November 2012 Travel Booked!

It's official: I am going to Guatemala for 2 weeks in November! I just booked my award ticket with American Airlines to use up the majority of my remaining miles with them. I will leave on November 14 and return November 28. I am looking forward to some awesome scenery, people, and of course food!

It cost me 32,500 miles plus $57.60 in taxes. I had a little over 33,000 miles in my account so it worked out great! I fly thru Miami on my way down and Dallas on my way back. My time off from work is confirmed and I am excited to see more of Central America which is my least traveled part of the world. Everything there is inexpensive so I may actually come out ahead financially for that vaacation!

I am not sure exactly what I will do once I am there but I begin phase 2 of my research which is where to go and what to do! I am already looking into the Mayan Tikal ruins, Antigua, and Lago Atitlan. I don't want to try to cram in too much since I will only have 2 weeks. I still need to get a guidebook and do some reading to see what all is available.

2011 Travel Roundup

2011 was a fairly good travel year for me. I had quite a bit of work travel and some fun trips mixed in too! Looking back on the year I have covered some ground. I will start with the fun travel first:

• Feb 2011 - Cruise to Bahamas for the weekend
• April 2011 - New York City with a friend
• May 2011 - United Mileage run to San Diego 
• May 2011 - Myrtle Beach, SC weekend
• July 2011 - 4th of July back home, St. Simon's Island
• July 2011 - Mileage run to Chicago 
• October 2011 - New York City with my girlfriend
• November/December 2011 - Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore for a month!
• December 2011 - Home for Christmas

And of course my work travel:

• Mar 2011 - New Hampshire
• April 2011 - Baltimore
• May 2011 - Boston
• June 2011 - Baltimore
• June 2011 - Detroit
• July 2011 - Boston
• August 2011 - Baltimore
• August 2011 - Boston, twice!
• September 2011 - Boston
• October 2011 - Rochester, NY
• October 2011 - Hartford, CT, twice!

Overall a good year including 2 mileage runs, 3 new countries under my belt, my first cruise, my first leisure Amtrak journey, and of course tons of miles earned and redeemed. I am looking forward to a strong 2012 starting with New Orleans in Jan and Easter Island / Mendoza in April. Happy trails!

Quick Summary of my month in Asia

Asia was awesome as always. I had great food, nice beaches, and ran into some great people along the way. For the most part the weather was nice and sunny. We took over 500 pictures, rode every form of transportation available, and enjoyed business class flights to and from Asia. Very memorable!

I started off in Phuket, Thailand for my solo week. I took a few days to visit a nearby island with almost no tourism. I had great local food and did absolutely nothing but wander around, read, and relax on the beach. It was rough I assure you!

My girlfriend arrived after one of the hardest rains I have witnessed thus far in my life. A true flash flood that went away as fast as it came. I met her at the airport (at 1AM!) and we started our vacation. We spent another day in Phuket then off to Phi Phi Island (from The Beach movie). It was as great as I remembered just more built up and more expensive. Still worth it!

We headed on to Ko Lanta which was actually better than I expected. Though it is popular with tourists it is still remote enough to not be too built up. We stayed right on the beach in a nice room and had many great meals. The food in Thailand is simply excellent! Next we flew over to Ko Samui. I knew what to expect: very built up, overrun with tourists, McDonald's, etc. It wasn't too bad but it rained everyday. It was rainy season for that part of Thailand so not great. I am sure it is great other times of year.

As a result we left a day earlier than planned from Thailand. We took the overnight sleeper train down to Malaysia (a long ride!). I am glad we did because I loved Penang. The food in Penang is certainly the best I have had in Asia and will return too. It was also very affordable and we ate well for next to nothing! We did various activities each day until our flight to Singapore. I need to see more of Malaysia!

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from Singapore. Once we got settled at the hostel I was pleasantly surprised. There is not a whole lot to see but it is a nice, very clean place. The best I can describe it is a modern western city that has been jammed together with a typical Asian city. The food was just as good as Malaysia just more expensive. Singapore is a great place for a couple of days to layover or cure jet lag. Getting around is very easy and everyone speaks English. I would go again if flight routing was optimal.

This trip further solidified my love of southeast Asia. I still have lots more to see and getting a taste of Malaysia has sparked my interest to see more. They have great islands there too as well as good highlands and fun cities. Now that I know things can be very affordable there I can look at a longer trip. I need more time off of work!

Mileage Run: Short turn around trip tomorrow!

Tomorrow I am taking a very quick mileage run to Chicago and back on United. I used up the last of my vouchers before they expired and will spend roughly 2 hours in the lounge in ORD before coming back to Atlanta. I had Gold status with them and got upgraded both ways. Yay!

This one will not be as great as my first mileage run to San Diego via Boston a couple months ago but it is certainly better than throwing away the free money. I have never been to ORD airport and am looking forward to seeing how it compares to Atlanta since it is the second busiest airport in the world behind Atlanta.

I will have breakfast in Chicago and lunch in Atlanta!

Travel Day: Driving back to Atlanta

I flew down home on Saturday and now I am driving back home. My Dad wants to sell his truck and I agreed to help him. Atlanta is a much larger market than my hometown so I am bringing it up here to some friends in the car business to see if we can sell it. We both win since I don't have to buy a round trip ticket and he can sell it easier!

I had a great weekend of fireworks, excellent food, a little beach time, and of course time with the family (which is about twice a year these days). This will be my last long weekend until November when I go to Asia unless something else pops up between now and then.

Happy 4th to all!

Today I am in my home town of St. Simons Island, GA with my family. We are having a get together later and riding bikes down to the pier to watch the fireworks. It has been a good couple days off on the beach and relaxing. Driving back to Atlanta tomorrow.

Hope you all have a great holiday!

Travel: Off to South Georgia in First Class!

My upgrade cleared for my flight back home tomorrow on Delta. I am taking the 10AM flight down to Jacksonville, FL where my dad will pick us up. I hope I can talk the Sky Club agent out of some 300 point AMEX certificates if any are still around!

I will be there until July 5 when I am driving back a car my dad wants to sell. While there I will get some family and beach time. I am also going to try to go fishing again. I haven't done that in years!

Either way it will be nice to have a leisure trip out of Atlanta for a few days. Even though I have been on the road a lot I don't ever mind flying for fun travel!

Next mini-vacation: New York City!

I am just off my cruise and I am already booking another trip!

I finally convinced a friend of mine to come with my to New York City. He has never been, always wanted to go, and with my experience in the city from work we are going for a weekend. I used my $300 Delta voucher to buy my plane ticket and scored a 3-star room in SoHo for $115 per night for the weekend! New York is expensive but it doesn't have to be!

I will be there from April 8 - 10. There is so much to see that I always save something for the next time I go. My main goals this time are to show my friend the good stuff, have a coney dog on Coney Island, and go to one of the nicer restaurants in New York for an excellent meal. The balance of the time will be spent exploring the city and visiting with a friend who lives there.

I am already excited about the trip and am doing some more side work to get extra money to cover the extras costs I will incur for that weekend. With around 5 weeks to prepare I should be all set!

Bahamas Celebration Cruise: What it really costs!

I am back at work from my 3-day weekend and 2-night cruise aboard the Bahamas Celebration. Overall it was a good experience and to date it is the longest amount of time I have spent on a boat. I was expecting to notice the motion of the boat but it was perfectly still almost the entire trip!

My opinions: I got pretty much what I expected from this cruise. The drinks were a little high priced, sodas cost extra, and the food somewhat on the top end of the spectrum. They were constantly pushing the excursion tours and certain shops on the island (they get a cut from them of course!) and it was borderline excessive marketing. Other than that I enjoyed the change of pace and scenery and there was some good entertainment in the evenings. The weather was perfect the entire time with sun and 80F during the day.

The costs: I spent a little more than I expected but overall not too bad. Between my girlfriend and myself we spent a total of $282.03 during the 3 days away from home. Here is a rough breakdown of what we spent it on:

• Palm Beach Airport to Palm Beach Port and back: $41 shared van service ($10 per person each way and baggage tip)
• Atlanta Airport Parking: $27
• Ship Bar Tab: $142.64 (included drinks, mandatory tips, and $11.25 for sunburn spray for girlfriend)
• Freeport meals, drinks, and incidentals: $71.39 (we had lunch there and a few drinks on the beach)
• Freeport Share Van: $20 ($5 per person each way to and from harbour to beach)

On the surface it seems a little expensive but it is the Caribbean and prices are high there anyway.  These numbers also represent the costs for 2 travelers. It works out to around $47.00 per day per person. That is not bad at western prices! Our biggest cost was alcohol on the boat as expected. We went after the drink specials that were constantly changing so we had variety and kept the costs lower!

The all in cost of the entire vacation for 2 people was $793.63. Subtract airfare and the total is $551.13. That means the all in cost per day is $91.86 per day per person excluding flights. Having the majority of meals (except for 1) covered by the cruise made this much more affordable. We would have saved around $40 per day if we did not drink alcohol at all.  It is a good deal as most hotel rooms around would run you around $90 per day or more in The Bahamas.

I enjoyed the trip and would consider another trip like it again. For me personally I think 2-3 days on a cruise ship would be my maximum. Seeing the same surroundings and people 24 hours per day can wear on you over time. I feel I got good value for the over costs for the 2 of us to go. I wouldn't want to pay much more than we did the combined sale on the cruise and free airfare for my girlfriend made this possible.

For those looking for the cheapest way to try out the cruise scene I believe this is as good as it gets from a cost perspective. Your dollar commitment is not large compared to other cruises and you can "test the waters" before moving onto a longer cruise with a lot more dollar and time commitment. Give it a try and see for yourself!

Off to the Bahamas!

I am flying out tomorrow to catch my 2 night cruise to Freeport, Bahamas. At $79 + taxes per person I could not pass this up!

I am looking forward to some relaxing on the boat, some cold drinks, and a nice day on the beach with a forecasted 80 F and sunny blue skies when we arrive. This is my first cruise so I can add a new experience to my long list of travel memories.

This cruise is the direct result of my philosphy: Invest in experiences and memories and not more stuff. I will remember this cruise for the rest of my life. I have almost no memory of the stereo I bought in college then sold for $20 to buy books a year later.

My blog will be a little behind until I return and get caught up. I will write up a full report of what it cost me in total for the mini-vacation. Have a great weekend!

Quick Cambodia Update

First off: Cambodia is great! I love it here. The food, people, scenery, and culture are amazing!

I have found internet access here to be limited and unreliable so I am unable to post as much as I would like,

That said I have been to a deserted island, a beach town, the capital, and now I am writing from a smaller typical town in the northwest. I have taken a cooking course, ridden on a bamboo train, and done all sorts of other great things I could not do back in the USA.

This is what I live for. This is the type of things I want to see and do as opposed to sitting at a desk answering emails and fixing computers. Traveling every year like this keeps me focused on this goal of seeing the planet one country at a time.

Hope all is well back in the states!

Arrived in Cambodia!

After a long time in transit I am finally in Cambodia! Today I will be making my way down to the beach for some relaxation and unwinding from all my flights and my day in Seoul. It is summer-like weather here and I don't miss the cold one bit!

I will post updates from my travels here as time and internet access permits. I hear there is some wifi around but I am sure my access will be limited. That is ok because I am on vacation!