Catching Up After 10 Days On The Road

ByEdward Pizzarello
a bird standing on grass

Wow!  So much to cover after our trip to Iceland.  This was my 30th country visited, a small number compared to some of my friends.  It was also one of my favorites.  I’ll have a lot more to say on that in the near future.  I also need to catch up on some recent events.

I didn’t want to wait too long after getting back just to check-in with folks, especially since I haven’t been writing much.  I’m happy to answer questions about Iceland or anything travel-related.  Leave a comment here, shoot me an e-mail or find me on social media.

Iceland Recap

The best laid plans…..I’m hoping to do a full trip report on many of the aspects of Iceland.  This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime trip.  We spent 10 days exploring Iceland and I can’t wait to go back!  Iceland is incredibly beautiful and incredibly expensive.  We managed to cover our airline tickets, hotels (yes, all of our hotels) and rental car with points. I’ll discuss how we managed to do all that.

Along the way we visited the Blue Lagoon, multiple waterfalls, hung out with some puffins, walked across a lava field and descended into a volcano.  There was more, but those were the highlights. Along the way we also found some incredible food as well.

a bird standing on grass a group of people wearing helmets and smiling a close up of a rock wall a plate of food on a table a group of people standing on a path with rocks a rainbow colored road in a city a woman holding an ice piece a man holding up his hands above a bridge a geyser erupting in a field

Travel News While We Were Gone

The two most interesting bits of travel news while I was gone involved Hyatt and Bilt Rewards.

Hyatt announced their annual points rebate for credit card holders on award stays, though it’s tapered back a bit from previous years.  I’ll be covering it in more detail soon but just a quick heads-up if you’re looking to book some interesting hotels this summer.

Bilt Rewards launched a new travel portal that I’ll be digging into much further.  But, the headline for families is that you can redeem points for Disney hotels and tickets.  Lots more on that in the near future.

The Final Two Pennies

Our summer family travel season has just started.  We still have a week in Nova Scotia and a trip to Disney World to travel on the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser.  Along the way I need to catch you guys up on Iceland and all the rest of the travel world.  10 days seeing some of the most awesome sights has me motivated to blog, I just need to find the time.

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My goal in life is to fill my family’s passports with stamps, creating buckets of memories along the way. You’ll find me writing about realistic ways for normal people to travel the world, whether you’re on a budget or enjoy luxury. I also enjoy taking us on the occasional detour to explore the inner workings of the travel industry.

2 Comments

  1. You invited travel related questions – so here goes. I’m Lifetime Globalist with Hyatt and stay at a full service Hyatt every chance I get. I particularly like the Thompson group. I’m also Lifetime Titanium with Marriott. I have been avoiding Marriott when I can due to reduced service and benefits since the pandemic. I like the Kimpton properties because they usually have good restaurants. I have avoided them because IHG Hotels loyalty program had such a bad reputation. Now I understand they program has become competitive. I like to use my points internationally. I travel extensively but have about 1 1/2 years of work travel left. Do you know if IHG will match my status and, if so, will it be worth it for me to switch many of my travel stays to Kimpton? I would also be interested to hear from your readers who have an opinion on the matter.

    Reply

    1. Dave,

      IHG doesn’t run status challenges very often but they do have one going on right now: https://www.ihg.com/content/us/en/deals/member-offers/statuschallenge

      Whether you should move business over is another question. We’re early on in the new IHG program and we haven’t seen a ton of examples yet on how they’ll apply benefits. I don’t think there’s any harm in completing the challenge but I’d probably wait to hear experiences from others before making a bigger move to IHG. That being said, their international properties are clearly the strength of the program.

      Note: there is a line in the T&C about being targeted for this status challenge. Not sure if that’s the case here or not.

      Reply

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