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Date: 3-21-23

Travel More Podcast

Make sure to enter the giveaway here! https://travelmorepodcast.com/landing-page

You’ve heard it before, the classic question following victories, major achievements and the super bowl - what will you do next? We’re going to Disney World! But how do you get there? What does it typically cost? Is it really a once-in-a-lifetime trip that is growing out of reach for many families? Today we tackle our budget breakdown of a typical family trip to Disney, with our exclusive tips and tricks on how to make your vacation work for your budget.

Chapters

#1 Disney World Lingo

There are three categories of accommodations at Disney World and those are: Value, Moderate and Deluxe. As you can imagine, the perks you get with each level increase as the price increases. There are a few sweet spots in each category but they generally have a price range they stick to. By knowing each category, you’ll know exactly what to expect and whether or not you want to splurge to get a nicer resort. 

There are also three categories of dining at Disney and those are: Quick Service, Table Service and Signature Dining. In our base level budget that we mention in just a second- we only calculate Quick Service food- which is a cafeteria style experience. If you are looking for sit down meals, you’ll need to up your budget as well. 

#2 Our Base Budget 

Our base budget takes into account a family of four, 2 adults and 2 children (under 9 in Disney’s eyes). We have them at a value resort, 4 days at the park (one park per day) and eating 2 quick service meals a day (eating their own food for breakfast and sandwiches for the pool) and about $1000 in transportation- of course this will depend on how you plan to get there. Our budget is $5,000 with all this included. Starting with the base budget, you can see if you want to cut down on that- for example staying off property. Or if you feel like you can add to that- which of course the opportunities for that are endless at Disney World.

#3 Our opinion on popular additions

The #1 splurge in our opinion is a fireworks dessert party. #2 is a droid or lightsaber building reservation (if you’re really into Star Wars!). We don’t feel like Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique is worth it, but there are many furloughed cast members on the facebook p

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Subscribe to our Newsletter for a bi-weekly points and miles tip, an update on the best current travel deals, points and miles transfer bonuses and interesting places we've found in our travels.

Join our Travel Community on Facebook to connect with other like minded travelers, share stories, tips, tricks and travel hack wins- Travel More Insiders

Visit our Website https://travelmorepodcast.com/

Join Going (Scott's Cheap Flights) Use code: MAGIC20 for 20% off your first year!

Check out our travels in real time and get additional tips on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travelmorepodcast/

Get in touch with us at [email protected]

Disclosure: We only recommend products we would or do use ourselves and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, we may earn a small commission.

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The Great American Roadtrip- How to Plan and What to Expect

Want to travel more but hate to fly?  Do the cost of those plane tickets always stop you saying yes to your next trip? Today we dive into one of our favorite ways to travel, where the journey is just as fun as the destination - the classic road trip.

#1 Why Road Trips? 

This was our #1 way of traveling when we were low on funds. We started with weekend trips and graduated to longer, more intense trips. We were able to explore a lot of New England with very little money. Now we use roadtrips not so much as a budget trip, but more of a way to enjoy the journey of a trip, just as much as the destination.

#2 How We Planned our Great American Roadtrip

We had 5 weeks to do the roadtrip. I know that sounds like a lot of time off, but it goes fast when planning to drive all the way across the country. We were able to visit 12 states, just as many campsites and see some of the best sites in the US. 

Concept #3 Our #1 Roadtrip Tips and What's Next for Us

We mentioned some of these but here’s a roundup of our best tips: 

1. Figure out how far you’re willing to drive, go on google maps and start looking at how far those hours will get you. 
2. Leave time to stop on the way in case you find something cool 
3. Figure out your travel style- do you want to go straight flexible or do something closer to our trip (a hotel booked for every night).
4. Figure out a home base and hop around from there. It’ll save you some sanity about having to pack and repack all the time, which is most of the roadtrip. 
5. Know your travel limits. This takes a toll. Make sure to add in purposeful breaks! 
6. Pack in a “capsule” style- meaning a few staple pieces that can be used in many ways. That will cut down on how much you need to pack and unpack each night. If you’re camping- make sure to have a good cooler, a cast iron pan and (our favorite) a jet boil for your morning coffee! 

What’s next- We hope to rent a Campervan internationally. To me, the Campervan adds a layer of ease to traditional roadtripping that I think will take the adventures to the next level. I’ll add a blog down at the bottom for my favorite Campervan couple and they even do it with a baby! When I do my Scotland Campervan trip, I’m definitely using their guide. And no, we’re definitely not sponsored, they don’t even know we exist! Here’

Support the show

Subscribe to our Newsletter for a bi-weekly points and miles tip, an update on the best current travel deals, points and miles transfer bonuses and interesting places we've found in our travels.

Join our Travel Community on Facebook to connect with other like minded travelers, share stories, tips, tricks and travel hack wins- Travel More Insiders

Visit our Website https://travelmorepodcast.com/

Join Going (Scott's Cheap Flights) Use code: MAGIC20 for 20% off your first year!

Check out our travels in real time and get additional tips on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travelmorepodcast/

Get in touch with us at [email protected]

Disclosure: We only recommend products we would or do use ourselves and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, we may earn a small commission.

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Stuck on the budget for that dream trip to Europe? Would you believe us if we said you could have a week in Paris for just $3000, without staying in hostels, skipping experiences or saying no to your 3rd pastry of the day? Stick around to hear our full itinerary breakdown of our Christmas in Paris for two and we’ll share a treasure trove of tips on how to create a trip of your own that you can book THIS YEAR.

#1  Breaking Down Costs of International Travel : Transportation and Accommodation

• Your number one expense is probably going to be transportation and accommodations. These are also things you cannot adjust on the fly so you have to be specific about the budget for this. This is where our favorite (Scott’s Cheap Flights) is the only way we’re able to do these trips. Our total costs for transportation was: $995 and accommodations: $755. That brings the total so far to: $1750

#2 Breaking Down Costs of International Travel: Entertainment

• Plenty of things to do cheaply (or even free!). There are usually a plethora of free walking tours that can give you the lay of the land. There are often hidden gems to be found when walking around cities and keeping your eyes out. In fact, we found a Christmas concert in Saint Chapel for $50/per person that we jumped on! We also headed for Disneyland Paris, which was a really amazing experience and a great way to add some variety in our trip. It was also cool to compare the different parks (we’ve been to 3 park systems, Walt Disney World Resorts, Disneyland Resorts and now Disneyland Paris!). Entertainment costs bring our total to: $2150 but we were able to cover those expenses through some simple travel hacking. **Quick note here- you can almost never use travel points on Disney tickets because they don’t code as travel! We simply covered part of our accommodations that we had already planned in the budget to cover the cost of the Disney tickets!  

#3 Breaking Down Costs of International Travel: Food

• Because we “travel hacked” our way out of the cost of Disney tickets, we had $1250 (or over $200/day) for food, and that’s a good thing too because we were in Paris afterall. We went to over a dozen patisseries, multiple Christmas markets, cafes, gastropubs, etc. We definitely did not feel deprived of food this trip! In fact, we had to come home and eat some veggies because we were so full of bread! So after eating our way through Prais, Strasbourg and Disneyland Paris, we met o

Support the show

Subscribe to our Newsletter for a bi-weekly points and miles tip, an update on the best current travel deals, points and miles transfer bonuses and interesting places we've found in our travels.

Join our Travel Community on Facebook to connect with other like minded travelers, share stories, tips, tricks and travel hack wins- Travel More Insiders

Visit our Website https://travelmorepodcast.com/

Join Going (Scott's Cheap Flights) Use code: MAGIC20 for 20% off your first year!

Check out our travels in real time and get additional tips on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travelmorepodcast/

Get in touch with us at [email protected]

Disclosure: We only recommend products we would or do use ourselves and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, we may earn a small commission.

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What if you could add another country to your itinerary with zero costs, and potentially lower your costs? What if you could do the most iconic trip in that country in just one day? On today’s episode we tackle a dirty word in travel - the dreaded LAYOVER - if this word strikes fear into your heart, stick around to find out how a layover can become the highlight of your trip. 

#1 How to Use Layovers and When To Choose Them

Layovers can be a pain, but use them correctly and they can be a trip highlight. We would choose a layover with the following criteria: 

• It’s not just an overnight layover
• There are no additional visa/documentation requirements (Check out our layover fails to see why we included this!)
• It is either very long or the airport is set up to allow for some exploration (ie: Qatar and Iceland)
• We have the time (our trip is more than a week long)

We had an amazing experience in our Iceland Layover where we got to travel the Golden Circle and even hang out in a “secret” lagoon. We skipped the more touristy hot springs in Iceland but on a return trip, we’d definitely be interested in checking them out. 

#2 Success Stories and Fails 

• Iceland is our #1 success story. It was actually my favorite country we visited on our 2017 trip (other countries on that trip were Germany, Czech Republic, Austria and Budapest). We (self) toured the golden circle and spent about 15 hours driving around 300km on the first stop. Then on the return trip we got about 8 hours to check out Reykjavik, which included a cute farmer’s market, some amazing fish and chips and some really fun street art. A great way to spend a travel day! 
• Our fail is definitely Qatar. We had an 8 hour layover and a booked excursion from the airport to check out some city highlights (a very popular thing to do from this airport). Unfortunately Bruce got COVID and while he was cleared for travel for Uganda, he would not have passed the PCR test that was required to enter Qatar. Unfortunately, that meant we had to cancel the tour and instead had to spend 8 hours lounging in an airport. Not idea

Scott's Cheap Flights
The #1 way to traveling more is through Scott's Cheap Flights.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

Support the show

Subscribe to our Newsletter for a bi-weekly points and miles tip, an update on the best current travel deals, points and miles transfer bonuses and interesting places we've found in our travels.

Join our Travel Community on Facebook to connect with other like minded travelers, share stories, tips, tricks and travel hack wins- Travel More Insiders

Visit our Website https://travelmorepodcast.com/

Join Going (Scott's Cheap Flights) Use code: MAGIC20 for 20% off your first year!

Check out our travels in real time and get additional tips on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travelmorepodcast/

Get in touch with us at [email protected]

Disclosure: We only recommend products we would or do use ourselves and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, we may earn a small commission.

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Have you ever wondered how people travel so often? Or maybe you’re listening to this now because you’ve always wanted to travel more but couldn't figure out how to make it happen? Stay tuned to hear about one of our favorite strategies to make the most of our yearly travel budget: Travel Hacking. 

#1 Beginners Travel Hacking 

• Travel hacking is using credit card points to pay for travel expenses. With maybe our favorite (and definitely most used) card, The Capital One Venture card, you accumulate points with your regular spend (the amount you put on a card each month) and then “erase” any travel purchases you make. 
• We’ve used this for free flights to Europe, twice and also many domestic flights since signing up for the card in 2017. 

#2 Intermediate Travel Hacking 

• If you feel like you are on board with the Capital One Venture card and want to take your hacking to the next level, we recommend the Capital One Venture X card. The difference here is that this card costs $395/year. That high annual fee gets you the same eraser power you had before, but also comes with a $300 travel credit (when booked through the travel portal!), and 10,000 anniversary points- which that alone is $400 a year (as long as you actually use them!). It comes with priority pass for airport lounges, access to signature select airport lounges, and capital one lounges. It also gives you Global Entry/TSA precheck and some other fun perks like basic travel insurance, rotating memberships through the year, etc.

#3 Expert Travel Hacking

• In our world, expert travel hacking comes in the form of transferring your points to partners instead of using them in a portal or erasing points. What that means is you have, let’s say, 10,000 credit card points. Now instead of using those as an eraser, you transfer them to Delta and use them like Delta Skymiles. In this case, you often get much better redemption rates (cent per point!). 

Capital One Venture Referral https://capital.one/3LT5QSw 

Capital One Venture X Referral - https://capital.one/3XxznDD

Sapphire Preferred Referral Link- https://www.referyourchasecard.com/6f/QR1AP1HFLV 

Support the show

Subscribe to our Newsletter for a bi-weekly points and miles tip, an update on the best current travel deals, points and miles transfer bonuses and interesting places we've found in our travels.

Join our Travel Community on Facebook to connect with other like minded travelers, share stories, tips, tricks and travel hack wins- Travel More Insiders

Visit our Website https://travelmorepodcast.com/

Join Going (Scott's Cheap Flights) Use code: MAGIC20 for 20% off your first year!

Check out our travels in real time and get additional tips on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travelmorepodcast/

Get in touch with us at [email protected]

Disclosure: We only recommend products we would or do use ourselves and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, we may earn a small commission.

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Original Air Date: Jan 10 2023

Travel More Podcast

Our #1 Strategy to Traveling More in 2023- EP 01

Stop dreaming about travel and start booking those trips with The Travel Talk strategy. This strategy gives you the tools you need to be confident in booking trips when deals pop up so you can make the most out of your travel budget. Whether you’re looking to stay in 5 star hotels or fly economy, everyone can benefit from making the most out of the budget and we’ll show you how. PS: the better you get at maximizing your budget, the more travel you can count on in the year.

Key Concepts

#1 Meet Bruce and Shelly!
We are a 30 something travel couple that’s been traveling together for a decade. We have spent that decade figuring out our travel style and learning how to maximize our time off and budget to create a travel rich lifestyle. 

#2 The Travel Talk Strategy
This is our #1 travel strategy. Set yourself up for more travel this year by being proactive in your budget and time off. And of course, the best piece of advice we have for finding those incredible, “I have to book this” deals is being flexible in your destination. 

#3 What’s next?
We’re so excited to have you join us on this journey. We have some pretty awesome content coming up including: Great episodes coming up like how we do multiple $3k international trips a year; How we travel to high costs places like Disney and Universal; How we go about adding to our travel budget every year through personal finances as well as travel hacking.

Resources Mentioned in the Show:
Scott's Cheap Flights: https://going.sjv.io/jWPqZ0

Support the show

Subscribe to our Newsletter for a bi-weekly points and miles tip, an update on the best current travel deals, points and miles transfer bonuses and interesting places we've found in our travels.

Join our Travel Community on Facebook to connect with other like minded travelers, share stories, tips, tricks and travel hack wins- Travel More Insiders

Visit our Website https://travelmorepodcast.com/

Join Going (Scott's Cheap Flights) Use code: MAGIC20 for 20% off your first year!

Check out our travels in real time and get additional tips on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travelmorepodcast/

Get in touch with us at [email protected]

Disclosure: We only recommend products we would or do use ourselves and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, we may earn a small commission.