10 Ways to Make Travel with Children Easier

Posted on September 4, 2013 by wpengine

Are you one of them? It’s a large group of parents who use their children as the excuse for not traveling. They say it’s impossible. But is it really?

Cindy, a dedicated worldwanderluster, took her five children on a cruise out of Long Beach and visited Mexico and Catalina Island. Her children loved the trip and so did Cindy and her husband.

Brad took four children to Panama in January. His oldest child had been studying the rainforest in his 1st grade class when they made the trip. They completed their assignments overlooking the ocean.

Heath, another worldwanderluster, frequently takes his children to Costa Rica. They enjoy surfing, swimming in the ocean, hiking, and eating delicious fruit.

Trevor, who has been my travel inspiration for much of my life, did a European cruise without his child after finding family and friends who would watch his son for him. They thouroughly enjoyed Istanbul, Ukraine, and other ports along the way.

Ok. Ok. Ok. Fair enough. These are all best case scenarios, but the common thread is that these people all love traveling. It will never be easy to travel with children. You’re dreaming if you think it will be easy.

1. Take it easy– Many of the itineraries that we create readily show our travel ADHD. Most of our itineraries probably wouldn’t work with children. Plan on staying in the same hotel for longer than 2 nights at a time will make your life much easier.

2. Choose an easy destination– Picking Russia as your first vacation with children might not be the best idea. You should probably plan on choosing somewhere in the states, just you can see how to really make it happen. Keeping the same language will make your life easier and the stress level down.

3. Ok. You’ve got eight kids, Fine! Just Drive- There is nothing wrong with an epic road trip. If you’ve got eight kids you’re not taking too many flights unless you work for an airline or you’re super rich. You have no idea how many byways are close to you. Plan on camping a night or two between hotels. That will significantly lower the cost of your vacation in terms of dollars and miles.

4. Don’t think “the world is too scary”– Look. I’m not asking you to head to Syria or Egypt. Obviously those places are dangerous. I wouldn’t even go there, and that is saying a lot. There is nothing wrong with visiting many places across the globe. Your children would love Costa Rica or Panama, and those are very safe places.

5. Accrue the Points and Miles– This one is obvious because we’re a points and miles blog, but don’t’ overlook the power of this method. Lisa, an avid worldwanderluster took her four children to Tennessee to visit her brother’s family with the Southwest CC and only had to pay for a one way ticket home for one of the six of them. What a steal!

6. Plan the day around the children– Kids need naps. Believe me, as a parent of two children who often skip their naps, I know this. That is why on our trip to Europe we planned our days around his two naps. We always spend the morning at the hotel and doing minor site seeing close by. Then we’d hop in the car and allow him to nap. We would plan lunch around a fun activity that would allow him to get out his wiggles. Then we’d get in the car and he’d nap again.

7. Hire a nanny– We rarely suggest that you pay for your travel, but when it comes to caring for your children we recommend you pay whatever it costs. Your children are worth more to you than a trip. Don’t let some dirtbag care for your children because they quoted a lower price. Find a deal and pay them whatever it costs to ensure your kids will be well cared for.

8. Bring along a nanny– This is a great way for you to have a romantic dinner with your spouse. Find a reliable youth that can care for your children while you go out on the town.

9. Do kid friendly activities you both like– Bring along the lifejackets and swim with them in the ocean or lake. Both you and the kids really enjoy swimming. Art museums might be off limits for this vacation, so plan on visiting the Louvre when you’re just with your spouse.

10. Trade with Friends– This isn’t a suggestion to put your keys in the bowl, and we’re not sending you to a swinger party. Find a few friends that also love to travel and work out an arrangement to care for each others’ children while they’re out of town. It will help you to spend more time with your spouse.

I realize that traveling with children is not easy. Tears and meltdowns are bound to happen. Hopefully these ideas embolden you with the courage to forge ahead and book your next trip! What other advice do you have for others?

Enhanced by Zemanta
Posted in Family Travel, How to Wanderlust, Travel Tips | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Venice to Rome Itinerary in 13 days

Posted on September 2, 2013 by Brad Christensen

The link in this post for the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express offers a total of 25k bonus points after meeting the spending requirement.  We do receive a commission on applications approved from our links, but please carefully consider each credit application decision and ensure that you use the card prudently.

Almost as good as travel itself is planning a travel itinerary.  As a part-time travel blogger with a lot of full-time responsibilities that take precedence, unfortunately I do far more of the planning than I do the traveling. I still enjoy it, though… and on a rainy Labor Day, I did myself the favor of transporting my mind to another place by planning our Italy trip in October.

Venice to Rome Itinerary in 13 Days

Italy trip map

Venice to Rome in 12 Days Itinerary

Day 1

Arriving at 12:00 in Venice, we’ll get our rental car (Budget/Nissan Micra/ Booked on Expedia $28/day ~ reimbursed by Barclaycard Arrival World Mastercard). We’ll then take the scenic route to Slovenia through Austria and arrive at Lake Bled in time to take a rowboat out to the island, enjoy dinner, and a stroll along the lake.  I became convinced that we needed to make the drive to see Lake Bled after seeing some autumn photos. Wow.

Lake Bled Slovenia

Autumn mist on Lake Bled

We’ll stay at Carman Guest House, right on Lake Bled ~$71 reimbursed by the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard.

Day 2

We’ll start the day with breakfast as the mist rises off the lake, then take a tour of Bled Castle, perched high on an outcropping above the lake. Taking a different route, we’ll return to Venice by way of Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana.

We’ll park our car near the Mestre rail station and take a train into Venice.  We’ll want to see St. Marco’s Square, Rialto bridge, the Doge’s Palace, and with great reluctance, fork over 100 euro for a romantic gondola ride.

We’re staying at the Hilton Molino Stucky, a splurge even in terms of points.  We’ll spend all 50k Hilton points we have here for one night… a night that would otherwise cost us almost $500… easy come, easy go.

Day 3

We’ll enjoy the royal feeling of our hotel and then set out to finish discovering the wonders of Venice – seeing glass blowers, browsing silk markets, and marveling at beautiful architecture with none of the crowds we’d have to compete with if we were here in the middle of summer.

By dark, we’ll make our way off the island to reclaim the car and head to Bologna – a stop we’re only making so we can take advantage of a 3000 point night at the Sheraton Bologna – points that came to us through the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express.

Day 4

Florence. This is the epicenter of the Renaissance and the greatest artists the world has ever produced. After watching all 4 PBS episodes on the Medici dynasty, seeing the Medici Palace, Brunelleschi’s dome, Michelangelo’s David, and the birthplace of Leonardo Da Vinci means so much more.

Sunset in Florence from Gunther Machu on Vimeo.

We’ll take in the Uffizi museum and the Vasari corridor – something reading Dan Brown’s Inferno has inspired me to be sure to see, along with the Accademia, Palazzo Vecchio, and everything else our time will allow us to see.

As it starts to darken, we’ll head up to Piazza da Vinci, above the city for a perfect view of the valley. Tonight we stay at another 3000 point Sheraton outside Florence.

Day 5

We’ll spend the better part of the morning filling in what we missed the day before, and then make our way out of Florence, stopping by Lucca and any other Tuscan town along the way that seems interesting.

We’ll make it to Riomaggiore, the first of the Cinque Terre, just in time to watch the sun set into the Mediterranean from our hilltop bed and breakfast – one we booked on www.booking.com.

Day 6

collage of italy

Cinque Terre (Photo Courtesy Flickr.com)

Leaving the car at our hotel, we’ll walk from village to village all along the coast, enjoying the picturesque views.  If we can find the tunnel to Guvano beach, we’ll make our way through and watch the waves crash against the rocky shore.

Once we’ve made it to Vernazza, we’ll take the train back to Riomaggiore and get back in the car. We’ll make a brief stop to see the leaning tower of Pisa, but continue on our way.

By nightfall we’ll arrive at a unique lodging – Agriturismo Poggio Bonelli, a quaint Italian farmhouse on the outskirts of Siena. I booked this on booking.com for $100/night – all of which will be reimbursed by Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard.

Day 7

We’ll set out to discover Siena. I’m not one for tours, but for 22 euros, it might be worth it to do a tour like this one: http://www.florence-tickets.com/siena-pass.html.

Again we’ll stay at the Agriturismo Poggio Bonelli.

Day 8

I found the most scenic route through Tuscany – a winding passage through Montalcino, Pienza, and Montepulciano. We’ll stop in each and casually enjoy ourselves.

italian castle

Badia Di Orvieto – our home for two nights

This is where our lodging gets really exciting.  We’ll be staying in an old Abbey in the mountains outside Orvieto – La Badia di Orvieto. It was a little more spendy – $190 a night, but when I’m spending money only to have it fully reimbursed by the Barclaycard Arrival World Mastercard, I can allow myself to be a little more frivolous.

Day 9

Etruscan Hill Town

One of the major draws to this area was the opportunity to see and experience what many consider to be the most beautiful Etruscan hill city – Civita di Bagnoregio. This place is genuine postcard material – with steep embankments surrounding a walled plateau. We’ll park our car and trudge up the walkway to enter the “little city.” At this point I will probably have to swap memory cards on the camera.

Again we stay at the Badia di Orvieto, feeling  supreme in our hilltop castle.

Day 10

On our way into Rome, we’ll stop by the ruins of the Roman bathhouse in Viterbo and head to Tivoli, where we can discover the famed garden of the Villa d’Este.

Returning the car at the airport, we’ll take the train into the core of the city.

Rome

Only some of the sites in Rome

Tonight and for the next 2 nights we’ll stay at the Sheraton Roma Convention Center – a category 3 SPG hotel that will burn 7000 points a night.

Day 11

Even with three days, we’ll never be able to see all of Rome.  We’ll sure as hell try, though. Today we’ll focus on the old city – the Pantheon, the Colosseum, Palatine Hill and the Trevi Fountain, where we’ll of course throw in some coins to ensure our return.

 

Day 12

Michelangelo

The Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

Vatican City is square in our cross-hairs.  I want to spend a lot of time under Michelangelo’s masterpiece in the Sistine Chapel.

Day 13

Before we board our plane to say goodbye, we’ll tour the Catacombs of San Callisto along the Appian way.

After that, our adventures will cocoon into memories.  We’ll board the plane and tell Italy “Ciao” until next time.

Summary

In the end, we will have spent no more than $1000 on food, gasoline, trinkets and other small expenses. Our major expenses have all been paid for by points aside from some minor taxes and surcharges.

Flights: 80k AA points and $162 in fees for two tickets from SLC to Venice and Rome back to SLC. The points came to us from the Citi American AAdvantage World Mastercard.

Hotels: 12 nights – all free or with minor surcharges. 5 nights in SPG hotels for a total of 27,000 points, 6 nights in hotels I booked on booking.com for a total of $763 and almost fully reimbursed, and 1 night in a Hilton hotel splurging for 50k points (I could have stayed in an SPG hotel outside Venice for another 7k points.

Car: 9 days at $28/day for a total of $252 – reimbursed by 25,000 Arrival points.

We know it sounds too good to be true and we don’t expect you to believe it entirely… just give the concept a try with a tiny vacation and you’ll start to catch the vision that we’re promoting on WorldWanderlusting.com.

 

Enhanced by Zemanta
Posted in Europe, Italy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

My Brawl with Citi- A Credit Card Reconsideration Story

Posted on August 30, 2013 by wpengine

Two months.  For two months we traded blows until I finally delivered the TKO punch on Tuesday night.

My faith did not wane, nor did my persistence slow.  I knew that I would win the fight.  You must have the same confidence when faced with a similar challenge.  When the decision pends, it is time to prepare for a fight like Bob Barker does.

Here is how it worked for us.

On July 23rd my wife applied for a Citi AAdvantage card, as well as three other cards in her recent App-O-Rama that scored her over 140,000 points and miles.  Two cards were approved immediately, as they all should have, and two were pending decisions.

I didn’t bother calling Barclaycard, because the experience that others have told me said they just need more time to make a decision.  I immediately called the Citi Credit Card Reconsideration Line, they responded by asking a few questions over the phone and told me they would get back with me.  Frustrated I hung up the phone.

A letter showed up in the mail about a week later that requested:

  • A piece of mail showing that we lived at our address.
  • Proof that we owned the phone number listed on the application
  • A letter from our CPA confirming her income

Picky, Picky, Picky.  Not to be discouraged I scrounged up their requirements and sent them off to Citi.  After giving them three or four days to approve me I called and got the answer that they had DENIED my wife.  What were they thinking?  Shae has a wonderful credit score, low debt to income, impeccable credit history, and everything else a creditor would want.  The person on the line explained that he couldn’t tell why.

Here is where a little experience is so useful.  I hung up the phone and immediately put on my boxing gloves, dialed the number for the credit department instead of calling the application line.  You’ll see both numbers on our Credit Card Reconsideration post.

I talk about fighting, but really when Andrew from South Dakota answered the phone I acted more like a gentleman.  We chatted about the weather, Sioux Falls, and other things to warm him up to the meat of our conversation.  I wanted him to be on my side, not against me thinking I’m some #$$ screaming at him.  Most of these people have some leeway whether they approve you or not, so play nice even if they aren’t being fair.

Andrew explained that even though they had received the information from me answering all of their questions, they didn’t like:

  • The credit card statement I sent was too old.
  • The letter signed by my CPA wasn’t on letterhead.
  • We had never answered the phone number on file.

Instead of asking for further information, they straight denied her the application.  Are you kidding me?  He was definitely inclined to help us get approved for the card, so I worked with him to ensure we would get the approval and go 4 for 4 on her App O Rama.

He explained that our address wasn’t verifying (whatever that means), so I gave him my work address and he was able to verify that address.  A quick phone call to our home number (a Google Voice number) with Shae answering the phone and answering a couple of other questions and we were approved.

Yahoo! 100% Great Success.  More than a brawl, it was like a tea party with an old friend.  Andrew was more than happy to get us to the approval state in spite of our small barrier. The approach to take here is confidence, persistence, and kindness.  At the end you’ll feel like it has been a fight, but really it would all be worth it in the end.

What experiences have you had with your reconsideration stories?  We would love to hear about yours!

Enhanced by Zemanta
Posted in App O Rama, Citi, Credit Advice, Credit Cards, How to Wanderlust | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Short Haul Delights this September: Top 3 Choices

Posted on August 27, 2013 by Brad Christensen

This is a sponsored post about last minute getaways to some beautiful islands in the Mediterranean.

As the peak season comes to an end and the kids head back to school, other holidaymakers may be building up to booking themselves a last minute September sojourn and who can blame them? With the end of the summer holidays comes a dramatic fall in price, making September an ideal time to head to sunnier climes where there’s guaranteed sun and more impressive temperatures than what we’re used to back home.

With cheap flights from flythomascook, if you’re thinking about jetting off for a short haul break, you don’t have to worry about spending over the odds with plenty of affordable options available in the lead up to autumn. While some short haul destinations may be cooling down, others are still going strong, providing temperatures well into the 20s and long hours of sunshine for you to bask in.

Tenerife

With plenty of adult-orientated resorts and child-friendly ones too, the Canary Island of Tenerife is ideal for a short haul break, under four hours flight from the major UK airports. Situated in the Atlantic Ocean, just off the northern tip of Africa, you can guarantee wonderful temperatures all year round, with September offering some great conditions to bronze your beach bod and top up your tan.

Majorca

You can land in Majorca in less than two hours, making it a perfect spot for people travelling with young children who can’t hack long haul flights. Plenty of Blue Flag beaches are available, with ample watersports opportunities, if you fancy peeling yourself away from the sun lounger for a while.

Cyprus

With a seamless mix of culture and sun, Cyprus has something for everyone. Beaches, architecture and history await you on the island of Cyprus, where you can find something to suit everyone.

Book your last minute September break today and make the most of some fabulous deals – remember, the more flexible you are with dates, the better!

Enhanced by Zemanta
Posted in Guest Post | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The Best Starwood “Nights and Flights” Redemptions

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Brad Christensen

You need to get your hands on 70k Starwood Preferred Guest points.

Why?  Because there is some incredible redemption value when you use the Starwood “Nights and Flights” redemption option that Sheldon detailed in his post last week. As you already know, Starwood points are a little bit like bank points in that they are transferable to many other programs – including airline programs like American, Delta, and British Airways (I don’t mention United because even though it’s an option, it doesn’t make sense because they transfer at a 2:1 ratio – we wouldn’t let you do that to yourself).

Starwood Preferred Guest

As you can see, redeeming Starwood points under this program gives you a beautiful combination of 50k airline miles and 5 nights in a category 3 or 4 hotel.  That makes it justifiable for a cheap-ass like me to actually stay in one of the upper category hotels.  If there’s a Category 3 or 4 Starwood hotel you’ve been lusting for, this is the way to make it happen.

Now, I’ll share with you my favorites.

Palacio del Inka – Cusco, Peru (Category 4)

This is a brand new hotel in an ancient land. It’s a part of the luxury collection… as if you didn’t know that just from looking at it.  Make this an elegant home base for your discovery of Machu Picchu and the wonders of the Inca civilization. Because it’s a category 4, you’ll need 70k Starwood Points.

To get two people to Peru, you’ll need to transfer your points to American Airlines and somehow get 10k more AA points for a total of 60k.

Sheraton Buganvillas Resort – Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (Category 3)

This is a great resort property in Puerto Vallarta.  We always advocate leaving the resort to see what else is out there, but you might have a hard time convincing yourself to do that.

It’s a category 3 hotel, so you can use 60k to redeem and move the other 10k points to add to the 50k airline miles to make for 2 free tickets to Mexico on American Airlines.

The Westin San Luis Potosi – San Luis Potosi, Mexico (Category 3)

Here’s a property that just screams “History.” Rich with colonial heritage, this is not your typical hotel.  Five nights here may have you dreaming of Poncho Villa and Spanish colonial times.

It’s also a category 3 hotel, so use 60k to redeem and move the other 10k points to add to your airline miles to get 2 free tickets on American.

—

Thinking less foreign?  Try these out, too.

Sheraton Music City Hotel – Nashville, TN (Category 3)

Westin Hilton Head Island – Hilton Head, SC (Category 4)

 

Enhanced by Zemanta
Posted in Central America, Starwood Preferred Guest, Travel Tricks | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Inside Look at the Starwood Preferred Guest Program

Posted on August 23, 2013 by wpengine

With a sexy bonus on Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express, it’s definitely worth taking a look at the card. The offer expires on September 3rd, 2013.  Now is the best time of year to look at getting this card.

The Starwood Preferred Guest program has been really good to me.  Redemption is a piece of cake, the hotels are luxurious, beds are soft, and you feel like a Bad-A walking out of a nice hotel in the morning.

You get 10k miles for the first purchase.  Plus an additional 15k once you’ve spent $5000 on the card within the first 6 months.

Hotels in the SPG Family

You might not have heard of Starwood Preferred Guest, but you’ve probably heard of the hotels in their family.  There are 1134 hotels in the entire family.

  • Sheraton
  • Four Points by Sheraton
  • Westin
  • Aloft
  • Element
  • W Hotels
  • Le Meridien
  • St Regis
  • Luxury Collection

I’ve camped enough nights in the Starwood properties to get Gold Status this year.  Although they don’t usually offer free breakfast or free Internet, they’ve got super soft beds, and they’re really clean.

Redemption of  your Starpoints

Starwood Preferred Guest has seven tiers of hotels.  The abundance sit within category 3 & 4, but I really find the sweet spot to be in the Category 2. Whenever possible, I recommend you use the category 1 or 2, which will make your points last much longer.

I try to plan vacations based on how many Category 2 hotels are in the area.  My Alpine Europe trip in April of last year was really designed around the hotels where I could stay for free.

Other Starwood Redemption Options

Transfer Starpoints to other airlines.

Here are the ones that I think are worth looking at:

  • Alaska Airlines
  • American Airlines
  • British Airways
  • Delta Airlines
  • US Airways

Your points all transfer 1:1 to these airlines.  The only additional thing to consider would be if you transfer in blocks of 20,000 they bonus you an additional 5000 Starpoints.  So for every 20,000 airline miles transferred, you’ll get 25,000 with the airliner.

Transferring them to these airlines probably isn’t the best use of the bonus points if you ask me.  The hotels are nice enough that you really want to be catching your ZZZ’s at one of their properties instead.

Fifth Night Free

hotel points

What a great way to vacation for free.  Unfortunately this option doesn’t work on the category 1 or 2 hotels, but it’s great for a category 3 or 4.  Because I have been diagnosed with Travel ADHD, where I can’t stay in one place for more than 2 nights, this probably isn’t for me.

My wife can attest to the fact that I’m almost always on the move.  Even on my “relaxing” vacations.

Nights and Flights

Starwood Preferred Guest

This promotion is also for the traveler who doesn’t have travel ADHD.

With two SPG cards you could score yourself five nights in an incredible category 4 hotel within the USA, and enough miles to make it there.  Considering the fact that the limited time bonus is 30,000 (deal expires September 3rd 2013), you could get the card for yourself, and your wife, and theoretically have the 70,000 miles (including the 5k spending requirement on both cards) required for this special offer.

The way that it works is they give you five nights at the hotel and 50,000 airline miles that you can transfer to one of the partners to book your flights.

This promotion saves you 8,000 points for a Category 3 redemption and 10,000 points for a Category 4 redemption.

Enhanced by Zemanta
Posted in Credit Cards, Hotels, Starwood Preferred Guest | Tagged , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

I’m Not Stingy With My Free Travel Secrets

Posted on August 19, 2013 by Brad Christensen

The first credit card I ever signed up for was a Sprint co-branded card that allowed me to make long distance phone calls from college to home for 10 cents a minute. I thought that was a nice perk, but what really drew me in was the free t-shirt I picked up just for applying.

Today things are a little different.  The concept of a “long distance” phone call is a “long distance” from my mind.  My wife will attest that I have more free t-shirts in my closet than I do ones I’ve paid for.  I have applied for a few more credit cards… 28 to be exact, between Nicole and me over the past 3 years.  In the meantime we’ve accumulated more than 2 million frequent flyer miles and points.

With the points we’ve acquired this is what we’ve done so far:

  • We flew our family of six to Colombia for $574 out of pocket
  • We brought Nicole’s brother to IF from Rhode Island for their sister’s wedding
  • I flew to meet my buddy in Honduras for a scuba diving trip
  • Nicole and I went to New Orleans for a cruise
  • Nicole and four friends flew to LA for $5 each
  • I flew first class to and from Guatemala
  • We took the family to Panama for $261 out of pocket
  • We have stayed more than 22 free nights in hotels
  • We now have booked flights to Italy for $81/ticket.  We’ll be staying 12/14 nights for free and won’t pay a euro for a rental car.

And we still have 1.3 million miles and points ready and waiting.

If you believe the myths about credit cards, you’d assume that all of this has come at the cost of my credit score, massive interest charges, and loads and loads of oppressive debt.

However, none of those tragedies has happened in the slightest.  My credit score, like Nicole’s, has vacillated between 760 and 797. I used to be able to say I had never paid a penny in interest… but unfortunately a recent miscalculation cost me $5.10 in interest.  Frustrating, I know. Today I have 16 open credit card lines, with balances on 2 cards – one Nicole uses for everyday expenses, and one I use for everyday expenses – both of which have less than $500 which will be paid in full before the due date.

I have accumulated zero debt because I, along with many other people – probably you included – don’t use credit cards as “credit.” We use them as purchasing instruments. We make only expenditures we’d otherwise make with cash and pay them off immediately.

Credit Score PiechartMy credit score has stayed strong because I’ve educated myself about credit – understanding that the most important factors in my score are whether I’m late on my payment (35%) and whether I carry a balance on the cards and how much that balance is relative to what is available to me (30%). Yes, applying for new cards and canceling them before the annual fee is due does affect my credit.  It shortens the overall average length of my credit histories (15%) and adds to recent inquiries (10%).

Instead of sobbing about financial woes, I’m wanderlusting! I’m empowered to think of things I had never expected to be able to do while being a responsible family provider. I’m daydreaming of how I have used and how I will use my freely-acquired points to plan amazing adventures for Nicole and me, and for our kids.

I’m not afraid of crushing debt, I’m afraid of the reef sharks I dove with in Roatan.

We’re not scrimping to pay off debts, we’re staying at this $400-a-night hotel in Venice.Hilton Venice

While his classmates study the rainforest in books, my son, Miles, took a guided hike through the rainforest with this guy, Anselmo, the village elder from the Embera tribe in the jungles of Panama.

Medicine Man

Anselmo, the Village Medicine Man

Today I am like a man on fire – the world is my playground.  Obviously I still have limitations, but they are fewer and further between than I had ever imagined them being.

I put together itineraries that maximize the value I get from each award bonus from the credit cards I sign up for. While I once was willing to sign up for a card in exchange for a t-shirt, today I don’t apply for credit cards unless they can get me at least $300 in value.  It’s not uncommon for me to find ways to get incredible amounts of free travel value from a single card application.

The $81 ticket I booked to Italy with points I got from a single card? They would have charged me $1300 the day I booked them.  Today they’d want almost $1500.  If you think that’s impressive, see how I made a plan to book 11 flights to 10 countries on a single credit card award bonus, or how a single card got my wife and 4 friends $5 flights to LA.

We’ve tried to categorize all of our “getting started” posts under the “How to Wanderlust” tab on this site.  Sheldon just did a great post on making the transition from accumulating miles to spending them. I’d like to now provide you with some resources to help make all of this work for you because I do want you to join in and play along with us.  I want you to inspire me the same way I’ve been inspired by other followers who are now teaching us teachers.

Where can I check my credit score?

Well, you actually have 3 credit scores – Experian, Equifax, and Transunion.  And rather than pull your score and have another inquiry, use a useful free service that generates a representation of the score – not the real thing, but something close.  To check your Experian score, sign up for www.CreditSesame.com and to check your Transunion score, sign up for www.CreditKarma.com.  Both are great, free services that help you better understand and manage your scores.

How do I manage all the accounts and not miss payments?

To begin with, if you still pay any bills with checks, envelopes and stamps, get yourself into the year 2013. Set up online access to all of your accounts and pay with direct transfers. I could never manage all of this without www.Mint.com – another free service that allows you to consolidate your account monitoring into one platform.

How do I keep track of my miles and points?

www.AwardWallet.com is how I track my mile and point net-worth – which, incidentally, is infinitely more exciting than my actual net-worth.  One time when I was a kid and I had $1000 in the bank, I withdrew it – just to see what it felt like to hold it in my hands.  Oh how I would love to have some kind of tangible representation of my points… for now, AwardWallet will have to do.

How do I know when my annual fee is coming up?

I do two things – I maintain a Credit Card spreadsheet on Google Docs, which I can access from anywhere.  I check in on it periodically and use it to determine when my hard inquiries fall off (2 years after applying).  I also set reminders on my Google Calendar – reminders that send me an email to alert me when I have a card that’s coming up on an anniversary.

These are great tools to keep you on the right track as you begin to build yourself a travel nest-egg. Now and perhaps most importantly, we want you to SUBSCRIBE TO OUR BLOG.  Be a part of our army.  Shirk of the chains of the mundane.  Buck the notion that you can’t travel until you’re old and wrinkly.  We’ll pipe you into every hot deal we’re seeing.  We’ll turn you on to amazing adventures.  We’ll share stories from readers that will inspire you.  We’ll help you wanderlust.

One of our most useful pages is the Frequently Asked Questions summary.  Take a look at that, too. Bookmark it.  Come back here often.  Share it with your travel-thirsty friends. Wanderlust every day with us.

 

Posted in About us, Credit Advice, Credit Sesame, How to Wanderlust | Leave a comment