My wife had always wanted to visit Switzerland.
When her elementary school teacher asked her to do a research project, Switzerland was her subject. She was a fan of the book Heidi, which was set in the Swiss Alps. When she visited Lake Placid, New York, she loved to wander the aisles of a store that was all about Switzerland. She even has a fondness for fondue.
Problem is, Switzerland is a long way away from us in Michigan, right?
Hiking in the Swiss Alps near the Matterhorn.
It turns out, it’s not so very far, after all.
The best part is our flights were very inexpensive (about $200 total), and so were our accommodations (about $600 for eight nights).
How did we do it? Following are the six steps we used to take this trip. You can use the same steps to go virtually anywhere in the world for cheap.
1. Start with a destination in mind.
This is an important step. Decide where you want to go. What’s your dream spot? This one was easy for us since my wife has always wanted to go to Switzerland.
2. Research the best airline for getting there.
This doesn’t take long at all with sites like Travelocity, Orbitz, or my personal favorite, Kayak.
3. Research the big-chain hotels in the country and other cheap ways to stay.
Big chains like Hilton, Marriott, Club Carlson, and IHG have hotels all over the world. Also research hostel, AirBnB, couchsurfing, and house swap options.
4. Develop a strategy for accruing the points you need for your flights and lodging.
If you travel at all, you can funnel your resources through the brands that will help you get to the destination of your dreams. But by far the quickest way to accrue points is with credit card bonuses.
Did I lose you?
Hang with me for a minute. I’m guessing I’m a lot like you. When I first heard from people like Chis Guillebeau and Brian Kelly that the best way to load up on massive amounts of points was from credit cards, I was tempted to tune out. But I’m so glad I didn’t.
One reason I was hesitant is because I assumed if I applied for a credit card, my credit rating would go down. I now can tell you from experience this simply isn’t true. As long as you don’t pick up a new credit card every month and as long as you pay off your credit cards right away, your score is more likely to go up.
A second reason I was hesitant is because I thought I’d be slammed with annual fees. In the vast majority of cases the first year’s annual fee is waived. When you see the annual fee a year later, assuming you keep the card that long, you can call the company and ask them to waive the fee again. If they don’t, you can cancel the card to avoid paying the fee.
That means you can get tens of thousands of points for both flights and hotels for free.
5. Access resources to be up on opportunities to bank serious points.
I’ll point to just a few resources to get you started.
– The first is Guillebeau’s credit card site:Ā http://cardsfortravel.com/best-credit-cards/
– The second is Brian Kelly’s blog http://thepointsguy.com/
– Lastly, if you want to learn all the ins and outs of what some people call “travel hacking,” which is essentially the practice of accruing lots of miles/points to travel for cheap, check out the cleverly named Travel Hacking Cartel (AL). You can subscribe at the top level for 14 days for $1, then back off to the lowest level for $15/month, and it’s easy to stop your subscription. I highly recommend trying this for at least a couple months to see if it’s a good fit for you. At the very least you’ll learn a ton about hidden ways to load up on miles/points. The company guarantees four free plane tickets a year.
6. Go on the trip of your dreams.
The points are worth nothing unless you use them. Go and have fun!
So, I’m curious. If you could visit any place on earth (you can!), where would you go?
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Who else wants to travel the world for cheap? This post will help you do just that! <Tweet this!>
Blogger @ChadRAllen took his wife to Switzerland for cheap. He tells you how here. <Tweet this!>
Aaaaaand, there’s this: http://gizmodo.com/how-an-engineer-earned-1-25-million-air-miles-by-buying-1339646546
Amazing story. I know a few things, but I’m not THAT good! Thanks for sharing.
Wow. That is incredible.
Hello Chad, great article. Thanks for making me a little home sick (I am Swiss born). š I’m wondering if you can help me? I was eyeing Chris’ Travel Hacking site for a long time, but was wondering if the tips just apply for US-based members, or whether he also guarantees 4 flights/year for Australian peeps? I see that pretty much all the cards he recommends are US.
Thanks for your feedback, already.
Monika, I’m not sure about the answer to this, but check the Q&A on the Travel Hacking Cartel site: http://travelhacking.org/how-qa/
I love travel points!! We have 2 different cards that collect the same kind of points and we use the cards at the grocery store. BEST way to rack them up.
Here’s a list of places I’ve been and how much it cost me, bearing in mind I live in a small Canadian town on the East Coast and have to connect through Toronto…
California 149$
California 149$
Oklahoma 175$
Indianapolis/Charleston 291$ (Including health insurance for 2 weeks in the USA)
In June, my mom and I went to Europe. She booked a SWANKY hotel in Barcelona for 8$. Yes, EIGHT dollars, on points.
Do your research and be patient AND be ready to travel in the off-season.
Awesome stats! Good work!! And just what I expected from a fellow ginger…
Switzerland sounds wonderful! I would love to live with my family in a rural old farmhouse in the Burgundy region of France for a summer. I’ve been to France, but not that region, and that’s where my ancestry is from. I’d love to just relax and explore there for a while with baguettes!
Great tips on the credit card points. That’s how we travel too! A couple of additional things I’ve found along the way: 1) Beware of cards that have monthly point limits (you can spend more, but can’t earn points on more). 2) Make sure you have the option to pay for any points you are missing. For example, if a ticket costs 60,000 points and you have 55,000 at the time you need to book, you want to be able to buy 5,000 points (some places won’t let you use the points at all unless you have 100% of the value).
Natasha, I LOVE the idea of spending a significant chunk of time in a different place. And thanks for these cautions/advisements too!
Awesome tips!!! Glad to see you guys had a great time. Would love to hear more about it someday! The Holy Land is on my list.
Francie, thanks for the comment! Holy Land is definitely on my list too!
So Chad I’m curious – this sounds great, but I’d like to know just how long it took you from the time you started accumulating points, to the time you gathered enough for your trip? Are we talking a year, 3 years, 10 years??? š Glad you got to give your wife her dream destination! I’m with Jaimie – mine is definitely Ireland (and Scotland). My husband and I want so bad to spend our 10th anniversary there – but that’s only in 2 years!
You can do it! Figure out how many miles you need for both you and your husband to make the trip and then pursue it! I checked United, just as an example, and if you go with them it takes 60,000 miles for one round-trip ticket, so you need 120,000 miles. The Chase Sapphire Card currently offers 40,000 points if you spend $3000 with the card in 3 months. That’s one card, and you’re a third of the way there. I PROMISE you can do this! See here for more info: http://cardsfortravel.com/best-credit-cards/ (not an affiliate link).
I would go to Ireland. My husband and I had a trip planned and then I lost my passport in the airport (or it was stolen), so we couldn’t go last minute. It was devastating. Still trying to get there!
Ouch, that sounds painful! I lived in Ireland for about seven months, and I can promise you: it’s worth the trouble to get there! Beautiful place. If you ever want tips of places to go, drop a line. One of the best days of my life happened while hitchhiking from County Carlow to Galway….
What a fun trip! So glad you could go. We just got back from Disney World. My Dad and Mom worked for many years to bring our family and my brother’s family. It was amazing. I think with a goal and so many ways to reach them,making those memories is possible. We decided to aim to do a repeat Disney trip when all the cousins are teenagers. My daughter would also love to see Paris.
Lisa,
Yes! Glad you got to do that and have some ideas for the future. Paris is definitely on my list!