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A 2 week trip to Thailand for $1K including airfare? That is ridiculously amazing. Were the points you used to book primarily through charging expenses to the credit cards? Do you mind sharing how many points/miles you had to redeem for that $145 flight? That's insane.
I also use FF miles and have paid for a trip to Spain with those miles. Miles came from a combination of some continental US flights and credit card use. Spent tons in shopping, but that was my choice. Food, travel and hotel/hostal very reasonable there. I frequently buy a Eurail pass which discounts rail travel throughout the country and to / from other parts of Europe. Regional buses are VERY cheap, maybe $3.00 to go to another town. Travel is PUNCTUAL in Europe also.
I've rented an apartment in Salamanca for several weeks at very reasonable prices (multiple years). Cheaper than a hotel. It can be done. Next time I go I will do it even cheaper. No (or very limited) shopping. Just plan it well in advance. Also, steer clear of 'taxis'. For example, why pay more than $40 to get to the airport in Madrid when there is an EXCELLENT shuttle that picks you up and costs under $20.00? No tip required or expected! Safe, professional, courteous, convenient, immaculate, punctual. Awesome. Also, there are always other travelers and you can easily arrange to share a ride to/from a hotel.
My last trip was to Puerto Rico, again, FF miles. Hotel was expensive, but it was the only major expense, and I only booked the hotel because the professional conference was there and there was a bit of a discount. It was convenient. Cab was standard US cost, not prohibitive, and I shared the ride.
My next trip will be to Spain again and I have enough miles for 1/2 the price of a R/T ticket. These miles are solely from credit card use. (I don't use the credit card much, either.) I am familiar with my apartment owners in Spain and will stay there again. I know the country now, so as far as necessities, I will only need a little money for food/museums on off days- most museums have free entry days, the occasional special event/show.
I think a lot has to do with being familiar with the possibilities and not just going along with a travel agent's recommendations. After all, they are in the business for profit. Last time I used a travel agent my flights in Paris were timed too close together and I missed one trying to get from one gate in CDG to another. Had to pay for a partial flight, but the French ticket agent was kind and did her best for me. I was so so late and jet lagged for work the next day! From then on, I made my own arrangements.
^You might be the type who needs to just fly to the nearest tropical place with a beach and just stay there and chill for a few days or a week. I remember a vacation in Puerto Rico where I mostly got up, had breakfast, and went to the pool with my book and stayed there all day. Wonderful days. Somewhere where I had no obligations, the weather was gorgeous, and what I needed was there.
LOL. This reminds me of my very first vacation as an adult. I told the travel agent I wanted to go to a place where they didn't speak English or Spanish! She suggested the French island of Guadeloupe and I loved it. At that time, I paid $237.00 (HONESTLY!) for nine nights and eight days at this great hotel and took a book and laid out on the beach. I don't think this price would be available nowadays, but who knows? With all the incentives in credit cards and other businesses, coupons online, maybe one just needs to be 'creative'. I paid about $20.00 to see a concert of the island's hottest singing group of that time (I had just bought their CD on recommendation by a local and literally turned around in the music store and saw the poster announcing the concert (Kassav was the group) for that very night- the best!), bought lots of French casual wear, and ate fabulous fare. (Overspent on the credit card on the clothing, but...) The hotel was amazing, I will never forget every morning being greeted with an amazing continental breakfast - freshly baked croissants, passion fruit juice and coffee and tropical birds serenading me and joining me from the lush jungle below. OMG! And the Creole food...Heaven... Long list of memories and I returned the following year and had a similar great experience! The flights at that time cost me $1700.00 R/T which I thought was very expensive, but I really needed to get away and I had worked Summer School that year just for this trip.
I think most people do most of the traveling when they are young working adults without children. That is when I did most of my traveling. I usually did one longer trip to Europe and a few shorter, long weekend trips in the US, usually ski trips... It is possible to travel relatively inexpensively internationally from the US. This thread had a lot of good suggestions. These would be my main points for how to spend less money but see more:
1) Do not travel during the pick tourist season to the most popular destinations. These would be July/August and New Year/Christmas timeframes. Air fare and everything else is way more expensive and you see less since everything is even more crowded.
2) Take public transportation/walk everywhere. Avoid restaurants/stores that are primarily used by tourists.
3) Stay in the apartment rentals instead of the hotel that can be rented from HomeAway.com, AirBNB, etc... Very often you can save a lot of money and you have access to kitchen, etc...
4) Eat out in the restaurants once a day at most, perhaps every other day. Try to go to restaurants with the least amount of tourists.
The rest of the time, buy food in the stores/markets and either have picnic lunches or do some quick cooking/heating up in your apartment.
Some people drag their children with them to sight seeing trips. I really don't see the point of doing that until a kid is at least 7-9 years old and can learn at least a bit about different cultures and history. We took my four year old to Montreal and Quebec and it was a bit unpleasant for all of us. He was often tired, hungry, wanted to use a bathroom, etc... His favorite part of the trip was riding subway and Montreal and change of Guard at Quebec's Citadel. I think he could've had more fun at the beach vacation.
I've done most of my traveling post retirement! I have a steady retirement income from 30 years in my field and I had also saved extra in a retirement fund. I actually spent quite a bit on travel right after retirement and while I've thought back that I 'should have' ...I don't regret one moment of the five years I traveled to Spain.
I'm recently retired & want to head to Spain & Portugal for the first time this year, any recommendations on where to go that's good value for $$? Some cafe life, music (not clubbing!) & good local restaurants plus nice strolls would do me well, considering it for a snowbird destination if it works out. Don't want the crowds of "lager louts" acting out near me though.
A 2 week trip to Thailand for $1K including airfare? That is ridiculously amazing. Were the points you used to book primarily through charging expenses to the credit cards? Do you mind sharing how many points/miles you had to redeem for that $145 flight? That's insane.
Please... it was First Class airfare!
Iirc it was about a 130-150K point redemption on AA, that has gone up quite a bit just recently though. I had done that trip with business class rewards several times & thought I would like to see how the 1% travels, glad I got it in before the bump.
If you pay attention to CC bonus offers you can come up with a few with 50K points for sign up & minimum spend. I typically get one or two each year, I know of people that seriously grab many more than that but I have more limited resources these days, retired you know. (Also if you are in the market for a house or new car soon I wouldn't go crazy, there is a technique to do it though.)
Let me also say here that the FF programs have diminished so much recently that it may be better ultimately to just get a card that will just rebate you cash these days, I haven't done homework on that since I have some more miles to spend yet.
Get the 40-50K bonuses & then put every penny you spend on the cards from that day forward. Don't buy anything you normally wouldn't have & ALWAYS pay the full amount when the monthly bill comes, never carry a charge.
It may come as a surprise to you how much money you spend when a bill for everything comes due each month, so this is also a good way to get a handle on your budgeting. But again, I can't overemphasize that you don't use cash unless it's absolutely impossible to use your CC. I like the Starwood AMEX because after $20K is spent they will kick in an additional 5K points when I transfer the points to AA, my preferred carrier. But you need at least one Visa/MC card also.
In the past when I had income my preferred strategy was I would wait until I could find online the cheapest flight to a place I really wanted to go, this could take a few months, & then book it & use my ff points to upgrade to a business class ticket. This would allow me to collect points while flying business for cheap.
Just last week I got a notice of USA - Malaysia/Thailand round trips (UAL) for $540 which included all fees & taxes. Nowadays tho' the points to upgrade have increased plus there is a $600 per leg fee as well, so that's about $1740 for the business class, a good deal for a 24hr plane ride but not in my budget this year. But if I were younger my back would handle that long flight in coach for that price... & then book that $20-25/ngt accomodations 2 blocks off the main drag & there you would have 10-11 days for about $1K without any FF points used.
SE Asia is really cheap, so is Spain, Portugal, Greece, India, Latin America... Argentina is great too. You can go to these places & find cheap accomodations & eat cheaply & spend less money almost than if you stayed at home sometimes. Find out where the Dollar is strong now; use Air BnB & find local expat forums for tips on where to eat & hang out.
Me and my husband are in our late 20s. We just try hard to save up (means we normally don't go out to eat, don't buy bunch of crap, etc.). I like all-inclusive deals, even though this is might be the most expensive way to travel. But because we go on a vacation once a year, I like to have the luxury not worrying about anything, it's very relaxing. However, Im gonna look more into doing longer international trips, and rent a place instead of going to a resort, and eat locally.
Are you talking about resorts in Mexico?
All-inclusive deals seem to be only popular in Mexico.
Iirc it was about a 130-150K point redemption on AA, that has gone up quite a bit just recently though. I had done that trip with business class rewards several times & thought I would like to see how the 1% travels, glad I got it in before the bump.
If you pay attention to CC bonus offers you can come up with a few with 50K points for sign up & minimum spend. I typically get one or two each year, I know of people that seriously grab many more than that but I have more limited resources these days, retired you know. (Also if you are in the market for a house or new car soon I wouldn't go crazy, there is a technique to do it though.)
Let me also say here that the FF programs have diminished so much recently that it may be better ultimately to just get a card that will just rebate you cash these days, I haven't done homework on that since I have some more miles to spend yet.
Get the 40-50K bonuses & then put every penny you spend on the cards from that day forward. Don't buy anything you normally wouldn't have & ALWAYS pay the full amount when the monthly bill comes, never carry a charge.
It may come as a surprise to you how much money you spend when a bill for everything comes due each month, so this is also a good way to get a handle on your budgeting. But again, I can't overemphasize that you don't use cash unless it's absolutely impossible to use your CC. I like the Starwood AMEX because after $20K is spent they will kick in an additional 5K points when I transfer the points to AA, my preferred carrier. But you need at least one Visa/MC card also.
In the past when I had income my preferred strategy was I would wait until I could find online the cheapest flight to a place I really wanted to go, this could take a few months, & then book it & use my ff points to upgrade to a business class ticket. This would allow me to collect points while flying business for cheap.
Just last week I got a notice of USA - Malaysia/Thailand round trips (UAL) for $540 which included all fees & taxes. Nowadays tho' the points to upgrade have increased plus there is a $600 per leg fee as well, so that's about $1740 for the business class, a good deal for a 24hr plane ride but not in my budget this year. But if I were younger my back would handle that long flight in coach for that price... & then book that $20-25/ngt accomodations 2 blocks off the main drag & there you would have 10-11 days for about $1K without any FF points used.
SE Asia is really cheap, so is Spain, Portugal, Greece, India, Latin America... Argentina is great too. You can go to these places & find cheap accomodations & eat cheaply & spend less money almost than if you stayed at home sometimes. Find out where the Dollar is strong now; use Air BnB & find local expat forums for tips on where to eat & hang out.
I love Thailand, and affordability is just one of the factors I love it. I had great time in Phuket and I want to vacation in Phuket every years if I'm not afraid to fly.
The turbulence is pretty bad in Thailand, I guess it has something to do with Intertropical convergence zone(ITCZ).
Fear of flight is the No.1 reason holding me back from travels. Money is always a consideration but I can somehow manage to save enough money for a modest trip.
All-inclusive deals seem to be only popular in Mexico.
Incorrect. There are all-inclusive resorts all over the world. I'm going to one next month and it's nowhere near Mexico.
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For US folks-how did you get the time off? Did you negotiate that up front when you took the job? My last company I had really great leave, but couldn't take it because of the work load/schedule. Now that I have a new job with 6-month probation and no leave until that is over, I am kicking myself I didn't use it. Had 3 weeks of unused leave when I left my last company and took a huge hit when it was paid out to me.
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my preferred strategy was I would wait until I could find online the cheapest flight to a place I really wanted to go, this could take a few months, & then book it & use my ff points to upgrade to a business class ticket. This would allow me to collect points while flying business for cheap. 
