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Plan for the trip’s expenses. Budget and save for all of the expenses. Pack passports if you are traveling abroad. Plan for your dependents. Make transportation plans.

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A romantic getaway will most likely entail a number of different expenses. Planning for these expenses ahead of time will help make it go more smoothly. Your main expenses will be travel, lodging, food, and entertainment.  As you start to plan the trip, take note of how much each part will cost. You need to plan for travel expenses, which could be gas money, bus or plane tickets, or a rental car. A hotel, cabin, cottage or some other housing rental may be one of the larger expenses. Once you have the destination in mind, you can compare various options based on price. If you specifically want a certain accommodation, you can compare different locations that have that accommodation. The other main expense will be food and entertainment. On trips, you may have to eat at restaurants for most of your meals. You may plan a vacation package which includes entertainment, or you may need to plan that separately and include those expenses. It is also possible to take food to cook if the place you are staying has a kitchen you can use, which can save money. You can plan low-cost or free entertainment like parks, museums, sightseeing, or relaxing at the beach. Most trips are going to cost at least a couple hundred dollars. If you can save for a month or two, this will make it easier. Spending lots of money can bring tension into a relationship, so being careful about money is important.  As you are planning and you determine the range of money you would need for the various trip options, consider your income and what trip options you can realistically afford. Travel is most likely an unavoidable expense, but you can find ways to reduce the money spent on other options. You could plan for some cheap meals or buying food for sack lunches part of the time. Talking about money usually isn’t romantic and is one of the biggest sources of tension in a relationship. If you can have a plan for most of the money aspects, you can make it more romantic by not worrying about it during the trip. If you really want the whole trip to be a surprise, avoid using credit cards for which your partner could see the bill or spending from a joint bank account. It seems simple, but in the planning of a big surprise you may end up forgetting your passports. Your trip will be ruined or significantly delayed if you don’t have your passports.  If you have not traveled in a long time, you may need to get passports updated ahead of time. Your partner may not have a passport, so this is a detail you’ll have to work out. You may be able to casually encourage them to get a passport just in case they need it someday, since you know they will definitely need it. For example, you could say something like, “I would really like to visit Greece over the Christmas holiday, could we go ahead and get our passports early?” You can use a holiday or specific vacation time that is coming up to revolve the trip around. If you have kids or pets, you need to plan ahead for having them taken care of. If kids are teenagers, maybe you can realistically leave them home alone. Pets that can be self-sufficient may be fine for a couple days. Otherwise, you need to find a sitter who can stay at your house or will let them stay at their house.  You know your pets, so you know how much attention they need. You may be able to get a friend or family member to stop by your house a couple times a day. If your pet needs more attention, you may need to get someone to stay at your house while you are gone. For your kids, you may have to pay a sitter to stay are your house. You may also be able to ask a favor of a family member or friend to save money. You may be driving yourself to your destination, but if not, you need to make sure to plan specifically how you’ll get there. You may arrange for a driver, buy bus tickets, or purchase plane tickets.  Make sure you make these arrangements well in advance so you ensure you can get to where you need to go. How far you are traveling will have a significant impact on transportation options. If you are going out of the country, flying is most likely your only option.