Go Somewhere: Volume 10

Happy black Friday! Guess what - I’m not selling you anything. Just giving.

I’m ashamed to say I missed last week’s newsletter. We were in Rome, and my whole family was SICK. Like, really sick.

I missed you all dearly. I’m back now, and excited to share some things I learned on my first international trip with a toddler.

My goal is to continue to inspire you to go somewhere and show you how to do it for less money.

I got this message last week.

This is literally my dream. To inspire people to book trips. Let’s keep it going!

The thing my mom taught me I thought everyone knew

I flew Chicago to Rome last weekend at 6:30pm. We got to the airport at 4.

We flew a budget airline, so they didn’t provide dinner.

I was traveling with two other couples

I suggested we get Chipotle and take it through security. Everyone said, “What? You can’t do that?”

All of a sudden I was confused. My mom always brought warm food through security growing up, so I googled it.

Well, you totally can. My frequent flier friend never knew that - so I’m passing it on here.

Don’t buy airport food.

Pack yummy food in a disposable container, or get something on the way to the airport and take it through security. You save SO much money and time.

Security will not stop you.

Airport food is the biggest waste of money in the world - don’t let them get you.

Go to the Carribean this winter for 20k points RT

One of the best airlines to take you to the Carribean is American Airlines.

I have found a ton of availibity at super low rates on aa.com for flights from Florida and the midwest to Aruba, Curaco, Bonaire, Dominican Republic, St. Lucia, Antigua, and many more places for 10k points or less one way.

Taxes and fees will be about $80.

This is an insane deal. And it’s during peak season.

Now I know what you’re thinking.

I don’t have any AAdvantage miles.

Same bro, but I’m going to Bonaire in January.

Here’s what you need to know:

• British Airways partners with American.

• Every major bank card transfers to British Airways.

• Most of these flights I’m finding on aa.com should be available via British Airways.

• You can use BA avios to book these insane deals if you have points with Chase, Capital One, Citi, or Amex.

Want some receipts?

If you kids don’t book this I will be disappointed.

Again, you won’t find all of these on British Airways, but you should find most of them.

We went to Rome

I just got back from my first Europe trip with my family! It was a success. Though we did get quite sick…

I wanted to share some details with you all.

• Flights: $380 RT each (IcelandAir), covered by Capital One points.

  • I can’t say enough good things about IcelandAir! They were so accommodating to us.

• Lodging: Free - we stayed at a local Catholic seminary where we have friends.

• Transporation: We spent about $200 total on taxis. It was totally worth the price for the convenience, especially staying pretty far from the city center.

• Food: We ate eggs each morning, had a simple meat & cheese lunch, and went out to dinner each night. For my wife and I to get dinner/dessert, we averaged about $55 per night on food.

• Other costs: We spent about $80 on tickets to different things, $25 on train tickets, and a little bit on some shopping.

  • Overall, I felt like we were able to comfortably spend what we wanted and not worry about money. We had slowly saved up $1k to spend on the trip over the past year. We did not spend nearly that much.

A few cool pics: 

I love travel. I can’t wait to help you guys travel more, for less.