Travel – Newby to Expert Traveler

Jameson Irish Whiskey Tour

Posted on January 8, 2026 by David Cox

We had the opportunity to be in Dublin for a couple of days on our last trip to Europe, and we decided to use the opportunity to visit the Jameson Distillery. We debated whether we would rather visit the Guinness Brewery or the Jameson Distillery, but Jameson won out because I’ve done a few brewery tours, but never a distillery tour. The Jameson tour didn’t disappoint.

We walked to the distillery from our hotel, which was about a 20-minute walk, and even though you would assume that a distillery would be in a gritty industrial zone, it was in a lovely area with brick and stone buildings and cobblestone streets. From Bow Street, we walked through an archway and into the Jameson complex.

Inside the Jameson Complex, there is a small plaza with a gift shop and a restaurant. We skipped those and went straight into the distillery. The building has a modern loft feel, where the building seems old but fresh, with brick bones and lots of black iron and wood finishes. The color that brightens the room is an endless supply of green Jameson bottles.

Jameson Distillery sign near tour entrance

We went straight to the ticket counter to buy a ticket for the tour. The Bow Street tour is a 45-minute tour, and it currently costs € 26. Luckily for that price, there are some drinks that are provided. Once we paid for our tour, they sent us to the bar to get our complimentary drink before the tour began. Since I was there to fully experience Jameson Whiskey, I ordered a Jameson neat.

Workers used to be rewarded for their labor with glasses of whiskey

I’ll be honest, before this tour, I had never tried Jameson Whiskey. I had developed an affinity for American bourbon, and given how much bourbon is available in the US, I hadn’t even thought about trying Jameson. I took a sip and immediately noticed the caramel notes. It was also surprisingly smooth and gave me a pleasant, warming sensation. Ok, Jameson, you have my attention.

View from the waiting area before the tour

We waited around at the bar as the other guests began to join us. They were mostly Americans who were in town for the Steelers/Vikings game that happened the previous day. When the tour began, we were shuffled into a round brick room with some seats around a table, where the tour guide began to tell us the history of the Jameson brand. There was also a video that was artfully projected upon the table in the center of the room, which also helped explain the history of the distillery.

The projection on the table tells the history of Jameson

After the history of Jameson had been discussed, we were then moved into another room where we were asked to group up and stand around one of a series of display tables. Each of these tables had exhibits of various elements of the process, showing color development as well as demonstrating aromas that come from the maturation of the whiskey.

Demonstrations of the development of color and aroma in the whiskey

There was another video projection on the wall. This time, they demonstrated the process that they use to make Jameson Whiskey. This included the triple-distilling process as well as the maturation process in the barrel. This also included how they pick the barrels themselves. These barrels are reused American bourbon and Spanish sherry barrels, which add to the flavor and color of Jameson Whiskey.

Video showing the method of making Jameson whiskey

Finally, after the demonstration of how the whiskey is produced, we were ushered into a third room where we were given a tasting set. The guide walked us through the tasting notes of the three different whiskeys sitting in front of us. There was a classic Jameson Whiskey, Jameson Distillery Edition, and Jameson Black Label. There was also a glass of water there to cleanse your palate.

I enjoyed all of the samples, and again was pleasantly surprised by the quality of Jameson Whiskey. I had come into this experience thinking that it would be wildly inferior to the American bourbons that I’ve had, but it compares favorably. It’s definitely not better than some of my favorite bourbons, but I have to say it was better than some of the $40 bourbons that I’ve had. At the price point around half of that, it’s a solid whiskey.

Tasting three different versions of Jameson’s Whiskey

Jameson opened my eyes a little on this tour, and as I write this, I’m having a glass of Jameson right now. I learned that I don’t necessarily have to spend over $40 for a decent bottle of whiskey. It’s definitely not my favorite whiskey, but for its price, it’s very good.

I would recommend taking this tour to any Whiskey lover who finds themselves in Dublin. It was extremely informative, had great demonstrations, and a fabulous tour guide. The fact that I was able to consume some of that delicious whiskey is pretty nice, too.

Points check December 2025

Posted on January 2, 2026 by David Cox

As 2025 came to a close, we looked back at what turned out to be a fairly hectic year of travel. In March, we went to Portugal and Spain, to hike six days on the Portuguese route of the Camino de Santiago. In July, Jenn went with Emma, her sister, and her niece to Munich and Dublin, while Alex and I went to Dresden, Saxon Switzerland National Park, and Berlin. In September, we went to Nice and Dublin. It’s been a lot.

We had a blast, but it did seem to add a bit of chaos to our lives, and we agreed to do a little less in 2026. We’ll probably still take three vacations, but we’re going to stay a little closer to home and keep the trip lengths a little shorter. That being said, we’ve only planned one trip for 2026, and wouldn’t you know it, it’s a long way away and ten days long. But I swear – after that – we’ll be good, I promise!

That trip is to Tenerife, a place I’ve wanted to visit for years now. We will also spend two nights in London on our way to Tenerife and one night in Madrid on our way home. Virtually everything is booked, except for the flight from Tenerife to Madrid.

Picking an Airbnb

Tenerife is an interesting place to try to plan a vacation. There is so much to do spread out on an island that takes about an hour and a half to two hours to drive from the south side of the island to the north side. In the north, there are lush forests with beautiful hiking trails. On the south side, there are also beautiful hiking trails, but instead of pine forests, there are deserts with succulents and cacti. On the south side, there are tourist beaches, bars, and restaurants, while on the north side, the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the major city of the island. Also, slightly south of the center of the island is Mount Teide, a volcano towering 12,000 feet above the sea, and sometimes covered in snow.

Because there were so many things to visit all over the island, it made it tricky to pick an Airbnb. We had looked at rentals almost everywhere on the island, and finally, we just threw up our hands and let our son Alex pick. He chose a rental in Costa del Silencio, which I think will be nice. It looks like a quieter part of the island, only about a 20-minute drive from the tourist hot spots of Playa de los Americas, and about a 50-minute drive to Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Plus, if the Airbnb sucks, I can blame it on Alex.

Points or a Certificate?

It can be difficult sometimes to decide whether or not to use a hotel certificate or to use points. We have a 40,000 point IHG certificate that we wanted to use for a night in Iowa City. We have season tickets for the Iowa Hawkeye women’s basketball team, and we decided to go up the night before one of the games and enjoy Iowa City for an evening. Since we had the IHG certificate, we wanted to use it for the stay.

The problem was that the nicest IHG hotel in Iowa City was 22,000 points per night, which is well below the value of the certificate. Since the certificate expires in the fall of 2026, we figured that we probably will have the opportunity to book something more worthy of that certificate. We also had plenty of IHG points, so we decided to use points and save the certificate. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for people to make this bargain, and then find themselves later on with a certificate that they never used – so hopefully that isn’t our fate.

On to the point check!

There were no new credit card signups this month, and I think that’s because we just haven’t seen any offers that have gotten our attention lately. Since we don’t have another vacation in mind yet, we can be patient and wait until something grabs our attention.

That also means that Jenn hasn’t worked on a signup bonus in a while, and she defaulted to using her Amex Gold card. With Christmas spending being a significant part of our purchases, and there not being a consistently good way of earning points on Amazon purchases, the earning rates were a little low. That being said, we still managed to earn a return of a little over 5% on our spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus.

Card Used	Spend	Points Earned	Point Value	Points Per $	Return on Spend
Amex Gold	$2,722	6,585	$131.70	2.4	4.8%
Ink Cash	$441	2205	$45.20	5.0	10.3%
Wyndham Business Earner	$421	2,246	$24.71	5.3	5.9%
Sapphire Preferred	$376	376	$7.71	1.0	2.1%
AAdvantage Platinum	$223	223	$3.46	1.0	1.6%
Blue Business Plus	$66	132	$2.64	2.0	4.0%
Total	$4,249	11,767	$215.41	2.8	5.1%

This month’s spending not devoted to earning a signup bonus

In addition to the spending listed above, I spent a little under $2,400 on my Chase Ink Unlimited card, earning me a little less than 3,600 Ultimate Reward points. I should be hitting my signup bonus on that card in January, which is 90,000 points. We finished up the year with:

268,300 Chase Ultimate Reward Points
264,900 IHG Points
155,400 Amex Membership Rewards Points
98,800 Wyndham Points
79,400 Alaska Miles
33,900 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

According to the points valuations published by The Points Guy, these points and miles are worth a total of $12,800. We started off the year with $13,700 in points and miles. It’s shocking to me that, given the amount of travel we did in 2025, we finished the year only $900 behind where we were the previous year. Our vacation plans will be much tamer in 2026, so I expect our points balances should go up throughout 2026. That probably means we will have a wild 2027 – can’t sit on those points forever!

Hotel Credit Cards that are Worth it For Free Night Certificates

Posted on December 22, 2025December 25, 2025 by David Cox

Credit cards that come with free night certificates can be a great way to reduce the cost of vacations or weekend getaways. We have been travel hacking for a few years now, which generally means opening up credit cards, earning points and miles, and then redeeming them for flights and hotel stays. Many of these credit cards aren’t worth keeping, and we close those accounts after a year, sometimes two, depending on the situation. This is generally to avoid paying ongoing annual fees on a card we no longer value.

However, hotel credit cards can often continue to be valuable every single year, even if you don’t use them, and even if they have annual fees. This is because many of them come with free night certificates and some level of hotel status. Typically, in my experience, it’s easy to get more value out of those certificates than the cost of the annual fee.

Hyatt

Hyatt has two credit cards, both issued by Chase Bank; one is a business card, and one is a personal credit card. The business card does not offer a free night certificate, but the personal World of Hyatt Credit Card does.

World of Hyatt Credit Card

The World of Hyatt Credit Card is a card issued by Chase. It has a $95 annual fee, but in exchange for the annual fee, you will receive a category 1-4 free night certificate. I find it fairly easy to book a hotel with these certificates that would normally cost between $200 and $300. In addition to the free night certificate, the cardholder will also receive:

Discoverist Elite Status (2nd lowest of 4 status levels)
5 Elite Qualifying Nights
Additional category 1-4 certificate when you spend $15,000 on the card in a year

Marriott Bonvoy

The Marriott Bonvoy program has 6 credit cards, and all but one come with an annual free night certificate. The Marriott Bold credit card doesn’t come with a free night certificate, but it also doesn’t have an annual fee. The rest of the Marriott credit cards have a variety of annual fees as well as benefits and free night certificates. Marriott’s free night certificates allow you to use up to 15,000 Marriott Bonvoy points on top of the value of the certificate. This means that if a hotel is just a little too expensive to book with a certificate, you can add some points to make the stay work.

Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card

The Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card is issued by Chase Bank and has a $95 annual fee. It comes with a free night certificate worth up to 35,000 Marriott Bonvoy points. I generally find it pretty easy to find a hotel that typically costs between $150 and $250 per night where these certificates work. In addition to the free night certificate, the cardholder will receive:

Silver Elite Status (lowest of 5 status levels)
15 elite qualifying nights
1 elite night for every $5,000 spent on the credit card

Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card

The Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express card has an annual fee of $125. Like the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card, it comes with a free night certificate worth up to 35,000 points. In addition to the free night certificate, the cardholder will receive:

Gold Elite Status (2nd lowest of 5 status levels)
15 elite qualifying nights

Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful Card

The Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful card is issued by Chase Bank and has an annual fee of $250. It receives a 50,000-point annual free night certificate. That certificate can be redeemed for a hotel that would probably cost $300 to $400. In addition to the free night certificate, the cardholder will receive:

Gold Elite status (2nd lowest of 5 status levels)
15 elite qualifying nights
1,000 bonus Bonvoy points with each qualifying stay

Marriott Bonvoy Bevy American Express Card

The Marriott Bonvoy Bevy card is issued by American Express and has an annual fee of $250. Like the Bountiful card, it also receives an annual 50,000-point free night certificate. Also, like the Bountiful card, the cardholder will receive:

Gold Elite status (2nd lowest of 5 status levels)
15 elite qualifying nights
1,000 bonus Bonvoy points with each qualifying stay

Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card

The Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant card is issued by American Express and has a whopping annual fee of $650. This card comes with an annual 85,000-point free night certificate. That can be used on a luxury hotel stay, probably somewhere in the $500 to $800 range. In addition to the free night certificate, the cardholder will receive:

Platinum Elite Status (3rd highest of 5 status levels)
25 elite qualifying nights
Priority Pass membership with 2 guests
$25 per month dining credit
Global Entry Fee Credit

Hilton

Hilton has four credit cards that are all issued through American Express. Only one of these cards has a free night certificate as a perk. The Hilton Honors and Hilton Business card don’t have any ability to earn a free night certificate, but the Hilton Surpass can earn a certificate after $15,000 in spend in a calendar year. That might seem like a lot of money to spend on a card just to earn a free night certificate, but Hilton certificates are uncapped. This means if you have your heart set on spending an evening in an ultra-premium hotel and being completely pampered, one certificate can get you there. Upgraded points has a great post on how to completely maximize the value of those certificates.

Hilton Honors Aspire American Express Card

The Hilton Honors Aspire card is issued by American Express and is a premium credit card with a $550 annual fee. It does come with an uncapped annual free night certificate that can be used on amazing ultra-premium hotels. In addition to the free night certificate, the cardholder will receive:

Diamond Status (highest of 3 Hilton status levels)
$400 Hilton Resort credit ($200 semi-annually)
$200 flight credit ($50 annually)
Clear Plus credit

IHG

IHG has three credit cards, with two offering annual free night certificates. The IHG One Rewards Traveler card has no annual fee and doesn’t come with a free night certificate. The free night certificates that are issued by IHG are worth up to 40,000 points and can be topped off. That means if the hotel room you really want costs 60,000 points, you can use a certificate and 20,000 points. For a 40,000-point certificate, you can generally expect to be able to book a hotel that would cost $150-$200.

IHG One Rewards Premier

The IHG One Rewards Premier credit card is issued by Chase Bank and has an annual fee of $99. It comes with an annual free night certificate worth up to 40,000 IHG points. Besides the annual free night certificate, the cardholder will receive:

Platinum Elite Status (2nd highest of 4 levels)
Fourth night free on award stays
Up to $50 per year United Travel Bank Credit

IHG One Rewards Premier Business Card

The IHG One Rewards Premier Business card is pretty much the same as the IHG One Rewards Premier card, but for businesses. It has an annual fee of $99 and comes with a free night certificate worth up to 40,000 IHG points. In addition to the free night certificate, the cardholder will receive:

Platinum Elite Status (2nd Highest of 4 levels)
Fourth night free on award stays
Up to $50 per year United Travel Bank Credit

Wyndham

With a collection of brands like Super 8, Travelodge, and Ramada, Wyndham Rewards isn’t the sexiest program on this list, but it is solid. Barclays issues 3 credit cards for Wyndham with impressive earning rates, especially on gas purchases. The Wyndham Earner card earns 5x on gas, the Wyndham Rewards Earner Plus card earns 6x on gas, and the Wyndham Business Earner card earns a whopping 8x on gas and 5x on utilities.

None of these cards issues a free night certificate per se, but they do issue points on an annual basis, which, unlike a free night certificate, don’t expire. The Wyndham Earner card has no annual fee and doesn’t earn any annual bonus points. However, the other two cards do issue annual bonus points.

Wyndham Rewards Earner Plus Card

The Wyndham Rewards Earner Plus card has an annual fee of $75 and earns 7,500 points each anniversary year. 7,500 points can typically book a room worth around $60 to $90. In addition to the 7,500 points, the cardholder will receive:

Platinum Status (2nd Highest of 4 levels)
10% Discount on Free Night Awards

Wyndham Business Earner Card

The Wyndham Business Earner Card has an annual fee of $95 and earns 15,000 points each anniversary year. 15,000 Wyndham points can typically book a room worth between $125 and $200. In addition to the 15,000 points, the cardholder will receive:

Platinum Status (2nd Highest of 4 levels)
10% Discount on Free Night Awards

Choice

Like Wyndham, many of the brands that Choice is famous for are low-end hotels, such as Travelodge and Rodeway Inn. They do have some nicer brands, such as Cambria and the Ascend Collection. Choice has two credit cards, which are issued by Wells Fargo: The fee-free card called the Wells Fargo Choice Privileges Mastercard and the Wells Fargo Choice Privileges Mastercard Select.

Wells Fargo Choice Privileges Mastercard Select

The Wells Fargo Choice Privileges Mastercard Select has a $95 annual fee. While it doesn’t come with a free-night certificate, the cardholder gets 30,000 Choice Privileges points every anniversary year. That number of points can book a hotel worth somewhere in the $125 to $200 range. Since they are points and not a certificate, you could also use them to book two nights at a less expensive hotel. Besides the free night certificate, the cardholder will receive:

Platinum Status (2nd highest of 4 levels)
Cell Phone protection (up to $800 per claim)

My thoughts

I love having free night certificates ready for me to use. Typically, we tend to stay in vacation rentals, but we like to use certificates to book one or two-night stays. If the place we wish to go to doesn’t have a major airport or is difficult to get to in one day, we like to stay for a night or two in a city with direct flights to the US like London, Madrid, or Amsterdam as a way of adding a little extra excitement to our trip and a good way to get over jet lag. Being able to book a hotel for free (or essentially the cost of the annual fee) is clutch in these circumstances.

We typically aren’t too picky when it comes to where we stay, as long as the location is good. We don’t spend a lot of time in the hotel when we are traveling, since there is always so much to see, drink, and eat in these locations. For these reasons, the credit cards that work best for our purposes (in order of my favorites) include:

World of Hyatt Card
Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Card
IHG Premier Card
IHG Premier Business Card
Marriott Bonvoy American Express Business Card
Wyndham Business Earner Card
Choice Privileges Select

The most expensive card on this list has a $125 annual fee, and I think that it’s pretty easy with each of these cards to get at least the value of the annual fee back. Usually, better, especially the ones higher on the list.

The ones I left off are ones where I think you basically need to be using the other benefits of the cards to make them worth the annual fee. They are also great if you need higher value certificates because you want to stay at luxury hotels. If your goal is to stay at luxury hotels and utilize status, your best bets are:

Hilton Honors Aspire Card
Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card
Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful Card
Marriott Bonvoy Bevy Card

Free night certificates can be a great way to enhance your travels. My suggestion is to take advantage of elevated sign-up bonuses on those cards when they are available and then hold onto them if you find the certificates to be worthwhile.

Yacht blocked in Monaco

Posted on December 6, 2025 by David Cox

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Thanks to our Travel Companions

Posted on November 27, 2025 by David Cox

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

I also had the opportunity to reconnect with my old high school friends on a trip to Montana, where our friend Mat was getting married. While we were there, we did some hiking in Glacier National Park and drove the famous Going to the Sun road.

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.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Vacasa and Wyndham are Divorcing, Now What?

Posted on November 20, 2025 by David Cox

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.

Forget Destin – We’re Going to the Canary Islands for Spring Break

Posted on November 11, 2025December 28, 2025 by David Cox

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.

Points Check October 2025

Posted on November 8, 2025December 28, 2025 by David Cox

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!

Colline du Chateau

Posted on November 2, 2025November 2, 2025 by David Cox

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.

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.

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.

United Airlines adds European Routes for Experienced Travelers

Posted on October 20, 2025December 28, 2025 by David Cox

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.

Split, Croatia

https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/croatia/split has some fantastic information about Split

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 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.

We had the pleasure of spending 6 days on the Portuguese route this spring and we met so many people who had done multiple Caminos. It’s an amazing way to see the Spanish countryside and really experience Galician hospitality.

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.