Update: Starting January 16th the U.S. government will relax the restrictions on travel to Cuba. This means Americans will be able to visit the island without a license for approved reasons (listed below). You still can't travel there strictly for leisure. That can only be changed by Congress. Guess what? You can't go on vacation in Cuba. Yeah, that's a new one isn't it? After our fearless leader, President Obama, made his announcement about "normalizing relations" with the dictator-run country I'm sure your Facebook feed was filled with your friends sharing their dream vacations to Cuba (because awesome!). Well, I hate to break it to all your friends...but I wouldn't count on spending spring break there lounging on the beach.
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Vacation might-as-well be a hotly traded commodity here in the U.S. We're, for the most part, a hard working people, and sometimes it is hard to convince us to take all of our vacation days. Unless you're a hard working teacher, who gets a well-deserved 3-4 months off throughout the year or a politician who gets 11 months off a year - you probably get about "2 weeks" of vacation. Otherwise known as 10 days. 10 days! Fortunately, that does not include holidays, personal days (sometimes called "floating holidays"), or sick days. And God forbid you don't use them all in one year! Yeah, because if you don't, more likely than not, they'll simply disappear at the end of December. Poof! Doesn't seem fair does it? Well, life's not fair. So get over it. Tricks to make the most of your vacation Unfortunately, the short answer is likely "no." The low oil prices - which translate to cheap gas - will not lower the price of an airline ticket. Right now - the national average for a gallon of regular is hovering around $2.32. Here in the DFW area most stations are below $2.00 (which is awesome!). So, if you drive around in one of those gas-guzzlers (like me), you could save a crap-load! The other day I filled up and it cost me just under $40. $20 cheaper than what I'm used to paying. As I'm writing this, a barrel of oil cost just under $56 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That doesn't only mean potentially big savings for you, but also airlines. However, don't expect to see a much, if any, drop in ticket price. Why won't airlines lower prices on tickets? As a news producer weird things get sent to my inbox all the time. A lot of them aren't worth doing a whole story on, but most of them are still rather interesting. A recent email I got falls in the latter category. The mile high club Are you a part of it? According to some "research" done by Switchfly, which is a "technology company that powers travel booking and loyalty redemption for the world's most popular travel brands," only 4% of Americans have admitted to being a part of the club. Men are three times more likely than women to have joined (interesting...). But wait. There's more! Maybe it's the way I was raised or maybe it's just my personality - but during 11 months of the year living nearly 1,000 miles from the rest of my family doesn't bother me all that much at all. For those that don't know - I live in Dallas. My family (pretty much everyone except a few cousins) live in Illinois. Most around the Chicago area. Like I said - that doesn't bother me. That is...until the holidays (which I love! Best time of the year, in my opinion). Now, over the past decade that I've been working I have gotten used to it a little, but I still miss them the most during the holiday season. This year, I went home for a week for Thanksgiving. I requested that holiday off. Which means I'll be working on Christmas. So I can't go home. Working on holidays I don't mind working on the occasional holiday. That comes with the territory when you work in the news biz. And if you think about it - a lot of people are also required to work when "everyone else" has off. Here's a short list of some jobs that may require you to work on a holiday: Early next year I'll be headed to Mexico with Crystal for one of her friend's weddings. It'll be at the all-inclusive El Dorado Seaside Suites. Yeah, we'll really be slumming it. The humanity! In all actuality (and if you didn't click on that link) it looks really nice. And by really nice I mean jaw-on-the-floor nice. Still can't believe I'll be staying there. I've never stayed at an all-inclusive. We're booking the stay through a travel agent, which is kinda nice. We don't have to worry about anything except being where we're supposed to be when we're supposed to be there (I'm looking at you Crystal). Cost I moved to Texas just about a year-and-a-half ago for work. Let me just tell you right now: Texas is HUGE! There is so much to see! From the different cities like Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio - to the different areas of the state like Hill Country, Big Bend, the Gulf Coast and the Caprock Canyons in the panhandle. I mean get this: Texas is so huge that it'll take you nearly as long to drive from Denton to Brownsville (about 8 hours 30 minutes) as it would from Denton to St. Louis, MO (about 9 hours 30 minutes)! That's crazy! And awesome!
There are dozens of ways to earn miles and/or points for travel. Some of which - you've probably never heard of. Many are extremely lucrative when it comes to points.
Dining Rewards Network The Dining Rewards Network is a completely free way to earn additional points for rewards accounts you may already have. All you have to do is sign up and register your cards. You can register each and every card (debit or credit) you have. The "catch"? You can't register the same card for more than one rewards account. Anyway, after you register your cards - all you have to do is dine at one of the thousands of restaurants on the list - you get points or miles! Simple as that. No need to tell the restaurant. No coupons to print out. Nothing. The miles/points automatically post to your account within a couple of days. The current list of Dining Rewards programs that I can find is this: Yes, it is possible! Not only can you go on a cheap vacation - but you have several ways to go about accomplishing this goal. I will highlight a couple here.
Renting With Friends One way is to rent a vacation home with a group of friends. This works even if you have a family and it could cut your costs by quite a bit. I'll explain with an example: One of the things I worry about the most when getting ready for vacation - is keeping my cat, Marti, safe and happy when I'm away. If you have a pet - you know what I'm talking about. Rest assured - leaving your loved one(s) safe is most certainly possible. All that is required from you - is a little effort. For example, Marti is getting up there in age. He's now 9. So I have to take a few more precautions. I would argue thats a good rule of thumb: the older your pet is the more you may have to do. For me, the longer I'm gonna be gone the more challenging - and costly - it gets. If I'm going away for a weekend - one of those automatic food dispensers is perfect with some dry food in it. That way Marti will have plenty for two or three nights by himself. Before I leave I also make sure he has plenty of water and his litter box is clean. The great thing about cats is that you can do that with them. They will be perfectly fine for a few nights by themselves. Dogs - not so much. Dogs need to be let out daily to be walked, go to the bathroom, and get a little exercise. So, if you have a dog, or a cat that needs to be watched while you're gone - you have two options: you can either call a pet sitter, or you can bribe a friend to watch fido. Haven't been on vacation in a while? You are certainly not alone. Vacations can cost a ton of money. And with the economy being - well - on vacation for the better part of six years who can blame you? Now, there are ways you can go on vacay for virtually free - like taking advantage of credit card rewards (which can be extremely lucrative) - but that's another post for another time. Lets talk about having fun in your own backyard. A quick search on you search engine of choice - and you can find dozens of things to do within a tank of gas from home. This past weekend my girlfriend, Crystal, and I went to a glass blowing class 10 minutes from my home in Dallas. We walked away with a rare experience that we'll remember for a long time to come. It was a birthday present from Crystal - that we finally got a chance to redeem. Travel blogs are my current obsession! I can’t stop reading them! In particular - travel blogs that have to do with earning credit card points to travel with. Recently, after a lot of hard work, I became debt free when it comes to credit cards (still paying off my student loan and I have a car note to pay off too). The next logical step, then, would be to figure out how I can earn credit card “miles” or “points” for travel. And guess what? It is addicting! I mean - who wouldn’t want to travel to Europe or Asia for pennies on the dollar? Count me in! And because of that - I now spend most of my free time searching for new articles about credit card points. Such an exciting life I lead, huh? Some of the good ones out there in no particular order: Over my Thanksgiving break - I went up to Chicago to visit my family. They all still live in the Chicagoland area. I got up there via Southwest. The flights were uneventful - but let me just say - thank God for noise canceling headphones! I'm pretty sure there were 10 babies on each flight crying the whole time. It was like a game of baby-dominos...or something. Once one was finished another would start. Anywho - my flight roundtrip from Dallas to Chicago's Midway was a whopping $188. By far the cheapest flight I have ever been on. My flight to Chicago left on Thanksgiving morning and my flight back to Dallas was on Tuesday. If you ever have to travel for Thanksgiving - and your schedule allows it - I recommend traveling on those days. El cheapo. On Sunday - my parents, my sister and her husband went to the Christkindlmarket. It. Was. A. Blast. A little cold but not too bad. If you do go - I'd highly recommend bringing some cash with you. Many of the stands that are set up - don't take credit cards. |
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