$2400 in Flight Vouchers on the way to Costa Rica

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Brad Christensen

Three years ago, I planned a quick 6-day Costa Rica getaway.  I had been campaigning for a city council election and the idea was to celebrate a victory and reward Nicole for dozens of hours of selfless mothering while I knocked doors night after night.  Nicole got her reward, but unfortunately we didn’t get to celebrate a victory – I came up 14 votes shy. (Don’t ever let anyone tell you your vote doesn’t count).

But let me tell you, the trip was salve for my soul.  We’ve given you an itinerary for “Eight Great Days in Costa Rica,” and take every opportunity to urge friends and followers to plan a trip and make it happen.  You see, Costa Rica has a way of permeating your mind from the moment you first experience it.  On that trip we brought along our friends, Spencer and Brittney, and they were enthralled.

Jungle Villa in Costa Rica

As excited as they were with the waterfall hikes through dense jungle, the thrilling surfing waves, and the delicious food, there was something about staying in a 6 bedroom jungle estate for a fraction of what you’d expect to pay that really stuck with them.

So when later we explained the concept of using credit cards responsibly to build up a stockpile of frequent flyer miles, you can imagine that they were also similarly thrilled.

Our family trip to Colombia was an inspiration to them, and within 6 months they were booked to Uruguay with less than $300 out of pocket – thanks to loads and loads of American Airlines AAdvantage miles from the Citibank AAdvantage cards.  They had a great time exploring the wonders of Uruguay and living like locals – something you can read about on their Uruguay Blog.

Now, unable to escape the Costa Rican infatuation, Spence and Brittney are embarked on another adventure – a family trip to the jungle and ocean paradise.  Booking travel is always exciting… you get a little adrenaline rush as you anticipate the wonders you’ll discover – but add the element of booking flights with frequent flyer miles and you get a kind of “bank-robber-adrenaline-rush.”

That’s all great, but every once in a while, it gets even better.  You know about airlines overbooking flights to account for people who don’t show up, right?  And do you know about the magical “bump” fairy who sometimes visits WorldWanderlusting flyers when they’re en route to amazing destinations to give them big travel vouchers to fuel future flight fantasies? Well that’s exactly what happened to our friends Spence and Brittney.  Go ahead and let your jaw drop as you read this Facebook post.

The “Bump” fairy visits!

Oh yes, that’s for real.  Next year’s epic vacation costs are already covered – and they’ll get miles when they travel!  I’ll admit that I have a little bit of envy.  It’s a healthy envy, though, the kind that will inspire me.  Now that’s nice… being inspired by the people who we inspired in the first place… we love WorldWanderlusting with you!

 

 

 

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Quick Trip to Vegas

Posted on November 2, 2012 by wpengine

It got dropped on me yesterday that I’m headed to Vegas for the next five days!!  Can’t wait for some 80’s because this Idaho winter is already starting to wear on me and it has barely begun.

We won’t be spending too much time in the casinos, because that wouldn’t fit the mold for two brother who are cheaper than most people you know.  The objective is to always get the trips for free, not to make them cost any more than initially expected.  That is exactly why we won’t spend too much time enjoying them.

Fortunately this trip will also be free, and we won’t be spending any miles to make the trip either.  Our trip is covered, so we don’t have to pay for anything, but we won’t have a lot of freedom either.  We also won’t accrue points for stays and riding the greyhound doesn’t earn points either.

The reason for our trip is to remind people to get out and vote.I love traveling to other countries, but I really do love America. There are two different directions in which the candidates want to take this country. Please study the issues and choose the person who will make America great. Remember to vote on November 6th!!

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Travel Secrets Seminar in Idaho Falls

Posted on October 31, 2012 by wpengine

Yes, Idaho Falls.  It’s where we live.  It’s our inspiration for travel.  When the wind whips and whirls, and sub-zero temperatures continue for week upon week, that’s when it really hits us.  We need out.  And you do too.

If you happen to live nearby, we’d love to have you attend our our first ever Travel Secrets Seminar on the night of Wednesday November 7th from 7:30PM-9:00PM.

It will be held at Billman’s in Ammon, Idaho at 2565 E 17th St, Ammon, Idaho. Although the appetizers will be good, the information and inspiration will be even better.   We’ll also have iPhone cases and Universal Travel Adapters as door prizes.

Map to Billmans

Breaking the mold can be tough for someone who has never been a WorldWanderluster. We’ll dispel all of the myths and give you the facts. By the end of the night you’ll be drooling at the thought of taking a big trip with very little in out-of-pocket costs. This meeting is for anyone who has a thirst to travel the world. Invite a travel buddy, bring your spouse, whatever it takes  – as long as you come. If you attend, we’ll guarantee you’ll be making a free trip to an exotic location within a year.

Our presentation is designed to infect you with wanderlust.  If you are just getting started, we will ignite the kindling.  If you’ve already got a bad case, we’ll add fuel to the fire. Our stories of travel will inspire you to take the leap and allow the sickness to set in.

Bring a laptop, your questions, doubts, and concerns and we’ll answer your questions and resolve your doubts.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS and RSVP on our Facebook Event Page for the Travel Secrets Seminar next Wednesday the 7th of November at 7:30pm.

Want us to do a seminar in your area?  Comment below!

Oh the places you’ll go…

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Meeting Minimum Spending Requirements: Vanilla Reload Cards

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Brad Christensen

Our blog is about travel.  That’s our passion.  We love it.  We live it.  When I start to think about the moments that will flash before my eyes before I die… most of them will come from our travels.  I know this isn’t the case for everyone.  There are people who dread the thought of airplanes, different cultures and strange foods.  I crave it, though… ok, I more than crave it… I yearn for it.  I obsess about it.

Normally it wouldn’t be as possible as it is for us.  Travel tends to be expensive if you do it in the traditional ways, but we’ve gone beyond that.  We are travel hackers – we scour for opportunities to amass large stacks of frequent flier miles that we can greedily count like Scrooge McDuck.

Crystal Maiden Cave in Belize

The old-fashioned way to do it is to spend on travel=point credit cards – a dollar at a time… hardly amounting to a free ticket a year.  [disdainful scoff] Well that just doesn’t cut it.  There are six in my family and I’m not content with a family vacation once every six years.  So, that leaves the “Massive-mile-bonus” method of piling up bonuses with new credit card approvals – the subject of most of our “travel tips for cost-conscientious wanderlusters.”  This is great, and as I’ve mentioned, we’ve done some amazing things this way – from taking my whole family to Colombia for $574 to the $261 Panama trip we have planned for January.

But now we’ve got a little hybrid opportunity for you – and this is a good one.  We’ve extolled the virtues of the Chase Ultimate Reward Program – what I see as the most versatile (and thereby valuable) form of travel points.  We’ve told you how you can transfer points to their various travel partners – Marriott, United Airlines, Southwest, and British Airways – just to name a few.  And we’ve told you about the Chase Ink Bold Business card, a card which has many benefits – one of which is the 5x point bonus for dollars spent at office supply stores.

But you can only spend so much money in an office supply store, right? Yes, right… kind of… Now here’s where this gets interesting – most Office Depot stores sell Vanilla Reloadable prepaid credit cards.  What this means is that you can get 5x points on almost everything you can buy.  There’s a maximum of $2500 you can load on the card at a time – but let’s just say you load $1000 a month for your general expenses.  At 5,000 points a month, you’re pulling down 60k UR points a year!  And those things can really take you places.

The Ink Bold® Business Card card tends to be a little intimidating for people – though it offers 25k UR points on first purchase, the other 25k bonus points don’t come until you spend $10k on the card within the first three months.  That’s at least $3400 a month – something that can be a tall order for most people.  The real power here, though, lies in getting the card, getting the bonus, and getting the ongoing extra bonus.  There’s just no better way to get bang for your buck. This is the best business credit card around.

As with any of these ideas, once you start to abuse it, you’ll put yourself in jeopardy of losing the benefits, so tread lightly and try not to be too anxious like getting a Vanilla Reloadable Card and then immediately purchasing money orders – a sure sign that your intent is to abuse, not to use.  The basic rule is, don’t overdo it… but do it.

If you’re thinking you’d like to start taking advantage of the free travel opportunities that come with credit card bonuses, maybe you’re worried about it hurting your credit, or maybe you need help meeting spending requirements. Check in on these posts and keep following WorldWanderlusting.  The bottom line is that you can make excuses or you can make memories.

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Travel Map Video: Free Hotels in European Vacation with Marriott and Chase

Posted on October 24, 2012 by wpengine

This is how you use hotel points that you earn from a credit card to take a free vacation. This portion being shown here is how to use the Marriott Rewards program to stay in nice hotels in Czech Republic, Austria, and Italy.

Travel Map Video

Everyone has dreamed about taking a trip to the filming location of “The Sound of Music.” I haven’t even seen the movie, but just the pictures on the cover of the movie make me want to go there right NOW! It was filmed partially outside of Salzburg, which is also the birthplace of Mozart, whose masterpieces still stand the test of time.

Switzerland, Italy, and Austria were really blessed with impressive mountains. This trip is going to take you through some of the most beautiful parts of the Alps. It also reminds me of the old “Ricola” commercials where they have the long horns that lay on the ground with beautiful mountains in the background. You all know what I’m talking about. You’ve seen those wonderful commercials and you’ll never forget how beautiful it looked. Take a trip there now and you won’t pay a thing thanks to the Marriott Rewards.

Venice is another part of this trip that will definitely tickle your fancy. I was shocked when I learned about two years ago that Venice is an island. I knew it had lots of canals, but ashamedly thought it was just on the coast. I’d be impressed if you also knew that the island was made from a marshy swamp a couple of miles off the coast. The Venetians sought refuge from Barbarians after Rome fell, and drove pylons into the marsh and built a city on top of the wood. Now you might be able to see how the city would be sinking, because it was built on silt, not on a firm foundation.

Learn more about these locations, plan your trip, and head out in the Spring for a trip of a lifetime. This Marriott Rewards Premier Credit Card will help you to realize your dreams and to take the trip of a lifetime to Europe!

Make sure that you apply through our links here with WorldWanderlusting as it helps us to keep bringing this information to you. Like us on Facebook and Subscribe to our Youtube Channel.

 

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Free Place to Stay on a Trip to see the Wonders of Istanbul

Posted on October 21, 2012 by Brad Christensen

WorldWanderlusting operates under the simple premise that travel need not be expensive.  Don’t get us wrong, you can spend thousands of dollars on ill-prepared, unimaginative travel – and plenty of people do.  We just prefer to prepare and be imaginative – something that has a tendency to equate to incredible headlines like the one that brought you here.

Photo Courtesy Wikipedia

We’ve raved to you about the flexibility of Chase’s Ultimate Rewards – the points accumulation program which invokes some reverence and a solemn bow from those of us who study these things.  It is the flexibility that makes these points so valuable.

For instance, you want to go to Istanbul (no, this isn’t a hypothetical, you do want to go to Istanbul).  Why do you want to go to Istanbul?  Well, to start with, this is a city that has been called  by three different names in the past two millennia – Byzantium, Constantinople, and now Istanbul… if that doesn’t create intrigue, let me tell you about Hagia Sophia.

Hagia Sophia has been an Eastern Orthodox cathedral, a Catholic cathedral, an Ottoman mosque, and a museum in its 1500 year lifetime. The marble and mosaic mecca is a cornerstone of history in a city that has been a central stage for the better part of the history of the globe.  The dome in the building’s center rises more than 180 feet and would seem surreal even without the small arched windows that illuminate it in such a way as to give the impression that the roof is floating.

Photo Courtesy Wikipedia

If Istanbul still lacks intrigue, perhaps you’d prefer to visit the Blue Mosque, which, while not as old as Hagia Sophia, has incredible appeal inside with an impressive array of hand-made tiles, stained glass windows, and ornate chandeliers. The outside doesn’t disappoint, either, with tall minarets, an open plaza, and an abundance of arches.

 

Photo Courtesy Wikipedia

More of a shopper than a history buff?  How about an epic combination?  The Grand Bazaar lives up to its name.  It consists of more than 3000 shops, each featuring unique products and aggressive salesmen.  If you do decide to go, you’ll be one of some 250,000-400,000 who visit every day.  It’s a market whose history predates our entire country, and whose setting is unmatched.

One more teaser on the wonders of Turkey comes in the form of a fellow blogger friend’s story about his first (and likely only) experience in a Turkish bath.

We could go on and on with the many sights and experiences you could have on a trip to Istanbul, but I get the sense that you don’t need much more convincing.  Now, what you do need is the WorldWanderlusting tip on where and how you can stay for free.

Using Ultimate Rewards to book free hotels in Istanbul

We raved about the Ultimate Reward Points because of their flexibility – you can transfer to a number of other programs – one of which is the Priority Club (Holiday Inn, Candlewood Suites, Intercontinental Hotels).  Priority Club has a series of special offers on hotel properties around the world at discounted point rates – Point Breaks. These special offers allow smart, imaginative travelers to book hotel rooms around the world for just 5000 points per night.

As you were hoping, it just so happens that hidden among the Priority Club European Point Breaks, you’ll find a brand new Holiday Inn property in the heart of Istanbul. If you could get your hands on 40,000 Ultimate Rewards points, you could transfer them to a Priority Club account and stay eight free nights in downtown Istanbul. (Not to mention the free breakfast every day).

How could you scrape together 40,000 Ultimate Reward points? I’m glad you asked, because it’s relatively simple.  Apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and meet the minimum spending requirement of $3000 in the first three months, and all 40,000 of them will show up in your account – you’ll be well on your way to Turkey.

If you have a business and could spend $10,000 on a card in the next three months, you might also want to look at the Chase Ink Bold card which will get you 50,000 bonus points and multiple-point-earning capabilities that make this the best travel-rewards business credit card available.

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Eight Great Adventure Travel Experiences Around the World

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Brad Christensen

WorldWanderlusting brings you eight great Adventure Travel experiences from around the world -inspired by a 24-mile. 800 mph skydive from space by Felix Baumgartner,

Deep Water Rock Climbing on Rock Islands in Thailand

Photo Courtesy www.Andamanadventures.com

All of the rush of free climbing with all of the risk mitigated by a clear, deep pool of fresh ocean water beneath you.  In the heat of Southeast Asia, my guess is that there are times you want to fall.  www.AndamanAdventures.com offers guided trips with routes of varying degrees of difficulty.

This is like rock-climbing and cliff-jumping combined into one.  Just imagine what it must be like to reach, slip, and fall… letting yourself crash into the cool water and then get up and do it all over again. This is what life is about.

 

Paragliding in Colombia

How much adrenaline could this really be if my six-year-old did with no fear and all smiles?  Well, just envision literally running off the edge of a mountain with nothing to save you but a nylon chute and an able 15-year-old pilot attached to your back.  We did it in Medellin, but Colombia is mountainous enough that you could do it about anywhere.

Diving with Great White Sharks off the Coast from San Francisco

Photo Courtesy Andrew Fox

I’ve dived with 6′ Caribbean Reef Sharks, but that’s nothing like getting in the water with 15′ Great whites, even if you are encased in a steel cage.  These things are legitimate man-eaters and there’s no way your heart rate is anywhere below 100bpm with one of these guys gnawing on something just feet away. Check it out http://www.greatwhiteadventures.com/

 

Shotover Canyon Swing in New Zealand

Photo Courtesy www.canyonswing.co.nz

Part skydive, part bungee-jump, part enormous swing – this adventure provides a bird’s eye, swooping view of a beautiful canyon.  The free-fall to begin gives an alarming sensation before the slack catches and your dive horizontal.  If that weren’t enough, your trajectory takes you just feet from the edge of the cliff before you peak and do the whole thing in reverse.  See it for yourself at www.canyonswing.co.nz and then really see it for yourself near Queensland.

 

Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain

Photo Courtesy www.NYdailynews.com

I know, I know, I’ve referenced this event too many times in my blogging career, but the truth is that it embodies everything I long for when it comes to travel – culture, history, adventure.  I mean, a crazy, drunken race on cobblestone streets would be cool enough, but add a dozen angry stampeding bulls and you’ve really got a winner.

Whitewater on the Zambezi River between Zambia and Zimbabwe

You go and see Victoria Falls – perhaps the world’s most spectacular waterfall… it’s only natural, then, that thereafter you’d find the world’s most spectacular whitewater.  This stretch is more rapids than it is river… we’re talking class 5, legitimately scary rapids – one on top of another.  Stop reading and just click play.  This stuff is absolutely crazy.

Waterfall Jump at Bassin Bleu in Haiti

Ok, so there are crazier places to do this.  Jump off from/into a waterfall pretty much anywhere in the world and you’ll feel extreme, but I have to bring this up because the setting is so serene – especially relative to its surroundings.  Haiti is not exactly the jewel it once was, but there are traces and this is one of them.

Mount Everest Climb to Basecamp

Photo Courtesy www.hardcorenepal.com

So the real charge probably comes in making the ascent that has a tendency to take a great share of the lives of those that dare try, but here’s a way to get a taste without biting off more than you can chew.  Fourteen days of trekking take you above 18,000 feet and expose you to some tremendous views of the most impressive mountain range on the planet.  There are dozens of guides, but www.hardcorenepal.com can take you up for somewhere around $1250.

 

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