This site has to be one of my favorite wanderlusting websites. What is it? It’s the list of Starwood Preferred Category 2 hotels (Usually Four Points by Sheraton, which are very nice) – hotels and resorts around the world that you can stay at for 3000-4000 Starpoints a night.
Yeah, that means nothing to you until you know what Starpoints are. Don’t worry – they have nothing to do with Star Wars or Star Trek… you’ll have to go to a different blog for that. Starpoints are the loyalty currency of Starwood Hotels’ Starwood Preferred Guest program.
Again, it still means nothing until you know how to get them. Well, the traditional method would be to stay at Starwood Hotels – they’ll add them to your account for each night you stay… but that’s painfully slow when there are places in British Columbia, Italy, and China that you are dying to visit.
Now, get excited because there is an easier way. Every dollar you spend on the Starwood Preferred Credit Card gets you a Starpoint – meaning that for every 3-4000 in spending you have, you’ve got a free night. More often than not, people make purchases on debit cards and with checks that could be put on a card and paid off immediately. We don’t recommend making any purchases on credit cards that you wouldn’t otherwise make.
It’s about to get even better… If you’re like me, that sounds great, but I’m more impatient than that. I don’t want to wait until I spend all that money until I can go and do some amazing things. The American Express Starwood Card is offering a total of 25,000 bonus points after meeting the $5000 spending requirement in the first 6 months of having the card. Yeah, quick math says you’ll be staying 6-9 nights right off the bat with this beauty.
Our wanderlust-invocation wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t see this effort through with a proper taste of just what you could do with 30k Starpoints (25 bonus + 5 for spending).
Now, how about a three-country tour of Southeast Asia without paying a single dollar, dong, riel, or baht in hotel costs?
Photo from Wikipedia.com
Vietnam – Sheraton Hanoi Hotel
- Catch a show at the Hanoi Opera House.
- See Vietnamese Pagodas.
- Enjoy authentic “pho” – a delicious noodle soup.
- Stop in on historic Vietnamese war sites.
The pool at the Le Meridien Resort
- Tour the historic ruins of the Angkor Wat temple.
- See countless other temples in the area.
- Visit the floating villages.
- Try out the royal bathing pools at Sras Srang.
Thailand – Le Meridien Chiang Rai Resort
Photo from thailandcitytrip.com
- Ride an elephant in the jungle mountains.
- See the incredible White Temple.
- Swim in the Khun Kon Waterfall.
- Enjoy $4 hour-massages.
Ummm… yeah, you’re thinking what we’re thinking. If you want to look into the American Express Starwood Card, check out the following link. As always, if you don’t mind using our links when you actually apply, we’ll make a little commission to help keep us inspiring you with travel tips.
This looks like a lot of fun! The $4/hour massages sound great! Now I will just have to find a way to get there inexpensively.