The Absolute Best Places to Have Your Destination Wedding

Most lists of the best places for a destination wedding are really lists of the prettiest places someone could think of. They’re ranked on photographs, and they tend to include somewhere in the South Pacific that almost nobody actually books.

This one is different, and the difference is the point. These twelve destinations are ranked on our own booking data: where couples working with our Certified Destination Wedding Specialists actually get married, and in what numbers.

Alongside each one, you’ll find what our couples really spend there and how many guests really turn up, which are the two numbers that decide whether a destination works for you. Both come from the same source, and neither is a brochure estimate.

The 12 Best Places for a Destination Wedding

Rank	Destination	Average couple spend	Average guests	Best for
1	Punta Cana, Dominican Republic	$10,768	38	Choice and value together
2	Cancun, Mexico	$9,813	43	Easiest travel for guests
3	Riviera Maya, Mexico	$9,416	39	Lowest average spend
4	Montego Bay, Jamaica	$10,315	33	The shortest airport transfer in Jamaica
5	Cabo San Lucas, Mexico	$11,430	39	Drama and larger guest lists
6	Negril, Jamaica	$11,407	22	Seven Mile Beach and sunsets
7	Puerto Vallarta, Mexico	$10,215	45	Mountains, culture, no sargassum
8	Aruba	$11,812	28	Outside the hurricane belt
9	Costa Rica	$10,025	45	Rainforest and adventure
10	Ocho Rios, Jamaica	$9,595	28	Strong value for the spend
11	St. Lucia	$10,843	15	The most dramatic scenery
12	Riviera Nayarit, Mexico	$9,300	See Mexico average	Best value on the list

These averages reflect real spend data from couples who booked their destination wedding with our Certified Destination Wedding Specialists. They cover the couple’s own costs rather than the whole group’s. 

1. Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Punta Cana is the most-booked destination wedding location we handle, and the reason is that it does everything reasonably well at once. Seven miles of Bávaro Beach lined with resorts, a genuinely competitive market that keeps package prices honest, and an international airport with more direct US routes than most Caribbean islands manage.

Our Punta Cana couples average $10,768 here with 38 guests, which is among the higher attendance figures on this list. That combination of accessibility and price is why it holds the top position. If you want your guest list to actually show up without paying Cabo prices, this is the default answer.

Beyond Bavaro, look at Cap Cana for a quieter luxury enclave, Uvero Alto for a more remote coastline, and Macao for the adults-only properties further north.

2. Cancun, Mexico

Cancun is the easiest arrival in this entire list. Cancun International handles more traffic than any other airport in the region, which means the most flight options and consistently the most competitive fares of any Mexican wedding destination.

At $9,813 average Cancun couples spend with 43 guests, it also comes in below the Mexico-wide average of $10,218. That’s the flight effect showing up in the data, and it’s the single strongest argument for Cancun over anywhere else in Mexico.

The Hotel Zone is dense with modern high-rise all-inclusives. Costa Mujeres, about 25 minutes north, is the newer and quieter cluster, and Isla Mujeres is a short ferry ride away.

3. Riviera Maya, Mexico

The Riviera Maya runs from Puerto Morelos south to Tulum, with Playa del Carmen as its main town, and it carries the lowest average couple spend of any destination on this list at $9,416 with 39 guests.

You’re paying less and getting a considerably more varied landscape than Cancun: jungle running down to the coast, cenotes inland, and Mayan sites within easy reach. It uses the same airport as Cancun, so guest access stays excellent.

One honest caveat. This is the stretch most affected by sargassum seaweed, which drifts onto Caribbean beaches at certain times of year and varies by beach and by season. It’s worth asking about for your specific dates rather than assuming.

4. Montego Bay, Jamaica

Montego Bay‘s advantage is arrival. Sangster International sits minutes from the resort strip, which makes it the shortest transfer of anywhere in Jamaica and one of the shortest on this list. For guests flying in for a long weekend, that difference is real.

Our Montego Bay couples here average $10,315 with 33 guests, which runs slightly above the Jamaican average of 29 and makes it the largest-attendance destination on the island.

Jamaica overall averages $10,440, so Montego Bay sits slightly below the island’s own norm.

5. Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Cabo is the most dramatic landscape in Mexican destination weddings: desert running into the Pacific at Land’s End, the Arch framing more wedding photographs than any other rock formation in the country, and humpback whales offshore from December through April.

It’s also the most expensive wedding destination on this list at $11,430 average couples spend in the wider Los Cabos area, and yet it carries one of the higher guest counts at 39. That’s unusual, and it tells you something: people show up for Cabo despite the cost, largely because direct flights from the West Coast are quick and plentiful.

Worth knowing that many Cabo beaches aren’t swimmable due to surf, so if beach swimming matters to your guests, check the specific property.

6. Negril, Jamaica

Negril gives you Seven Mile Beach and the cliffs of the West End, and a sunset that has a genuine local reputation. Our Negril couples average $11,407 here with 22 guests.

That’s the second-highest spend on the list, and the reason is partly the transfer. Negril is roughly 90 minutes from the Montego Bay airport, which adds cost and trims attendance compared with staying closer in.

Worth it if the West End cliffs are the image you have in your head. There isn’t a substitute for them elsewhere in the Caribbean.

7. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Puerto Vallarta is the one destination on this list where the landscape does something genuinely different. The Sierra Madre mountains come down to Banderas Bay, so your ceremony has mountains behind it and open Pacific in front, and the cobblestone Zona Romantica gives guests a real town to explore rather than a resort strip.

Our Puerto Vallarta couples average $10,215 with 45 guests, the joint-highest attendance on this list. Because this is the Pacific coast, sargassum simply isn’t a factor, which is a meaningful advantage over the Caribbean options if beach conditions worry you.

The coast also faces west, so the sun sets over the water rather than behind you. Your photographer will care about that more than you currently do.

8. Aruba, Caribbean

Aruba carries the highest average couple spend of any destination here: the Aruba couple spends at $11,812, against an average guest count of 28.

Read those together and Aruba looks like the premium pick rather than the intimate one. The strip along Palm Beach and Eagle Beach skews polished and boutique-luxury, so the spend reflects the standard of the properties rather than the size of the celebration, which sits close to the middle of this table. Aruba weddings are well attended. They simply cost more per couple than anywhere else here.

Its other real advantage is sitting outside the hurricane belt, which removes a genuine planning risk between June and November.

9. Costa Rica, Central America

Costa Rica is the pick for couples who want the wedding week to involve more than a beach. Rainforest, volcanoes, and wildlife are all genuinely accessible, and the Guanacaste coast has the resort infrastructure to host the wedding itself properly.

Our Costa Rica couples average $10,025 with 45 guests, the joint-highest attendance on this list, and the wider Central America average is $9,792, so Costa Rica sits marginally above its region.

One timing note our Certified Destination Wedding Specialists raise often: couples fixate on July and August without realising that’s the green season, which is the local term for the rainy season. It’s worth choosing your dates deliberately here.

10. Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Ocho Rios pairs a solid average guest count of 28 with one of the lowest average Ocho Rios couple spends at $9,595. That combination makes it arguably the best value on this entire list.

The setting is the lushest part of Jamaica, with waterfalls and river tubing within easy reach of the resorts, which gives guests something to do beyond the pool. That matters more than couples expect when people are staying most of a week.

The transfer from Montego Bay is around two hours, so factor that in, or check flights into Kingston depending on where your guests are coming from.

11. St. Lucia, Caribbean

St. Lucia has the most dramatic scenery in the Caribbean, and the Pitons are the reason. There’s no equivalent backdrop anywhere else in the region, and photographs taken here are immediately recognisable.

Our St. Lucia couples average $10,843 with 15 guests, the smallest average on this list. That reflects both the harder journey, with fewer direct routes from the US, and the fact that couples drawn to the Pitons are often planning something deliberately intimate.

A strong choice if the setting matters more to you than the headcount.

12. Riviera Nayarit, Mexico

Riviera Nayarit is the coast running north of Puerto Vallarta, taking in Nuevo Vallarta, Punta de Mita, Bahia de Banderas and Sayulita. It shares the Puerto Vallarta airport, so guest access is identical, and the beaches are wider and quieter than those closer to the city.

At an average of $9,300, Riviera Nayarit is genuinely good value, coming in below Puerto Vallarta next door at $10,215 and below the Mexico-wide average of $10,218. You’re paying less for wider, quieter beaches and the same airport.

It’s the answer for couples who like the Puerto Vallarta region but want more space and fewer people around the resort.

What the Data Actually Shows

A few patterns are worth pulling out, because they’re more useful for your decision than any individual ranking.

Resort scale predicts attendance better than price does. The destinations with the deepest inventory of large all-inclusive resorts carry the highest guest counts: Puerto Vallarta and Costa Rica at 45, Cancun at 43, Cabo San Lucas and Riviera Maya at 39. Cabo is the most expensive destination here and still draws large groups, so price plainly isn’t the constraint.

The spread in guest counts is enormous. From 45 in Puerto Vallarta and Costa Rica down to 15 in St. Lucia, a threefold difference. If the size of your wedding matters, choosing the destination is choosing the size, more than almost anything else you’ll decide.

The spend range is narrower than you’d expect. Every wedding destination here falls between $9,300 and $11,812, a gap of around $2,500. Compare that against the roughly $36,000 average for a wedding in the United States, and the more interesting comparison isn’t between these twelve destinations. It’s between all of them and staying home.

Mexico dominates. Five of the twelve are Mexican destinations, and they occupy three of the top three spots for lowest average spend. Volume of resort inventory and cheap flights are doing that work.

How to Choose Between Them

Our Certified Destination Wedding Specialists‘ advice is to pick the destination that suits your actual guest list rather than the one that photographs best. As they put it: don’t expect 100 guests to travel somewhere genuinely far, and save that trip for an anniversary, just the two of you.

In practice, that means working in this order. Start with how many people you want there, because that immediately separates the St. Lucia end of the table from the Puerto Vallarta end. Then look at where those people are flying from, since direct routes still decide whether individual guests can say yes. Then set the budget, knowing the realistic range across all twelve is narrower than most couples assume. Only then choose on scenery.

Doing it the other way round, starting with the photograph, is how couples end up with a beautiful venue and fourteen guests when they wanted forty.

 

Best Places for a Destination Wedding FAQs

What is the best place for a destination wedding?

Punta Cana, based on our own booking data, because it combines a deep choice of resorts, competitive pricing, and strong flight access from the US. Our couples there average $10,768 with 38 guests. Cancun is a close second and comes in cheaper at $9,813, and the Riviera Maya is the lowest average spend of all at $9,416.

What is the cheapest place for a destination wedding?

Among these twelve, Riviera Nayarit at $9,300, followed closely by the Riviera Maya at $9,416, Ocho Rios at $9,595, and Cancun at $9,813. Ocho Rios is arguably the strongest value overall, since it pairs one of the lowest spends with a healthy average guest count of 28.

Which destination wedding location has the most guests attend?

Puerto Vallarta and Costa Rica, both averaging 45 guests, followed by Cancun at 43 and then Cabo San Lucas and Riviera Maya at 39. The main driver is resort scale: wedding destinations with lots of large all-inclusive resorts attract couples planning bigger weddings, while smaller islands are more often chosen for intimate celebrations.

How much does a destination wedding cost on average?

Across these twelve destinations, between $9,416 to $11,812 all in for the couple, covering the wedding package, accommodations, airfare, and add-ons. That’s against a US wedding average of roughly $36,000, which is the comparison most couples find genuinely persuasive.

Which destinations are outside the hurricane belt?

Aruba is the clearest example on this list, which is a real advantage for dates between June and November. Elsewhere, hurricane season is a manageable risk rather than a reason to avoid a destination, but it’s worth discussing your specific dates and taking travel insurance.

Get Ready to Plan Your Destination Wedding

The best place for your wedding isn’t the one at the top of a list. It’s the one that matches how many people you want there, where those people are flying from, and what you’re comfortable spending. The data above is there to make that match obvious rather than to pick for you.

Fill out our online wedding planning form, and one of our Certified Destination Wedding Specialists will compare real costs, flight access, and resort availability across your shortlist!