vacations | Well Heeled Blog

Honeymoon Spending Summary

Written by WellHeeled on June 26, 2012 · 15 Comments

I crunched the numbers, and thanks to credit card sign-on bonuses and miles, we did a 9-day Argentina honeymoon for under $3,000.

Flights (international & domestic): $1,200
All spending in Argentina: $1,560.33
This is broken down into:
(a) hotels: $220. We stayed at a small hotel in a not-so-good part of town for 4 days, which in hindsight was not the smartest decision. The rest of the time we stayed – for free! – at 4-star and 5-star hotels that normally cost $250-$700/night using credit card points.
(b) food & activities: 1,540.33. We went horseback riding, took a private tango class, and ate empanadas almost every single day. Our most expensive meal was supposed to be $135 for the two of us, but a gentleman at the dinner found out that we were on our honeymoon and INSISTED on paying our bill. I couldn’t believe the goodwill of people, but that made me feel so touched. This cost also includes travel medical insurance.

Total spending: $2,960.33 or $328.93 per day

The romance is alive!

Are Travel Flash Sale Sites Really Cheaper? Do Your Homework Before You Buy

Written by WellHeeled on January 11, 2012 · 9 Comments

As someone who (1) loves to travel, (2) enjoys luxury, and (3) has a budget, I was so happy when travel flash sale sites started popping up a few years ago. These sites host “flash sales” on hotels, cruises, vacation packages, or even airfare. The sales last for a few days and is often final sale, and in exchange consumers are supposed to get a deal that’s much better than what is available on the travel vendor’s own website. But don’t assume that you are automatically getting the best price. In some cases, you won’t be saving money going through travel flash sale sites – you’ll actually be paying MORE by going through a flash sale site.

Case in point

Last night, I was looking up hotel options for our honeymoon to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Jetsetter, Gilt.com’s travel site, features several hotels in the city. Palermo Place caught my eye – Jetsetter offers me a price of $235/night rack rate. Sounds pretty good, right? The picture below is of Jetsetter’s checkout page – as you can see, 4 nights over a weekend in May will cost $1,132.

But wait! On Tripadvisor.com, Palermo Palace is advertising a 30% off special, which would make it cheaper than Jetsetter. So I input the same dates, the same room type, and same number of nights at the hotel, and it turns out that booking directly with the hotel would only cost $796, $300+ cheaper than the Jetsetter price. $300 is no chump change, especially in Buenos Aires where it’d be enough for several very nice meals, a bunch of leather souvenirs, and more than a couple private tango lessons!

So this is what I’ve learned - always, always do your homework. It is easy to assume that travel flash sale sites have the best deals. After all, that’s what they are there for. But it only takes a few minutes to do a quick search on the Tripadvisor, the hotel or cruise website, and Google. You might discover that the so-called deal isn’t that great of a deal given what other discounts or specials are out there. Or, you might confirm that it is truly too good to pass up (our proposal weekend bed & breakfast was $149 on Living Social Escapes but $280+ on the hotel’s website). In that case, click buy and enjoy the trip!

Do you use travel flash sale sites? Have you found that they are more or less expensive than other sources?

Staycation Ideas for the Summer

Written by WellHeeled on July 18, 2011 · 5 Comments

Why go on vacation when you can have a nice, relaxing, budget-friendly, traffic-easy staycation?

Yeah, you tell me. Head on over to LendingTree Blog to check out four of my staycation ideas.

Can you have a vacation with all the fun and relaxation of getting away, minus the expenses and logistics of travel? By planning a staycation – a vacation where you stay close to home, you not only get to enjoy time off, but you can also save money and avoid the hassles of security lines, high gas prices, and car rentals. And if you only have a few days off, a staycation means you won’t waste any of your vacation days on the road.

I say, YES! In fact, I am planning a staycation of my own right now… it still counts even if it’s only for a night, right?

Paris in the Winter

Written by WellHeeled on May 20, 2011 · 21 Comments

Guess who’s going to see Paris, France next year?

I am not much for impulsive decisions, but I just impulsively made a decision last night. Now, I shall work diligently to put that impulsive decision into action.

It all started with CB and I talking about our honeymoon. We are looking at a wedding in April, right before the high season but still close enough to the summer to have nice weather. Unfortunately, with the way that CB’s schedule is shaking out, we will have a period of time from January to mid-February where he can take time off. Then, he wouldn’t be able to take any time off until late-June.

So we will have to go on a very short honeymoon immediately after the wedding, and the delay the longer trip for the summer. We had talked about going to Paris for our honeymoon – not because either of us ever had any burning desire to go, but I know we will enjoy the city, and besides, it is the city of romance, no? It’s also somewhere where neither of us has been before. Hi That’s My Bike is in Paris right now, and writes so beautifully about the city that I couldn’t help but be moved by her enthusiasm. @Single Ma, who has ended her blog, went to Paris and wrote a nice recap of her time there. Fortunately I still have those posts in my Google Reader!

Paris in the February

Back to CB’s schedule – if we were to go to Paris in June, July or August, we’d be crushed by the throng of like-minded tourists. The prices will also skyrocket from merely expensive to almost unaffordable. Besides, I had hoped that we can go to South America or perhaps an African safari during July. So I had a thought - what if we went to Paris in February?

Sure, the songs are about Paris in the Springtime, but Paris in the Winter is a cheap time to go! If we go in February, we can spend Valentine’s Day in Paris, and what can be more romantic than that? We can get a cute hotel and enjoy the city and being with each other. We can take advantage of the shorter lines at museums. It may be rainy and cold, but that’s just another excuse to duck into cafes and order warm mugs of hot cocoa and crepes smeared with Nutella.

So, here’s my new goal. Paris in February. I shall call this a pre-wedding-moon. I am not sure what a budget for this trip will look like, but it seems that round-trip airfare, per person, will cost at least $1,100. I have signed up for a British Airways credit card back when it had a 100,000 miles bonus, so I hope that will defray the cost of the airfare somewhat. A hotel room will cost around 115 euros a night, and at the dismal 1.4 dollars to 1 euro exchange rate, six nights will probably cost $1,000. So that is at minimum $3,000+ before food, incidentals, museum passes, etc., are factored in. Budgeting $100 per day (is that too high? too low?), per person, a 7-day trip will be $1,400. In all, I expect to spend $5,000 on this trip. Hopefully we can bring that cost down to $4,000 with the credit card miles.

Now, my focus is to “sell” this trip to CB (a relationship is all about negotiation!). We can use the $5,600 we’ve saved up for the Galapagos trip, or just start pinching pennies for this trip. I need a big goal to get excited about saving money again. Paris in February just might be it.

Photo credit: daphatone from morguefile.com