Ruby Loves Adventure

A blog has gone viral recently when Rolling Stone magazine published an article that this guy travels for free. I follow his blog, and also want to show the people that no, he didn't really do it for free, these points & miles have a cost in it (ie credit card spend, etc).

This post is to show that lowly people like me and you can indeed travel for free. You don't have to become a popular travel blogger, nor email a lot of establishments asking for free stays and activities. In fact, I find that it is actually easier to just pay for your own travels than ask for sponsored trips. That way, you don't have to be biased when you write about the destination and you get your own experience instead of someone painting a picture of a destination for you.


 
Here is a list of our 2016 plans of (almost) free travel:

January 1-3, 2016:  Orlando, Florida

Why?

February 2016: Montego Bay, Jamaica

Why?

Hotels -

May 21 - 23, 2016: Miami, Florida

Why?  Need a visa to get back to Europe (third world passport and all). Plus his cousin is landing in Miami for our wedding! (cousin-in-law managed to snag a $500 RT direct flight from Vienna to Miami, which was a great deal)

Hotels - Eyeing the Hyatt Renaissance in Miami for 12,000 Hyatt Points a night or perhaps an 8,000 Hyatt near the airport. Any suggestions?



June 18 - July 3, 2016: France, Switzerland, Austria & Slovakia

Why? Euro 2016 - as you probably know by now, my fiance is an avid soccer fan, so we're flying there mostly to see if Slovakia (the country he's from) will play. We got ticket to one game already in Lyon. 

The Routing: TPA - FRA - LYS - GVA - VIE - RSW.


We start from Tampa on the 18th of June, as we have to bring our dog to my future in-law's place. Myself & Peter will travel to Frankfurt, spend an 8 hour layover (free c/o United), then get on a plane to Lyon to meet his brother. We'll then make our way to Geneva, where I'll get on a plane to Vienna. Will spend a day or two in Vienna to wait for Peter & his brother to arrive, then spend a week in Slovakia, his home country. From Vienna, I'll fly back to Ft Myers, where my future in-laws will pick me up.

Airfare: Used 60,000 United Points (transferred from Chase Sapphire Preferred/Ultimate Rewards)  + $150 in taxes & fees (reimbursed using Barclaycard Arrival+). Total spend: $0.

Hotels:

•  Lyon - 
• Annecy -  
• Chamonix -
• Geneva - 
• Vienna -

Look at my face haha

Devin Castle, Bratislava, Slovakia

 Let's rewind here for a second folks and go to a bit of history: Devin Castle is near the border of Austria and Slovakia. It is also where the Danube and Morava Rivers meet. His dad explained that Devin historically was the start of Bratislava/Slovakia, so poignant.

We were on a terrace and I was out taking photos of the rivers, and of the castle, as you can see on the photo below (this was taken in a different terrace, minutes before I got cold and needed to put my Disney jacket on - Yay Disney)

Ruby in Devin Castle, Bratislava, Slovakia

When Peter suddenly went on his knees behind my back (after he took that photo) and prepared a short speech (which I will not share), asked me to marry him.

My ring, with a shot of the Danube and Morava Rivers in the background

Ugh, my hand looks wrinkly in the photo above so  forgive me, I didn't pack hand cream on this trip and it was cold. 

Ruby and Peter in Devin Castle

So there you go.. the next few weeks/months are going to be funny/crazy - We don't know the date of the wedding yet, all we know is we're doing one in Florida, another one in the Philippines, and a mini celebration in Slovakia. And oh, we're all going to be doing it our frugal way as usual (should be a challenge too).

So, since I've gotten into the points and miles game recently, I figured I'd also post my plans on how to travel for cheap in 2015.

Why so early? Because to travel for almost free, you need to book secure your award tickets as soon as you can. And it also means jumping on various promos to get as many points as you need. Oh, and this isn't a backpacker trip... we're traveling using hotels, cars, and doing all that we want to do: paying $30 for dinner? that's fine, we can offset it somewhere. Paying $50 for a tour? Yes, also fine - we can reimburse it. No holds barred, no budget constraints (much) - just trying to do whatever we want in the hopes of reimbursing as many of it using points.

So, our travel plans for 2015 are as follows and bits and bobs of what we want to do, we don't have specific itineraries yet. I'll update this page as soon as I have booked more flights/hotels and our overall out of pocket cost before the end of 2015. Note - most of these tricks only apply to the US, but you should know that YOU CAN TRAVEL IN STYLE WITHOUT PAYING MUCH - all it needs is a bit of planning and knowing what's out there! :)



Tampa (January 17-19)

• Busch Gardens - paid $45 in cash for entrance during the AMEX Daily Getaways (too bad we didn't have an AMEX card when we bought it, would have been much cheaper - paying $45 for 1 ticket is 50% cheaper than the normal price (around $100)
• Lunch - $17 (buffet) out of pocket
• Parking fee - $17 out of pocket