport does and does not get you
- Travelling with children, a wheelchair, or anything that needs arranging in advance
Flying from where you actually live
The couple's flight is rarely your flight. These are the departure points most guests use, and the ones where the details catch people out.
- Port of Spain, TrinidadPOS
Piarco. The busiest departure point in the southern Caribbean.
- Kingston, JamaicaKIN
Norman Manley. Check which one your ticket says before you drive.
- Montego Bay, JamaicaMBJ
Sangster. Often the cheaper of the two, and four hours from Kingston.
- Bridgetown, BarbadosBGI
Grantley Adams. The best-connected hub in the Eastern Caribbean.
- Georgetown, GuyanaGEO
Cheddi Jagan. Allow for the drive out to Timehri.
- St. George's, GrenadaGND
Maurice Bishop.
- Castries, Saint LuciaSLU / UVF
Two airports. UVF is the long-haul one and is well south of the capital.
- St. John's, AntiguaANU
V.C. Bird. A common connecting point for the smaller islands.
Starting somewhere that is not on this list, including outside the region? That is fine, and common. Tell me the city and I will work it out from there.
If this is your wedding
Send your guests here
Chasing your own guest list is the part of a wedding abroad nobody warns you about. I take the travel side off you so you can get on with the rest of it.
- One room block, negotiated as a group rather than forty separate bookings
- A single travel page you send to everyone, so you stop answering the same question
- Guests grouped by departure city, so people travelling together actually travel together
- A booking deadline everyone knows about before the rate goes
What guests ask
Does it cost me anything to book through Jo?
No more than booking it yourself.* You pay the fare and the room rate. Where a group booking gets a better rate than the public one, that is the rate you get.
The couple sent me a link. What do I do with it?
That is the room block: a set of rooms held at an agreed rate until a set date. Book inside that date and you get the rate and you are in the same place as everyone else. Leave it late and the rooms go back to the hotel, usually at a higher price.
Do I need a visa for the wedding country?
It depends on your passport and where you are going. A CARICOM passport gets you into other CARICOM countries easily, but easily is not the same as automatically, and it is different again if you hold a passport from outside the region. Tell me where you are starting and where you are headed and I will tell you what applies to you.
Can I add a few days on either side?
Yes, and it is often cheaper to. Flying in a day early or out a day late can move you off the expensive flights everyone else is on. Say so when you book and I will price both.
I am travelling with children. Does anything change?
Usually yes. Some countries want a birth certificate for a child even inside CARICOM, and a child travelling with only one parent can need a letter from the other. Flag it early rather than at the counter.
What if I book and then cannot go?
That depends on the fare and the hotel's own terms, which differ from one booking to the next. I will tell you what yours are before you pay, so the answer is not a surprise later.
* About pricing
We make every effort to get you a final cost as close as possible to what you would have paid booking it yourself, and on group bookings we can often get you below it. What we cannot do is control everything that moves a price.
Airlines and hotels change their fares constantly, and they do not show the same fare to everyone. What appears on your screen can differ from what appears on ours depending on where you are browsing from, which currency you are quoted in, the device you are using and the browsing history stored on it. Promotional rates, loyalty discounts and member-only fares are sometimes offered to you personally and cannot be applied to a booking made on your behalf. Taxes, fuel surcharges, resort fees and local levies are set by the supplier and by the destination, and they change without notice.
So we quote you the best we can find, we tell you what is included before you pay, and if you find the same thing cheaper we will say so rather than talk you out of it. You are always free to book it yourself.
What it costs
$100
Booking your own travel to a wedding costs you nothing beyond the fare, so just get in touch. The $100 consultation is for couples planning the wedding itself, and it comes off the booking if you go ahead.