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.
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.
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.
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.
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