We're Going to Europe for Two Weeks for Free with our Points!

A dream has finally become a reality for me & my wife to be able to travel internationally in a big way! This year, we're celebrating our 10th Wedding Anniversary, and to celebrate we're taking a two week trip to Europe in August that is totally free thanks to Travel Hacking! This trip would cost over $25,000 if we were paying for it, but we're not paying a dime since everything is covered with our points! 

So let me briefly tell you about our itinerary and some helpful tools that made it easier and quicker to plan!

Lay-Flat Business Class Seats

We'll be flying direct from Philadelphia to Amsterdam on the way there, and flying direct from Zurich to New York City on our way home. On both of these flights, we will be enjoying lay-flat business class seats! Rather than paying $4,100 per ticket like most people do, we got them for 55,000 points! We're so glad that we don't have to be cramped into economy seats, we'll be able to sleep on the overnight trip to Amsterdam and be able to relax on the morning flight to NYC. Plus, we'll be able to enjoy free catered food on these flights as well!

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Our first destination is Amsterdam where we are looking forward to canal cruises, bike rides, and enjoying some historical locations.

Krakow, Poland

Next up is Krakow, Poland. This is special for my wife for two reasons: First, her family is Polish and she'll finally get to see the country that her family members came from. Second, she loves World War 2 history and is looking forward to exploring it here.

Prague, Czech Republic

After that, we'll enjoy the ancient city of Prague and all that it has to offer. It's amazing how cheap flights are between European countries are once you arrive in Europe, so we will be flying to these first three locations, but after we arrive in Prague, we'll be exploring the European countrysides and mountains by taking trains to and from the rest of our destinations. I find train travel to be such a relaxing and leisurely way to travel!

Vienna, Austria

While in Vienna, one of the many things we'll be able to enjoy a Mozart String Quartet in a city filled with so much musical culture!

Salzburg, Austria

This year marks the 60th Anniversary of The Sound of Music, so the city of Salzburg has a number of things to celebrate that. We could've actually stayed in the castle that the movie was filmed in with our points, but we ultimately decided on a different place based on proximity to many other things in the city we wanted to do and see.

Fussen, Germany

Fussen is a gorgeous place that has the Neuschwanstein Castle. This is actually the palace that the Disney Castle is fashioned after.

Lucerne, Switzerland 

Lucerne is a lake-city right at the base of the Swiss Alps. One of the many things that we are looking forward to is traveling in cable cars and rack railways to explore all up and down the Alps. 

Zurich, Switzerland 

Our final European destination is Zurich to be able to cap off an amazing trip with city exploration before heading home.

New York City 

Although, business class seats will help with the jet lag from the 6-hour time difference, we decided to fly into and stay overnight in New York City to enjoy the city and have an extra night of rest in our own timezone before jumping back into the full energy of parenting two highly-active girls!

Helpful Tools

Here's a very quick explanation of the tools that we've found helpful for this trip:

• Roame.Travel - This points flight search tool was amazing, because you can search a range of dates, specific airports & general regions (e.g. East Coast U.S., Western Europe, etc), and you can set alerts to tell you when business class seats become available with points.
• Wanderlog - Keeping track of flights, hotels, trains, tours, concerts, and more could be stressful and confusing without a system to keep everything organized. I'm also not the spreadsheet type of person for trip details. This app lets you quickly organize and share all of the information. It's as easy as forwarding confirmation emails, so that you have your dates, times, places, itineraries, confirmation numbers, and more all in one spot. Plus, if you're looking for recommendations and reviews for locations that you're traveling, it gives you all of that as well.
• Timeshifter - Jet-lag could ruin memorable moments with exhaustion. Thankfully, Timeshifter is an app that is scientifically-based and gives tailored strategies for light intake, when to sleep, when to use caffeine, and more based on the specifics of who you are and how you function. It will help you prepare for the time change a couple of days in advance and tell you what to do for the first couple of days in your new time zone both going and returning. (This also works for swing-shift workers!)
• Omio - This app can be a great way to help navigate transportation with trains and buses wherever you're going.
• ChatGPT - If you're not using ChatGPT or some other AI system, you're missing out! The better the prompts, the better the results. Get creative and utilize it to save hours of time and searching by having it do the work for you. Here are a few ideas for prompts that can help spark ideas to utilize AI to help you maximize your next trip. Use these and so many more:
  • You are a travel expert, and I need you to tell me the top five essential things that I need to know as a first-time traveling going to [insert country].
  • I am going to [insert location]. What are some of the best places to visit that the average person might not know about?
  • I am traveling from [insert location] to [insert location]. Which side of the train offers the best views and what can I anticipate seeing?
  • I am torn between which things to visit while I'm in [insert location]. Help me choose one of these three options [insert three options]
  • I don't want to walk long distances in the heat. How can I best explore [insert location] while minimizing walking?
  • My kids are [insert ages[, what are some of the best things that we could do with them while visiting [insert location]
  • We are planning a trip [insert date or season], give me 10 ideas of places that we could travel and why those would be good options.

The Freedom of Free Travel

Having known what it's like to not be able to afford travel year-over-year, I'm so grateful that this is the third trip that our family is able to take for free with our points this year! This is by-far the longest and most expansive trip we've ever taken, and I'm so grateful that we get to do the entire trip for free thanks to Travel Hacking.

If we can do it, you can do it, and I'd love to help however I can as you continue to unlock the secrets of free travel!