Using what many call travel hacking, we have been able to save over $12,000 in the past three years of travel. This was money saved on Airfare, Hotels, Rental Cars and more. If you want to get into using credit cards so that you never have to pay for hotel or airfare again, I recommend the following:
- Don’t start until you are debt free and know that not paying off your credit card each month would cost you more in the long run than just paying for hotels and flights on your own. Relatedly, never spend more than you would if using cash/debit. The point conversion is not worth it. If you are looking for an awesome budget tracking app for iOS, we highly recommend the Trail Wallet App.
- Sign up for free at the following websites to receive monthly credit updates (This is a good idea in general even if not interested in the CC):
- http://www.creditkarma.com – TransUnion Credit Score Updates
- http://www.creditsesame.com – Experian Credit Score Updates
- Only apply for cards with points you will use within the next 12 months. The reason for this is that if you do not use the miles in the year after receiving them, some expire and/or may require paying high yearly fees to keep them thereby making them more costly than they are worth in most cases.
- If you are wanting a few cards and can meet the minimum spends, apply to them all in one day to get only a single Hard Inquiry on your Credit report.
- Take some time to look at the different grades on your Credit Karma Report Card to understand how different things may affect your credit.
- Make sure you meet the minimum spend and get the bonus reward point otherwise the annual fee and hassle is not really worth it.
Download Valerie & Griffin’s Credit Card Comparison Chart
[click link or image to download]
PRO TIP:
If you are starting to get overwhelmed with keeping up with Rewards Accounts and Credit Card Payments, we recommend the following free services:
- Award Wallet – free management of Rewards Accounts
- Mint – free financial and payment management as well as goal setting and accountability
- TripIt – free trip organization and travel itinerary service
Taking It Further
If you are looking for further resources, here are many free and a few paid options we use and highly recommend.
Related Posts By Valerie & Griffin on Travel Hacking
How To Get Free Air Miles & Save $600
Travel Hacking Related Sites & Blogs
eBooks
]]>
When someone says Munich, most people immediately think of Oktoberfest. Yes, this famous festival does fill up the city for 2 weeks each year, but there is so much more to Munich than beer and pretzels.
We had the opportunity to visit Munich as guests of the Munich Tourism Board, officially known a München Tourismus. Their website, with information on just about everything available in Munich, may be the only guide you need. It’s certainly one of the most comprehensive city websites I’ve ever seen… and I’ve seen a lot.
Upon arrival at the main train station, we walked just a few hundred meters to King’s Hotel, which was exactly what we needed to get rested for our whirlwind tour. After a quick and delicious dinner at the famous Augustiner Keller and a tour around the beer cellar, we spent the next several hours before bed trying to decide what to see for the next two days. It was no easy task! We could easily have stayed two weeks and still not see everything! Instead I turned page corners in a city guide book and then tried to cull it down from roughly 30 of my favorite activities listed.
We jumped up early the next morning and headed off to the city center to take in some of the sites. Munich has so much history to learn about that we barely had time to take it all in. We even passed by a little known building with just a plain marker indicating the place where plans for the holocaust were first hatched. From there we took a short walk over to The Frauenkirche, also known as The Cathedral of Our Dear Lady, a beautiful church with several unique aspects, including the legendary “devil’s footprint,” and a curious menorah on the ceiling. You’ll have to visit to find out why it’s there! (It’s quite a touching story.)
By then it was nearly 11:00am and we rushed back to the Marienplatz to get a glimpse of the Glockenspiel in action. We were delighted when the hour struck and the giant clock came to life. You really can’t miss it and it wasn’t at all disappointing to us! Below is a video of the clock in action. It’s a bit long, but fascinating, especially if you’ve never seen it before. Although, I highly encourage you to head there and see yourself!
We settled down to lunch with Isabella from München Tourismus and took her advice on some traditional Bavarian menu items. I think we would weigh entirely too much if we stayed in Munich for any longer than a few days. Wow, that food is amazing.
Finally we headed off to meet up with the famous New Europe Free Walking Tour group to catch some more history for a couple of hours. If you’ve never tried one of these walking tours, you don’t know what you’re missing. They are informative beyond belief, entertaining and will help you get oriented in the city in no time. Plus, they’re free! You should tip your guide at the end according to what you think their tour was worth. What a nice business plan.
When I say that it’s important to get into a tour, I really mean that. Any walking tour will take you around the city to places you never knew existed and give you more information than you could find in a thousand guide books. We had no idea about some of the landmarks in Munich as they are so subtle, yet so important. We saw an extremely unique memorial to the German resistance, the place where the army tried to block the Nazi’s from marching, fun things like the May Pole in the city center, markets, beer gardens and so much more, all while being thoroughly entertained and enlightened about each of these places. The more you know about a city, the more you will love it! München Tourismus can also set you up with a tour, and personally knowing how thorough they are, I know it would be a great option for sure.
When the tour was finished we took a closer look at a couple of beer gardens and had a bratwurst dog for dinner. Yum. Griffin tried out the famous Weissbier, or Wheat Beer, but I’m not crazy about beer so I settled for a Fanta. After Griffin grabbed some night photography time, we headed back to the hotel to catch up on rest.
As if day one didn’t hold enough, we quickly headed out the next morning to see what else we could get into. We were delighted to “hop” onto a Gray Line tour bus to hop on and hop off throughout the city. What’s great about this company is there is a live tour guide to give you information about the upcoming stops and different landmarks about the city. Other companies tend to have a recording, but recordings don’t answer questions, so we were happy for the change. A complete circle takes around an hour and half, which we actually did just to have some uninterrupted information about the city. Then we jumped off at the different stops that interested us the first time around.
Of course, no tour of Munich would be complete without a visit to BMW Welt (World). Here you can catch people driving their new cars around the indoor test facility or venture over to the BMW Museum and see how the company got started as well as all the makes and models! It was really cool, but there was no free gift of a new BMW at end! Too bad!
BMW Welt is the same tour stop as the Olympic Park, which is a beautiful site in itself. It’s easy to spend hours wandering around taking in all the athletic history.
We were also able to check out the English Garden, Opera House, City Hall, and the Nymphenburg Palace, all within a few steps of a Gray Line stop.
After picking up a few souvenirs, we finally and regrettably had to leave the beautiful city of Munich all too soon. I am absolutely sure we’ll be back again! If you get the chance, please make sure to visit Munich… even if it’s not Oktober!
]]>We were greeted at the King’s Center Hotel by a friendly staff and a smooth and quick check-in. (Also a plus when you’ve still got those backpacks on!)
Our greatest greeting, though, was when we entered our room. The room was absolutely beautiful. It included a large, wood-framed bed carved with beautiful designs, a desk, a beautiful wardrobe and others. I have to admit to you that I love a clean bathroom… I wasn’t disappointed with the bathroom in our room. It was spacious and clean and had everything we needed, including plush towels. We’re both into nice linens, so we love good towels! Is that weird? =)
We asked reception for a recommendation for a good restaurant nearby and we were so glad we did. The staff didn’t hesitate in directing us to Augustiner Keller, the famous beer garden and cellar that we didn’t even realize was close to us. We had a wonderful dinner there and then took a walk around the cellar as well.
After dinner we settled into our room and spent some time looking through guidebooks at the limitless things to see in Munich. (No easy task.)
We both slept like rocks and awoke feeling so much more rested and happier. If you’ve done long term travel, you know the importance of good sleep and recuperation to help you travel well. Cranky travelers are not good to be around!
We crept downstairs in our PJ’s to have breakfast and we were, again, pleasantly surprised. A buffet of deliciousness awaited us and we couldn’t wait. I love breakfast food and I could eat it three meals a day. This buffet had everything I wanted and then some! I definitely ate too much, but it was so worth it!
It is so much less stressful to go see the sights of a city when you know you don’t need to worry about the place you’re coming “home” to that night. We knew our hotel was centrally located, comfortable, clean, offered good sleep and a delicious breakfast the next morning. You can’t beat that.
To top it all off, when we were getting ready to leave, the staff made it leisurely by offering to hold our luggage for us while we spent the last day in the city seeing the rest of the sites on our list.
I will say that we encountered one slight issue, which was a slow internet connection. Internet is not included in the room prices, which is annoying this day and age, so we purchased it separately. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t the connection we were hoping for, which slowed us down in our work a bit. Overall, not a big deal, but something we feel the hotel should work on.
If you’re looking for good accommodation in Munich, we can definitely recommend King’s Center Hotel, a fantastic place to get rest and then get involved in everything Munich has to offer!
]]>
If there is one thing an expat can appreciate, it’s returning “home” for a visit.
However, after being away for more than a year in one of the world’s healthiest countries, we were more than a little shocked at the sites we saw when were stateside for three weeks in September 2010 last year.
Don’t get me wrong, Griffin and I appreciate good food, and both acknowledge that we have some pounds we’d like to drop, but it’s so disheartening to see the health of America declining so rapidly.
In Korea, on the other hand, you’ll be hard pressed to find an obese person anywhere. As the origin of the world’s leading martial art, Tae Kwon Do, along with all the beautiful and well used-hiking trails, exercise is made a priority here.
So is healthy food. Vegetables, fresh and ripe, garner every table at every meal. We were surprised and happy to learn that a Korean national food, Kimchi, is listed in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) top five healthiest foods.
Kimchi, that spicy, fermented, national treasure, is eaten three times a day by most Koreans. According to the WHO, this vegetable and red pepper paste based food is high in fiber, but low in calories, and makes up for 80% of your daily need of Vitamin C and Carotene. It’s also rich in vitamin A, thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), calcium, and iron, and contains a number of healthy bacteria. In addition, it’s extremely good for your immune system and has been proven to fight off viruses and infections.
We’ve often wondered about the process of making Kimchi, and after more than a year, we finally got to experience it first hand.
Thanks to the Ulsan Metropolitan Office of Education, we were sent to a one day “Kimchi School” at the Onggi Festival in Ulsan.
There, we were assigned a helper, and given all the ingredients and tools we needed. We were surprised that it is such a hands-on process.
After mixing some oil, ground red pepper and garlic together with some chopped onions and radish, we painstakingly smoothed the mixture between each leaf of a special cabbage plant. Our helper then rolled and wrapped our edible artwork into a picture perfect breeding ground for the helpful bacteria that will ferment the dish and give it the tangy flavor it needs, along with the added nutritional factors Kimchi is known for. The plants were carefully set into our handy clay pot, and we were told to set them outside for about three days to let them age a little before bringing them in to refrigerate.
We each made three Kimchi cabbages. (One of which was donated to a local nursing home by each participant.) This took us about an hour once we got underway. However, we’ve been told that Korean women make Kimchi only once per year. I have no idea how long that would take, but I know Americans should give it a try!
Thanks, Korea, for making the world a healthier place, one spicy cabbage leaf at a time.
]]>