Travel is life
The Mrs. and I live for travel. We are two wild at heart wanderlusters who were lucky enough to find each other on the other side of the world and fall in love. As a couple we’ve been to 16 countries together and many more separately. So in our house passports are always withIn arm’s reach and our matching travel bags can be tarmac ready in no time. Whenever a school holiday looms in the not so distant future, we open our calendars, Tripadvisor, Skyscanner, Momondo, Hopper,Hotels.com and AirBnB apps and get to work. We always gauge how far the intended destination is from Shanghai and factor the travel time. The thing is you don’t want to spend more than a quarter of your vacation in transit. Travel days always leave you overtired. That’s why Toya and I have seen so much of Asia. Proximity. It’s easier to stay on this side of the world while minimizing travel time and maximizing our vacation time. We never book packages or use travel agents. We find it’s easier and cost-effective to book tickets on trusted airlines while booking hotels separately. When booking our airplane tickets we try to stick with One World affiliates. But sometimes you gotta go with cheapest ticket. Be sure to clear cookies from your computer before searching new flights to ensure the best prices. If you’re a smart and diligent traveler you’ll want to take note: There is a science to booking a flight .The number one mistake we see is that most travelers book too early. Unless you are planning travel for high-traffic days, like Christmas or Chinese New Year, you stand the best chance for the lowest possible fare 45 days out for domestic travel and 60 days out for international. Other wise you’ll almost always pay a higher price. And that is no bueno. .
Buy your ticket on Wednesday at 1 am, just one hour after Tuesday midnight. But remember, that’s midnight in the time zone where the airline is based (know when to call for all US airlines). Why Tuesday you ask? Most low airfares seem to appear between Sunday night and Monday night. And then, when people book those fares, they have 24 hours in which to purchase them. At midnight Tuesday, all the discount fares that weren’t purchased come flooding back into the airline’s computer systems. And that’s when you, the savvy traveler strike! Then you sit back like a boss and do your own renditon Mr. Burns’ “Excellent” on your discounted fare success! Be sure to catch flight-glitch fares through our girl RachelRachel travels or Travelnoire.
So now that you’ve gotten the hard part of of the way, here comes the fun of booking accommodations! Go back and click on the clear history/cookies. Nobody wants nosey cookies tracking your searches. We are avid users of Hotels.com ( we love customer loyalty programs). We find hotels we like, then take a look at traveler reviews and pics on Tripadvirsor. If you’re traveling only in Asia, Asiarooms.com is a great site. You can snag a deal occasionally on Booking.com. Now for the solo/young/thrifty travelers there are additional options such as Hostelworld.com and Couchsurfing.com . These are both forums that allow you to link up with like minded travelers around the world at a minimal cost. Now we on the other hand, are a married couple in our thirties and are way past our hostel-hopping and couch surfing prime.
We swear by AirBnB.com. Who doesn’t like getting a unique apartment with your choice of amenities for the same price and usually less than you’d pay for a hotel? If you’re traveling in a group AirBnB all the way!
As far as planning in advance that’s where we draw the line. We may ask a few friends for suggestions if they’ve been to our intended destination. We never book excursion packages because neither one of us enjoy vacationing on someone else’s timetable. Once we arrive in a city we grab a few maps and brochures at the airport, go drop of our bags , then find some local cafe or restaurant. Over good food and laughs,brochures, maps and apps open we construct and compare our mini vacay bucket lists. Our plans are never set in stone and usually change with our moods. We wouldn’t want to leave a pop-up art festival that we randomly stumbled upon while looking for the perfect cafe to people watch , because some ” must-see” monument on Tripadvisor’s top 100’s closing hours are rapidly approaching. We enjoy the spontaneity and serendipitous adventures of vacation. Now for some of you type A personalities, this kind of laid back travel itinerary many not work for you. But it does for us.
Oh, and something we wished someone had told us about before we booked our Euro tour was, travel reward point credit cards. We LOVE our Chase Sapphire Preferred card. We book all of our flights and accommodations with it. Which gives you double points for travel and dining. ( we told you how much we LOVE rewards points) We pay it off before we even go on our trip just so we’re in the clear and can spend our cash on activities, shopping and souvenirs!
We know some of you are thinking someday. Why not today. Now more than ever there are online networks and communities filled with wanderlusters just like you! Get on Instagram, find Facebook travel groups. Follow fellow travelers. Ask questions. Who knows who you’ll connect with. You may meet up in Rome for a coffee or cliff dive in Koh Samui. One of our faves is Nomadness Travel Tribe which connects travelers and kindred spirits. Hosting yearly trips and monthly meet ups. So if you yearn for something more in than the 20 block radius of your city , why wait? There’s always going to be some excuse not to go, more money, more time off, a travel partner. The truth is if you really want to travel, you’ll make it a priority. Don’t buy that new pair shoes, the most expensive phone plan, or limit yourself to two lattes a week at Starbucks instead of five. You’ll be surprised how quickly that wanderlust fund adds up.
When we travel we see ourselves and the world more clearly. So stop saying someday, book a ticket and go. The world awaits…