5 Exotic Fruits you’ve Got to Try and 1 to Avoid

Posted on May 8, 2013 by wpengine

 

I’m no Anthony Bordain, but I do love trying new foods. You probably won’t see me eating fermented duck fetuses, that I wouldn’t do even on Fear Factor. I have, however, found a few exotic fruits in my travels that have tickled my fancy. They’re hard to find, and usually not easily located in the US. I would love to share them with you so you can watch for them in your travels.

1. Mangosteen

English: Purple mangosteen fruit (Garcinia man...

Although it may look like garlic, don’t fret for a moment about popping this bad boy in your mouth. This fruit is simply amazing. They aren’t very big, but the taste is exquisite. Don’t you dare try eating the purple shell, though. The skin is bitter like Mike Tyson when he starts losing a boxing match.

There is a legend that Queen Victoria would offer enormous amounts of money to anyone who would bring her this fruit. Right now I’d offer big money to anyone who could bring me a fresh one, too. These beauties are RARE to find in the states, so when you’re out of the country and you see some of these, please buy a couple and eat one for me.

2. Rambutans

English: Rambutans on a white background.

Rambutans (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

These are quite possibly the coolest looking fruit around – something like as if a hedgehog were to mate with a walnut. Opening them is a blast because you can do it by simply squeezing the fuzzball until the shell cracks. They easily peel away from their shell and there’s a sweet seed in the middle.

You won’t find a huge blast of flavor with this one, but they’re still really good. They’re found almost everywhere in Southeast Asia and a friend of mine from Costa Rica ate lots of these growing up. Shrug off the scary outward appearance and give Rambutans a try the next time you get a chance.

3. Durian

exotic fruit

Durian Shopping

This fruit is legendary, but not in the great way. You’ve NEVER smelled anything this strong. Not even the gym socks you left in your locker for a few weeks could compete with the stench. This fruit easily takes the award for the stinkiest fruit around.

The smell is so overpowering that in a huge hotel you could crack one of these things and everyone in the entire hotel would smell it for days.

There are signs in hotels and malls that say “NO DURIAN” in English and Thai all over Thailand. They’re serious because you just can’t get rid of the smell of this exotic fruit.

We tried to avoid it on our trip, but we found someone samples of chocolate we couldn’t resist. After a split second of chewing, our mouths were telling us exactly what it was. Shae turned to me with a disgusting look on her face and said “Durian.” Then she turned and spit it out in a garbage. Chalk it up to experience. Pass on this one unless you’re really feeling adventuresome.

4. Passion Fruit

Passion fruit red2

Passionfruit red (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I didn’t even think this was a real fruit until I spent some time in Paraguay. They grow very well in South America, and also are known as Mburukuya in Paraguay. This is one you’ve got to try.

The smell of this one doesn’t smell super strongly like the durian, but the flavor packs a punch. You might feel repulsed by the look of the inside of this fruit, but don’t let that scare you. It may look disgusting mucous, but surely doesn’t taste like the same.

The best way to have this try fruit is to cut it in half, scoop out the middle and put it into a blender. Blend it up and add some water and a little bit of sugar. This is going to create a delicious drink that needs to be strained. Throw out the black seeds and enjoy! Also keep in mind that it might have a tendency to make you burp, so don’t have a drink if you’re trying to impress your girlfriend who’s anything but Samoan.

5. Jack Fruit

Exotic Fruit

Jack Fruit

Notice the common thread that most of these come from the Southeast Asia area? God definitely gave them some delicious fruits, and unless you have the wanderlust you might never find them. Having drank from the fountain of deliciousness, I will always thirst until I can drink again.

The Jack Fruit isn’t going to knock your socks off like the Mangosteen, nor does it reek like a durian, but it’s still an exotic fruit because you can’t find it just anywhere.

6. Dragon Fruit

Exotic Fruits

Dragon Fruit

Ok. The rest of these fruits kinda got screwed on their names. This one has the coolest name of any of the above. It probably looks the coolest as well. The skin is purple, and the inside is white with small black specks.

The taste also mimics the appearance. The fact that it looks so unique probably makes this thing even better. It actually has another name, but the translation into English from Cambodian is “Dragon Scale,” which would mean that the outside looks like a dragon, and for that reason they call it a Dragon Fruit.

These are relatively easy to cut and great to eat. They’re pretty easy to find and rather affordable if you’re shopping in their native environment.

Go out on a limb and try some of these exotic fruits when you see them around. Don’t worry, the durian will find you.

The BarclayCard Arrival World Mastercard will get you at least $400 off your next trip.

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From Wanderlusting to Wandering: Italy

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Brad Christensen

There’s this little part of me that tells me I’m a phony. I write 2-3 times a week about taking trips to the ends of the earth. I tell people about places like Scotland, Italy, and Bali, pronouncing city names as if I were a native, yet, shamefully, I’ve been to only 22 of the world’s 193 countries. As Sheldon told you a few weeks ago, his son Max has been to 7 countries before the age of 2.  My youngest brother is on a Latin American tour that will take him to a total of at least 9 countries over the next two months. Am I a defrauder?

Brad

Where I’ve been: A paltry 9% of the world. Sad, I know.

It’s times like these that demand that I dig deep… reach into my hoard of points and go from wanderlusting to wandering.  And that’s precisely what I’ve done.  Some of my favorite posts that we’ve done involve the Starwood Hotels all over Italy.  Every time I write about the motherland of the Roman Empire, I lose functionality for long periods of time.  I catch myself daydreaming of praetors and philosophers.  I envision Etruscan Hill Cities and cobblestone roads that once welcomed chariots.

I finally had enough and declared war on the next empty page on my passport. I enlisted my wife and we armed ourselves with 80k of the 150k AAdvantage miles I had been storing for a moment exactly like this.  I knew I could make the trip work for only 40k each if I waited until October 15th – the day the off-peak season starts for American Airlines’ Europe flights. I have checked on the flights from time to time and always found some available, but usually the itineraries involved using British Airways as a partner. The problem is that British Airways seems to have an affinity for fuel surcharges… and that often made the flights something like 40k points +$180 in fees and taxes.  We WorldWanderlusters all know that just isn’t going to work… so I had to exclude BA from my searches and I finally found an itinerary that I couldn’t pass up.

Even still, I put the itinerary on hold and we gave ourselves the weekend to think about it. The more time went on, the more we were convinced that we had to make it happen, so tonight we pulled the trigger.

Flights to Italy

You can see that I’m on the hook for $82.20 in taxes… I know, that’s actual money that I’ll have to pay – not something I really like doing either, but seeing that I’d have to pay $1304 to book this flight otherwise had a way of allowing a sly smile to sneak across my face.

I wanted to do an open-jaw itinerary that would allow us to fly into and out of different airports – I figured that would allow us more flexibility and help maximize our reach in not having to loop back to where we started. When I’m playing with options, I just start checking dates and different airports on the AAdvantage Award redemption multi-destination flight search. I use as many different combinations as possible and stretch the calendars to see what all my options are.

Venice 1096 - street life in the Sestier de Ca...

Venice 1096 – street life in the Sestier de Cannaregio (Photo credit: Toscano 2011)

I also wanted to leave myself the option of taking a cruise while we’re there, partly because we have some credit with Norwegian that’s burning a hole in my pocket and partly because I see it as a way to cover a lot of ground and stay and eat relatively cheaply.  It just so happens that there’s a 7-day Venice to Rome Norwegian cruise between these dates if we do decide to go that route.  At the moment they want $549 for an inside cabin.  If it gets below $450 I’ll probably make it happen, otherwise, we’ll be covering everything from Veneto to Lazio on trains and spending the bulk of our time in towns with category 2 Starwood hotels.  Either way, I get the sense that we won’t be disappointed.

The timing worked perfectly to squeeze in a 24-hour stopover in Dusseldorf, Germany, as well.  I’ve spent a little time researching some of the sights to see there, but for the most part I’m thinking we’ll indulge in some good German food and tour the old-town which was restored to its original design after being leveled by bombs in WWII.

The Best Part

Now, one of the things I’m most excited for is to fill the next 5 months with activities that will cultivate some insight and a greater appreciation for our trip.  I plan on watching a series on the Medici dynasty on Facebook, re-reading Anthony Everitt’s “Cicero,” and buying Dan Brown’s “Inferno” to read while on the trip.  I’ll dust of my Italian phrasebook and download some apps and podcasts that will help me learn some Italian.

Wait, I want to go to Italy, too…

Just so you know, it’s not like I’m waving my popsicle in your face and saying you can’t have one.  I’m not on the playground telling you, “neener, neener, neener… I get to go to Italy… and you-ou cah-an’t.”  In fact, very much the opposite, I’m telling you that if you want to get in on this action, I can show you where the popsicles are.  I can tell you exactly how you can do the same thing.

As with most of our posts about traveling “the free way,” it involves using your well-kept credit to obtain frequent flyer miles.  You see, there’s an offer out there for 50k American AAdvantage miles when you sign up for the Citi AAdvantage card and then spend $2500 within the first 4 months.

As long as you have the discipline to use the card only to make purchases you wouldn’t otherwise make and pay off your balance on time and in full, then you’re welcome to join me in capitalizing on the opportunity to pay $82 for a flight that should cost you $1304.

Where it gets really exciting is that your spouse could also apply and then you’d have $2608 in flights for $164.

But where would we stay?

Of course we have an answer for that question, too, but it comes from another post we did about an Italian Dream Vacation, part I and part II.  They also consist of instructions to accumulate points – this time with Starwood hotels – to reduce the cost of your hotels from a lot of Euros per night, to nothing at all.  The Starwood points come from the bonus you get on the Starwood Preferred Guest® Credit Card from American Express after spending $5k in the first 6 months.

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Of course, as always, we want you to take the safe approach to this and fully understand what we’re talking about here.  You’re welcome to read more about credit and our perspective on how to manage your voracious frequent flyer mile appetite on these other useful posts:

We want you to come back for more.  Make sure you bookmark this page, subscribe to our email, like us on Facebook or do all three.  We want you wanderlusting with us!

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Heathrow Airport: Britain’s Gateway to the World

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Brad Christensen

This is an informational sponsored guest post about Heathrow Airport in London, England.  I’ve flown through Heathrow and it is an impressive hub for air travel.

Heathrow Airport is one of the largest and most well used international airports in the UK.  With flights departing day and night 7 days a week it is the first name many people think of when considering an airport to fly out of.  Following the opening of terminal 5 in 2008, both its capacity and popularity have grown.  In a very central location within London it is easy to get to from anywhere in the country with direct transport routes by tube, bus and train leading directly into the airport and there are many places to book an overnight stay in Heathrow before or after a flight with flexible check-in times.

Heathrow serves 193 destinations across the globe, spread across 90 countries, so it is no surprise that the airport is a household name.  It is used by 86 airlines each serving their own group of countries and routes and people fly in and out of Heathrow throughout the day and night to the four corners of the globe.  The most popular destinations for flights from Heathrow have not changed in the past 6 years.  These are New York (JFK), Dubai, Dublin, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.  The majority of those travelling to the first two of those locations are business passengers who tend to be frequent fliers and make up a high proportion of Heathrow’s passenger count per day.

Heathrow Airport has its own micro-economy, with its own shops, own food retailers and employing a total of 76,500 staff beneath its roof, it’s a huge asset to the city of London.  The airport fell under criticism following the opening of Terminal 5 in 2008 when teething problems when it opened prevented the smooth running of that side.  However when you consider that 190,100 passengers pass through Heathrow each day, the logistics of opening, maintaining and controlling an extra Terminal seem impossible.  Recent reports have seen that the early problems experienced with terminal 5 are a thing of the past, with everything operating as it should and with terminal 5 even winning the SkyTrax best airport award for 2013.

The 1227 hectare facility is current undergoing another huge development, this time with the redevelopment of Terminal 2.  The project is due for completion next year and will include a new building, a satellite pier, a brand new multi-story car park, and the complete redevelopment of the airports central road system.  This mammoth work started in 2010 with the demolition of the old terminal.  The old building had very limited natural light and was cramped so the new terminal has been designed to improve customer experience at Heathrow and make conditions for staff nicer and easier to work in.

Many of us will pass through an airport without giving a second thought to the organisation that goes into the running of it.  Next time you visit Heathrow, look around at how many people there are to get to their target destination, and you thought remembering your passport at 5am was a challenge!

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5 Ways to Maximize your Business Travel Rewards

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Brad Christensen

Long before 1981, when American Airlines launched AAdvantage, the first formal frequent flyer mile program, a burgeoning airline company fighting to survive would set the stage for all of the loyalty programs we know today.

Braniff

A tiny airline with four aircraft was operating flights in a triangular route between Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.  It was 1973 and Southwest Airlines faced its first big challenge – the much larger Braniff Airlines, seeing how Southwest was nearing profitability and could become a competitor, decided it would eliminate the fledgling company by lowering its fares on Southwest’s most profitable route (Houston to Dallas) to $13 each way. Braniff figured the move would strangle Southwest, but Southwest executives understood how peoples’ minds worked.

Southwest launched an ad campaign stating that “Nobody’s going to shoot Southwest Airlines out of the sky for a lousy $13.” The ads detailed the predicament and offered passengers a provocative opportunity; pay $13 or pay $26 and the passenger would have his choice of a fifth of Crown Royal whiskey, Chivas Regal scotch, or Smirnoff vodka. As you might expect, business travelers (who made up the bulk of the fare payers) were more than happy to charge the $26 to their companies and carry home their stash of complimentary liquor.

As the story goes, Southwest became the state of Texas’ biggest liquor distributor for a couple of months before businesses realized what was happening and put an end to it.  Even so, Southwest had fended off the competition and two years later it was Braniff that put an end to their Dallas-Houston flights. (This story paraphrased from: NUTS! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success, by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg – a really good book, by the way).

Southwest airlines

Southwest airlines (Photo credit: Photographer Clayton)

The loyalty concept was born… and what a beautiful life it has taken on. Today and every day, hundreds of thousands of business travelers are rewarded, not in the form of fine liquor, but in another, similarly intoxicating substance: travel reward points and miles.

If you’re someone who travels for work and you’re already taking advantage of the countless opportunities to accrue miles for your personal use, may the deity of your choice bless you.  If you’re someone who travels for work and you’re like “what, travel rewards?” then may the deity of your choice guide you to the path of light and truth.

But just in case you’re deaf to said deity’s guidance, let WorldWanderlusting do it for you. Here are 5 ways you can maximize your business travel rewards:

5 Ways to Maximize your Business Travel Rewards Accumulation

  1. Sign up for every program – You do not want to find yourself unregistered for programs you later wind up using.  Register for at least the major ones you can find on our Using Airline Miles and Using Hotel Points pages. Email yourself the numbers, logins, and passwords so you always have them on hand.
  2. Focus mainly on one or two  – When you obtain enough miles to begin to qualify for elite status, you’ll notice that you compound your collection when you have higher standing within the loyalty system.  There are multipliers kick in at certain levels.  You want to understand them and make your choices wisely.
  3. Southwest has an amazing program – The grandfather of loyalty programs still does it up right.  I know many business travelers don’t like the lack of First Class or the cattle-call loading, but between Business Select fares that pay 12x in points and a Companion Pass Program that will excite you like the old school liquor days, Rapid Rewards are a rockstar to be reckoned with. The other one you’ll really want to look at is their partnership with National Car Rental – they give 600 RR points for every car rental – that’s a far more aggressive reward than you’ll get when you send points to other programs.
  4. Check out Rocketmiles.com – This is a recently-launched booking engine whose focus is turning hotel stays into massive airline mile rewards.  In most cases you can find hotels at the same prices, but with generous doses of frequent flyer miles from the major airline carriers – note that you are trading possible hotel point accrual for more lucrative airline miles, something you’ll want to weigh carefully.
  5. Double-dip by earning rewards booking for co-workers – Your first duty is to convert co-workers to the ways of the wanderluster – never letting loyalty points go unearned.  But for those home-bound naysayers that you can’t convince, you can earn points for yourself when booking them on Delta with Skybonus.  And Hotels.com allows you to earn welcome rewards for hotels you book for anyone, not just yourself. 

If you’re bemoaning the fact that you don’t have someone paying for your flights because you own your own business, lament no longer.  You have opportunities that others who’ve read this piece voraciously simply don’t have.  You can start by using a business credit card like  The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN to get an up-front 50k point bonus when you spend $5000 in the first 3 months.  That is only one of many business travel reward credit cards, and as long as you use them responsibly and always pay the balance in full and on time, you’ll be planning your own trips the free way, too.

Regardless of how you get them, I hope you’re serious about piling up the miles and points so that you can seize the amazing travel bargains that can be had when you’re attuned to the offers that are out there.

Thank you for wanderlusting with us!  Please comment below and let us know where your business travel rewards have taken you, or where you’d like for them to take you.

 

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Stop Taking Prozac and Start Traveling: 5 Reasons Why Travelers aren’t Depressed

Posted on May 1, 2013 by wpengine

The daily grind of life is rough.  Even with a great job that you really enjoy, it still sucks.  I’m convinced that the monotony of life is a strong reason for some kinds of depression.  It takes hold of every one of us.  The best way to cure your depression isn’t to take a pill a day – try taking a trip instead.

One of our readers just mentioned that they retired at 47 and has been taking at least four big international trips a year since then.  Not all of us are fortunate enough to be independently wealthy at any age.  For that reason you’ve got us.  We’ll show you how to travel the world for free.  The bottom line is that you need to start traveling.

Here are 5 big reasons why travelers aren’t depressed:

1. Get Humbled. Traveling will humble you.

Haitian Tent City

Tent City in Port-au-Prince

Even when you feel like your life is in the toilet because your dog died, you just got diagnosed with diabetes, or you just wrecked your car, you could always find someone who is deeper in the spiral than you.  Spending more time outside of your small sphere of influence will quickly reveal this.

If you don’t believe me, then I could purchase you a one way ticket to Haiti and introduce you to some people who disagree.  Heck.  You don’t even have to go to Haiti to find these people.  You might find them in New York, or even Salt Lake City.  The moment you leave your regular life and start looking around at other people you’ll quickly realize just how good you have it.

Traveling provides you opportunities to look at your situation and remind you that life isn’t so bad after all.  Put the Prozac down and back away from the counter.

2. Travel to Get Some Sunshine in the Winter

You know that I’m writing this as I see snowflakes falling to the ground and STICKING on April 30th.  AARRRGGHH.  When you live in a place like Idaho, where the winters last 9 months out of the blasted year, it is healthy to get out of town and see some sun.  

Traveling baby beach

Max enjoying the sunshine

There is nothing like breaking away from the long winters to soak up some rays.  You know what kind of winter that I’m talking about.  The one where you don’t leave the house except when absolutely necessary because there isn’t any more food in the pantry. Your skin looks like that of Edward Cullen and you don’t dare go outside.  Lather up the sunscreen because your pale skin won’t be ready for the full blast of rays you’ll be getting, but your mind surely will love you for it.

In January we took a trip to Panama to enjoy the scenery, visit some historical sites, visit the Embera tribe, and soak up some rays.  It was so refreshing to feel the warmth of the sun.  Our winter was in full swing with blizzards in Idaho, but it felt good knowing that I was enjoying the warmth.  It is good for your heart, soul, and mind.  So start planning today and book a trip for next winter to get into the sun and away from the medication.

 3. Travel Creates Happy Memories that Last

travel picture

Shae and I in 2009 Enjoying the Cambodian Temples

I’ll never forget skateboarding across Barcelona with two of my best buddies in 2001.  We spent hours riding the streets and exploring the city.  How do you ever forget an experience like this?  Try this one on for size:  My wife and I spent three weeks touring across Southeast Asia before we had any children.  We visited temples, had massages, ate some amazing food, and met delightful people.  Just try to forget something like that.  I dare you.  Ain’t gonna happen.

When you reflect upon wonderful times in your life, it helps you to remember that life is a good thing.  We need more of this.  It’s easy to focus on the right now, and how bad things are hurting now, but reflecting back on wonderful memories will help to ease the pain.  Obviously it doesn’t remove it completely, but at least starts the healing process.

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4. Travel Gives you Something to Look Forward to

Maybe some people are different, but I can’t imagine that those people would actually be reading a blog like this, so I’m going to assume that you’re all similar to me.  I’m convinced that planning a trip can make you happier.

Romeo and Juliet

Us at Juliet’s Balcony in Verona, Italy

When I was looking into visiting castles on my European vacation last year I stumbled upon a video from Rick Steves that talked about the most well preserved medieval castle that he had ever visited.  It sparked a thought in my mind, and I knew that I had to visit this location.  I checked out videos at the library to learn about the places that I’d be seeing.  My wife and I watched documentaries on Netflix about the building of Venice.  All this stuff was fascinating to me.  I was having a blast as I looked into the fun things that I’d be doing on the trip.

We found out that Verona had a balcony that “belonged to Juliet.”  Of course we stopped there, and of course my wife slapped me when I rubbed the statue’s breast (which was supposed to be for good luck).

John, a member of our army of WorldWanderlusters, is spending two weeks exploring Italy with his wife RIGHT NOW.  This kid was intense with his research.  He became enthralled with the trip and did exactly as I had done on my trip.  It is all paying off now because his trip is going to be more memorable knowing that he’s prepared himself for the events of his vacation.

5. Travel Puts the Daily Grind to a Halt

Are you kidding me?  America gets the lowest amount of vacation than any other nation on Earth.  We are basically slaves to our jobs.  Heck.  I’m even self-employed and I’m still a slave to myself.

People are more efficient when they get a break from time to time.  Imagine the last time you attended a work meeting that lasted all day.  Did they give you any breaks? What if they would have allowed no breaks, but slammed 10 hours of straight meetings in your face?  Everyone would be asleep from boredom after 2 hours.  People need breaks.

Life works the same way.  If you work everyday and never get a break, you’ll be less productive.  It’s time to put the daily grind to a halt and sharpen the saw.  Tell your boss that you need more time off and less pay.  After all, what good does more pay do for you if you don’t even enjoy your life now?

Pull out the sharpening stone by taking a break and traveling more.  Leaving the daily routine, even if it is for short breaks, will be worth its weight in gold.

Please Note: This post was not meant to offend anyone who suffers from depression or other mental illness. I realize that medication is the only thing that helps some people to cope with their depression.  While traveling might not completely cure anyone, I’m convinced that it will help everyone.

 

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11 flights, 10 Countries, 9,779 miles, $4850 in Flights – Pay no more than taxes

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Brad Christensen

I have 55,800 American Express Membership Rewards points that I got from The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN.  As we’ve talked about before, miles and points generally fall into one of three categories: Airline Miles, which you can use to book flights, Hotel Points, which you can use to book rooms, or Bank Points, which you can use to do either or transfer to some specific programs.  These Membership Rewards fall into that last category.  Right now there’s a promotion to get a 35% bonus when you transfer from Membership Rewards to British Airways Avios.  With the bonus right now, I could rack up 75,330 Avios. We’ve told you before how nice these points can be for short, direct flights like SLC-LAX or BOI-SEA. But tonight I’m thinking bigger.

Brazil tourYou see, I just got off the phone with my youngest brother who is two weeks into a two month tour of Latin America.  He started in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and has thus far worked his way down to Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Of course he is raving about the experience and I’m a deep shade of green with envy.

And you know what envy does to a wanderluster… it doesn’t throw them into bouts of woe and depression, it incites them to action.  It invites them to say not “I can’t do that,” but “how can I do that?”  Well, I got a little carried away and I am in total shock and awe at what could be done with my Membership Rewards.

I set out to get maximum exploration for my miles.  This is kind of a “diagnosed-with-terminal-disease” itinerary.  My only objective was to touch as many areas as possible, and minimize any non-air travel.  If I included some bus routes between these areas, it would be even more incredible what could be done.

British Airways South America

Even still, this is what we have: 11 flights, 10 countries, 9,779 miles, $4,850 in flights. Now, given that there are some taxes and fees you’d have to pay on these flights, along with departure fees and various other add-ons, what I’m telling you is that my miles could buy me almost $5000 in flights.

Route BA Avios Retail Cost
DFW-CUN      7,500  $       315
CUN-MIA      4,500  $       280
MIA-SJU      7,500  $       120
SJU-CCS      4,500  $       710
CCS-LIM    10,000  $       890
LIM-UIO      7,500  $       548
UIO-MDE      4,500  $       462
MDE-LIM    10,000  $       575
LIM-TCQ      4,500  $       173
Bus to La Paz
LPB-SCL    10,000  $       278
SCL-COR      4,500  $       499
Total    75,000  $    4,850

I know this seems unfathomable. There’s no possible way that you could do something this amazing purely through wanderlust, a willingness to use the manner of your everyday purchases to accumulate miles, and some cunning planning, right?

Well, here it is, and you can check it for yourself.  I searched out flight routes on British Airways’ Routemap tool, double checked with the British Airways Avios Calculator, measured distances with the Great Circle Mapper, and checked prices with flights every 5 days on Expedia.com.

In fact, I’m willing to offer a challenge.  If you can come up with a route that touches more countries, starting in Dallas and ending wherever you’d like, I’ll very happily send you a $50 – and then I’ll book the trip for myself.

What I’m trying to impart here is that there is no boundary for the wanderluster. Anything you want to do, you can do.  You must be flexible.  You must be creative.  You must be willing to put in the research.  I’ve been voraciously thirsting for global conquest for about 13 of my 34 years, and I’m nowhere near stopping.

Get yourself some British Airways Avios and open the door to Latin America.  You can transfer the Membership Rewards you can get from the The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN, or go for the British Airways Visa Signature® Card.

Please join us.  Subscribe to receive our posts by email or RSS.  Follow us on Facebook.  Share us with your friends, neighbors, and even your enemies. Wanderlust with us.

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Wanderlust in Aruba

Posted on April 26, 2013 by wpengine

This post was written by Bonnie, a newcomer to the WorldWanderlusting way of traveling.  She recently took an unbelievable anniversary trip in February of this year with her husband, and wanted to share her experience with our readers (note that their camera date wasn’t set so the dates are incorrect).

Our 20 year anniversary was coming up, and I knew I wanted to do something special and big that included a white sandy beach.  I also knew that with 5 kids, I didn’t have a lot of extra money lying around.  So, I did what any other adventure seeker would do and sat down with my friend Sheldon.  Now my disclaimer to this is that I have listened to Sheldon blab nonstop about all the wonderful adventures that he has taken since I met him 5 years ago.  But I have a HUGE aversion to using credit cards, because I know far too many people that have not used them responsibly, and have later gotten into financial disaster.  So I would politely listen to the blabbing, smile, and wonder to myself how I could take the same trip “legitimately.”  I quickly realized that Sheldon’s blabbing WAS legitimate!  It IS possible to be a responsible credit card user and to travel the world almost FREE!!

Beautiful beach

I started applying for my first credit cards in September 2012.  I had no idea where I wanted to go, but knew I needed points to get there.  I also felt a little bit of a time crunch, because we wanted to take our anniversary trip in February 2013.  This gave me only 6 months to maximize my use of travel cards, which required some very close accounting.  Then, I literally started Wanderlusting any location that I could redeem my points, with white sandy beaches being the only parameter.  I wanted to go someplace a little remote; off the “normal” beaten path….which is why we chose Aruba.

Sailing in Aruba

My husband and I both applied for the Chase Marriott Rewards card.  My husband had applied for the card when they were advertising an additional incentive, so he received 80,000 points after his required purchase, and I received “only” 50,000 points after my purchase.  Regardless, this gave us 130,000 points to use at a Marriott resort.  The hotels in Aruba all required a larger amount of points, as they were at least a category 5 or higher.  We chose an ultimate beach front gorgeous Marriott resort that cost us 140,000 points, but you could stay 4 nights and get the 5th night free.  Luckily, to make up for the difference in points, we had a Chase Freedom card that allowed us to transfer points to various other travel partners.  Like magic, our white sandy beach resort hotel was paid for!!  My husband and I also both applied for the Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express, which gave us each 30,000 frequent flier points after our required purchase.  Our airline tickets cost 35,000 points each, so I did have to dig into my wallet to buy the extra 5,000 points each, plus pay the taxes.  The extra Delta points and taxes cost a mere $450. (I’m certain if I had more time I would not have had to pay for this either.)  But, wait… there’s more!  We decided that we wanted 6 nights in Aruba instead of only 5, so I found another resort, using my Starwood American Express card, to receive 1 additional free night.  Then our flight back to Idaho took us through NYC, with an overnight layover in NYC.  So, I did the only natural thing, and used my Chase Priority Club card for another FREE night.  Curiosity got the best of me, so I tried to book the entire trip on my own to see my savings.  This trip would have cost $6000+, but it cost me $450!!!

Aruba Vacation

Bonnie and Wyatt enjoying Aruba

Aruba is a small island, only about 22 miles wide and 8 miles long, and located about 15 miles north of Venezuela.  Their motto on all license plates is “One Happy Island” and we can attest that everyone was pleasant and so wonderful.  We happened upon a “locals” beach one day, and the local kite surfers gave us our own show of spectacular jumps and flips over the waves.  Because the island is so small, we drove on every street and checked out all corners of the island.  The year-round temperature is in the mid-80’s with a constant ocean breeze.

Coconut Aruba

Wyatt enjoying a fresh coconut

If you’ve ever wanted to try fresh coconut milk, drinking it from a guy on the side of the road as he chops it with his machete is the only way to drink it!  Aruba is a very dry island, not what you would think of as a tropical island.  There were many cactus jungles, and most of the fruit was imported.  But the seafood was amazing, and we ate fresh fish almost every day.

Almost everyone on the island speaks English, although the native language is Papiamento.  It is a beautiful Creole language that is a mix of Portuguese, Spanish, and some African languages.

Sunset couple

Whether it was romantic poolside dinners or watching the ocean sunset on the white sandy beach, we had an awesome 20th Anniversary! So, blab your heart out Sheldon, and you can guarantee that we’ll be Wanderlusting again soon!!!

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