Average Guy Travels

 If you've been following along on this trip, we just drove across Ireland from Galway to Dublin. It took about 2.5 hours and we had plenty of time to turn in the rental car, ride the tram to the airport and spend two hours waiting in the Priority Pass lounge for our 2.5 huour one way flight to Milan arriving at 9:40 PM. The cost of the flight was $86 each. This is where the trip gets a little more interesting so pay attention. Im a pretty experienced traveller so my plan was to arrive in Milan, walk outside to the cab stand, show the driver the address of my Airbnb and be tucked in by 11 PM.  Turns out Milan is a much larger city than I had expected. While we were waiting for our bags at the baggage claim, I happened to look up and see a sign that advertised cab rides to Milan City Center for 122 EUR....what??????? thats abour $140 . This was not in my plans! I quickly pulled up the maps on my phone to check the distance to our Airbnb and it was 25 miles away! This was a clea...

  Lets take a quick trip to Ireland!   So, you have been following the blog, reading the tips, saving your miles and you are thinking about your first trip to Europe! Maybe its not your first trip but Ireland is an easy fun trip with lots to see and do.  Ireland can be a budget trip and we will talk about how and why Ireland should be on your list. I always kind of wanted to visit Ireland but the actual reason I ended up there was a little more involved. When I was a young man, my grandfather told me about my family history. My family was from the Isle Of Man, a small island in the North Irish sea surrounded by Ireland, Scotland and England. He told me our family cam to America in the 1700’s and no one had ever gone back. For years I joked with him that I was going back!  In November 2022, I made that happen! While researching my trip and searching for flights to IOM, I found the average cost of that flight was between $1800 and $3600. I did not know then wha...

  So, you have read the blog and found some super saver tickets to Europe for next year but you have no idea what you will need on this trip! In this installment we will go over a couple of items Lisa and I have found incredibly useful and now we won’t go without them.   When I first travelled to Europe about five years ago, I was super thorough and looked up the plug I would need in each country, purchased them and carried 4 plugs with me for the trip!   We’ve come a long way baby! Now you can buy a universal plug that changes itself to fit every European receptacle. During our most recent trip, we found that most modern hotels were equipped with bedside and bathroom USB plugs allowing for seamless charging of your devices overnight. We split our time between hotels and Airbnb’s so we need the universal plugs. This year we were in Ireland, Italy and France, last year Ireland, Austria and Italy.   This plug has never let us down! This is an absolute must ...

  How do I use my points?   Ok, If you have followed the blog so far, I have told you how to earn points and how to maximize your points earnings with specific credit cards and programs. Now its time to look at how we use those points to get the maximum value. I will include some graphics in this post to help you understand. Lets talk about the Capital One Venture X card, for this example we will imagine I have a point balance of 45,000 points. This means with Venture X I have spent $22,500 without any bonus awards. There are several ways to use these points and we will discuss the value in each one. In this post the terms miles and points are interchangeable.   https://capital.one/3XHAQXQ     1.        Venture X will allow you to take a statement credit for any travel related expense and deduct it from your points balance. Example…..I purchased a roundtrip ticket on Delta Airlines using my Venture X for $225. I will be aw...

  Did we finish the discussion on repositioning to save money?   Repositioning is described best as the practice of utilizing low fares at the countries largest airports to save money. I live about 15 miles from the Greater Cincinnati Airport and although Im pretty happy with my flight choices, CVG is a medium airport and does not get the low fares and direct flights that an IAD (DC) or a JFK (NY) or an ORD (Chicago) get. When I fly to Europe from CVG, I am always shipped to a larger airport and then loaded onto a nonstop flight to my final destination. This presents three issues, first, it gives the airlines one more chance to lose my bag when transferring planes. Second, I am at the mercy of the airline for what the fare is to get to the larger airport. Third, I will more often than not have at least a three hour layover as I wait for my international flight. So unless you listened to me and got a Capital One VX with Priority Pass and have lounge access….you are in for...

  Lets Talk about TSA Pre Check, Global Entry and Clear   Lots of people have asked me which one they should get. The answer to that depends completely on your travel needs and patterns. In the following paragraphs I will describe to you what they each one is, its benefits and its cost so you can decide which one you want! We will start with TSA Pre Check, TSA Pre Check is a product designed to help you streamline through the security line before your flight. If you have Pre Check you are able to enter a special security line that is typically 80% shorter than the standard security line and will allow you to not remove your shoes, not remove your electronics from their carriers. I had TSA Precheck for several years and got through security in about 15 minutes or less almost 100% of the time. It was definitely worth having. TSA Pre Check is designed for travel within the United States and is currently available at a cost of $77.95. The enrollment process is simple, you ...

  What kind of traveler am I?   Like anything you do, it’s important to gain an understanding of what you hope to achieve or get out of any experience.   There are three basic types of travelers, the business traveler, the specific destination traveler and the experience traveler. We are going to discuss the specific destination traveler and the experience traveler. The specific destination traveler is the traveler who, like the title states, wants to go to a specific place at a specific time and see specific things. This is the most restrictive and expensive way to travel. By choosing this type of travel you must understand you will pay more than the experience traveler. The more restrictions you place on your trip, the harder it will be to save money. One of the ways you can save money on this type of travel is called repositioning. On my most recent trip to Europe, I practiced a type of repositioning. Repositioning involves researching fares and airlines that f...