The short answer
What is a friendsmoon?
A friendsmoon is the trip a just-married couple takes with their friends, in the days right after the wedding. Everyone has already flown in. Everyone is already together. Nobody wants to go home yet — so the group keeps going for a long weekend.
Some people call it a group honeymoon. Same trip, and this is the one we plan.
What separates it from the other three
- Not the honeymoon
- That one is the two of them. Take this instead — or take both, and put the honeymoon later, once everyone else has gone home.
- Not a bachelor or bachelorette party
- Those are before the wedding, usually split by gender, and behave differently. A friendsmoon is after, mixed, and the couple are in the middle of it rather than being sent off.
- Not the wedding weekend
- The wedding is scheduled to the minute and belongs to everyone who came. This is the part with nothing scheduled, and it belongs to whoever stayed.
What one actually looks like
Two to five nights. One house that sleeps everybody, or hotel rooms on the same floor if the group is pairs rather than a crew. One big day out, one slow one, and a table long enough that nobody eats at a second table.
We have 30 of them written up in the Atlas — real houses, real dinners, real things to do — and 212 destinations where a whole group can actually stay together.
Questions people ask
- What is a friendsmoon?
- A friendsmoon is the trip a just-married couple takes with their friends in the days right after the wedding. Everyone has already flown in, everyone is already together, and nobody wants to go home yet — so the group keeps going for a long weekend. Some people call it a group honeymoon.
- How is it different from a honeymoon?
- A honeymoon is the two of them. A friendsmoon is the whole group, and it runs instead of the honeymoon or before it. Some couples do both — the friendsmoon in the days after the wedding, the honeymoon later when everyone else has gone home.
- Is it the same as a bachelor or bachelorette party?
- No. Those happen before the wedding, usually split by gender, and behave differently. A friendsmoon happens after, includes couples and single friends together, and the married couple is in the middle of it rather than being sent off.
- How long is a friendsmoon?
- Two to five nights. Long enough for one big day out and one slow one, short enough that people can still get home for work — and three is the length this site plans by default.
- Who pays for a friendsmoon?
- Everyone pays their own way, in the ordinary case. The couple are not hosting — they were just married and have usually spent enough. Friendsmoon books nothing and takes no commission: you get a plan and the links, and each person pays each place directly.
- How many people go on a friendsmoon?
- Usually the group that would fit in one house — often eight to sixteen. Past about twenty you are taking two places rather than one, and splitting for anything with a capacity cap, which is a different kind of trip to plan.
- When should you go?
- Immediately after the wedding is the whole point: the flights are already paid for and the people are already in one place. If that is not possible, the next-best version is a long weekend within a few months, while it still feels like part of the wedding.
Build one
Four questions — where, how many of you, how many nights, and whether you are one crew or a set of couples. Then the whole weekend, with the links to go book it yourself.