Maximizing rewards while traveling with kids
A few years ago, we went on our Caribbean vacation to the Bahamas. Although it had been quite some time ago, and we hadn’t even started our “onpoints” journey at that time (it was only “withkids”), some of our friends (a post for you, Alex) were asking for a Bahamian story. We decided to feature the most memorable part of our adventure (and one of the most memorable vacations we have ever taken!) — a day trip to the Exuma Cays!
Last Christmas break, we had planned a short getaway to the winter wonderland (as Sophia says). We had booked three nights at the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe Resort, Spa And Casino and were very excited about our trip.
The weather in the Sierras is very unpredictable in winter, it can be dry and sunny, or it can snow for days and wreak havoc on the traffic. December 2021 turned out to be the snowiest December on record for the Sierra Nevada, breaking all the previous records. Central Sierra Snow Lab recorded 214 inches (544 cm) of snow that month!
Last summer we took a short trip to Houston, Texas to take care of some family business.
We booked this trip with Southwest Airlines and paid with cash which of course went towards the minimum spend requirement for a credit card signup bonus (at that time we were working on the Hilton Honors Aspire card, to learn how we spent the signup bonus, read about our Hawaiian vacation here). We had the A-List status with Southwest Airlines so we got our seats in the front of the plane.
This is the part 2 of our Alaska journey. You can read about how we planned our trip (how we booked and paid for it) in the first part here.
We landed in Anchorage at around 11 pm, and by the time we collected our luggage, picked up our rental car, drove to the hotel, and set things up, it was already 1 am. We had read some horror stories about people not being able to pick up their rental cars due to covid-related availability issues. However, everything went smoother than we thought; there were no problems with the rental car or luggage whatsoever.
We dreamed about going to Alaska for a very long time. The Last Frontier has so much to offer for the great outdoors, breathtaking sky tall mountain ranges, glaciers, pristine fjords, wildlife sightseeings, you name it. However, with the pandemic and the new baby it was hard to plan this trip since there were so many unknowns in the equation.
A couple of weeks ago, we spent a weekend at the luxurious ranch in the Carmel Valley, California — Carmel Valley Ranch.
We love Carmel-by-the-sea and usually go there to spend some time on the beach and walk around downtown, but we had never been to the Carmel Valley, which was only 20 minutes further inland.
We love road trips! You don’t have to stress out about plane tickets or packing too much, and you can stop whenever you feel like it.
However, having a new baby and the pandemic made things more difficult for traveling. When baby Zoe was seven months and Sophia was 6.5 years old, we decided to give it a try and planned our first little getaway. This was the first time we traveled as a family of four, and we agreed upon a little town on the Central Coast of California — San Luis Obispo. It was only a 2.5-hour drive from us and wasn’t that busy, given the time of the year (March) and all the restrictions.
