Planning our Honeymoon

(Above) Beautiful View from Mt Hakodate, one of our destinations in Hakodate

Gayle and myself are looking forward to our planned honeymoon at the end of this year. We didn't have time to go for a honeymoon since we were preoccupied with our customary wedding dinner preparations and the renovation of our apartment last year in Nov - Dec 2007. It was also prudent since our savings had been depleted by expenses for our ROM reception, wedding dinner and apartment renovation. Thus, we decided to postpone our honeymoon till end this year in December so that we can really splurge on ourselves if we need to. As both of us are fans of Japanese stuff and gourmet, we were uanimous in choosing Japan as our honeymoon destination, in particular - Hokkaido for seafood and winter activities and Tokyo for shopping and more eating.

We went to Prime Travel located at Hong Leong Building, 16 Raffles Quay #B1-14D ( Tel 62214250). They are a travel agency specializing in Japan, with a wide range of contacts in Japan. Our experience with them was a very professional and helpful one. We were served by a senior sales rep by the name of Ms Elaine Tang who patiently sat down with us for over 2 hours to discuss and map out our planned itinerary. She was very helpful in suggesting activities, feasibility of planned routes and was never pushy about any packages. In fact, she actually enquired on our budget and helped us fit in accomodation and air travel ticketing within the allocated budget.

(Above) Shinjuku , Tokyo , the hip place to go !

We selected a free and easy package with accomodation and air ticketing booked through the agency so that we can focus more on the itinerary of the trip. In general, with respect to our itinerary within Hokkaido, we would take a JAL flight from Singapore to Osaka Kansai and then take a domestic JAL flight from Osaka Kansai to Hakodate, Southern Hokkaido.

Fresh Sashimi !

We are planning to start at Hakodate because it is the place for Japanese seafood, sashimi, sushi since it is a port city. We will spend 2 nights there before heading to Noboribetsu, which is the hot spring resort capital of Hokkaido for a night's stay. We booked a hot spring package which includes a stay at the hotel, a hot spring experience and a personal full course Japanese dinner set for two, just for the experience for SGD$450 a night.

We will then take a JR train to Sapporo where we will spend 3 nights there. on the 4th day morning, we will take a domestic JAL flight from Sapporo Chitose airport to Tokyo Haneda airport. We will then spend 4 nights in Tokyo before flying back to Singapore. We booked the evening flight so that it gives us at least an extra half day in Tokyo.

Our customised free and easy travel package covers accomodation for two for a total of 10 nights plus air tickets for two for a return flight via JAL from Singapore to Osaka and from Tokyo back to Singapore inclusive of a dosmestic JAL flight from Osaka to Hokkaido and from Hokkaido to Tokyo costs us SGD$5300.

We will be sharing more details on our planned itinerary in future posts.