We are the Cox’s. We are a quasi-normal, family of four. We love to travel, but we’ve always had to do it on a budget, and still do. Recently, we’ve learned some helpful things which allow us to have greater adventures and stay within our limited budget. This has opened up the world for us, literally. We’re still newbies but we now know the path to become expert travelers. Please follow along with us as we go from newbies to experts.
Motivation
We’ve always set aside money for travel. This was a non-negotiable part of our monthly budget. When the kids were younger, our trips were short and nearby. We live in Iowa, and a typical trip for us was Chicago, St. Louis, or Minneapolis. We looked for places that we could visit on a fairly short drive, stay in a cheap hotel, and we would visit zoos, children’s museums, and parks. We tried to pack in as much fun as we could as cheaply as possible.
As we got older and our budget grew a little bit more, we took longer trips. We visited further away places, like Florida, Virginia, and Washington DC. We bought a camper, and we use it a lot. We never flew, every place had to be within a couple days drive, because once we bought 4 plane tickets and rented a car, the budget was already almost blown. Flying internationally, let alone intercontinentally might as well have been flying to the moon.
One day, when our daughter Emma was a freshman in high school, she told us that she wanted to take the school trip to Greece. This was one of those trips contracted through a travel agency that they market to high schoolers as a “class trip” but only like 5% of the kids actually go, because it’s just too expensive for the average family. Thinking that it wouldn’t be that bad because it was a group trip marketed to kids, I asked “How much will that cost?” She said, “It’s only $4400!” Uh, okay, that’s not gonna happen. She might have well asked for a Porsche. And then I said something which probably changed our lives. “Emma, I promise you, when you graduate from High School, we will travel anywhere you want to go.” That was both a promise seemed completely unattainable, and a promise that I had no intention of breaking.
Revelation
In December of 2021, I started to realize that I had a future 8-to-10-thousand-dollar bill coming due in a year and a half and I was looking at having to completely drain our savings to pay for that. I would have, I just wouldn’t have been happy about it. How can we reduce the cost of this trip?
We were watching TV one night, and a commercial for a Capital One travel card came on. I thought, okay, well, I guess if I applied for a travel credit card, I might be able to pay for one of the flights, maybe? I googled travel cards like crazy, with no real direction, just trying to get the best possible credit card that could, maybe, pay for a flight. I settled on the Citi Premier card, it was offering an 80,000-point bonus and filled out an application. It was approved.
Now what? I had no idea what I was doing. I had this card, I needed to spend $4000 on it in 3 months to get the 80,000-point bonus. Not a problem for a middle-class family of 4, we almost spend that on groceries in 3 months, but what do I do with the points? How do I cash them in, what are they even worth? Then I hit YouTube – hard – and I kept seeing people talking about how they traveled all the time, for free. What? Now, spoiler alert, there is a lot of exaggeration on YouTube. However, points and miles are actually really valuable, and surprisingly easy to acquire. Fast forward one year and I had booked 2 round-trip flights to Cabo San Lucas, 2 nights in the All-Inclusive Hyatt Ziva Los Cabos, 4 nights in an AirBNB in Cabo San Lucas, 4 one-way airline tickets from Chicago to Zurich, 2 Nights in Zurich Marriott, 4 nights in an AirBNB in Munich, 3 nights in an AirBNB in Venice, 2 Nights in an AirBNB in Rome, 4 one-way tickets from Rome to Stockholm, 3 nights in a Marriott in Stockholm, and 4 one-way tickets from Stockholm to Chicago. All of that cost me a total of $3100 out of pocket. Of that, $2500 of that was AirBNBs which we prefer to use because having a kitchen saves us money on food. However, AirBNB doesn’t have a real points program. Also, that could have been much better, but I overspent on an AirBNB in Cabo ($1200), because it was our anniversary. The power of points is absolutely real. All of those points were acquired in one year of normal spending for us, just using the right cards.
We still have a lot to learn, and I invite you to learn with us. This blog will be about making the most of your money and your time. I’ll probably delve into some of our other vices/hobbies like running, camping, and beer. What I’ve learned in the last year is that there are a lot of things which are attainable if you stay focused on a goal.
November is the beginning of the holiday season and apparently, the beginning of the winter season for those of us who live in the Midwest. On the weekend after Thanksgiving, we were handed a foot of snow, which will probably be covering the ground until March. The last few years, we’ve managed to avoid significant snowfalls until January, but not this year. In my experience, once there is a decent amount of snow on the ground, it’ll be there until spring.
So I guess as long as I’m going to be stuck inside for the next 3-4 months, I might as well start thinking about our Spring Break trip, which is how Midwesterners celebrate the end of this winter hellscape. While we haven’t completely finalized our trip to Tenerife in March, we booked the return trip from Madrid as well as our hotel rooms in London. The only things we have left to book are a hotel for one night in Madrid, an Airbnb for 5 nights in Tenerife, and a flight from Tenerife to Madrid. I think most, if not all of that, will be booked with cash instead of points, but if there is a good use of points in there somewhere, I will definitely consider it.
Booking Stuff For Spring Break
I was having a hell of a time trying to find a good price on a flight back from Europe for Spring Break. We had already booked a flight from Moline to London for only 19,000 American Airlines miles and $5.60 each, as well as a separate flight from London to Tenerife for 13,750 British Airways Avios and $1.00 each. We still needed to book a flight back home and, after months of searching, decided to book from Madrid to Moline on American Airlines for 34,000 AAdvantage miles and $50 each. We still don’t have a flight from Tenerife to Madrid, but there are a lot of flights on Iberia between Tenerife and Madrid daily, so I think we can be patient with that.
I had to do some maneuvering to get enough American Airlines miles in one account to book the flight from Madrid to Moline. I needed to buy 3 tickets out of Jenn’s account, but she only had 88,800 miles, and we needed 102,000. Because American Airlines is now a transfer partner with Citi Thank You points, we could transfer to her account using her Citi Strata Premier card, but she didn’t have enough Thank You points to make it work. I did have enough and was able to move my Thank You points to her account using their Points Sharing feature. Then she was able to transfer them to her American Airlines account. It’s good to know that Citibank allows that kind of points movement between family members, because that was the only way we could make that work.
We have also managed to book our hotels in London. We booked 2 rooms in London at the Hyatt Place London City East. I had two category 1-4 free night certificates and used them. We have always liked staying at Hyatt Place hotels, and yes, they are low-end for Hyatt, but I’ve always found them to be clean, comfortable, and overall, very nice hotels.
We also used a Marriott Bonvoy free night certificate to book a night at the Courtyard by Marriott London Gatwick Airport. That should work out perfectly because we have a very early flight from Gatwick to Tenerife, and the closer to the airport, the better.
Mini-Bonuses
We got a couple of mini-bonuses this month. One is a referral bonus that Jenn got for referring me to the Chase Ink Unlimited Card. She received 20,000 Ultimate Reward points for referring me. We also received a 10,000 Membership Reward point bonus. That was earned from a deal where we made our son, Alex, an authorized user, with a spend requirement of $2,000 on the new card over 6 months. That was easy enough, so Jenn recently added our Daughter Emma as an authorized user with the same bonus and spend requirement.
On to the Points Check
Some of the charges that we made last month weren’t ideal. We really should have stopped using the AAdvantage Platinum card, it earns almost nothing, and it was basically just top of Jenn’s wallet since that was her last card she got a bonus on. The Sapphire Preferred is where I have our car insurance going to (yes, I know it’s a lot, I have a teenage son). I need to at least switch that to a card that earns more than 1 point per dollar. Overall, we are still earning over 5.5% on non-bonus spend, so I’m not upset about that.
Card Used
Spend
Points Earned
Point Value
Points Per $
Return on Spend
Amex Gold
$1,658
4,746
$94.92
2.9
5.7%
Wyndham Business Earner
$683
3,734
$41.07
5.5
6.0%
Ink Cash
$580
2,914
$59.74
5.0
10.3%
AAdvantage Platinum
$545
634
$10.46
1.2
1.9%
Sapphire Preferred
$403
403
$8.26
1.0
2.0%
Amex Blue Business Plus
$66
132
$2.64
2.0
4.0%
Total
$3,935
12,563
$217.09
3.2
5.5%
This month’s spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus
In addition to the spending listed above, I spent a little less than $2,500 on my Chase Ink Unlimited card, earning over 3,700 Ultimate Reward points. I have to spend $6,000 within three months to earn the 90,000-point bonus on that card. All of the points earned and the points spent to book the hotels and the flight back from Madrid left us with:
286,900 IHG Points
262,200 Chase Ultimate Reward Points
150,400 Amex Membership Rewards Points
96,500 Wyndham Points
79,400 Alaska Miles
33,600 American Airlines Miles
19,300 Citi Thank You Points
16,700 United Miles
15,900 Marriott Bonvoy Points
1,500 Delta Miles
300 Hyatt Points
$133 Cash Back
Using the point valuations published by The Points Guy, the total value of all of those points and miles is $12,700. That is down from $14,000 last month. Since we pretty much have Spring Break booked and I don’t have any plans after that, we are going to be in complete point accumulation mode. By the time we get around to booking the next trip, we should be sitting on a lot of points.
I’ve never been comfortable with wealth. If you catch me in a pair of Brooks running shoes, I feel like I have to explain that I got them on sale. It’s the Midwestern in me; if you own anything nice, you have to explain to everyone who notices it that you’re not rich, you just got a great deal. Hell, this entire blog is practically an apology for taking fancy trips. “Oh sure, Margaret, we went to France, but I had coupons, doncha know.”
Monaco is the opposite of Midwestern frugality. People come to Monaco to flaunt their wealth. They pull into the marina in multimillion-dollar yachts and unload their multimillion-dollar sports cars to drive around town. Designer clothes and expensive jewelry are standard.
Monaco is an odd country. It is the second-smallest in the world, measuring less than one square mile. Its size, combined with its population of around 38,000, makes it the most densely populated country in the world. It is also extremely wealthy, with its GDP per capita of over $250,000 per year, around triple that of the United States.
There aren’t many places on earth where I feel more out of place than Monaco, but we decided to visit anyway. Since we were spending five days in Nice, which is only a 20-30 minute trip from Monaco, it would seem like a missed opportunity not to visit when we were nearby.
Despite my discomfort with wealth, I was looking forward to the visit. The country is undeniably beautiful. Port Hercule sits on the Mediterranean Sea, filled with numerous yachts, and the hills encircle it in a crescent shape, acting almost as an amphitheater, with the port at its center. To the east of Port Hercule is the Old Town area, where the Palace and the Cathedral are located. The hills to the north and west of Port Hercule are lined with beautiful, modern mid-rise condos where even the most basic condominiums sell for well into the millions of dollars.
White tents block the view of the Marina
We arrived from Nice by Uber, which turned out to be a great choice. The drive to Monaco is beautiful, crossing through the maritime Alps and then, at the end of the trip, following switchbacks perched over the Mediterranean as you descend from the Alps. There are also a lot of tunnels, as Monaco and France needed to fit modern infrastructure in pretty steep, rocky terrain. We were let out of the Uber right by the marina.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t see the marina because of a line of white tents blocking the view of the marina from the road. The reason, as we found out, was that the Monaco Yacht Show was happening. This is not an ordinary boat show. This is an exhibition of superyachts, and they certainly didn’t want people who couldn’t afford those boats to look at them because admission to the event was 725 Euros per day.
I had planned to go to Monaco Brewery and have a beer while enjoying the view of the marina, but unfortunately, the view was now just the backside of a set of white tents. We went to the brewery anyway and asked to be seated. The hostess asked us if we would be eating, and we said no, so she told us there was no seating. We then told her we would eat, and they found us a table.
People queuing to enter the Yacht Show
We ordered a couple of beers, I believe a brown and a wheat beer. Jenn ordered a salad, and I had the fish and chips. I’m a bit of a beer snob, so take this with a grain of salt, but I felt like the beer was below average, at best, and certainly not worth the 12 euro price. The fish and chips were very good; however, although definitely on the pricey side at 28 euros.
Monaco Brewery
I knew that prices in Monaco were going to be inflated, so that was no surprise, but not getting a view of the Port Hercule, when that is our main draw to the brewery, was a huge letdown.
After lunch, we walked from the marina up to the top of the hill where Monaco’s old town sits. There is quite a climb from the base of the hill to the old town, which makes for some incredible views.
Port Hercule
We walked along the road heading up the west side of the hill, which overlooked the marina. Finally, we were able to see the boats from above the tents. The marina is quite impressive, as are the yachts that are docked in it.
Condominiums surrounding the marina
This was also where we started to get a sense of the city itself, with its midrise condo buildings looking out over the marina and Mediterranean. Past the rows of condominiums are the beginnings of the maritime Alps, with their white stone cliffs and trees.
Port Hercule
As we climbed up the road, the views became even more impressive as we could see more of the city as well as longer views of the deep blue Mediterranean.
Ships out in the Mediterranean who weren’t able to dock in Port Hercule
We finally arrived at the top of the hill, where there are some amazing viewpoints looking out over the Mediterranean. There is also a giant frame, where people were lining up for their Instagram-worthy portraits, looking over the marina.
Once we began to walk into the old town itself, I began to feel more comfortable. The old town, with its older buildings and its narrow streets, is very similar to most older European cities.
Old Town in Monaco
Walking through the old town to the Prince’s Palace, we passed several shops, and I noticed that the posted prices were much more typical of a European city rather than the inflated prices at Port Hercule. We probably should have stopped for a drink and food in the old town rather than at the brewery.
Prince’s Palace and the plaza
The Prince’s Palace was a beautiful white building sitting behind a large plaza. It was surprisingly quiet, with just a couple of guards outside and a handful of tourists snapping pictures. It’s also remarkably plain with just a couple of statues outside. I expected something a bit more gaudy, but was pleasantly surprised by the elegant simplicity of the area.
Grimaldi Statue in front of the Prince’s Palace
We hung around the area for a while and then proceeded to head back down the hill and go to the train station to return to Nice.
Ministry of the State Building
Going to Monaco was definitely an experience. I wish that we had been there when the yacht show wasn’t in town, because I would have really enjoyed a walk around the marina. There is also a ‘you don’t belong here’ vibe that I sensed almost everywhere I went. From blocking the view at the yacht show to not allowing you to drink at the brewery if you weren’t eating, it was clear that we weren’t the preferred visitors.
That being said, the views were spectacular, and I imagine that if we had spent a little more time in the old town, our experience would have been more positive. So if you’re like us and would like to check Monaco off your bucket list, I would recommend less time around the marina and more in the old town. I think you’ll find yourself a little more comfortable.
As long as I can remember, I was fascinated by geography. When I was a child, we had a driftwood-framed color map of Puerto Rico that my parents brought home from a trip before I was born. I stared at that map for hours, imagining what it would be like to live on a Caribbean island.
When I was in Junior High, my Mom bought a beautiful, large-format world atlas. I spent so much time flipping through those pages, imagining what life is like in different areas of the world. I was fascinated by what was outside of my narrow world.
My family didn’t travel much, and when we did, it was to areas within the Midwest that were pretty much the same as where I grew up. Travel wasn’t a priority for us, but it was always something I wished I could do.
Marrying an Adventurous Soul
I always tell people I married a hippy, but that’s not really accurate. I married a woman with an adventurous soul. For most of our marriage, I felt like the cautious person who was always saying no to every crazy idea that she had, but over time, she wore me down, and I started to see life more in the way she saw it.
For example, in 2022, on a camping trip in Colorado Springs, we were talking to a couple at a microbrewery, and they suggested that we hike the Incline, a trail on an abandoned funicular line that climbs 2,000 feet in one mile. Jenn said, “That sounds awesome, let’s do it!” I looked at her like she was crazy, but I agreed to go. It turned out to be an insanely challenging hike, but it had amazing views and was unbelievably rewarding.
At the top step of the Incline in Manitou Springs, Colorado.
Getting off the Couch
Doing the incline was a great experience, but we wouldn’t have attempted it if we weren’t in pretty good shape. I personally wouldn’t have been capable of doing it without Jenn’s persistence.
When our children were young, we found it difficult to get much activity because our lives revolved around working, cooking, watching the kids, and shuffling them to activities. But as they grew older, she insisted that we exercise more. She dragged me, kicking and screaming, into fitness, and since that time, I’ve run eight half marathons, two marathons, and an ultra marathon, usually one event each year.
Starting line at the UTMB Cote d’Azur 55K in 2025.
Camping Against My Will
Jenn grew up camping. I absolutely did not. My family’s idea of “roughing it” was staying at a hotel that didn’t have a pool. Jenn did not accept my unwillingness to camp, and I’m glad she didn’t. When the kids were very young, we started off tent camping, then moved to a pop-up camper, and later to a full-sized travel trailer.
The family at St Mary’s Lake near Idaho Springs, Colorado.
I enjoy camping now, but my favorite part of camping is the hiking that accompanies it. When we took the kids to Colorado in 2022, we camped for two weeks, and in that time, we were able to do some amazing hikes. My favorite was a hike to the lake next to St Mary’s Glacier at 10,000 feet.
Exploring Other Countries
I had always dreamed of visiting other countries, but other than one trip to Cancun, I had never left the United States. The main problem was always the expense of flying. I never thought we could afford to take a family of four overseas with the cost of flights. However, in 2022, I started to look into travel hacking and specifically how to use points and miles to lower the cost of our flights and hotel stays.
Travel hacking lowered the cost of our travel and allowed us to be much more adventurous than in the past. Since then, we’ve had five trips to Europe, one to Mexico (two for Jenn), a trip to Canada, and a trip to Costa Rica. It has allowed us to share these amazing locations with our kids at ages where they can truly appreciate them.
Opening the World for our Children
Our daughter, Emma, graduated from High School in 2023, and to celebrate, we went to Europe for the first time. We had a whirlwind trip, visiting Zurich, Munich, Venice, Rome, and Stockholm over the course of two weeks. During that time, we were able to share as much food, culture, and sightseeing as we could with our kids.
Swiss flags line a street in Zurich
On the last day of our trip, Alex, who had been extremely quiet the entire trip, said that he didn’t want to go home. We honestly couldn’t tell if he was having a good time before that. He was just quietly soaking it all in. At that moment, I realized that we could take our kids anywhere and they would be happy to join us.
The Bridge of Sighs in Venice
In 2024, we took a spring break trip to Costa Rica, where we spent some time at the beach, did some hiking, and soaked up some authentic Costa Rican culture. The thing that we all remember more than anything on that trip was visiting the Blue Falls of Costa Rica. It is a hiking location with seven amazing turquoise blue waterfalls that cascade from the side of a volcano. It was a memorable hike.
The family enjoying the pool in front of a waterfall in Costa Rica
That summer, we took our camper to Hamilton, Ontario, and visited Toronto and Niagara Falls. It was crazy to me that I had never visited Canada, but it was well worth the trip across our northern border.
Horseshoe Falls from the Canadian side of Niagara Falls
For Spring Break in 2025, we did something a little more adventurous and spent six days on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, where we hiked over 100 kilometers from Portugal to Spain. It was a difficult physical challenge, but it also allowed us to spend a lot of time in the Spanish countryside.
Alex hiking through a village on the Camino
Exploring the world with our children before they were too old to tag along with Mom and Dad was something we really set out to do. I’m really grateful that in the last few years we have been able to travel in a way that I hope shaped their views on the world. What I didn’t expect was that our children wouldn’t be our only travel companions.
Our Other Travel Companions
In the fall of 2024, we went to Italy with our good friends Bill and Theresa, and Jenn’s parents, Mark and Margie. I was a little apprehensive because there is a risk that spending that much time together could result in arguments and annoyances that can ruin a relationship. Travel can be stressful and can expose problems you were unaware of.
A church at the marina in Vernazza, Italy.
It turned out that we had a great time with very little stress. We visited Florence, Cinque Terre, Venice, and Rome on our trip. It was a great trip, and since we had visited Venice and Rome before, we were able to show some of our favorite stops from our first visit to Italy.
Port of Nice
We enjoyed traveling with Bill and Theresa so much that when we went to Nice, France, for the UTMB Côte d’Azur ultramarathons in September of this year, they came along and participated in the races as well. We had a great time visiting Monaco and Nice. On the way back, we stopped in Dublin, where we visited a few old pubs and toured the Jameson Distillery.
Temple Bar District in Dublin
Jenn also did a girls’ trip to Playa del Carmen to celebrate her sister’s 50th birthday, as well as a trip to Munich and Dublin to celebrate our niece Zoey’s high school graduation.
While the girls were in Munich and Dublin, Alex and I took a trip to Berlin, Dresden, and Saxon Switzerland National Park in Germany. We spent time visiting the historic sites and hiking a couple of days on the Malerweg trail.
View of the Elbe Valley from high up on the Malerweg trail
That has been a lot of travel in a short amount of time, and at times it has been stressful. But I think back to how we were just a little over a decade ago, when we were staying close to home, watching a lot of television, and not doing much physical activity. Because of Jenn’s insistence that we not rot on the couch, I’ve been able to experience the world I dreamed about visiting when I was younger.
But it hasn’t just been the fact that we’ve experienced the world; it’s the fact that those experiences have been with people who were really important to us.
Whether it has been hiking to waterfalls in Costa Rica with our kids,
Or having drinks with friends along the beach in Nice,
Or catching up with some old friends in Montana,
Or hiking with my son in Germany,
Or exploring Cinque Terre with Jenn’s Parents,
Travel is so much better when you do it with people you love.
I’m thankful to my wife, Jenn, for pushing me to do all of the things that have enriched my life over the years, and thankful to all the people who accompanied us on our journeys. I couldn’t imagine travel, or life, without you all.
Recently, the news broke that starting November 30th, 2025, Wyndham points will no longer be redeemable for Vacasa vacation rentals. Earlier this year, Casago, a vacation rental management company purchased Vacasa. Casago apparently didn’t like the arrangement with Wyndham and now has ended it.
What was the Vacasa/Wyndham Partnership?
Vacasa had a deal with Wyndham, which allowed people to rent vacation rentals that were posted on the Vacasa website with Wyndham points. Originally, they charged 15,000 Wyndham points per bedroom per night up to $500 per night, but eventually shrank that to $250 per bedroom per night. What that essentially meant was that for a one-bedroom vacation rental, if its cash rate was less than $250 per night, you could rent that for 15,000 Wyndham points per night. If it was a two-bedroom vacation rental with a cash rate under $500 per night, you could rent that for 30,000 Wyndham points per night.
View from Vacasa Jenn stayed at in Playa del Carmen
This was a tremendous deal, but it was made even better with the fact that Wyndham has one of the best/quirkiest business credit cards available. The Wyndham Business Earner card earns 5 points per dollar on utilities and 8 points per dollar at gas stations. At 8 points per dollar at gas stations, it’s not hard to imagine that someone who drives a lot could earn a ton of Wyndham points quickly. Holding that card also meant you got a 10% discount on points redemptions, making those Vacasa rentals 13,500 Wyndham points instead of 15,000 points.
For us, it was a way to quickly accumulate a lot of points that we could use for a vacation rental. We had actually booked with Vacasa using Wyndham points twice, once for a beachfront condo in Playa del Carmen and once for a condo in Nashville. Both were tremendous deals. In general, we prefer vacation rentals over hotels when they are available, and now the best method for booking them with points is no longer available.
What are the Alternatives?
Some partnerships could potentially be interesting. Hyatt has a Homes & Hideaways vacation rental program, and Choice has a partnership with Bluegreen Vacations, but both of those seem really limited in terms of properties. Marriott Homes and Villas has quite a few properties, but given the number of points needed to book a stay there, I wouldn’t even consider using points for it. I would consider paying for a Marriott Homes and Villas to earn Marriott points though.
If you can find vacation rentals through one of the bank travel portals, such as Amex Travel, Chase Travel, or Capital One Travel, you could potentially book on points that way. To be honest, though, nothing is really going to replace the Wyndham/Vacasa partnership. It was just a great way to get value for Wyndham points and rent a vacation rental for no out-of-pocket cost.
What am I to do with all these Wyndham Points?
One of the things that is painful about this is that we’ve been earning 2,000 to 3,000 Wyndham points monthly on the Wyndham Business Earner card, thinking that we would at some point book a Vacasa when we were vacationing in Mexico or the US (Vacasa doesn’t operate in Europe, where our recent vacations have been). Now we have close to 100,000 Wyndham points that would have gone a long way with Vacasa. Now what? Am I stuck with a bunch of points that are only good at places like Travelodge, Super 8, and La Quinta?
Ok, let’s be honest, Wyndham hotels aren’t typically high-end hotels. It’s known for its no-frills brands. That being said, Wyndham has been trying to expand its portfolio of hotels to include all-inclusive resorts in their Alltra brand as well as a boutique brand called the Registry Collection.
This appears to be working, as I was able to find several hotels in areas where luxury and all-inclusive hotels are typically located. There are nine all-inclusive resorts in the Riviera Maya area in Mexico alone, most of which were bookable for only 30,000 Wyndham points.
Additionally, they offer Club Wyndham, a timeshare organization that allows individuals to book select properties. Although most of those apartments will be occupied by timeshare owners, some are available for rent with cash or points.
Personally, I have a feeling we will be leaning toward an occasional all-inclusive stay. For 30,000 Wyndham points per night for many of those resorts, a couple of nights testing my liver at the pool sounds like a good use of all of those hard-earned Wyndham points.
Conclusion
The ending of the relationship between Wyndham and Vacasa is quite a bummer. There isn’t a good alternative way to book a vacation rental property at a good value using points. Since that was my primary reason for accumulating Wyndham points, I really thought long and hard about whether I would just use up what points we have left and abandon the program.
The problem with that thought is that the Wyndham Business Earner card earns 8x on gas and 5x on Utilities, which is so good that I would almost have to have no other use for the points to stop using that credit card. The earnings are too good, I just need to find a decent use for those points.
For the time being, I think we will try using them on all-inclusive resorts, and if we don’t like the quality, then we will have to use them on random hotel stays. For now, I think that’s okay, but I’m just not happy about this.
When our kids were younger, we used to do the typical Midwestern “I’m tired of the snow” Spring Break trips. This usually meant a 15-hour drive each way so that we could rent an Airbnb somewhere along the Gulf of Mexico between Gulf Shores, Alabama, and Destin, Florida. Every year, it seemed like these vacation rentals would get more expensive, the beaches more crowded, and the trips overall became less and less enjoyable.
After four years of doing that, I was bored with the same old Spring Break trips. When we got into points and miles, I started looking for more exotic ways of spending Spring Break. A couple of years ago, we took a trip to Costa Rica, where we rented a house near Grecia, a fairly small community in the Central Valley more known for agriculture than tourism. We spent the week hiking to waterfalls and on volcanoes and eating local cuisine.
One of the seven falls at the Blue Falls of Costa Rica
This year, for Spring Break, we went to Spain and Portugal to hike the Portuguese route of the Camino de Santiago. It was an amazing trip, but it was physically challenging. It resulted in Achilles’ tendon inflammation, hip bruises, and blisters. Because of that, I had to promise to plan a much more relaxed Spring Break trip; otherwise, my family might murder me.
Walking through the city walls in Valenca, Portugal.
After a couple of pretty active Spring Break vacations, we decided it was time to find a beach again, but this time, not in the United States.
Why Visit The Canary Islands?
The Canary Islands are a set of volcanic islands off the coast of Africa, near Morocco. It has been a part of Spain since the late 1400’s, when they conquered the island from the native Guanche population. While tourism is popular throughout the islands, Tenerife is the most popular island, with over 5 million annual visitors.
Jenn and I have talked about visiting the Canary Islands for a while. It’s intrigued me, since it’s a very popular destination for European travelers, but mostly unknown to American travelers. There are no direct flights between the US and the Canary Islands, even though there are seemingly endless flights between Europe and the US. It’s basically a secret to Americans.
This, however, makes it a perfect alternative to typical Spring Break destinations. It has all of the trappings of a tourist hotspot, but because Europe doesn’t have Spring Break, it’s not going to be busy. Even though it’s bit further from the US, and there are no direct flights, I thought it would make for a better trip.
Screenshot from Google Maps shows plenty of resorts and condo complexes in Playa de las Americas, Spain. From the aerial photo, this looks like any major beach town in Florida.
The weather during March is fairly similar to Florida, with high temperatures in the low to mid-70s. The climate in South Tenerife, where we are flying to, is considerably drier than Florida as well, which should mean the chances of being rained out are much smaller.
In addition to Tenerife’s beach life, it’s an Island with an active volcano, Mount Teide, which is over 12,000 feet high. Because of that volcano, Tenerife has a dramatic landscape and amazing hiking trails.
Booking the Trip
I started by searching on PointsYeah for flights from our home airport, Moline, to Tenerife, but most of the available flights were a ton of points or less than ideal. For example, the quickest itinerary included a stop in London with an airport change. I’m not thrilled about the idea of switching airports in the middle of a flight itinerary; there are just too many things that could go wrong. After searching for a while, I became convinced it would be better to book a flight to Europe and then move on to Tenerife.
Because Tenerife had a lot of flights that arrive from all over Europe, I went looking for any flight to Europe that was inexpensive on points. I was able to find a flight on American Airlines that landed in London Heathrow for 19,000 American Airlines miles and $5.60. The total time on the flight is less than 11 hours. I was pretty happy with that.
From London Gatwick, we can fly to Tenerife South airport on a direct flight for 13,750 British Airways Avios and $1. The flight into London lands on Tuesday morning, so we decided to book the flight out for Thursday morning, to give us a couple of days in London. That is great because we are able to get to Tenerife for 32,750 points and under $7 each, and we also get a short visit to London.
For our flight back, the only thing that was comparably reasonable was a flight on American Airlines from Madrid through Chicago and back to Moline for 34,000 AAdvantage miles and around $50. We also need to get from Tenerife to Madrid, but there are direct cash flights available on Iberia Airlines for only around $50, so it’s better to pay cash than use points. We plan to fly to Madrid the morning before our flight to Moline so we can spend one afternoon and evening there.
We were able to use a couple of Hyatt category 1-4 hotel certificates to book two rooms for our first night in London (one for Jenn and me and one for the kids, since, as usual, there aren’t many hotels in Europe that accommodate families of four). While I don’t obsess about maximizing the value of those certificates, London is an extremely expensive city, so we booked the nearest hotel to the downtown that would accept those certificates. That was the Hyatt Place London City, and for that night, the rooms would have cost $300 each, which is about the maximum value you can get for one of those certificates.
For the second night, we booked a Courtyard by Marriott near the London Gatwick airport that did accommodate a family of four, which should allow us to get to the airport quickly for our morning flight to Tenerife. We used a Marriott free night certificate that is good up to 35,000. That room would have cost around $190, so I’m pretty happy with the use of that certificate as well.
We were also able to book a couple of rooms in Madrid, for the one night we plan to spend there before flying out. For that, we used Jenn’s $150 Delta Stays credit that comes with her Delta Gold Card.
Aside from that, we haven’t booked an Airbnb in Tenerife for the 5 nights we are there, but I expect, based on the prices I’ve seen, that we should be able to book something nice with a heated pool for around $900 that will accommodate the family. I also expect to spend around $200 for a car rental, again based on what I’ve seen in searches for car rentals in the Canary Islands.
Total Cost
When we put all of that together, I expect that we will spend 212,000 American Airlines miles, 55,000 British Airways Avios (transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards), and about $1,500 to book all of our transportation and lodging. That’s really good, and we will get to experience a Spring Break-like destination without the Spring Break crowds. I’m pretty happy about that. In addition, we get to spend some time in London and Madrid as well, which is fantastic.
I looked up the total cost of the exact flight itinerary, booked through British Airways, and I was surprised to find that the itinerary with stopovers in London and Madrid was only $880 each. That’s actually a really good deal. You could completely recreate what we did without points for around $5,500. Anyone who has priced flights, car rentals, and an Airbnb in Florida might want to reconsider their trip at those prices.
We were able to book that for $1,500, but if you consider that we probably needed around $600 in credit card annual fees to make this work, you could say that we would end up spending $2,100. But wow, for a little over two thousand dollars, we have the opportunity to visit London, Madrid, and the Canary Islands. That’s pretty amazing, and it’s exactly why we’re points and miles junkies.
Now it’s just a matter of deciding where we want to stay and booking the Airbnb. Then we can dream of lying on the beach and soaking in the sun. Don’t tell the kids, but I’m definitely going to drag them on some hikes.
There wasn’t much going on for us in October. We were recovering from our trip to Nice and Dublin. For me, it was literal recovery. I had finished my first ultramarathon in Nice, a 50K which was a part of the UTMB World Series. The combination of training and the actual race had left my right knee and my left foot pretty sore so other than some low impact gym visits, I did nothing. It was nice to finally take it easy for a little while.
There wasn’t much going on for us as far as travel this month, and that’s fine. Over the last year, we had taken four trips to Europe. That’s utterly insane and we would never have thought that was possible prior to getting into points and miles. We’re now at the point where we almost have to talk ourselves out of taking trips, because with points, it’s always really tempting when you see a great deal.
Ink Business Unlimited
I signed up and was approved for the Chase Ink Business Unlimited. They were running an elevated signup bonus of 90,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points for $6,000 in spending in 3 months. This deal comes up occasionally and, in my experience, is typically offered in the fall. The normal signup bonus for the Ink Business Unlimited is 75,000.
The Ink Business Unlimited is a no annual fee business card that earns 1.5x on all spending. It’s an extremely simple card, no extra bonus categories. I think it makes for a pretty good card for someone who has a lot of spend in categories that aren’t typical bonus categories. For example, if you spent a lot of money on gasoline, it’s pretty easy to find a credit card that earns 3x or better on gas. But if you are spending a lot of money at hardware stores, it’s going to be difficult to find more than 1x in that category.
There are a couple of business cards that earn 2x everywhere, like the Amex Blue Business Plus or the Venture X for Business. However, if you want to earn Chase Ultimate Reward points (perhaps because you want to transfer those points to Hyatt), the Ink Business Unlimited is a great choice.`
In addition to the 90,000 points, Jenn was able to refer me, which means that she will earn the 20,000 point referral bonus as well. If you count the points I will earn from the 1.5x plus the 90,000 points for my bonus and 20,000 points for her bonus, we will earn a minimum of 119,000 Ultimate Reward points on this card in 3 months on just $6,000 in spend. When you consider that Chase Ultimate Reward points are generally valued at 2 cents per point, that means that the total return on spend is just less than 40%. That’s a pretty amazing return.
Hyatt Brand Explorer Certificate
One of my favorite little loyalty program perks is the Hyatt Brand Explorer. Hyatt currently has 37 different hotel brands and you are rewarded for exploring those brands. For every 5 brands that you visit in your lifetime, you will earn a category 1-4 free night certificate. It’s not something that I would necessarily go out of my way for, but when we were in Dublin, we stayed at the Hyatt Centric in Dublin which turned out to be the 5th brand on my Hyatt account.
That earned us a free night certificate. While I wouldn’t pick a hotel just to get a free night certificate, I would consider booking a hotel under Jenn’s account instead of mine if she didn’t have that brand and I did. Either way, it’s a fun little perk that Hyatt can put out there to encourage people to book with them rather than another hotel program.
Also, it’s the kind of perk that could be missed, so if you have a Hyatt account that you use regularly, you should check out the Brand Explorer tab in your Hyatt account. I could imagine quite a few of those free night certificates go unused simply because people might not be aware they earned one.
On to the Point Check
When I do the accounting on these points and our spending, it’s not really a calendar month, it’s based on when the statement closes. I bring this up, because our spending was a little high this month, but some of that was because that spending was from our trip to Nice and Dublin, especially the spend on my Sapphire Preferred card, which was my go-to card when we were overseas. That trip was in September instead of October, but many of those charges showed up on the October statement.
All in all, the return on spend was okay this last month, with it being 5.3% on the spend not dedicated to earning a signup bonus.
Card Used
Spend
Points Earned
Point Value
Points Per $
Return on Spend
Sapphire Preferred
$1,152
2,332
$47.81
2.0
4.2%
Amex Gold
$990
3,206
$64.12
3.2
6.5%
IHG Premier
$551
1,652
$8.26
3.0
1.5%
Ink Cash
$451
2,251
$46.15
5.0
10.2%
Wyndham Business Earner
$402
2,196
$24.16
5.5
6.0%
Amex Blue Business Plus
$277
554
$11.08
2.0
4.0%
Total
$3,823
12,191
$201.57
3.2
5.3%
This month’s spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus
In addition to the spend not devoted to earning a signup bonus, Jenn spent over $2,400 on her American Airlines AAdvantage Platinum Select card. That earned her almost 3,300 AAdvantage miles and put her over the amount for her 80,000 AAdvantage mile bonus. We’ve been waiting on this bonus, because the best award prices we’ve seen to get us back from our half-booked Spring Break trip to Tenerife are on American Airlines, but we didn’t have enough AAdvantage miles. Now we should be ready to book that flight.
After the American Airlines bonus and all of the other points earned this month, we were left with:
266,000 IHG Points
236,100 Chase Ultimate Reward Points
136,400 Amex Membership Rewards Points
121,000 American Airlines Miles
92,800 Wyndham Points
79,100 Alaska Miles
33,400 Marriott Bonvoy Points
33,300 Citi Thank You Points
18,300 Hyatt Points
16,700 United Miles
1,500 Delta Miles
$133 Cash Back
According to the Points Guy’s valuations, all of these points and miles are worth a grand total of just under $14,000. It’s about time to use some of these points to finish booking our trip to Tenerife. It’s going to be a great trip!
Perched 300 feet above the Mediterranean Sea, Colline du Chateau is a beautiful park with amazing views of Nice. To the west of the park lies Old Nice, with its narrow streets and buildings dating back to the 16th Century. Also to the west is the beautiful beach along the Quai des Etats-Unis and a walkway. To the east is the Port of Nice with its impressive collection of multi-million dollar yachts.
A wide boardwalk separates the main road from the beach. The hill in the background is Colline du Chateau.
Colline du Chateau was the home of a military fort until 1706, when the fort was destroyed by King Louis XIV, during the War of Spanish Succession. More than 100 years later, in 1822, the King of Sardinia turned Colline du Chateau into a park. Starting as a botanical park, it was developed over time, leading to the beautiful park that it is today.
View from the stairway on the west side of Colline du Chateau.
We began our walk from the beach. It was a perfect day with mostly sunny skies, the temperature was around 70 degrees Fahrenheit and a slight breeze coming off of the Mediterranean. Walking up to Colline du Chateau, the hill looks imposing with its steep slope. A stone staircase, with multiple switchbacks is there on the west side of the hill to aid walkers in hiking up the slope.
One of the many amazing viewpoints at the top of the hill
At nearly every switchback, there are viewing platforms, allowing you to catch your breath while looking out over Old Nice and the beach. Every viewpoint was essentially the same, each one from a greater height.
A quiet moment under a tree at the top of Colline du Chateau
At the top of the stairs, the hill flattens out, and a traditional park emerges. There is a large, open grassy area with a children’s playground.
There is also a snack bar at the top of the hill with a good variety of snacks. Besides things like ice cream and hot dogs, it also sells things like crepes. Also, in addition to selling soft drinks and water, they also sold cappuccino, aperol spritz, prosecco, and champagne. As unique as the snack bar was, we just paid for a couple of bottles of water and continued our walk around the park.
Port of Nice
We walked across the park to the east side of the hill. The east side has fantastic views of the Port of Nice. The port has a wide variety of boats within the marina, from some fairly small sailboats to enormous yachts. There is also room in the port for small cruise ships. Club Med 2 was docked in the marina on this day.
Looking East from the southeast edge of the park with Mont Boron in the background. Club Med 2 is the large docked ship near the breakwater.
Off in the distance, over the marina, houses ascend up to Mont Boron, which is another park on top of a much larger hill. Mont Boron is taller and much larger than Colline du Chateau.
Cascade du Chateau
After viewing the marina, we went looking for the Cascade. The Cascade is a man-made waterfall on the west side, near the top of the hill. It is a very popular place to take pictures.
A plane flies over the plaza at the top of Colline du Chateau
Directly above the Cascade is a large cobblestone plaza. This is the highest point of the park and has fantastic views of Nice from all directions. We stayed there for a while, admiring the views, while watching an seemingly endless string of airplanes descending into Nice Airport.
View of the Old Town of Nice from the plaza
Under the plaza is another snack bar called Lou Casteu. We stopped in and grabbed a couple of French beers and enjoyed the weather and the view. It was a lovely place to take a few minutes to relax.
Stairs descend to the marina on the east side of the park.
We finished our drinks and decided to return to our Airbnb, which was just north of the park. That meant we were able to walk a little more through the park, and then we descended down the path and stairs on the east side of the park by the Marina.
It was an absolutely lovely day in Colline du Chateau. It is a beautiful place for a walk, with many places to relax. There are amazing views from practically everywhere in the park. This is an absolute must visit for anyone who is spending time in Nice.
September was a fun month. We took a trip with our friends Bill and Theresa to Nice, France, to compete in the UTMB Nice Côte d’Azur ultramarathons. Obviously, that wasn’t the only reason we went there. We also took a day trip to Monaco and spent quite a lot of time walking the beautiful streets of the old town of Nice.
The Nice area is stunning with deep blue Mediterranean waters and marinas filled with massive yachts. This area is where the Alps meet the Mediterranean, creating amazing coastline views from hundreds of feet above the water. It’s simply beautiful.
Beaches along the Quai des Etats Unis taken from Colline du Chateau
We stayed in the old town of Nice, which is a tightly packed group of old buildings with restaurants and shops along narrow streets. It’s pretty touristy, but it’s also a very nice place to walk around. The old town is actually a fairly large area, which makes its winding, narrow streets easy to get lost in.
Nighttime on the narrow streets of Old Nice
We also spent a couple of days in Dublin on the way home. During our time in Dublin, we visited some classic Irish pubs and walked through Grafton Street and the Temple Bar district. We just happened to be there right after the Pittsburgh Steelers played the Minnesota Vikings in Dublin, so there were a ton of NFL fans and bars decorated to draw in those fans. It felt a little too much like being in the US.
The Norseman in the Temple Bar district decorated in Minnesota Vikings colors for the Dublin NFL game
My favorite stop in Dublin was the Jameson Distillery. I thought they did a fantastic job explaining the history of the distillery as well as the process of making their whiskey. They also, of course, had samples of their products to try along the tour.
No Real News
This may be hard to believe, but I’ve lost some of my desire to aggressively accumulate points through signup bonuses. Every new account adds complexity to what I need to keep track of, and I’m probably going to close a few accounts soon that have annual fees that we don’t use. Those were cards where the intention was to get the signup bonus and cancel them anyway.
The other reason why I haven’t been as aggressive is that we don’t have a ton of travel planned. We have a half-booked Spring Break trip to the Canary Islands, but we already have the points to book the rest of it. We thought we might take it a little easier next year, because our youngest child is going to be a Senior in high school and we don’t want to miss anything. We were hoping to do some camping next summer, but that doesn’t require any points and miles.
What that really means is that we’ll probably take advantage of great offers when they pop up so we can accumulate some points for later, but it will most likely be at a slower pace. Once Alex goes off to college, though, Jenn and I can finally take vacations whenever we want without worrying about missing anything. That sounds amazing!
On to the Point Check!
Most of our spending that isn’t devoted to a signup bonus looks pretty solid; the one exception to that is the spend on the Sapphire Preferred. However, I can explain. Those were charges that were done overseas, where bonus categories are not really a thing. The Sapphire Preferred is a pretty good card for foreign transactions, because it’s accepted just about anywhere (I’ve had issues using Amex in Europe) and it doesn’t have foreign transaction fees. Overall, it’s a good overseas choice, even if the points earned there aren’t great. Overall, we managed a return of 6.6% on that spending, and I’m happy with anything that is above 5%.
Card Used
Spend
Points Earned
Point Value
Points Per $
Return on Spend
Amex Gold
$991
3,164
$63.28
3.2
6.4%
Ink Cash
$716
3583
$73.45
5.0
10.3%
Sapphire Preferred
$522
522
$10.70
1.0
2.0%
Wyndham Business Earner
$513
3,063
$33.69
6.0
6.6%
Total
$2,742
10,332
$181.13
3.8
6.6%
This month’s spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus
The only card that we had where we were working toward a signup bonus was Jenn’s Citi AAdvantage Platinum card. Jenn spent just under $1,100 on that card, earning her a little over 1,700 American Airlines AAdvantage miles. She still has around $2,000 left to finish her spend to earn the 80,000 point signup bonus.
At the end of the months, we were left with:
264,400 IHG Points
239,600 Chase Ultimate Reward Points
135,700 Amex Membership Rewards Points
90,600 Wyndham Points
79,100 Alaska Miles
37,700 American Airlines Miles
33,400 Marriott Bonvoy Points
33,300 Citi Thank You Points
16,700 United Miles
9,300 Hyatt Points
1,500 Delta Miles
$133 Cash Back
According to The Points Guy’s Valuations, the total of those points, miles, and cash back is worth around $12,400. That is up from last month’s total of $12,000. We need to book flights back from Tenerife and some hotel stays, but after that, we don’t have much to plan for, so I expect our point totals will grow a lot in the next 12 months or so.
Airlines make announcements about new routes all the time, and most of them don’t interest me very much, but the latest press release about United expanding its seasonal routes in Europe piqued my interest. These new routes seem to be targeting American tourists who have been to Europe, perhaps multiple times, and are looking for something a little different than the normal European stops like Paris, London, or Rome.
The destinations they have chosen to expand to are places that would be on a bucket list for experienced travelers. They definitely speak to me personally, since each one of these are places where I would like to visit.
Glasgow, Scotland
Starting on May 8th, United will start a daily flight from Newark to Glasgow, Scotland. This is probably the least quirky of the destinations that United picked. Scotland is a destination that I could imagine someone traveling to on their first big international trip. The cultural and language similarities to the United States make it an easier trip. It would also appeal to people who didn’t want to visit a huge European city like London or Paris.
Glasgow and nearby Edinburgh are Scotland’s population and cultural centers. They are less than an hour’s train ride apart, making it easy to visit both cities on the same trip. Around Glasgow, there are also many castles to visit, such as Stirling Castle, Doune Castle, and Bothwell Castle.
You can also take the train from Edinburgh or Glasgow through the Scottish highlands. I once asked a Scotsman where he would recommend going if I were to visit Scotland and he was practically gushing about how beautiful train trips through the highlands are. I will definitely be taking his advise on that someday.
Glasgow, I believe, will appeal to more Americans as a destination than the other new destinations that were unveiled by United. The others may be a little more obscure, but they are fantastic destinations.
Bari, Italy
Have you ever found yourself dining outdoors at a restaurant in Florence or Rome and thought “I wish the food was better in Italy?” Probably not, but apparently the region of Puglia in Italy has food that puts other Italian food to shame. I’m not sure how this is possible, but I’m willing to give it a try.
Bari is located on the heel of the boot of Italy, along the Adriatic Sea. It is famous for its beaches, focaccia, pasta, and polenta.
From Bari, it’s about an hour by car to Alberobello, a UNESCO world heritage site known for its Trulli houses. These are unique structures made of limestone with conical roofs.
Bari is less of a tourist trap than other parts of Italy, such as Rome, Florence or Venice. This might make things a little more complicated for people who don’t speak Italian, but it is a great way to experience more authentic Italy than those major tourist destinations.
United will begin flying to Bari four times a week beginning May 1st, 2026.
As the memory of the Yugoslav Wars that took place from 1991 to 2001 fade from memory, the Balkan countries have received more and more attention for being great tourist destinations. Split, Croatia has become a popular destination for its beautiful city as well as the crystal clear, deep blue waters of the Adriatic.
From Split, you can use ferries to go to some of the amazing islands in the Adriatic, such as Brac, Vis, Bol, Korcula and Milna. You can also take the opportunity to visit the beautiful walled city of Dubrovnik.
Croatia has been growing in popularity for a while now and its no surprise to me that United Airlines wants to capitalize on the growing popularity. It’s an absolutely beautiful country, and its been on my short list for a while.
Starting April 30th, United begins seasonal direct flights from Newark to Split.
Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela is a fairly small community in the Galicia region of Spain. It has a population of around 100,000, The reason United Airlines would be interested in bringing direct flights there, however, is because it’s where the Camino de Santiago ends.
The Santiago de Compostela Archcathedral Basilica is the end point for all of the Camino de Santiago routes.
The Camino is a unique cultural experience. It consists of hiking one of multiple routes, the most famous is the French Way which starts in France and continues across Northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela. Some of these routes take over a month to complete and others a couple of weeks. Pilgrims, however, can choose to start their journey from anywhere and an official pilgrimage is anything more than 100 kilometers that ends at the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. Along the way there are hotels or hostels to stay at as well as a variety of pilgrim-friendly restaurants.
For those brave souls who wish to participate in the Camino, United Airlines will start service three times per week from Newark to Santiago de Compostela on May 22nd, 2026 and continues through September 20th.
Flights out of Newark
So the good news is that these are amazing destinations but the bad news is they all originate in Newark. The Newark Airport has had all kinds of problems and I typically try to avoid flying out of there when possible. Since Newark completed reconstruction of a runway in June, I haven’t heard of as many issues in that airport, so hopefully service out of Newark is improving.
Newark has connections to more than 100 US cities on United, so you shouldn’t have too much difficulty finding connecting flights. This should make these flights accessible for much of the United States.
Award Prices
Right now, the award pricing on these flights are fairly elevated. This isn’t a surprise, since these are new routes. In the future, I would expect some award prices of these flights to dip down to United’s saver rates of around 40,000 points one-way for a flight to Europe. If you see those saver rates on one of these flights, I would also check Singapore Airlines. Often, you can book the exact same flight, if it’s a United saver award, for only 30,500 points. For more information, I have a post about how to use the Singapore Airlines partnership.
It’s also easier to get Singapore miles since they transfer from Citi Thank You points, Chase Ultimate Reward points, American Express Membership Reward points, a Capital One Venture miles. United miles can only be transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Conclusion
These newly added seasonal routes for United add great direct flights from the United States to amazing destinations that are on the radar for people who have a little experience going to Europe and would like to try something a little different. These are all fantastic choices and would make for a great vacation. These destinations certainly have me thinking about future trips.
Sign near the finish line on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice
Standing in a crowd in the starting chute, I waited for the gun signaling the beginning of the race. For the first time in my 10 years of distance running, I wasn’t sure if I would finish. This race was different than anything else I had attempted, and there was no way for me to replicate this race during training.
Several months ago, I chose to sign up for the UTMB Nice Côte d’Azur 50K trail ultramarathon. It was a way for me to celebrate my 50th birthday by doing something difficult but achievable for an aging endurance athlete. Officially, the course was 34 miles long with a total elevation gain of 7,100 feet. The longest race I had done in the past was the Quad Cities Marathon, which was 26.2 miles and had a total elevation gain of less than 500 feet. An extra 8 miles was one thing, but the difference in elevation gain was off the charts.
Waiting at daybreak for the race to start
My training had gone mostly according to plan; my final long run was 31 miles and around a thousand feet of elevation gain. During that training run, I did something that caused me significant pain on the top of my left foot, which appeared to be a ligament issue. It wasn’t a huge injury, but it caused me to back off my training significantly in order to allow that foot to heal up as well as possible. I didn’t want to limp through 34 miles. I hoped that the drop off in running wouldn’t affect my ability to finish.
The start of the race was broken into five waves, each 15 minutes apart. With much of the race taking place on single-track trails, it was important to get the runners spread out as soon as possible, and the starting waves helped to space those runners. I was in the fourth of five waves. When it was our turn in the chute, the Race Director tried to keep us loose by playing dance music and giving us encouragement.
Our 15 minutes expired, and we were off. The first portion of the race was mostly uphill on an asphalt road through a pine forest. I was staying true to my plan—keeping my heart rate fairly low—walking the uphills and running the downhills and flats in an effort to maintain my energy for late in the race. Virtually everyone else around me was following the same strategy.
At the end of the first mile, we passed a large wooden sign that said “Parc Naturel Departmental De La Grande Corniche”. We were entering a park perched on the bluffs overlooking the Mediterranean. We would be running through that park for the next few miles. As we continued through the park, asphalt roads made way to gravel roads and finally to a rocky hiking path.
It didn’t take long to catch a glimpse of the Mediterranean, and soon we were treated to panoramic views of the coast. Early on, there were fantastic views of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, a wealthy residential development on a peninsula to the east of Nice. It is also the start of the 20K race that would start the next day.
The next several miles were breathtaking. The path followed the bluffs overlooking the Mediterranean. Every view was amazing as we looked over multiple settlements along the coast from Nice to Monaco. There were countless yachts and sailboats along the coast as well.
The path was mostly crushed rock and comfortable to run. A number of tunnels were also carved out along this path. I honestly can’t imagine a more ideal setting for the beginning of a race; this was why I signed up for this race; it was just beautiful.
Looking down over Monaco from the trail
The UTMB Nice 50K is divided into five sections. Four aid stations are spaced approximately 11 kilometers apart, and I arrived at the first aid station in less than an hour and a half. That was a little slower than I thought I would take, but I felt good. I grabbed a couple of sugary snacks to pump up my energy and moved on to the second section.
I was worried about the second section. It was about 12 kilometers long, but had a total of more than 2,500 feet of elevation gain. It was time to find out what my legs could take.
The trail changed as well; no longer were we running on wide paths on comfortable surfaces. We had switched to narrow, single-track paths with large rocks everywhere. The next eight kilometers to Col de Madone would have a fairly gradual increase of over 1,500 feet.
Over that stretch, I had kept a fairly good pace, keeping up with the runners ahead of me. My legs were starting to feel the burn a little, but I was feeling confident. Maybe this won’t be that bad.
Once we reached Col de Madone, an official with the race instructed people to prepare themselves for the most difficult climb in the race. We were at the base of Cime du Baudon, and we needed to climb 900 feet over less than a mile. Considering I had already climbed 1,500 feet over the last 5 miles, this was going to be a challenge.
Looking up a Cime du Baudon from Col de Malone
This climb consisted of many parts where we had to use our hands to climb up on large rocks. There was also a lot of loose rock on the paths in this area, which made the footing tricky. This part of the race felt much more like an intense hike than a run. I had to take a lot of breaks to catch my breath, as did the other runners.
It became very clear to me at this point that my training in flat Iowa didn’t prepare me for this elevation change. As I neared the top, I was taking more frequent breaks, and my thighs were absolutely screaming at me to quit. I knew that at the peak, we would be nearly 4,000 feet above sea level, at the absolute highest point of the race, and we would be finishing at sea level. It becomes much more of a downhill race if I could just get to the top.
Nearly exhausted, I reached the top, and my Garmin told me that I had just completed a 52-minute mile. I can say without question that I hadn’t planned to take that long to climb Cime du Baudon, but as Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
From the peak, the views were extraordinary. Not only were the multitude of peaks in the Maritime Alps visible, but also the Mediterranean Sea. Off in the distance, to my astonishment, I could see the runway at the Nice Airport, which was more than 10 miles away. My legs were spent, I was exhausted, but this was amazing.
View from Cime du Baudon – off in the distance, you can see the runway at Nice Airport
The next mile was a reverse of the climb up to Cime du Baudon, with a similar grade going downhill. I spent the majority of my energy trying not to fall. I mostly used my hiking poles as stabilizers as I shuffled and slid down the loose rocks. Even though I was going downhill, I took 32 minutes to go the next mile because of how steep the terrain was.
The next aid station was just around the corner in Peille. I was looking forward to filling up my water and grabbing a few snacks. Running downhill through the cobblestone streets, I was feeling energized and encouraged to have reached the end of the second section of the race.
Cobblestone steps in Peille
Those good feelings were quickly squashed when I realized I had completely run through the town and missed the aid station. I had to go back. I wasn’t sure if I had to check in at each aid station to make the race official, but I needed water anyway. I overshot the aid station by more than half a mile, and now I was going uphill, asking for directions to get to the aid station. The last thing I needed was more distance and more elevation change.
Narrow street in Peille
I got to the aid station and they seemed to be cleaning up, but they filled up my water gave me some snacks, and I was back out on the trail.
Over the next couple of sections of the race, I questioned whether I could finish the race. One thing became apparent to me: I wasn’t going to be able to run nearly as much as I had hoped. The paths were full of baseball-sized rocks, and every time that I started to get a little speed, I would land awkwardly on my foot. I just hadn’t trained for running on this type of surface, and it was punishing me.
Rocky paths slowed my progress
In the middle of this, Jenn texted me, and I grabbed my phone to text her back, then immediately tripped over one of those rocks and fell hard. It was the first of four falls I took during this run. I cut my left knee this time, brushed it off, and kept going.
It was also very apparent that at this time, I was all alone. I texted Jenn that I was pretty sure that of the people still in the race, I was in last place. With the terrain and my lack of experience on this trail, I just couldn’t move fast enough without it being dangerous.
As I inched closer to the third aid station, I had a 600 to 700-foot climb, and my quads were on fire. On the downhills and flats, I felt fine, but every time I had to climb a hill, I questioned whether or not I would be able to continue. I took my time and took breaks when I needed to, and kept putting one foot in front of the other until I was at the top of the hill with just a quick couple of miles to the aid station.
At the aid station, I filled up my water and grabbed some snacks. Jenn sent me a text message saying that I had 4 hours until the cutoff at the next aid station. Until that text, I hadn’t even considered that I was close to being disqualified, but apparently, I only made the cut-off at the third aid station by a matter of a few minutes.
Our Lady of Laghet was right next to our 3rd aid station
Hurriedly, I finished my snack and left, following a couple of women, who, after about a half mile, struggled to get down a steep slope into a dried-up creek bed. I saw this and knew I was going to need my hiking poles to get down, but realized that I didn’t have them; they were back at the aid station. So I had to return to the aid station to grab them.
For the second aid station in a row, I had to double back, each time it cost me a mile and probably at least 20 minutes. Now I knew I was in last place. That became apparent when, in a couple of miles, I started to hear noise behind me. It was the sweepers, cleaning up the course behind me. They came up behind me and told me that they were closing the course, and at first, I thought they were going to disqualify me.
They asked me if I could make it to the next aid station, and I told them I had plenty of time and I wasn’t worried about it. I was, however, annoyed by their constant presence behind me. I just wanted them to leave me alone, and they were always right behind me.
It was about this time that the 50K route merged with the 100 Mile route and the 100K route. I think the sweepers no longer were closing the course, since the other runners needed to use the course, but they continued to follow right behind me, which was beginning to get on my nerves.
I got a text message from Jenn, who was following my progress on the Live Trail app, saying that I had one big hill left. Over the next two miles, I was going to have to climb about 700 feet. However, after that, there was only about another 300 feet of climb for the remaining nine miles. I just needed to get up this last hill. With the sweepers on my tail, I continued to put one foot in front of the other, gasping for air, and my thighs on fire. Finally, I made it to the top of the hill.
I was at Plateau de la Justice, just two miles from the final aid station and around nine miles from the finish. At that moment, I realized that, barring an injury, I was going to finish. The only time I questioned whether I could continue was going uphill, and except for a little bit of elevation gain, it was all flat and downhill for the rest of the race. It was an emotional moment knowing that I was going to finish after spending the better part of the last few hours questioning whether I could.
I made it to the aid station and filled my water for the final time. I choked down some cookies, hoping the sugar would give me a boost of energy, and got back to the race.
Once I hit the aid station, I was no longer alone on the course. Somehow, I managed to catch and pass some 50K runners, and an increasing number of 100 milers were coming up from behind us.
A short while from the aid station, the trail passed through Parc du Viniagrier. This section was a steep downhill single-person switchback trail, which was full of stones. By this time, running on these stones was tearing up my feet, my whole body ached, and my legs were almost completely spent. It was also getting darker by the minute as it was now dusk.
This was a highly technical section, and I was exhausted. I needed to stay focused so I wouldn’t hurt myself. Then, while in a fairly steep section, I caught a toe on a rock and fell face-first down the hill. I managed to get my hand in front of my face and stopped myself from taking a rock to the forehead. I felt a sharp pain in my hand and got up. There was blood dripping down my hand.
I decided to continue on and hoped that it would stop bleeding on its own, which it did. All of the aches and pains were starting to multiply, and I was ready to be done. As I pushed through the natural area at Mt Boron, I was treated to an amazing view of Nice at night from about 600 feet above the city.
Mt Boron had the last natural trails left in the route, and once I climbed down an incredibly steep and long set of stairs, I was at sea level. I had just a little over two miles to go along the coast and the Marina.
Boats in the Marina at night
My pace increased, running around the Marina by streetlight, through pedestrians. Some were unaware of what was happening, and others were cheering us on. Finally, I turned along the promenade and headed into the finishers’ chute.
Heading down the promenade to the finish
I crossed the finish line in 13 hours and 40 minutes, just 20 minutes before the 14-hour cutoff. My goal was to finish in 10 hours. I didn’t care, though; I was just happy to have finished.
It was the greatest physical challenge I had ever faced, and just finishing was enough for me. I was on the edge of exhaustion so many times and just kept putting one foot in front of the other. It’s a reminder of the power of perseverance.
Getting my finishers’ medal
I spent the next several days physically recovering from the race. It took a day to get my appetite back, two for my energy to return, and over a week before I could walk without limping. But within a couple of weeks, I was already trying to find another UTMB World Series race to participate in.
UTMB World Series races are an amazing combination of extreme challenge and extreme beauty. They take place in some of the most beautiful parks and natural areas throughout the world. It’s worth every blister, scrape, and cut. As sadistic as it sounds, I can’t wait to do another.
Newby to Expert Traveler 