May was a pretty big month for us as far as points are concerned. We booked our return trip home from Rome and had a huge bonus hit from American Express. I’m thinking the flights back from Rome might be the last big redemption we have for the rest of the year, so I’m curious to see how our overall points totals increase as the year goes on.
Getting What We Wanted
We have been unbelievably indecisive about coming home from Rome. We will be meeting our friends and Jenn’s parents at Leonardo di Vinci airport in Rome in November and while it was very important that we all arrive at nearly the same time, leaving at the same time was not as important. We kept changing our minds about when we would fly out, and even if we would take a short trip to a different city and then fly home from there.
We finally decided that we were going to fly out of Rome on Sunday, which meant that we are both going to have to work the next day, jetlagged. We didn’t want to complicate things too much by having layovers, so we found a direct flight from United for 37,100 points and $60 a piece. We were able to use United’s new point pooling feature to combine 51,000 of Jenn’s Ultimate Reward points (transferred 1:1 to United) and 23,200 of my United Miles to book the flight.
Keep in mind, there was a Flying Blue award flight available from Rome to Chicago for 22,000 points and about $160 a piece. That’s a lot less points but that flight had a layover and with us having to work the next day, it really seemed worth it to get the non-stop United flight. This is a change for us, because in the past we would take the inconvenience to save points, but as we become more comfortable with our ability to replace those points, it becomes easier to part with them, especially if it will make our trip better.
Big Amex Bonuses Hit
Jenn signed up for the American Express Business Gold card when the sign up bonus was 130,000 points for spending $10,000 in 3 months, which is a hefty spend for us, but it was tax time, and generally we have to send Uncle Sam about $4,000 when we settle up so that made it a little easier. Tax time has a little less sting to it now that we’ve decided to use it as an opportunity to land a big signup bonus. Last year, we signed up for the Capital One Venture card and with one charge to the IRS landed over 83,000 points (75,000 points for the signup and 8,000 for the charge).
Jenn also used her Amex Business Gold card to refer me to the American Express Blue Business Plus which landed her a 20,000 point referral bonus and an additional 10x for dining for 3 months. The additional 10x shows up on the Amex website as a bonus and that was an additional 9,500 points for the month. So for the month, Jenn earned a whopping 159,500 Membership Rewards points from bonuses.
Amex Blue Business Plus
I knew at some point I was going to want the American Express Blue Business plus card. It doesn’t come with a big sexy bonus, in my case it’s 15,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend $3,000 over 3 months. However it’s a no annual fee card that earns 2x on everything, which gives me a way to at least get 2x on purchases in categories that are not in bonus categories.
By timing this with a referral offer from Amex that gave Jenn 20,000 points and an additional 10x on dining, she’s managed to already earn 29,500 membership rewards on this offer, with a couple more months of 10x dining left.
Having a no annual fee American Express card is nice to have since it’s a good way to stash these huge bonuses they offer for cards with large sign up bonuses. I’ll probably talk myself into applying for a Platinum card someday when they offer some ridiculously high sign up bonus but with a $695 annual fee, it’s hard to imagine I’ll keep the card too long. Knowing I can keep the points and drop the card is a pretty nice luxury.
On to the Points Check!
Card Used
Spend
Points Earned
Point Value
Points Per $
Return on Spend
Wyndham Business Earner
$727
3,856
$42.42
5.3
5.8%
Ink Cash
$683
3,395
$69.60
5.0
10.2%
Venture
$520
1,040
$19.24
2.0
3.7%
Total
$1,930
8,291
$131.25
4.3
6.8%
This month’s spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus
Almost all of our spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus has been reduced to just 3 cards now. Wyndham Business Earner is just for utilities and gas because it’s 5x on utilities and 8x at gas stations. Ink Cash is 5x on streaming services, phone bills (don’t get me started on our phone bill), and internet. We use the Venture card for trips to Costco (they don’t like American Express) and for our insane auto insurance bill. Getting an average return on those purchases of almost 7%? I’ll take it.
Outside of those charges, I spent a little less than $1,400 on my American Express Gold card and earned a little over 4,900 Membership Rewards points. Jenn spent $7,900 on her American Express Gold card and earned around 9,800 Membership Rewards points. That $7,900 sounds like a lot, but we not only ran our taxes through that card, but also our daughter’s taxes. Those tax bills were the lion’s share of that spending. They helped push her over the top on the required $10,000 in spending in 3 months necessary to earn the massive 130,000 point bonus, add to that a 20,000 point referral bonus and the 9,500 points from the 10x dining referral bonus and she hauled in a massive 169,000 membership reward points last month.
This left us with 230,300 Chase Ultimate Rewards points, 184,500 Amex Membership Rewards points, 78,600 Capital One Venture miles, 71,400 American Airlines miles, 38,900 Citi Thank You points, 34,800 Marriott Bonvoy points, 30,300 Wyndham points,10,300 Hyatt points, 5,100 Delta Skymiles, and 1,900 United miles as well as $790 in cash back. If you use the Points Guy’s valuations, the total value of all of those points and miles is almost $13,500
Grecia is centered around the big metal church in the center of town called Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes.
We spent about a week in Grecia, a community with a population of about 15,000 residents, located in the Central Valley of Costa Rica. Of the places where we ate and drank, there were a few that stood out in our minds that are worth a visit while in town.
There were some places that we didn’t care for so I won’t mention those, but there were a few that we really enjoyed and I thought I’d share them here, in case you find yourself in the Grecia area.
El Chante Gastrobus
El Chante Gastrobus is a funky restaurant with a couple of school busses that form the side walls of a pavilion. One of the busses is used as the kitchen while another has diner style tables where the seats used to be.
There is art everywhere at El Chante with murals on the busses as well as tables made out of what appear to be a variety of reclaimed materials, including a bus door.
My impression of the food was that it was pretty good, not fantastic. I ordered a dish that had french fries, queso, pulled pork and toppings.
The beer selection had pretty much all of the typical Costa Rican staples such as Imperial, Pilsen, and Bavaria. They also had some other fairly normal international favorites like Corona, Stella Artois, and Heineken. There was a good selection of mixed drinks. This place seems like a perfect place to stop and have a few drinks and maybe a snack. It’s a pretty fun place to hang out.
Table made out of two barrels and a bus door
As a bonus for El Chante Gastrobus, it is located basically in a huge parking lot. Parking can be difficult to find in Grecia, and I appreciated being able to park my car easily and walk in. There was a small charge, maybe $2-$3, which is pretty standard in Grecia.
Los Jardines Vivero y Cafe
We saw this restaurant while driving by it one day and said that we had to stop in there. It turned out to be a great decision. This is just a great restaurant that serves traditional Costa Rican food in a really fun atmosphere.
We came in for lunch and everyone ordered Casado which is a Costa Rican combo meal traditionally served for lunch. They are various combinations at different restaurants but here it came with rice, beans, plantains, a mini-salad, and your choice of protein. They also gave us iced tea and ice cream with the meal.
We had Casado a few times while in Costa Rica and this was our favorite. I thought everything was extremely well done and the plantains were perfect.
Los Jardines has a lot of antiques and little gardens scattered around the restaurant. It makes you want to walk around and get a look at all of the little touches that they have set up throughout the restaurant. We even sat at a table where all of the seats were swings. It was just a nice, fun place to have a meal.
I have read a lot of reviews talking about how busy it gets there, and I will say it was almost empty for lunch, so that might be a great time to check it out. The food was great, the atmosphere was fun and the prices were pretty reasonable. Definitely worth a visit.
Vuelta al Mundo
In downtown Grecia, across the street from Grecia Park is Vuelta al Mundo. It’s located inside Mangifera Hostel. Its tucked in the back of the building in an open area. Its menu consists of dishes from around the world.
Kebab Wrap
This is a great place to go if you have a group of people arguing about where to go for dinner. We had gyros, pasta carbonara, and a kebab wrap, but there were also dishes on the menu from China, Uruguay, Costa Rica etc. We also had an appetizer called Bitterballen which is some kind of fried breaded meat balls from the Netherlands.
Gyros
They also had a good selection of local beer as well as some interesting European selections.
Pasta Carbonara
It’s difficult to be able to cook a variety of international foods effectively, but I think they handle it well. It was a also a comfortable and interesting dining area and the service was very good. It’s definitely a great stop if you’re hanging out by the park or the main church.
Menu of available juices at Vuelta Al Mundo
La 33
North of Grecia on Calle Brenes there is a local favorite called La 33. How do I know this was a local favorite? Because the entire time we were there there was a parade of delivery drivers and pickup orders coming and going. This is a small and very busy restaurant.
The dining room was full and we were lucky enough to get a table as someone was leaving. The prices were very inexpensive and the food was well prepared. Jenn and Alex got Tacos Birria and I got Taco con Papa.
Jenn said the Tacos Birria were the best she’d ever had. I will say I didn’t care for the Taco con Papa, but in all fairness I didn’t expect to, even though it was well made.
I had heard of Costa Rica’s take on tacos and I wanted to try it even though I was suspicious. The taco itself is shredded beef wrapped in a tortilla and fried to a golden brown. It’s then served with French fries. Sounds delicious, right? Then they add a side of shredded cabbage (I might have gone with lettuce, but ok). Lastly, they top all of this with lots of ketchup and mayonnaise.
Taco con Papa
I tried the taco thinking that maybe I was missing something, but no, I just don’t think mayonnaise and ketchup belong on that. I mean if it was sour cream and hot sauce it would’ve been amazing. Anyway if that sounds good to you, you should definitely try it.
Beer Designers
There are a handful of craft brewers in the area including Cerveceria San Roque and Beer Designers. However, as far as I can tell, if you want to visit a brewery near Grecia, it has to be Beer Designers and it has to be on Saturday night.
The production area has a beautiful view of the valley between the ridges where Calle Brenes and Calle San Roque are.
Since we love going to breweries and the only available one was Beer Designers on Saturday, that’s where we went on Saturday night.
Bar area at Beer Designers
We got a chance to try a couple of IPAs which were both very good. Jenn really liked their Dorado Dragon which is an IPA with dragon fruit.
For me, the standout was Lobejo which is an American stout. It’s a was rich and flavorful. Overall it’s just a great example of an American Stout. I consider myself to be a bit of a beer snob, and that was easily one of my favorite stouts, and I’ve tried alot of them.
Dorado Dragon has a nice reddish hue
We had a chance to talk to the brewer and a couple of the locals while we were there. It seemed like the word hadn’t gotten out on them yet because while they definitely had quite a few regulars, they weren’t that busy. The quality of their beers wasn’t matching the amount of business that in my opinion they should be getting.
We were able to pick up a 4 pack to go
A great bonus for Beer Designers is that it is right next door to La 33, which I mentioned earlier as a great place to get takeout. I don’t know if it’s okay if you bring it over and eat it at Beer Designers but I think I would at least ask if I could, because that would make for a great combination.
Cuisine in Grecia Costa Rica
There are actually quite a few great options for eating in the area around Grecia Costa Rica. We obviously weren’t able to visit all of them in less than a week. For the best dine-in experience I would go with Los Jardines Vivero y Cafe. If you just want an inexpensive and delicious authentic Costa Rican experience, I think La 33 is great. For just a nice comfortable hang out I would definitely think El Chante Gastrobus or Vuelta al Mundo and if you like craft beer, check out Beer Designers on Saturday night.
There are also at least two ice cream shops around the park and I would highly recommend going to at least one Costa Rican soda while you are in town. “Sodas” are just small mom and pop shops that sell inexpensive authentic Costa Rican food.
There is a pretty impressive amount of good food options in the Grecia area even though doesn’t have a huge population. A lot of people head to this area for because the weather is beautiful, the people are lovely and frankly the Airbnbs are pretty cheap. If you are thinking about heading to Grecia for those reasons, you definitely won’t be short on food options.
For years, Wells Fargo has been a boring bank for travel hackers. However, in the last year or so, Wells Fargo has been put the travel rewards industry on notice that they intend to compete for business in the points and miles space.
The difference is that they have added some transfer partners for their credit cards. This allows for users to redeem their rewards for value that is better than the normal cash back rate. They are also adding new credit cards to their lineup.
Why Choose the Signify Business Cash Card
There are 3 good reasons to choose the Signify Business Cash card:
$0 Annual Fee
2% Cash Back
$500 Signup offer
These are all pretty boring reasons, but they are important if you are planning to maximize return on your spending. 2% cash back seems pretty boring in the points and miles world, but it’s important because it allows you to get at least 2% in categories where there are no bonus categories. This is especially true if you have a business that has to purchase supplies or parts.
Having a 2% base is especially nice if you can use a different card for purchases in other bonus categories. For example, if you also had the Wells Fargo Autograph card, you could earn 3% on gas, groceries, transit, streaming services, and phone plans. Simply pairing these two cards, could allow you to get 3% on a lot of your expenses while earning 2% on everything else.
Also, having no annual fee allows you to not use it when you want and not worry about getting the most out of the card. If you decide you want to put it aside while you work on a new credit card signup bonus, you’re not going to worry that you’re getting your money’s worth on an annual fee. In that way, a 2% card with no annual fee becomes a solid, dependable card that you can use when you want and shove it to the back of your wallet when you don’t need it.
$500 Signup Bonus
The Signify Business Cash card is currently offering a $500 signup bonus when you spend $5,000 in the first 3 months. That’s a very strong signup bonus for a card with no annual fee. The best comparison to this card, in my opinion is the American Express Blue Business Cash card that earns 2% cash back, has no annual fee and is offering a $250 statement credit on $3,000 in spending in 3 months.
It’s Not Just a Cash Back Card – There are Transfer Partners!
This is where things get a little in the weeds. By itself, the Signify Business Cash card is strictly a 2% cash back card. However, as Frequent Miler points out in their review of the Signify card, if you have either the Wells Fargo Autograph card or the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey card along with the Signify card, you can convert the cash back to Wells Fargo Reward points at 1 cent per point.
This allows you to access Wells Fargo Transfer partners, including:
Aer Lingus Avios
British Airways Avios
Iberia Avios
Qatar Privilege Avios
Air France Flying Blue
KLM Flying Blue
Avianca Lifemiles
Choice Privileges
Having these transfer partners means that you can take advantage of some of the great deals these programs have. For example, if you wanted to fly round trip from Chicago to Madrid in March 2025, the cost of that flight, in economy, using Avios, is 34,000 Avios and $228.70 (that’s not a flash sale – it’s normal off-peak pricing using Iberia Avios). In terms of the Signify card, that is essentially $340 in cash back transferred to Wells Fargo Rewards points then to Iberia Avios and $228.70. So essentially for $568.70 in cash back, you can fly to Madrid and back. That’s a really good deal, especially if you factor in the $500 signup bonus.
These transfer partners make the Wells Fargo Signify card much stronger than just a 2% cash back card. The Points Guy values Wells Fargo Reward points at 1.6 cents per point, meaning if you use the cash back from the Signify card as points, you are really earning 3.2% back as travel rewards. That’s pretty good.
Wells Fargo Active Cash is the Personal Version of Signify Cash
The Wells Fargo Active Cash card is essentially the same thing as the Signify Cash card, except that it’s a personal card. It is a 2% cash back everywhere card with no annual fee. Like the Signify card you can pool your rewards together with an Autograph or Autograph Journey Card and accumulate all of the rewards as Wells Fargo Reward points and transfer those points to their transfer partners.
The main differences here is that the Active Cash is a personal card and that the signup bonus is much lower ($200 for spending $500 in 3 months)
I expect this to Get Even Better Over Time
The transfer partners that Wells Fargo have chosen to work with initially are really good choices, but it’s a pretty limited list. Flying Blue, Avios, and Avianca Lifemiles are all really good programs that cover a lot of needs for travelers on points and miles. However, that’s a pretty short list and I imagine that Wells Fargo is trying to add more transfer partners.
There are a few, like Air Canada Aeroplan and Emirates Skyward, that I think would be pretty easy for them to add. Some others, such as Alaska Air or American Airlines, would be amazing but I wouldn’t count on it. I would also love to see them add Hyatt, but I don’t think they will, although I would expect them to add at least one more hotel chain.
Wells Fargo Rewards Keeps Getting Better
Anything that Wells Fargo can add to their transfer partner list at this point will make Wells Fargo Reward points more valuable, and by extension, Wells Fargo credit cards. The Wells Fargo Autograph and the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey are already cards that do a great job of earning points with some really strong bonus categories.
Wells Fargo seems intent on making some cards that really appeal to the points and miles community. It looks like they definitely want to start aggressively taking some business away from Chase, American Express, Capital One and Citibank. With that in mind, and the fact that they’ve been offering transfer partners for less than a year, I expect that Wells Fargo will add new credit card offerings, and new transfer partners over time. This is absolutely a bank to keep your eyes on.
The American Express Blue Business Plus is a somewhat boring, but great all around credit card. It doesn’t come with a big, flashy signup bonus. However, every once in a while, American Express puts out referral bonuses that can make the signup bonus pretty sweet. A recent referral offer from American Express gave us the opportunity to get this must-have credit card and still get a decent bonus.
Why Choose the Amex Blue Business Plus
There main reasons for why the Blue Business Plus is a great option for a business credit card are:
No Annual Fee
2x on all spending up to $50,000 in spending per year
Earns Membership Reward points that are transferable to 18 airline program and 3 hotel program partners
2x Membership Rewards points per dollar on all spending is great for a no annual fee card. If you are someone who uses multiple credit cards and take advantage of bonus categories to get 5x or 3x on your spending, you notice pretty quickly that not all spending will fall into a bonus category. Having a 2x card that acts as the lowest you earn can be very valuable, especially if you spend a lot in non-bonus categories.
What makes Membership Rewards points so valuable is being able to take advantage of deals in any of these programs. For example, Flying Blue frequently offers flights from major US cities to Europe for 20,000 points (and around $150 taxes/surcharges) one-way in economy or 50,000 points (and around $250 taxes/surcharges) one-way in business class.
In addition, Virgin Voyages often offers points redemptions on cruises. Recently, they were offering a cruise for 120,000 points per cabin (1 or 2 people) for a seven night Mediterranean cruise leaving from Barcelona with stops in places like Ibiza, Mallorca, and Marseille. Simultaneously, there was also a 30% transfer bonus to Virgin from American Express which means that cruise could have been booked for around 93,000 Membership Rewards points.
Being able to pick and choose between programs when they are running specials is what makes flexible award currencies, such as Membership Rewards so incredibly valuable.
However, the Business Platinum Card has an annual fee of $695. While there are definitely great ways of getting $700 worth of value on that card by using the credits and benefits on that card, eventually you might decide you want to dump the card to avoid that annual fee. By having the Blue Business Plus, you can keep the points you earned on your Business Platinum card in your account without having to pay an annual fee.
But the Signup Bonus for the Blue Business Plus is so Tiny
I have definitely gotten spoiled with signup offers that seem to always be north of 60,000 points. However, I knew if I was going to be trying to get big offers from American Express, I would want the Blue Business Plus in order to house those points. Unfortunately, they almost always offer 15,000 Membership Rewards points on a spend of $3,000 in 3 months – that’s just not exciting.
However, earlier this year, Jenn was given a very enticing offer from American Express. She signed up for the Business Gold card on an inflated 130,000 point offer. Since she was a Business Gold card holder, they offered her a 20,000 point referral bonus as well as 3 months of an additional 10x on dining.
Normally, credit card companies only offer referral bonuses on the same card that the cardholder has, but American Express offers referral bonuses that work if the invitee is approved for other American Express cards as well. This means that Jenn could get a referral bonus on her Business Gold card even though I was getting the Blue Business Plus.
The 20,000 point referral bonus wasn’t that unusual, but the extra 10x on dining was very interesting. Her Business Gold card already earns 4x on dining, which means that for 3 months, she will be earning 14x on every dollar spent on dining.
We don’t eat out that often, maybe a couple of times a month, but we do spend a decent amount of time at breweries. I mean, enough that most of the bartenders we see know us by name. Hey, we like beer. Anyway, breweries code as dining, so those are 14x when using her Business Gold card for the next 3 months.
All in all, lets say that over the next 3 months we spend $2,000 on dining. With the extra 10x, that is 20,000 Membership Reward Points. If you add the 20,000 point referral and the 15,000 point signup, that makes the total signup bonus 55,000 Membership Reward points. That’s pretty good for a no annual fee card, especially one with 2x transferable points on all spending.
Benefits of Working with Someone Else
This is a great example of the importance of working with someone else when earning points and miles. Experienced points and miles hobbyists refer to this as “2-player mode”. Being able to consistently refer a spouse, friend or family member, means that both of you can amass a larger amount of points that you can as an individual. This also means that you shouldn’t be an authorized user on your Player 2’s accounts.
In this case, if I was signing up for this card by myself, I would have earned a 15,000 point bonus. Since we are working in 2-player mode, Jenn will earn around 40,000 points in addition to the points that I’ve earned.
The American Express Blue Business Plus is one of those no-brainer credit cards that should be in your wallet. With 2x Membership Rewards points on all spending up to $50,000 per year and no annual fee, it’s a great card to keep around even if you don’t use it often. American Express has a tendency to give great referral bonuses from time to time, so if you can take advantage of those referral bonuses to bump up that sign up bonus, you should absolutely do so. This is one of those cards that you should have, but be patient to see if you can manufacture an elevated bonus.
April had us recovering from our trip to Costa Rica, and had us planning a camping trip to Canada. Believe it or not, I’m 49 years old, love travel, live only a few hundred miles from the Canadian border and I’ve actually never been there. I don’t exactly know why, maybe I was thinking that it’s just a slightly more polite America with weird ideas about french fries. Anyway, it’s about time we hitched up the camper and found out what Canada is all aboot.
We found a little campground in a park on Lake Ontario in Hamilton, Ontario where I booked a week with full RV hookups for about $300 in July, which seems like a pretty good deal. Hamilton is a nice halfway point between Toronto and Niagara Falls. It seems like a really great place to relax as well as visit both of those places. Can’t wait to try all of those exotic, um, donuts?
Patience Pays Off (A Little)
I have a friend getting married in Montana in June. I’m meeting a group of my high school friends there, but booking an award flight there is less than ideal. The biggest reason for this is that in order to book award flights without using a ton of points, you want to be flexible with both dates and location. Obviously, for a wedding I couldn’t be flexible with either of those things since apparently I can’t get them to adjust the date and location for me.
The other reason was that I was going to be flying from a small airport to a small airport. This was definitely going to be challenging to book for a reasonable number of points. The first day I started to look, booking round-trip was going to cost about 70,000 miles. For the most part, the only options were going to be American Airlines miles or United Miles.
Generally this is the kind of redemption that is going to be better on American Airlines, because they don’t seem to punish you for flying from a small airport as much as United does. And as it turns out, this was the case here as well. I was able to book the flight home on Tuesday for 23,000 miles. After struggling to find a good deal on the flight out and waiting a few weeks, I was able to book the flight out on Friday for 22,000 miles, when American dropped the price by about 20,000 miles.
The cash price for this flight was a little over $600 so I managed to get 1.3 cents per point value for this flight, which isn’t great (The Points Guy values AA miles at 1.6 cents per point), but given then fact that I had no flexibility, I’m not mad about it.
Both of these flights are fully cancelable, so I will continue to check to see if I can find a cheaper alternate. There really isn’t any punishment for rebooking at a lower price, so if I can save a few points, why not?
Jenn Hit Her Business Connect Signup Bonus
Jenn hit the signup bonus on her US Bank Business Altitude Connect card and earned the $600 bonus. She earned an additional $100 over the time when she was reaching her spending requirement which was $6,000 over 6 months. This means she earned over 10 cents per dollar spent, which is pretty good.
On to the points Check!
Card Used
Spend
Points Earned
Point Value
Points Per $
Return on Spend
Capital One Venture
$688
1,377
$25.47
2.0
3.7%
Ink Cash
$529
2,626
$53.83
5.0
10.2%
Wyndham Business Earner
$265
1,326
$14.59
5.0
5.5%
Marriott Bonvoy
$238
910
$7.64
3.8
3.2%
Total
$1,720
6,239
$101.54
3.6
5.9%
This month’s spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus
Aside from the spending in the above chart. Jenn spent $725 dollars on her US Bank Business Altitude Connect card and earned $10 cash back plus the $600 signup bonus. Jenn also spent $2,300 on her Amex Gold Business Card, most of which went to the purchase of a viola for our son, after renting one for something like 8 years. Maybe we should have done that sooner. She earned over 2,600 Membership Rewards points for those purchases. I spent under $1,700 on my American Express Gold card earning 5,800 Membership Rewards points. We also earned 15,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points on a referral bonus.
After redeeming 45,000 American Airlines miles for my flight to Montana, we are left with 277,900 Ultimate Rewards points, 80,200 American Airlines miles, 77,600 Capital One miles, 38,800 Citi Thank You points, 34,900 Marriott Bonvoy points, 25,000 United Airlines miles, 11,400 Wyndham points, 10,400 American Express Membership Rewards points, 6,900 Hyatt points, 5,100 Delta Skymiles and $790 in cash back. Using the valuations from the Points Guy, the total value of our points, miles and cash back is over $10,800.
Hacienda Alcascia coffee farm is the only coffee farm in the world owned by Starbucks. Its a beautiful farm located on the southern slope of Poas Volcano about a 30 minute drive north of San Jose Airport in the Alajuela province of Costa Rica. Besides being an operating coffee farm, they also offer tours and have a gift shop and cafe.
Classic truck between parking lot and cafe
When we decided to go to Costa Rica, and knowing that we had an Airbnb in a major coffee producing region of Costa Rica, we knew that we would want to visit a coffee farm at some point. Since I personally drink about 2 gallons of coffee a day, I thought visiting a farm would be nice.
Wall art showing coffee growing regions of Costa Rica
I looked at quite a few local coffee tours, but Jenn found out that there was a Starbucks farm near where we were staying and suggested that. I was a little snarky about it, saying “Oh great, we’re going to go to Costa Rica to visit Starbucks. I mean, they’re so hard to find in the US.” In retrospect though, Jenn was right. This place was spectacular and if you’re anywhere near this, its an absolute must visit.
Coffee Bean Sacks on display near entrance
Starbucks History
A massive sliding door on the backside of the cafe has a sketch of the first Starbucks in Pike Place Market Seattle
Starbucks was formed in 1971 at Pikes Place market in Seattle. Since that time they have grown to over 35,000 stores worldwide. In my mind, Starbucks is largely responsible for getting Americans to drink flavorful coffee again. I can remember a time when Americans would only drink coffee flavored water produced by Maxwell House, Folgers or even Sanka. In the same way that the Boston Beer Company paved the way for microbrewers, Starbucks created a market for so many coffee shops and roasters in the US. My taste buds definitely thank Starbucks for that.
Coffee bean drying table
We’ve been to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Chicago, which I would recommend if you are in Chicago. It is one of 6 reserve locations throughout the world. While the Hacienda Alsacia farm is not one of these reserve locations, it has a very similar feel. The architecture is modern and clean. There is art everywhere you look and everything is meant to enhance the experience with your cup of coffee.
The Cafe and Gift Shop
They chose a phenomenal location for the coffee shop and gift shop. It is perched on a what is essentially the southern slope of Poas Volcano, with the building cantilevered over the slope. There is a huge bank of folding glass doors that when opened completely expose the cafe to an amazing view. That viewpoint is perfectly centered over a valley between two ridges. Adding to the amazing view is a waterfall coming off the ridge on the right hand side.
A large square shaped bar area is in the center of the cafe area, with a variety of baked goods on display. There is quite a variety of seating areas in the cafe, nicely spaced out. The seats that were in the highest demand, of course were along the railing which overlooks the valley.
Waterfall on right hand side when looking out of the cafe.
On top of the amazing views, that the building is located at an elevation that in Costa Rica virtually guarantees pleasant temperatures. We were there on a crystal clear day, but I would imagine that fog probably isn’t uncommon in this area. Either way, I would imagine the sliding wall of glass doors is probably open most of the time.
Center bar at Hacienda Alsacia
We sat down in an area with couches near the railing. I ordered a pour over coffee, which I assumed meant a drip coffee, which it apparently isn’t. Pour over coffee is when they put the coffee grounds into some sort of filter and then pour hot water over it. I’m still not sure how this is different from a drip machine, but apparently I’m a knuckle-dragging moron when it comes to coffee.
There is a microroaster in the gift shop which both produces the coffee beans in the gift shop but also is used to demonstrate the roasting process for the tours.
Either way, what I got, after a painfully long wait (I need my caffeine!), was probably the smoothest cup of coffee I’ve ever drank. I normally use creamer, but they gave me a little bit of cream and some sugar, which I used at first. However, this coffee was so good that eventually, after I ordered a second pour over, I just drank it black.
Roasting beans
I don’t know if it was the Costa Rican beans, the pour over method, or the roast itself, but that was probably the best regular cup of coffee I’ve ever had.
The Grounds of the Farm
After we had our fill of coffee and snacks, we decided to walk around the property a little bit. There is a decent amount of the property that they allow guests to roam, even without paying for the tour.
Mural on the coffee processing building
There is a building behind the cafe that is used to process the coffee fruit into coffee beans.
Typical wildlife at Hacienda Alsacia
If you continue walking toward the back of the property there is a tree nursery.
Young coffee plants in the nursery
There is patio area in the back that allows you to get a really great view of the cafe as well as great views of the valley.
Much of the displayed art at Hacienda Alsacia are tributes to the farmers of the region.
Starbucks Hacienda Alsacia Farm Tour
Hacienda Alsacia offers a tour at the facility. It takes about an hour and a half to complete and costs $30 for an adult, $25 for students and $25 for seniors. Children under 6 years old are free.
The tour covers their tree nursery as well as their processing areas and the microroaster. We chose not to do the tour. Without the tour you actually can see a lot of the areas that are covered in the tour, but I imagine that you would get a much better understanding of the history and the process of making coffee by doing the tour. Two Weeks in Costa Rica has a very well written post about this tour if you are looking for more information.
Other Considerations
If you are planning to come to Hacienda Alsacia, I would recommend pairing it with either a visit to the Poas Volcano National Park, or to La Paz Waterfall Gardens Nature Park. Both of those parks are still a half hour drive from Hacienda Alsacia, but by Costa Rican standards, that’s actually a pretty quick drive.
Coffee tree with fruit growing on it
If you take the tour, you’ll probably be there for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, assuming you’ll stay for a coffee and visit the gift shop. If you’re not doing the tour, it’ll probably be an hour to an hour and a half so keep that in mind.
Rows of coffee trees
There is plenty of parking, with a paved lot on site and a gravel overflow lot across the road. and parking is free.
Starbucks logo behind cashier station
We had a great time at Hacienda Alsacia. The views are amazing and the coffee is delicious. They did an absolutely fantastic job creating an experience for coffee fans to enjoy a cup of coffee while learning something about the process of making this magical drink. I would highly recommend a visit.
The Blue Falls of Costa Rica are a group of seven gorgeous waterfalls set on a tributary to Rio Toro. The river is fed by runoff from the northwest slope of Poas Volcano and is a seemingly unnatural shade of blue due to a high concentration of aluminum sulfate. This aquamarine colored water flowing over rocky terrain makes for an unbelievable landscape of pools, waterfalls and rapids.
There is a tour company that maintains the Blue Falls as well as Catarata Del Toro, which is another waterfall on the same property, but it is on Rio Toro, not on the tributary where the Blue Falls are located. They take admission for both attractions and have a station where you can pay, use the restrooms and potentially get some food, although the snack bar was not open the day we were there.
When we arrived at the visitor center, we were greeted by a gentleman who asked us whether we would be doing Catarata Del Toro, the Blue Falls or both. We paid for the Blue Falls, and he gave us our wristbands for entrance and instructions to go back to our cars and drive up the road a bit and park in a different lot and enter there.
The first river crossing is literally a few inches wide. Only 2 people are allowed on this bridge at a time.
The crazy thing about this gentleman was that, while we were standing there, he also was giving instructions to other hikers and I’m not 100% sure, but it sounded like to one group of hikers he spoke in Dutch (maybe German) and another in French while he was talking to us in pretty flawless English. I’m pretty sure he probably speaks Spanish as well, but the fact that he was just switching back and forth between languages that quickly was amazing to me. I asked him how many languages he knew, and he just responded humbly with “oh, a couple”.
This was early along the road, as you continue to walk the rocks have been moved into the center of the road to operate more like a sidewalk.
We moved the car to the parking lot by the Blue Falls entrance and began our hike. There is a dirt road to follow for the first half to three quarters of a mile. The dirt road had basically turned to mud, which I’m sure is the case a lot of the time. There was a row of stones in the center where most people walk to avoid the mud.
Little “sidewalk” like rock formation to help hikers stay out of the mud
At the end of the road, we came across some signs pointing to where to find the falls. Three trails to the left – La Pintada, La Turquesa and La Celestial, and three trails to the right – Poza Azul, Las Gemelas, and Tepezquintle. Las Gemeles is one trail with two waterfalls.
La Celestial Waterfall
Makeshift stairs on the trail to La Celestial
We decided to visit La Celestial first. Once we started to hike down the actual trail to La Celestial, the trail became more like forest stairs for lack of a better term. The trail has been altered to be more like steps. As wet as this area is, I assume that without the steps it would be incredibly slippery.
There are metal stairs on the trails where the trail would be too dangerous without them.
There were other sections that had some makeshift metal stairs and railings. As we got closer to the falls, the steps made way to boulders. As we descended down the trail, the sound of the waterfall grew in intensity until finally the waterfall appeared in view.
La Celestial waterfall taken from the end of the trail
La Celestial is fairly wide with quite a bit of water coming over it. It’s probably about 30 feet tall and has a bit of a pool under the waterfall. I don’t know how deep the pool is because, I didn’t get more than about waist deep there.
The family enjoying La Celestial
The water is fairly cold, which wasn’t unexpected, since it is running off of a mountain, but it’s not so cold as to want to avoid it completely.
A group of rocks about 50 to 100 feet from the falls creates a pool under and near the falls which you can swim in.
We hung out there for about 15 minutes enjoying the waterfall and the cold water and then decided to go back to the trail to head over to our second waterfall, La Turquesa
La Turquesa
The trail down to La Turquesa seemed much easier than the trail down to La Celestial. There still was quite a bit of steps on the way down, however, once we reached the river, we came across a metal structure with a ladder. There was a guide there to greet us.
A fairly typical trail at Blue Falls. It’s been altered to be more like steps,
In order to get to La Turquesa, you have to cross the river. The guide showed us the right place to cross and helped us through some of the more treacherous parts of the trail, which at this point mostly consisted of stepping on wet slippery rocks.
Guide helping Jenn across the river on the trail to La Turquesa
There is a fairly brisk section of rapids that we needed to climb over to that was the last main obstacle to getting to the falls. In this section, we had to climb over a boulder to get there. The guide was very helpful in making sure that none of us slipped on the boulder.
You need to climb over this boulder to get to La Turquesa.
The reward for this hike is a probably one of the shorter falls here, but it has a really nice pool area where you can kind of relax a little and swim, if you can stand the cold water. I got in up to my neck, but Alex actually dunked his head. Emma bet him $5 he wouldn’t do it.
La Turquesa
This was a really calm and relaxing area to hang out in. We stayed for a little while and then decided to head back to the trail and go down one last trail.
Las Gemelas
We headed back up to the main trail, and we knew that we probably only had one more trail left in us. The hiking at the Blue Falls is somewhat challenging and some fatigue was beginning to set in. Jenn suggested we see Las Gemelas (The Twins). It was a great choice.
A metal bridge over the river at La Gemelas
Once we got down to the river from the main trail, we were greeted by a narrow metal bridge.
Once you crossed that, the trail mostly stayed dry on the left side of the river as we approached the first of the two twins.
The first of the falls at La Gemelas
This was easily the tallest of the waterfalls we had seen that day.
Once you walk closer to the first of the twins and can see further down the river, the second of the twins appear in view.
The second of the falls at La Gemelas
There is a location on the left side of the river, where both waterfalls can be seen simultaneously. This is a surreal spot.
Standing where both of La Gemelas can be seen.
At this point of the day we were pretty hungry and tired and were ready to head back. We hiked back to the main trail and then to our car.
Getting to Blue Falls of Costa Rica
We drove to the Blue Falls from Grecia, but in general if you are coming from San Jose or the Central Valley you will be coming over a fairly tall ridge on Ruta Nacional 708 from the south. I mention this for one specific reason, that is the steepest section of road I have ever driven on.
The steep section I’m talking about is a very new road, but as we were descending the mountain, I suddenly got terrified because I knew I would have to drive back up this mountain, and I rented a Geely GX3. It has a not at all impressive 102 horsepower, and I had 4 full-sized Americans that had to ride in this car up this insane grade. Long story short, we made it, it was terrifying and my speed going up this grade was about 5 MPH with the pedal on the floor. I would suggest maybe a more powerful car if you are going to attempt this drive.
Much of the drive is typical of rural Costa Rica with narrow roads, switchbacks, and limited visibility. We did come across some pretty sketchy bridges made of wood near the end of the drive. At one point I asked Jenn “Was there a hole in that bridge?” She replied as calmly as she could “Yep.”
If you are coming from La Fortuna, you will probably be coming down from the north, so you wouldn’t have the steep grade that we had to deal with. That being said, I have no experience with the roads from La Fortuna, so I don’t know what they are like.
What to Wear at the Blue Falls of Costa Rica
You need to be prepared to get wet and muddy. You also need to have shoes that don’t slip. This does present a challenge for me, because frankly I’m a big fan of wearing socks and you’re not going to want to wear socks. They are going to get wet and your feet are going to prune, and you will be hating your life decisions.
Rocks are wet and slippery. Make sure your shoes grip properly.
You will also be walking on some extremely slick rocks. Having a pair of water shoes that have excellent grip that you can wear in the water is essential. They should also be a good fit, because as you can imagine, wearing ill-fitting shoes on a hike without socks can cause blisters in a hurry.
The alternative to water shoes is to do what the guides do and wear rubber boots. I’m pretty sure the guides know what they are doing, so following their lead can’t be a bad idea.
As far as your clothes are concerned, again you need to take into account the fact that you are both hiking and swimming. A swimsuit might not cover as much as you want when you are hiking and hiking clothes might be too heavy and uncomfortable once you get them wet. I settled on a quick dry shirt and a pair of board shorts. That seemed to be a pretty good compromise. Keep in mind the trails are pretty well maintained so you probably don’t need to cover your legs from things like thorns.
Other Considerations
We didn’t plan out our day very well. We had a light breakfast before driving an hour to get to the falls. A couple of hours of hiking had made us pretty hungry and we had not brought anything to eat. We basically quit out of fatigue, but if we had decided to do all of the falls, it would have taken us a bit more time and we would’ve been extremely hungry.
I would recommend packing a lunch if you want to do the entire Blue Falls hike. I think you could probably do the whole hike in 2 or 3 hours, but honestly, why are you hurrying? It’s beautiful, chill out and swim in the pools for a while. If you’re really enjoying the hike, I would think it would take you at least 4 hours, maybe longer, and with the amount of calories you’ll be burning with constantly going up and downhill, you’ll probably want something to replenish your energy.
I took along a regular backpack, but this is a very wet area, and the chance of accidentally falling into the river is fairly high. I would recommend using a dry bag or a dry backpack. I was carrying everyone’s phones in my backpack, so had I fallen, it might’ve been a really bad day. A dry bag would prevent that.
At the beginning of the hike, they will offer you a hiking stick. Take it! It must’ve saved me from falling a dozen times – its slippery out there!
Also, keep in mind you are in a forest in Costa Rica – if you have ever needed bug spray and/or sunscreen, you will need it here.
How Much Does the Blue Falls of Costa Rica Cost?
Entrance fees for the Blue Falls of Costa Rica is $17 USD per person. If you plan to also visit Catarata Del Toro, then a combo ticket costs $25 USD per person.
Where you pay to get in, there are a bunch of tables where you can eat. There is a snack bar, but it was closed that day, so I’m not sure I would count on them having food available.
Tables at the lodge
There are a couple of bathrooms in the back, and we used them to change our clothes after the hike. Pretty much anywhere you go when you leave the Blue Falls is going to be a long drive and you’ll want to be dry for that drive. Also, there aren’t any bathrooms on the trail itself, so you might want to use it before you head onto the trail.
One of the hummingbirds at the lodge
I don’t know if tipping is customary, but we did leave a tip with the gentleman who was running the front desk. He asked us who the tip was for and we just let him know what falls we hiked at and he was happy to give the tip to the guides who were working those falls.
Hummingbird swooping in to the feeder
There is a hummingbird feeder in the lodge that gets a ton of activity with some very aggressive hummingbirds. Make sure you take a few moments to enjoy the hummingbirds as well.
Conclusion
If you have an opportunity to hike at the Blue Falls, jump at it. This was, by far, the most beautiful hike I have ever been on. Keep in mind that you should be in pretty reasonable shape to do the hike. It is wet, steep, and your balance will be challenged constantly.
Make sure that you come prepared and enjoy the beauty of Costa Rica. Pura Vida!
March was a pretty exciting month. We took a spring break trip to Costa Rica and had the opportunity to see just how beautiful that country is. We stayed in an Airbnb in the Central Valley near Grecia, which meant we were staying amongst the locals. That really gave us a more authentic taste of Costa Rica and was definitely not the normal touristy vacation.
We had to drive quite a bit to get to the locations that we wanted to visit, but in a week we managed to do hikes in a mountain pine forest and another by gorgeous waterfalls. We visited the only coffee farm owned by Starbucks. We also visited Poas Volcano as well as Playa Hermosa. Hey, any week you manage to visit the mountains, the beach and waterfalls in the same week is pretty good.
Costa Rica is a beautiful country and I would recommend it to anyone who is willing to go a little off the beaten path.
American Express Business Gold
Jenn applied for and was accepted for the American Express Business Gold. This is a card that we normally would ignore because of the higher annual fee and the higher required spend to earn the bonus on the card.
I have some mixed feelings about this card. The first issue for me is the $375 annual fee. We have, for the most part, gotten used to annual fees when they hand you a nice welcome bonus, but normally they have been less than $100 for us. That being said, this was an enormous 130,000 Membership Reward point bonus which The Points Guy values at 2 cents per point, so the bonus itself is worth $2,600. That definitely takes the sting out of the annual fee, especially if you plan to cancel before it renews.
The other negative here is that in order to receive this massive bonus, you must spend $10,000 in the first 3 months. That’s not easy for us, but with tax time coming and a pretty large tax bill, this shouldn’t be too hard. Making the most out of paying our taxes is becoming a annual tradition for us, last year we managed to profit $1,350 from paying our taxes.
The Amex Business Gold card earns 4x on some pretty good categories such as dining, gas and transit. It also offers 4x in some business categories such as advertising, electronics retailers, cloud system providers and cell phone service providers. In addition, it earns 3x on purchases through amextravel.com and 1x on all other purchases.
They have some monthly and annual credits, such as $155 refund for Walmart Plus membership and $20 per month for purchases at office supply stores, Grubhub, or FedEx. While I don’t think we’ll be signing up for Walmart Plus, Jenn has figured out that she can use that $20 per month by ordering takeout through Grubhub for some of our favorite restaurants so we will definitely be using those $20 Grubhub credits.
Ok, on the Points Check
Card Used
Spend
Points Earned
Point Value
Points Per $
Return on Spend
Ink Cash
$534
2,651
$54.35
5.0
10.2%
Capital One Venture
$519
1,038
$19.20
2.0
3.6%
Marriott Bonvoy
$421
2,105
$17.68
5.0
4.2%
Citibusiness AAdvantage
$347
347
$5.38
1.0
1.6%
Wyndham Business Earner
$124
814
$8.95
6.6
7.2%
Custom Cash
$49
244
$4.39
5
9.2%
Total
$1,994
7,199
$109.96
3.6
5.5%
This month’s spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus
We actually have 3 open cards where we are working on signup bonuses, which is a little crazy so the spend on cards without signup bonuses is pretty low this month. Most of the stuff in the chart above are set up as autopay for things like insurance, cell phones, utilities, etc. The Marriott Bonvoy charges are because we were earning 5x on groceries as a promo, and once again, somehow, we accidentally spent on the Citibusiness card at 1x which is a little frustrating. All in all, though, getting 5.5% back on non-bonus spend is fine by me.
In addition to the non-bonus spend, I spent $735 on my American Express Gold card and earned a little over 1,900 Membership Reward points. Jenn spent about $2,250 on her US Bank Business Connect card and earned $46 in cash back.
We didn’t earn any bonuses this month but I would imagine that those should start to hit over the next few months and they are some pretty big ones, with a $500 cash back bonus, a 75,000 Membership Reward bonus on my Amex Gold card, and the 130,000 Membership Reward bonus on Jenn’s Amex Business Gold card. I’m looking forward to seeing our point valuations balloon as these start to hit.
The only real redemption this month was that I used the cash back that I had earned last year to pay for the rental car and some of the gas while we were in Costa Rica.
Because we used some of our cash back, and we didn’t have any bonuses hit, we ended the month with a lower total value than the previous month. We ended the month with 260,300 Chase Ultimate Reward points, 115,200 American Airlines miles, 76,300 Capital One Venture miles, 38,800 Citi Thank You points, 34,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, 25,000 United miles, 10,000 Wyndham points, 6,900 Hyatt points, 5,000 Delta Miles, 1,900 Amex Membership Reward points and $183 in cash back. All of that, according to the valuations from The Points Guy, is worth around $10,300.
** On November 30, 2025, vacasa will end ITS partnership with Wyndham and this will no longer be available.**
The Vacasa/Wyndham partnership devalued again, for the second time in just 6 months. This is pretty annoying, because this partnership went under the radar for a while, and as people became aware of what a tremendous deal this was, they had to start dialing it back. Now after a second devaluation, the partnership is still pretty good but it’s just not the same fantastic deal it was before.
The original redemption rates for Wyndham points on Vacasa rentals was simple – 15,000 Wyndham points per bedroom, per night on any rental up to $500 per bedroom per night. In October of last year, they kept the same basic structure, but lowered the maximum redemption from $500 per bedroom per night to $350 per bedroom per night.
With the change made in October, it effectively made any rental that cost more than $350 per bedroom per night unrentable on points. The newest devaluation makes those properties rentable again, but means that any property that cost between $250-$500 per night per bedroom just got twice as expensive as it was prior to October 2023.
The new Vacasa/Wyndham redemption rates are essentially this: for any Vacasa vacation rental, it costs 15,000 Wyndham points per bedroom per night for any property that costs up to $250 per bedroom per night. For any property that costs $250-$500 per bedroom per night, that will cost 30,000 Wyndham points per bedroom per night. Any property that costs more that $500 per bedroom per night will be unavailable on points.
Example
Before Oct 2023
Oct 2023 – March 2024
After March 2024
1 Bedroom $200/Night
15,000 Pts/Night
15,000 Pts/Night
15,000 Pts/Night
1 Bedroom $300/Night
15,000 Pts/Night
15,000 Pts/Night
30,000 Pts/Night
1 Bedroom $400/Night
15,000 Pts/Night
Unavailable on Points
30,000 Pts/ Night
2 Bedroom $450/Night
30,000 Pts/Night
30,000 Pts/Night
30,000 Pts/Night
2 Bedroom $600/Night
30,000 Pts/Night
30,000 Pts/Night
60,000 Pts/Night
2 Bedroom $900/Night
30,000 Pts/Night
Unavailable on Points
60,000 Pts/Night
Effect of last 2 Vacasa/Wyndham devaluation on redemptions
These are All-In Prices
The $250 per bedroom per night price is the all-in price not the headline price on Vacasa’s website. They might show a headline price of $200 per night, for example, but for 5 nights it’s not going to be $1,000, it’s probably going to be closer to $1,400. This is because they charge a number of taxes and fees, which can get pretty extensive.
These fees can be state and local taxes, amenity fees, booking fees, damage waivers, etc. In my experience, these will probably cost an extra 30 to 50 percent on top of the rent itself.
I think we can all agree that fees are getting out of control as you can see below. I mean, damn, I know you have expenses and all but do you need to itemize them and make me pay one by one? Just tell me what the price is! I mean, I get it, you got an HOA, but you can include that in the price instead of charging me for an ‘Amenity Fee’? And what the hell is a ‘destination surcharge’?
How Many Properties Does This Actually Affect?
One of the bright spots about this devaluation has been that if you had a rental that you liked that normally cost $200 per bedroom per night, you have gone completely unaffected by this. There are a lot of quality vacation rentals that are under that $250 per bedroom per night range and they are the same as they ever were.
That being said, if you had your eye on a more expensive unit, you might be reevaluating your plans now.
Let’s look at the Destin Florida area for a 5 day rental in June to see the real life results of the devaluation. Let’s say you’re a family of 4 and you would prefer a 2 bedroom vacation rental, but would settle for a 1 bedroom if it had room for everyone to sleep.
The below examples are taking into account a 40% upcharge for taxes and fees. These fees vary by property, so some are higher and some are lower but in order for me to use the filters on Vacasa’s website for this chart, I had to make some assumptions.
Up to $250 per bedroom per night
$250 -$350 per bedroom per night
$350- $500 per bedroom per night
More than $500 per bedroom per night
1 Bedroom
25 (15,000 pts)
119 (30,000 pts)
129 (30,000 pts)
120
2 Bedrooms
323 (30,000 pts)
298 (60,000 pts)
94 (60,000 pts)
12
3 Bedroom
204 (45,000 pts)
86 (90,000 pts)
29 (90,000 pts)
4
Example availability of Vacasa vacation rentals with room for 4 near Destin for a random summer extended weekend.
The unicorn rental is if you can find a 1 bedroom with enough sleeping space for 4, that can be rented for 15,000 Wyndham points. In this example, prior to October 2023, there would have been 273 total 1 bedroom properties rentable for under $500 per night. When the first devaluation occurred and dropped the maximum price for redemption to $350 per night, that number dropped to 144. After the March 2024 devaluation, there are only 25 such properties left at the 15,000 point level. That’s only 9% of the original available properties at that rate.
Two bedroom properties fared a little better in the devaluation than the one bedroom properties. 94 were affected by the devaluation in October and another 298 were affected by the March devaluation. In this case 45% of the two bedroom properties in this example were unaffected by these devaluations.
The three bedroom properties fared the best with 204 of the total 319 properties for a total of 64% unaffected by the devaluation.
In general, the next time that I rent a Vacasa on points I’ll most likely be renting something that is 30,000 points per night, because the unicorn 15,000 point redemption is just going to be very hard to find now. It probably means that we will be looking for a two bedroom which will probably be more comfortable for us than a one bedroom, but twice the number of points is still a bit of a kick to the gut.
Elevated Signup Bonuses as a Consolation Prize
I don’t know if Wyndham did this at the same time as the most recent devaluation to soften the blow a little bit, but current signup bonuses for Wyndham credit cards are massive right now.
Wyndham is currently offering 100,000 point bonuses on their Wyndham Reward Earner Business card and their Wyndham Reward Earner Plus (Consumer) card. They are also offering a 75,000 point bonus on their Wyndham Earner card. All of those bonuses are the largest bonuses ever offered according to Frequent Miler.
The Wyndham Reward Earner Business card is one that we hold and continue to use. Jenn signed up for this one when the bonus was only 45,000 points. The reason we continue to use it is that it has some great point earning rates. It is 8x at gas stations and 5x on utilities. I put all of our gas and utilities on it for this reason. The full 100,000 point bonus for this card is after spending $15,000 on the card within 12 months.
If you really like those Wyndham points (which we do), the Wyndham Reward Earner (Consumer version) Card has some great earning categories too. It is 6x at gas stations, 4x on groceries and 4x on dining. It is also currently offering a 100,000 point bonus after a much lower $2,000 in spending within 6 months.
If you spend a lot on gas and you like vacation rentals, these cards can rack up points for those rentals in a hurry. In addition, all 3 of the Wyndham cards offer a 10% discount on award redemptions if you are a cardholder. This means that the example of a 1 bedroom Vacasa under $250 per night isn’t actually 15,000 points per night, it’s really 13,500 points per night for cardholders. The 100,000 point bonus alone would pay for a week at those rates.
Keep in mind that if you were to maximize these redemptions at a full $250 per night per bedroom, and you had one of these credit cards to reduce the redemption to 13,500 points, you would be redeeming those points at 1.85 cents per point. If you are earning 8x on all of your gas spending, you are essentially earning 14.8% back at gas stations. That’s pretty ridiculous.
Vacasa Still Remains the Best Way to Book a Vacation Rental on Points
Even with the rapid fire devaluations, Vacasa still remains the best way to book a vacation rental on points. Marriott has it’s Homes and Villas collection which does allow for booking vacation rentals using Bonvoy points, but the rates are much higher, and I would argue the points are harder to earn.
Sure, if you are a business traveler, you might be able to earn quite a lot of Bonvoy points by staying in Marriott hotels, so Homes and Villas might be pretty attractive for your family vacation. But, if you’re not a business traveler, the ability to earn a lot of points through spending on gas and utilities on the Business Earner card or by gas, groceries, and dining on the consumer Earner card is huge.
I’m still hoping that Hyatt, IHG, or Hilton can someday begin to make their points usable at VRBO or Airbnb, but I wouldn’t count on it. That being said, as long as Wyndham keeps the amount of points needed to book a rental low as well as allow easy earning of Wyndham points, it’s going to remain a fantastic deal. There is no doubt in my mind that the Vacasa/Wyndham partnership remains the best way to use points on vacation rentals.
Playa Hermosa is a small, laid back beach town along the Pacific coast in the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica. The sand on the beach is a little darker than you might expect because of the volcanic rock that helped form Costa Rica over millions of years. The bay around Playa Hermosa is crescent shaped and creates some stunning views, especially at sunset. It also makes for a nice stopping point for flights in or out of Guanacaste Airport.
Playa Hermosa is a Great Stop after Landing at Guanacaste Airport
The reason why we stayed at Playa Hermosa was simply that we didn’t want to drive at night. We had about a 3 to 3 1/2 hour drive from Guanacaste Airport to our Airbnb in the Central Valley near Grecia. Even though we landed around noon, by the time we got through passport control and customs, took the shuttle to the car rental place and finally got the keys to the rental car, it was around 2:30.
The problem with Guanacaste Airport is that almost all of the planes from the US and Canada (which are the majority of planes landing there) arrive between 10:30 and 2:30. Also, the airport itself isn’t really near many tourist spots. A lot of the typical stops for tourists are a bit of a drive from the airport:
La Fortuna – 2.5 to 3 hour drive from the airport
Monteverde Cloud Forest – 2.5 to 3 hour drive from the airport
Jaco – 3 to 4 hour drive from the airport
Central Valley – 3 to 4 hour drive from the airport
Driving at night in Costa Rica, if you aren’t familiar with the area that you are driving, can be tricky to say the least. Between the fact that the roads are narrow, curvy and unlit, the lack of street signs, and the fact that there are always people walking in the road, you might just want to drive in the daytime, at least at first.
Lodging in Playa Hermosa
For being a pretty small travel destination there are a number of choices of places to spend the night in Playa Hermosa, all of whom are small operators (your Marriott Bonvoy and World of Hyatt points are useless here). For more expensive hotels, there are some villas on the north side of Playa Hermosa and Hotel Bosque del Mar on the south end. We stayed in the center of Playa Hermosa where you will find some modest boutique hotels.
We stayed at Huetares Hotel and Villas. It had a nice pool area, which we really enjoyed. The rooms were spacious but a little rundown, which didn’t bother us too much since we were just sleeping there one night and then moving on. Our room had two full bathrooms and two bedrooms, each bedroom had a single and a double bed. It also had a kitchen area which would’ve been nice if had stayed longer.
There was a questionable shower there with exposed wiring. At first I didn’t understand why there was wiring on a showerhead, but I think it was an instant water heater showerhead. Either way, I’m not sticking my head under a showerhead with exposed wiring – luckily there were two bathrooms and two showers, so we didn’t use that sketchy thing.
Yeah, I’m not taking a shower under this thing. I don’t feel like dying today.
Swimming at the Beach
The sand at Playa Hermosa is fairly pleasant. It’s not a white Cancun style of beach, this is a little darker with volcanic sand mixed in. This makes the water appear dirtier than at a white sand beach, but its really that the sand is just darker.
There is a first row of trees on the edge of the beach, then a path and then the rest of the trees which allow you to walk the beach in the shade.
The water is about as warm as at any beach I’ve been to. It was very pleasant to swim in and we did see a bit of fish activity while we were swimming. The waves were fairly gentle to moderate which also made swimming very pleasant.
Wildlife in Playa Hermosa
In the short amount of time we spent in Playa Hermosa, we spotted quite a bit of wildlife. At our hotel, we spotted an Iquana that was probably 2-3 feet long. There were also quite a bit of tropical birds that were flying around and chatting to each other. The squirrels that we saw were grey and reddish orange.
Two howler monkeys in a tree. You can also see in the tree, a couple of wires. That is the monkey bridges that have been built to allow the monkeys to cross the roads without having to use electrical wires or walk across the street.
What you really need to go looking for are the howler monkeys. If you don’t know where they are, don’t worry, you’ll hear them. I don’t know how many of them live in Playa Hermosa, but there are at least a dozen who spend a lot of time at the tops of the trees. Howler monkeys are known for being loud with calls that can be up to 140 decibels. We had a lot of fun watching them in the wild and they weren’t in the least bit concerned with us.
Dining at Sunset
Playa Hermosa is located on the west coast of Costa Rica, making it a beautiful place to watch sunsets. There are also a handful of restaurants along the beach making it a great place to have dinner on the beach while watching the sunset.
The majority of the seating at Aquasport is in the sand, which is exactly where you want to sit.
The restaurants that I noticed while we were there were La Casita del Marisco, Roberto’s and Aquasport. We chose Aquasport.
There was a large swing there that was in constant use throughout dinner.
I really liked the menu at Aquasport because it allowed us to try a pretty wide variety of food that’s not available in our hometown in Iowa. Alex got the Surf and Surf, which was mahi mahi and shrimp in a pretty interesting sauce. Jenn got the mahi mahi fillet, while I ordered the beef tacu tacu and Emma ordered a chicken causa. We also shared some patacones.
Chicken Causa – a Peruvian dish with layers of potato, avocado and chicken.
Most of the food was very good. The prices were a bit on the high end, but I wouldn’t have expected anything else considering Aquasport is directly on the beach.
A live band played during dinner. They played mostly American pop music covers.
We also had a few chiliguaros, which is a shot that has guaro (a Costa Rican liquor made of sugar cane, similar to unaged rum), tomato juice and tobasco served in a salted shot glass. We chased those chiliguaros with the national beer of Costa Rica, Imperial, which is a pretty descent pilsner.
Rope lights provide great mood lighting after dusk.
We enjoyed our dinner and the fresh breeze as the sun disappeared into the Pacific Ocean. The staff was excellent, the food great, and the sunset was spectacular.
A First Taste of Gallo Pinto
Huetares Hotel and Villas is attached to a traditional Costa Rican restaurant called Coco Viquez. They serve their breakfast the way that a traditional Costa Rican ‘soda’ does. It’s set up as a buffet where you get one plate, you tell them what you want and they fill the plate up for a set price, in this case $10 US, or 5,000 Colones.
There are two sections of this buffet, one with hot foods like gallo pinto, eggs, and sausage, and the cold section with cheese and fresh fruit
Traditionally a Costa Rican breakfast comes with gallo pinto, which is essentially black beans and rice mixed together. Gallo pinto is also not complete without some plantains, some meat – I had salchichon (a type of sausage), and as much fresh fruit as they can squeeze on the plate. We also got some coffee, which they served with hot milk, which is a nice touch to not cool down your coffee, but it was already 90 degrees outside, so I’m not sure it was necessary.
Must’ve eaten the papaya before snapping this photo. The papaya was amazing.
It was all very good and the staff was very friendly. I can see why this style of breakfast became a staple in Costa Rica, it’s fast, nutritious and is delicious. This is how fast food should be done.
Small Town Feel
Playa Hermosa is a very small area. We could pretty much walk the entire town in about 30 minutes. There really is only about a half dozen restaurants, a mini grocery store, a few hotels and a beach. I think that’s the real attraction to Playa Hermosa. There isn’t a ton to see, but the views are tremendous. There aren’t a lot of choices of places to eat, but the food is really good.
There were only really two streets to walk on in Playa Hermosa. No tall buildings, not a lot of traffic. It definitely had the feel of a small town.
Because the choices are limited, Playa Hermosa will force you to take it easy. Go ahead and spend a few hours on the beach. Have a long dinner in the sand as the sun dips into the ocean. Relax and unwind. Life is stressful and hurried, but that is not the vibe in Playa Hermosa. You’re not in America anymore, you’re in Costa Rica now – Pura Vida!
Moving Along
With our bellies full of Gallo Pinto, we got into the car for what turned out to be a stressful 4 hour drive to Grecia in the Central Valley of Costa Rica. I’m glad we had a chance to unwind from our flight before attempting that drive.
We spent less than 24 hours in Playa Hermosa, because we were using it as a stop before moving on to the rest of our journey. I have a feeling that we will find our way back to Playa Hermosa, there are a few other places that I would like to visit in Costa Rica, including La Fortuna, Jaco, and Manuel Antonio National Park. I can definitely see this being a stop over anytime that we might go to Costa Rica in the future, if we are using Guanacaste Airport. The proximity to the airport, the gorgeous sunsets, and the great food make it an ideal first taste of Costa Rica.
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