The Avalanche Lake Trail is a beautiful wooded hike in Glacier Park. It is an extremely popular out-and-back hike in the park and follows the mostly whitewater Avalanche Creek to the gorgeous Avalanche Lake.
Getting to the trailhead requires a park pass to Glacier National Park as well as a pass to drive Going-to-the-Sun road. If you can’t secure a driving pass on Going-to-the-Sun road you can take the free shuttle service. We secured a road pass by booking a boat trip on Lake MacDonald, which you might find easier than getting a pass for the road by itself.
We found parking to be a little hard to come by, so you’ll either need to be patient and circle the lot next to the Trail of the Cedars for a while or arrive early in the day. Avalanche Lake Trail is around 5 miles round-trip, so you’ll definitely want to bring along some water, maybe a snack, and someone in your group should have bear spray.
We started on Trail of the Cedars, which is a very flat, easily accessible trail. It has a lot of wooden walkways to make things easier for folks with limited mobility.
Elevated walkway in Trail of the Cedars
This is a very serene hike with tall, thin cedar trees everywhere. It is a very heavily traveled path because of how easy it is to hike. We saw a lot of parents hiking with their young children who wouldn’t be capable of doing a more difficult hike.
Avalanche Creek carving out a passage in rock
Along the Trail of the Cedars is the Avalanche Lake trailhead and there is a park sign marking the entrance. Once you leave the Trail of the Cedars for Avalanche Lake Trail, the hike becomes more challenging. Alltrails.com has Trail of the Cedars rated as an easy hike and Avalanche Lake Trail as moderate. For most people, Avalanche Lake Trail will be fairly easy to hike, but you should be aware of your personal fitness before getting two miles into the hike and regretting your life’s decisions.
In some areas Avalanche Creek is somewhat narrow
The Avalanche Lake Trail roughly follows Avalanche Creek from the trailhead until you reach the lake. This is a fast flowing, whitewater creek. The creek in some spots has carved out smooth mini-canyons and in other spots opens up into wide rapids flowing over smooth river rock.
Where Avalanche Creek hasn’t been restricted by a rocky passage it opens up and widens into rapids.
According the data recorded from my Garmin on the hike, the hike to the lake is about 2 1/2 miles and the elevation goes from around 3,500 feet above sea level to around 4,000 feet in that span, The creek basically has the same stats. Any time a creek has a 500 foot drop over a couple of miles, there will be a lot of whitewater.
There are plenty of times that the trail veers away from the creek which lets you enjoy the forest. Most of the trail itself is fairly wide and comfortable to walk. There is quite a bit of traffic on the trail, but because the trail is wide, there is plenty of room to maneuver around other hikers.
Some of the mountains in the area of the trail.
After a little over a couple of miles, we arrived at the lake. In my opinion, there is nothing more stunning than a mountain lake, and this is a breathtaking one. The beach is filled with smooth rocks and the water is crystal clear. The water was extremely calm which made for a perfect mirror of the sky and mountains in the background.
Avalanche Lake from the beach at the end of the trail
The shore itself was lined with hikers and we found a little chipmunk who had grown accustomed to begging for snacks from the hikers. He was rewarded by one who gave him a little chunk of a snack bar.
Fairly tame chipmunk
While we were there, I caught the end of what was a young man proposing to a young woman in front of their friends and family. She said yes, and everyone cheered. Congratulations to the happy couple and I have to say that was an excellent choice of location for the proposal.
Avalanche Lake
After resting, having a snack, congratulating the couple, and taking a ton of photos and selfies, we headed back to the trail. The hike back is quite a bit easier, since now its dropping 500 feet over 2 1/2 miles instead of climbing it.
Tall pines along the trail
It gave us a second chance to view all of those beautiful rapids that the creek has created on our way back to the parking lot.
Avalanche Creek
The Avalanche Lake Trail is the most consistently beautiful trail that I’ve ever hiked. From the pine trees, to the mountains, to the whitewater and finally the calm mountain lake, there just isn’t a boring or ugly spot on this trail. It is beautiful from beginning to end and I would recommend this trail to anyone who has the opportunity to take it.
Niagara Falls is one of the oldest and best known tourist spots in North America. Dividing the United States from Canada, the St. Lawrence River has been carving out the landscape remaining after glaciers retreated at the end of the last ice age for around 10,000 years. Because of the 160 foot difference between the top and bottom of the falls and the massive amount of water that flows over the edge, it makes for dramatic views.
American Falls
We arrived in Niagara Falls, Canada around 10 AM, and parked in the parking lot near the amusement park. We paid $20 CA to park, but based on the reviews, I think that’s a variable price based on whether its a weekday, weekend, summer, etc. From there we walked down Clifton Hill, which is a street with all of the ridiculous tourist trap things like a wax museum, a Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and lots of gift shops.
Rainbow International Bridge and American Falls
Once we walked past the tourist traps, we finally got a view of American Falls. American Falls are the less dramatic falls to the north of the Horseshoe Falls, which is what most people think about when they think of Niagara Falls.
Looking towards Horseshoe Falls along St Lawrence River
We made our way down to the walkway that edges the St. Lawrence River. From there, we saw the entire wonder of Niagara Falls with Horseshoe Falls off in the distance to the right and American Falls directly in front. The walk from the end of Clifton Hill to the Table Rock Welcome Center by Horseshoe Falls is almost a mile walk.
Mist climbing from Horseshoe Falls
Walking along the St Lawrence River has a similar feel to a lot of popular tourist destinations. There are people lined up along the railing taking photos, people speaking in a variety of languages, and vendors selling keepsakes. This is one of those places where people are in a good mood, spending time with their families or friends and just enjoying a nice walk in a beautiful spot.
Horseshoe Falls from in front of the Table Rock Visitor Center
The Welcome Center was extremely busy, but I think that’s pretty normal. We walked past a fairly large gift shop to get to the ticket counter. The ticket counter was busy selling tickets for several attractions. The main ones are the White Water Walk, Whirlpool Aero Car, Power Station tour and the Journey Behind the Falls.
We decided to do the Journey Behind the Falls tour, and quickly jumped into line once we paid for the tickets. It took about an hour to get through the line, and they queue you through a museum-like area to teach you a few things about the history of the falls while you wait. Essentially, the tunnels only have so much space in them and they have to wait for others to leave before you can go down into the tunnels. We did notice on our way out that the line was three times as long, so I’m glad we arrived fairly early.
View from the observation deck on Journey Behind the Falls
Clad in the yellow ponchos that we were handed while in line, we headed down in the elevator. There is really only two attractions for the Journey Behind the Falls, the first one is the observation deck. The observation deck is a huge patio area near the edge of the falls. This really gives you a sense for the power and volume of the water rushing over the edge of the falls. It’s also the place where about a dozen selfies per second is taken because it is an absolutely beautiful place to take photos. Unfortunately everyone has their photos taken with an unflattering yellow poncho, so there are drawbacks.
View from behind the falls. It feels a bit like a scene from an escape from prison movie.
After we were done with the observation deck we headed back into the tunnels to see the falls from behind the water. Construction crews carved out tunnels behind the falls which allow you to see a very small part of the falls from behind them. It doesn’t really give you a great view, but it does give you a sense of just how powerful these falls are. The water rushing over the end of the tunnel is fast and loud.
Once we got our chance to stand up close to the end of the tunnel, we headed out and then went up to the restaurant on top of the Visitors Center. We weren’t hungry yet, but we wanted an opportunity to relax and enjoy a beautiful view of the falls. They called themselves a wine bar, but once we were seated, we realized that they had an interesting variety of local microbrews, so we ordered flights, all of us, except for Alex, of course, who I think got a lemonade.
My flight of microbrews with a peek at American Falls.
They originally sat us away from the railing, but we were asked to be moved when someone got up from a table by the railing and they were happy to let us move. The view from this restaurant is spectacular, and we had a pretty close view of Horseshoe Falls as well as American Falls off in the distance. We were also able to watch as one tourist boat after another approached the falls, stayed as still as possible and then retreated back to the docks. The number of full tourist boats that approach the falls is impressive. They are even color coded, with the tourists on American boats wearing blue ponchos and the tourists on Canadian boats wearing Red ponchos.
Tour boat from the American side (note the blue ponchos) approach Horseshoe Falls.
We finished up our drinks and headed back on the mile walk back to the car taking in the beautiful scenery along the way. We didn’t spend a ton of time at Niagara Falls, but I feel like we got a great sense of what it was like. We would like to experience Niagara from the American side, so there is a good chance that we will return and perhaps do a boat trip.
View from Wine Bar
All in all, it was a beautiful day to experience one of North America’s great natural wonders.
Normally, I’m the one who does the planning for our family trips. However, I recently found myself in Montana with a group of my old high school friends who made the trek to see our friend Mat get married. It was pretty obvious early on that they were on top of it and I could just show up and enjoy it. I knew that we would be going to Glacier National park as part of this, but I didn’t do an ounce of research on it before we left, which is very unusual for me.
Glacier National Park Entrance Sign
On the first night, we went to Tamarack Brewing for dinner. I was enjoying an IPA while we caught up on old times. The conversation switched to how we would secure passes to “Going-to-the-Sun Road”. Tracy said she would set a reminder for 7 p.m. the next day, which was during the wedding reception, to get the car pass.
Having done zero research for this trip I thought the pass was for “Sun Road” and she just said that in a weird way. Then I heard some of the others say things like “It will be fun to drive Going-to-the-Sun road” and “I’m glad they managed to get Going-to-the-Sun road open.”
I started to strain my ears and look quizzically at them. What’s going on, am I having a stroke? These are all smart, accomplished people, why are they talking like they just learned English last week? Once I figured out that the road was called “Going-to-the-Sun Road,” I was both a little relieved and still a little confused by why a road would be named that.
What is Going-to-the-Sun Road?
According to the National Park Service, Going-to-the-Sun Road is a two lane road built in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. It is 50 miles long and essentially bisects Glacier National Park from Apgar to St. Mary. It is the only road that goes through Glacier National Park and is one of the most scenic roads in the United States.
The road is named for Going-to-the-Sun Mountain. It is unclear whether the origin of the mountain’s name is based on a Blackfoot Indian legend about the deity Sour Spirit teaching the Blackfoot to hunt or whether the explorer James Willard Schultz made up the name.
Getting a Pass for Going-to-the-Sun Road
The number of cars allowed on Going-to-the-Sun Road is limited. This is to keep the narrow two-lane road and especially the small parking areas on the side of the road from being overwhelmed by cars. Reservations for Going-to-the-Sun Road can be made at Recreation.gov.
There are two types of reservations, one that can be made 120 days in advance, if you have sufficiently planned ahead, and one that can be made at 7 p.m. mountain time, the day before. Tracy grabbed our pass at 7 p.m. which is why she needed to do it during the wedding reception.
The next morning we packed up the minivan and headed out to Glacier National Park. After a quick stop for coffee and breakfast, we had to check our park passes at one set of security and then our pass for the Going-to-the-Sun Road at a second security stop. Once we were through security, we were on our way.
Driving Along Lake McDonald
The drive begins from Apgar along Lake McDonald. Lake McDonald is about 10 miles long, about a mile wide and a pretty impressive 472 feet deep. The beginning of this drive is a beautiful and calm drive through the forest with Lake McDonald on the left hand side. It remains a pretty calm drive past Lake McDonald Lodge, the Trail of the Cedars and up until you hit the West Tunnel, about 20 miles into the drive.
Tunnel cut into rock face
The Ascent to Logan Pass
After the West Tunnel, there is a switchback and then a constant and gradual ascent toward Logan Pass. This is the beginning of a long stretch of road built on the edge of cliffs with long beautiful vistas, waterfalls and mountaintops poking out through the clouds.
View of a valley on the way up to Logan’s Pass on the Going to the Sun Road.
Being the driver is a definite disadvantage. Tim was our driver and while the rest of us were gawking over the views, he had to pay attention to the road. Going-to-the-Sun road is an active driving situation with narrow lanes, tight curves and frequent stops. The temptation to stare at the landscape instead of the narrow road has to be pretty intense.
Much of the early part of our ascent to the pass was marked by a lot of fog, but it made for dramatic views of the mountains and valleys when they cleared.
Ascending up towards Logan’s Pass, we entered the clouds.
At one point, we caught a quick glance of a Big Horn Sheep or a Mountain Goat right on the side of the road, just poking his head out from behind the stone wall, but it happened so fast my brain didn’t fully process it. We stopped at the next pull-off but couldn’t see him, so I don’t know what exactly we saw but it had horns and it was right next to the road.
Waterfall where Adler Creek goes under the Going to the Sun Road.
As we continued our ascent, we started to come across snow. It became very obvious why they aren’t able to open the roads until June or July because the amount of snow that has to be removed every year is massive. The remainder of the snow accumulation was still pretty deep by the side of the road in some spots.
According to the National Park Service, Glacier National Park receives an average of 157 inches of snowfall per year at its headquarters in West Glacier and much more at higher elevations. Opening Going-to-the-Sun-Road is a massive undertaking that starts around April and lasts for months. This past year, they had to deal with a drift that was 80 feet high, so it takes a long time for this snow to melt completely.
Snow on the side of the road, slightly before Oberlin Bend
We got out of the car on multiple occasions to take photos at pull-offs along the road, but we got out to walk around at Oberlin Bend. There is a wood and steel grate walkway there. There was still a considerable amount of snow left in the area and it gave us a sense of how long it must take for it to melt every year – this was June 30th!
It was still very snowy at Oberlin Bend
Logan Pass and the Highline Trail
Just a little bit further up the road from Oberlin Bend, we then had a chance to stop at the Logan Pass Visitor Center. There is some bathrooms and a cute little gift shop there. Steph and I took a little walk out the back of the visitor center and she showed me the people who were hiking the Highline Trail.
Mountain obscured by clouds near Logan Pass
Prior to the trip we briefly considered doing that trail, but decided to do the Avalanche Lake hike instead since it was considerably less terrifying. The Highline Trail is known for its breathtaking views and a section called “The Ledge” which is only 6-8 feet wide with a sheer drop over a hundred feet down. There is a steel cable to hold onto in this section. If you’re brave enough, parking for people doing the Highline Trail is available at Logan Pass Visitor Center.
Jackson Glacier Outlook
We got back in the minivan and continued on, now going downhill. We stopped at the Jackson Glacier Overlook, where a ranger explained to a fairly large group about the remaining glaciers in the park and how the number of glaciers and size has been shrinking since around 1850. That overlook, of course, has a view of Jackson Glacier, but it is quite far from the overlook.
Way off in the distance is Jackson Glacier, one of the 26 remaining glaciers in Glacier National Park. There were 80 at the end of the Little Ice Age, which ended around 1850.
St Mary’s Lake
We completed the drive by stopping at the Visitors Center at St Mary. There is a little gift shop in there as well as some museum-like exhibits about the history of the Native American people indigenous to the area.
St Mary’s Lake
As is going to be the case for most people on the Going-to-the-Sun Road, we needed to do the entire drive back to the start at Apgar, so we returned to the car for the 50 mile return trip.
Piegan Pass Trail
When we did the first half of the drive, we didn’t get to do a hike near St Mary’s Lake. We tried on the way through the first time to get a parking spot on one of the pull-offs near Piegan Pass Trail but couldn’t. On the return trip, after a little work, we were able to get a parking spot and get out and stretch our legs a little.
Bering Falls on Piegan Pass Trail
We walked a very short distance to see Bering Falls and then turned around and walked to along the path to a point which I believe was the end of Piegan Pass Trail. There is a rocky area jutting out into St Mary’s Lake there where there was a lot of great photo opportunities.
View of St Mary’s Lake from Piegan Pass Trail
Piegan Pass is a heavily traveled trail, at least in this area, so the odds of being approached by a bear is low. We did bring along bear spray just to be sure, but there were no signs of bears in this area. We hiked around 3 miles, and returned back to the minivan to finish our drive.
St Mary’s Lake from the end of Piegan Pass Trail
A Bear Sighting
Near the end of the return trip back to Apgar, we came across a traffic jam. Obviously, we weren’t expecting a traffic jam on Going-to-the-Sun Road, so we assumed that there must be an animal around. Once enough cars had cleared, we pulled off to the side of the road to see what was going on.
The cub is looking for mama, definitely thinks she’s across the road.
There was an animal making noise by the side of the road, and it was a sound I wasn’t familiar with. After a little while, I saw a baby bear head pop up on the side of the road. It was very clear that the bear was in distress and probably looking for his mama. Now, honestly while that is adorable, it’s also pretty terrifying since I’m assuming a stressed mama bear must be nearby as well.
The cub makes an attempt to cross the road but gets scared back into the tall grass by a car.
The cub made several attempts to cross the road, but kept getting scared off by traffic. Finally Tim jumped out into the road and stopped traffic so that the bear could finally cross and hopefully be reunited with his mama.
Tim stops traffic and finally allows for the bear to cross the road.
The Importance of Great Travel Companions
If you’re driving Going-to-the-Sun Road, you will be spending probably a minimum of 6 hours with people in a car, assuming that you are at least stopping once in a while to take pictures and enjoy nature. Spending that much time in a car, you might want to have people with you that you also enjoy spending a minimum of 6 hours with.
For me, this turned out to be a great group with whom to do this drive. We talked about the old days, our families, and a lot about travel. Obviously, I like to talk about travel, but sometimes feel a little weird about it. Honestly, I avoid the subject with people who don’t travel much, because they’re either not interested or I’m afraid it comes off as braggy. It’s something that I’m really passionate about and to have spent a few days with people who are as passionate about travel as me made for great conversations.
The crew being silly. From left to right: Julie, Tracy, Steph, Carrie and Tim.
I loved hearing about all of the places they’ve been and I’ve certainly taken some mental notes about places that I might want to visit based on our conversations. In between all of these conversations, there was also plenty of carpool karaoke, which I abstained from to save everyone else’s eardrums. In the end, it was a great time with some great friends.
I would definitely recommend driving Going-to-the-Sun Road if you get a chance. It’s an unbelievably beautiful drive. The variety of views from mountain lakes and snow covered peaks to waterfalls is astonishing. It’s also one of the few really accessible places in Glacier National Park for people who aren’t doing long hikes. Keep in mind that the number of car passes are limited and you will need to purchase those in advance. Then all you need is a full tank of gas, some great friends, and some snacks and you will get to witness one of America’s great treasures.
Once people learn that I save a lot of money on vacations by using miles and points, I often get asked “What credit card should I get?” The fact of the matter is that it depends on the type and location of the vacation. Where you want to go on vacation, when, and what style of vacation matters when deciding which card to choose.
Making a rational decision really matters when you’re making these plans because earning a bunch of points that are irrelevant to your plans can be extremely frustrating and counterproductive. Also, earning points in programs that require you to use more points than other programs means that you’re working harder than necessary to achieve your goals.
What about Spain?
Spain has been on our minds lately. Jenn and I have discussed going to Spain multiple times and we just haven’t pulled the trigger. We’ve discussed doing a beach vacation to the Canary Islands or a city trip to Madrid, but lately we’ve been discussing doing a week of a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. It hasn’t worked out for us yet, but those tapas are calling me and I’m going to make it happen at some point.
Economy Flights
I’m an economy flyer. It’s not that I don’t want to fly business or first class, it’s just not that important to me. I really treat flights as a means to an end – just get me there. Look, I’d love to be more comfortable, but right now I’m trying to get a family of four across an ocean, and I don’t really feel like draining my points balances to do it. I’m not saying I won’t fly business or first class in the future, but right now it’s just not something I’m thinking about.
17,000 point is the typical off-peak price. Iberia’s hub is Madrid.
Flying Blue
20,000 to 40,000 one-way
$100-$170
20,000 points is fairly normal, some sales go as low as 11,500 points. Hubs in Amsterdam and Paris.
Virgin Atlantic
12,000 to 40,000 one-way
$170-$180
High fees, but 12,000 points are fairly easy to find, flights are usually KLM, Air France or Delta flights
Avianca Lifemiles
20,000-30,000 one way
$20-$70 (+25 booking fee)
Low fees and reasonable redemption prices. Avianca is usually good for United flights. Not as frequently available as Flying Blue and Iberia.
American Airlines
20,000-35,000 one-way
$5-$25
Low fees and reasonable redemption prices. Some flights that route through London have high taxes.
United Airlines
30,000-40,000 one-way
$5-$15
Low fees and high redemption prices, always check Avianca first before booking a United flight.
Award availability and pricing varies wildly, these prices may not be available when you want to book a flight.
The biggest problem here is that just because pricing for award flights are good and available in certain programs right now doesn’t mean that they will be available and good later. That’s why it is best to have the ability to use points with a variety of programs. Using a credit card with the ability to transfer points to a multiple programs is a good way to help you have the most options when it’s time to redeem those points.
Airline Award Program Transfer Partners
Point Program
Citibank
Chase
Amex
Capital One
Wells Fargo
Bilt
Iberia (Avios)
1:1
1:1
1:1
1:1
1:1
1:1
Flying Blue
1:1
1:1
1:1
1:1
1:1
1:1
Virgin Atlantic
1:1
1:1
1:1
1:1
1:1
Avianca Lifemiles
1:1
1:1
1:1
1:1
1:1
American Airlines
United Airlines
1:1
1:1
Transferring points from Capital One to Iberia Avios requires another step of first transferring points from Capital One to British Airways Avios and then to Iberia Avios. Transferring Citi Thank You Points requires a transfer to Qatar Avios, then to British Airways Avios and then to Iberia Avios.
I prefer to fly non-stop, if at all possible, and Chicago is our closest major airport. Most of the non-stop flights from Chicago to Madrid are on Iberia. That’s going to be my first choice. All major programs transfer to Avios, but Citi and Capital One don’t transfer directly to Iberia Avios, they both require transferring to a different Avios program and then to Iberia. That could create other annoyances that I might not want to deal with.
KLM/Air France Flying Blue is another great option, because they have a lot of flights that leave Chicago and fly to Spain with layovers in either Amsterdam (on KLM) or through Paris (on Air France). Virgin Atlantic and Avianca Lifemiles are great, but for Spain they are mostly booking partner awards, so they won’t be operating any flights to Spain. Their availability is going to be dependent on whether another airline allows them to book their flights. In other words, I would check for availability, but I wouldn’t count on them.
American Airlines sometimes has some amazing prices, but they don’t have any transfer partners so you would need to have an American Airlines card to earn those points. United Airlines usually has fairly expensive award prices, but their taxes are low and availability is good. It’s nice to have United as a backup option.
Hotels in Spain
For most hotel groups, I typically don’t consider transfer partners. The reason for this is because the transfer rates don’t make up for the fact that the points aren’t worth much. Most programs with the exception of Hyatt just aren’t worth transferring points to from one of the major bank programs.
Hotel Loyalty Program Transfer Ratios
Citibank
Chase
Amex
Capital One
Wells Fargo
Bilt
Hyatt
1:1
1:1
IHG
1:1
1:1
Hilton
1:2
Choice
1:2
1:1
1:1
1:2
Marriott
1:1
1:1
1:1
Wyndham
1:1
1:1
Transfer ratios of points from major bank travel award programs to hotel loyalty programs. For example Citibank transfers 1:2 to Choice Privileges, meaning 1,000 Citi Thank You Points can be converted to 2,000 Choice Privileges points.
If you are looking at a program besides Hyatt, you’ll probably want to get a cobranded hotel credit card if you want to build up free nights and points. The list of those cards and the pros and cons of each of those cards is too exhaustive to get into in this post, but I do think its important to be thinking about those cobranded cards when considering programs other than Hyatt.
The reason why Hyatt is different, is because their points are worth more than other programs. According to the Points Guy, Hyatt points are worth 1.7 cents per point. By contrast, Wyndham is worth 1.1, Marriott Bonvoy is .85, Hilton is .6, Choice is .6 and IHG is .5 cents per point. For example, Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfer to Hyatt, Marriott and IHG at a 1:1 ratio. However, on average, you’ll spend more than three times as many Ultimate reward points booking an IHG hotel than a comparable Hyatt hotel when transferring Ultimate Reward points to those programs.
Hotels in Spanish Tourist Locations
Madrid
Balearic Islands
Barcelona
Canary Islands
Hyatt
6
35
3
11
IHG
14
5
9
8
Hilton
6
4
5
0
Choice
7
0
9
3
Marriott
23
11
17
6
Wyndham
2
0
0
3
Number of hotels in/near various locations in Spain. Counts are across all brands in a program’s portfolio.
When looking at Spain specifically, the good news is that Hyatt has a lot of hotels in Spain. They especially have a large all-inclusive hotel presence in the Balearic Islands, which is a huge hot spot for Europeans to enjoy a beach vacation. Marriott also has a large number of hotels in Spain. A lot of those are in Barcelona and Madrid, which would make them a good program to use if you were looking for a more urban trip.
Potential Strategies for Earning Points for a Trip to Spain
There are a million different ways to accomplish the goal of earning points and miles to go on a vacation to Spain. I think its helpful here to explain what I would do, and why I would do it in a certain way. It doesn’t necessarily mean that this would be the optimal strategy, but I think it’s indicative of how someone should approach it.
All-Inclusive couple’s beach vacation to Mallorca
There are numerous Hyatt All-Inclusive resorts in Mallorca. Of the ones that showed up on the search that I did, there are a number of Category A resorts (15,000 points normally, 12,000 for off-peak and 18,000 for peak) and the most expensive was the Secrets Mallorca which is a Category D resort (30,000 points normally, 25,000 for off-peak, 35,000 points peak).
The best bets for available flights to Mallorca for a low amount of points is probably going to be Iberia Airlines (Avios) or KLM/Air France (Flying Blue). You can move points from Citibank, Capital One, Chase, American Express, Wells Fargo or Bilt to Iberia or KLM/Air France. This means you have a lot of choices on which credit cards you might want to sign up for.
The good news here, is that there is overlap between acquiring points for Hyatt and acquiring points for those two airline programs. Both Bilt and Chase offer transfers to all of these programs. Bilt never really offers signup bonuses, which is a big negative in this case, but they do allow you to earn points paying for rent, which nobody else allows, so if you are a renter, the Bilt card is a no-brainer. However, regardless of whether the Bilt card makes sense in your case, you’ll still probably want to sign up for a Chase card that allows you to transfer Ultimate Reward points.
In order to unlock the ability to transfer any Ultimate Reward points to partner programs you will need one of these three cards:
Chase Sapphire Preferred ($95 annual fee, 3x on dining, 3x online groceries, 3x on streaming services, 2x on travel)
Ink Business Preferred ($95 annual fee, 3x on shipping, internet, phone, cable and travel)
The typical signup bonuses for these cards are 60,000 each for the Sapphire cards and 100,000 points for the Ink Business Preferred. Once you have signed up and earned the welcome offer bonus you can refer your spouse or significant other and earn a referral bonus while they also earn a signup bonus for themselves. Once you’ve done that, then it’s just a matter of filling in the gaps with either some other cards that earn Ultimate Reward points or by getting cobranded cards. Here are some examples:
Ink Business Cash ($0 annual fee, $750 cash back which can also be used as 75,000 Ultimate Reward points, 5x internet, cable, phone and office supply stores)
Ink Business Unlimited ($0 annual fee, $750 cash back which can be used as 75,000 Ultimate Reward points, 1.5x on everything)
Ink Business Premier ($195 annual fee, $1,000 cash back which can be used as 100,000 Ultimate Reward points, 2x on everything)
World of Hyatt ($95 annual fee, 30,000 Hyatt point bonus, category 1-4 free night certificate each year on anniversary date)
World of Hyatt Business ($199 annual fee, 60,000 Hyatt point bonus, up to $100 off stays each year)
Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard ($89 annual fee, 50,000 Flying Blue point bonus, 1.5x on everything)
I think it should be feasible to book a vacation like this for around 50,000 points round-trip per person in economy and if you wanted 6 nights in an all-inclusive, it could be another 90,000 to 180,000 points. That would mean the totals here would be 190,000 to 280,000 points. Just doing the minimum spend on two Chase Sapphire Preferred cards, with a referral bonus between spouses or significant others, would probably earn somewhere in the ballpark of 150,000 Ultimate Reward points, so it’s not too hard to pick a card or two that fills in the gaps here.
Family of four to Madrid for Spring Break
For this example, the information about the flights would basically be the same. You’ll probably find that Iberia or Air France/KLM will be the best programs to serve the Madrid Airport. From Chicago, you are likely to be able be able to book those round-trip economy flights for 50,000 points each (probably less if off peak). You would probably need to earn somewhere in the 200,000 point range just for the flights.
Instead of going with Chase as is in the first example, I would probably go with the Capital One Venture Card. Instead of a 60,000 point bonus, the Venture Card comes with a 75,000 point bonus. It also earns 2x on everything and has a 20,000 point referral bonus. Therefore, if you sign up for the Venture Card and refer your significant other and do the minimum spend, you will end up with a combined 186,000 points. An additional $7,000 in spending would get you to 200,000 points. If you need to transfer those points to Iberia, however, you will need to transfer them to British Airways Avios and then from British Airways Avios to Iberia Avios.
As far as lodging is concerned, European hotels typically don’t like to allow people to sleep four to a room so you would probably need to get two rooms. That’s not ideal, not only because it becomes twice the cost to get hotels, but also depending on the age of your kids, your sleeping arrangements might not be what your used to.
Personally, because of the two room problem, I would just get an Airbnb instead of a hotel. However, if you would like to stay at a hotel on points, I would probably be considering Marriott hotels. They have a lot of hotels in the Madrid area. In order to earn points/free nights for the stay I would go for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card. Most of the time they offer three free night certificates as a sign up bonus. However, it seems like about once a year they offer five free night certificates, so if you time it right and your significant other also signs up at the same time, you could end up with ten free night certificates, and that would get you five nights of two rooms per night.
Conclusion
For the most part, whenever you want to fly somewhere, looking first at an airline based in that area better is always a good choice. In this case Iberia is a perfect example. It’s hub is in Madrid and they have very good award prices to Madrid. Luckily for the points and miles hobbyist, you can pretty much transfer any of the major bank programs’ points and miles to Iberia Avios. The second best option is Air France/KLM Flying Blue which also transfers from every major program.
This gives an incredible amount of flexibility when deciding which credit cards to use, however, if you are also looking at Hyatt simultaneously, you probably want to go with a Chase credit card because it also transfers to Hyatt. I think Capital One is a better choice for the Family trip to Madrid, even with the extra headache of having to transfer the points through British Airways to Iberia. While I would do an Airbnb in Madrid, if you do actually want to split your family into two rooms at a hotel in Madrid, the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card can be a great choice for racking up a lot of free nights quickly.
Whenever you are trying to determine the best credit card to sign up for to help out with the cost of vacation, it is always important to think about the desired destination first. Doing a little bit of analysis should help guide you to pick the right credit cards to help you get there. Once you’ve done that, it’s just a matter of executing your plan and enjoying your vacation.
I was having a conversation with some friends about travel when I made an off-handed comment “It’s probably cheaper to travel to Europe during Spring Break than to go to Florida.” As I started to defend my off-handed comment, I started to think, maybe I’m right. Okay, it’s probably not true if you’re paying full price for flights, but if you’re traveling on points, I think it might be absolutely true. As a matter of fact, I think it could be a tremendous savings, in addition to being a much more enjoyable experience.
I’m Kinda Done with Florida
We’ve taken multiple trips to the panhandle of Florida, as well as the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama. These trips were reachable by car in about 15 hours from our house in Iowa. These spots along the Gulf Coast weren’t necessarily my ideal vacation, but it was warm and the beaches are lovely. Frankly, we went there because we could do it in a week and it’s around 70 degrees in March along the Gulf Coast and it’s, I don’t know, negative 50 in Iowa, something like that?
However, everything that is located along the “Redneck Riviera” eventually just begins to look like a Waffle House and a t-shirt shop sitting on white sands. It’s true, Florida has some of the world’s most amazing beaches, but outside of that, I just don’t see the attraction. So whenever I would see the prices of an Airbnb, I would grimace and think, ‘but it’s just Florida’.
The main thing that was keeping us from doing something else was the cost of airfare. This is why we drove, and why we kept picking the Gulf Coast – because it was warm and close. Once we got into points and miles, the calculations changed, because we could fly cheaply. What I quickly realized, was that not only was Florida filled up during Spring Break, but so were vacation destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean.
What if we did something different, like Europe?
Destin Vs Barcelona
We’ve been to Destin, or at least near Destin a couple of times during spring break. It is probably one of the most sought after destinations for spring break and because of that the prices for vacation rentals are extremely high. Spring break is peak season for Destin, but for Barcelona it’s off-peak. Both of these locations are prized tourist destinations, but since Europe doesn’t really celebrate spring break like the US, prices are a bit lower than normal. The cost of the vacation rental makes a huge difference in the analysis here.
In the past, before we started to collect/use points and miles, we would’ve looked at the price of a flight to Barcelona in March and laughed. A quick check on Google Flights shows that we could get our family of four to Barcelona from Chicago for about $2,750 total, which is actually a really good price, but not really what we want to spend for spring break. Even with points and miles, the cost of just the fuel surcharges and taxes on round trip flights for four to Barcelona is over $1,000, but that savings does make it more palatable.
If we used our old method of spring breaking, we would just drive to Destin, which eliminates the need for a rental car, or public transportation pass. The cost, in the example below, is the cost of fuel for approximately 1,000 miles each way and 500 miles while in Destin. Assuming 25 miles per gallon and $3 per gallon for fuel, then the cost of transportation is $300. If we flew to Destin, we would have to rent a car which is $645 (midsized sedan for a week on Expedia), plus $60 for fuel.
I used a $200 budget in Davenport, Iowa (my hometown) as the basis for the cost of groceries in both Destin and Barcelona and compared them to Davenport using Numbeo. According to Numbeo.com, both are less expensive than Davenport for groceries, but Barcelona is considerably cheaper. The cost for meals was calculated as one inexpensive meal for four people daily, using the inexpensive meal price listed on Numbeo for each city. Barcelona was again cheaper for dining out.
The cost for public transportation was the cost of four public transportation passes for the amount of time that we would be in the city. The cost for the flights was determined by a search using Pointsyeah.com.
For the price of the Airbnbs, I picked the timeframe, zoomed the map into the area that I was looking at and filtered by minimum of 3 beds, 2 bathrooms. I then counted the number of available properties and chose the one that was priced at the 25 percentile. I picked the 25th percentile, because I think that accurately reflects “I’m cheap, but I have standards.”
Using this method shows how expensive Florida is during spring break. The 25th percentile property for a week during spring break in Destin was $4,388! Good lord. In Barcelona, which is notoriously expensive for Spain, it was $2,410. When all that gets added up, Barcelona ends up being more than $1,000 cheaper than driving to Destin. That’s kind of crazy, right?
Driving to Destin
Flying to Destin
Flying to Barcelona
Airfare (Using Points/Miles)
$0
$45 (and 84,000 American Airlines Miles)
$1064 (and 136,000 Avios)
Car Rental
$0
$645
$0
Fuel for Car
$300
$60
$0
Public Transportation
$0
$0
$183
Airbnb rental
$4,388
$4,388
$2,410
Dinners
$504
$504
$452
Groceries
$152
$152
$129
Total
$5,392
$5,842 (&88K AA Miles)
$4,279 (& 136K Avios)
Example is for a family of four renting an Airbnb at the 25th percentile in the area for 6 nights, with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Car rental is cheapest midsized sedan using Expedia. Assuming 500 miles of driving while at location and 1,000 miles each way to drive to Destin for driving example. $3 per gallon assumed for price of fuel and 25 mpg fuel efficiency for car. Numbeo.com used for cost of dinners and groceries.
Miami Beach vs Tenerife
One of my complaints about going to the Destin area during spring break was that it’s just not hot enough, so lets pick warmer destinations then Destin and Barcelona and compare Playa de las Americas, on the Island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Spain with Miami Beach. Both are major beach destinations and both are pretty warm in March.
Using the same resources (Numbeo for Restaurants and groceries prices, Airbnb website for vacation rental prices and Expedia for midsized car rentals) we see that once again it’s cheaper to go to Europe (using points), in this case the Canary Islands. Again the biggest driver for this is the cost of the vacation rental. Once you are able to shrink the cost of the flights by using points, everything else just is cheaper in the Canary Islands, especially since it’s off-peak.
On top of that, since it is off-peak, you probably won’t be sitting on a crowded beach or struggling to get table at a restaurant for dinner. Considering how much cheaper it is to do a vacation rental in Tenerife, I would argue that it’s competitive even if you had to pay full fare for the flight, and you wouldn’t have to deal with drunk college students at the beach.
Driving to Miami
Flying to Miami
Flying to Tenerife
Airfare (Using Points/Miles)
$0
$44 (and 82K AA miles)
$1140 (and 196K Avios)
Car Rental
$0
$325
$408
Fuel for Car
$396
$60
$112
Public Transportation
$0
$0
$0
Airbnb rental
$4,276
$4,276
$1,307
Dinners
$700
$700
$336
Groceries
$206
$206
$36
Total
$5,578
$5,611 (& 82K AA Miles)
$3,339 (& 196K Avios)
Example is for a family of four renting an Airbnb at the 25th percentile in the area for 6 nights, with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Car rental is cheapest midsized sedan using Expedia. Assuming 500 miles of driving while at location and 1,400 miles each way to drive to Miami Beach for driving example. $3 per gallon assumed for price of fuel and 25 mpg fuel efficiency for car for Florida and a little less than $6 per gallon for Tenerife. Numbeo.com used for cost of dinners and groceries.
Scottsdale Arizona Vs Split Croatia
What about a couple of places that are a little more quirky for spring break? Scottsdale Arizona is an interesting place to visit at that time of year, especially if you’re a baseball fan, because of Cactus League spring training that takes place every year. There is also some pretty good hiking within a reasonable drive.
Split Croatia is becoming a destination that people are starting to wake up to. It’s got great architecture, culture, and food, but it also has a mountainous coastline that dips into the crystal clear waters of the Adriatic sea. It’s an absolutely gorgeous city that I cannot wait to visit someday.
Using the same resources (Numbeo for Restaurants and groceries prices, Airbnb website for vacation rental prices and Expedia for midsized car rentals) it turns out to be much cheaper to go to Split than Scottsdale. Again the main driver is the cost of the Airbnb, with the vacation rental being about a third of the cost in Croatia than in Scottsdale.
Driving to Scottsdale
Flying to Scottsdale
Flying to Split
Airfare (Using Points/Miles)
$0
$44 (& 68K AA miles)
$899 (& 240,000 Avianca Lifemiles)
Car Rental
$0
$411
$300
Fuel for Car
$420
$60
$120
Public Transportation
$0
$0
$0
Airbnb rental
$4,513
$4,513
$1,556
Dinners
$553
$553
$345
Groceries
$172
$172
$60
Total
$5,658
$5,753 (& 68K AA Miles)
$3,280 (& 240K Lifemiles)
Example is for a family of four renting an Airbnb at the 25th percentile in the area for 6 nights, with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Car rental is cheapest midsized sedan using Expedia. Assuming 500 miles of driving while at location and 1,500 miles each way to drive to Scottsdale for driving example. $3 per gallon assumed for price of fuel and 25 mpg fuel efficiency for car in Scottsdale and $6 per gallon in Split. Numbeo.com used for cost of dinners and groceries.
Reality vs Example
The reality is that I’d never pay $4,500 for a week in vacation rental. I probably would’ve looked for a less desirable beach along the coast and found a much simpler place to stay. One of our kids is definitely sleeping on the couch. However, with the examples in Barcelona, Tenerife, and Split Croatia, there wasn’t any compromising. I could literally choose a great location and get a great price for a week in a vacation rental. Why? Because it’s off-peak, Europe doesn’t have a big spring break tradition like the US, and Americans don’t spring break in Europe very often.
Rethinking Spring Break
Spring break is a very important ritual for a lot of Americans, especially those of us who live in the Midwest, where winters are oppressive and people don’t leave their houses for months on end. That’s probably the reason why Florida and other warm destinations in the US get overrun by people just looking to escape the miserable, miserable winter.
However, taking a little time to think outside of the box could result in a vacation that you will remember for a lifetime, and the cost could be surprisingly inexpensive, especially if you are using points and miles. I mean, if you’d rather fight for sand space with a bunch of drunk teenagers in Miami instead of being in the Canary Islands, that’s fine, it’s just not for me anymore.
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.
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!
Newby to Expert Traveler 