About three years ago, I asked my wife what she thought of the two of us and her brother taking a trip somewhere in Europe. She was quiet for a bit, as I hoped the pause was her convincing herself she could do the long flight, because at the time, she was very anxious about even the shortest of flights. She countered that with both of us just a couple years fresh out of college, and a couple of miles away from needing a new vehicle, that the money required to plan a trip like that could be spent in more urgent areas. While my heart sank a little, I knew she was right about the financial piece. I agreed and we left it at that.
But, if you know me at all, even before my wanderlust took full affect, I very rarely let things go that easily. I thought, what does it cost to go to Europe? And what is the least amount of money that it would take to make this happen? That question led me deep down the rabbit hole of Google. I mean, you see ads headlining social media talking about ‘free trips’. I was on a mission to see if there was any truth to these before I laid this desire to rest.
I’ll skip to the end of the story, we never did go to Europe after this conversation. I’m sure we will one day. But here is a summary of the major trips we have taken. In 2017, I went with Emma’s brother to Japan and Hawaii. We stayed at the nicest hotels imaginable in Tokyo. The next year, I took in breathtaking views at Macchu Picchu in Peru. And in between then and now, we’ve been to California, Colorado, Manitoba, and Texas multiple times. We just finished up a ten day long trip starting in New York, which finished up in Jamaica.
I’ll cut to the answer to the question I know everyone is wondering. Was it free? The short answer is this: Not all of it, but some of it was, and the parts that weren’t were incredibly cheap. As much as my travel costing next to nothing seems too good to be true, it really is one of those few things that actually works. For less than the average cost of a very uncomfortable trip (think Griswold family vacation), I have often been able to enjoy some of the best hotels, and best food that the greatest cities in the world have to offer. That is what I am going to dive into explaining in part of this blog. The other part? I am still figuring that out, and it will likely evolve as it goes along. For now, this is a place where I will post reviews of hotels, restaurants and experiences I have had in my travels. This is not my full time job, in fact, before this blog, I have two kids, a wife, two dogs, and a full time job. So while I hope to maintain regular content, the reality is that my trips are spread out, and as those will determine the frequency of content on this site, there is a good chance the next few months may involve more travel tips, reviews of some recent trips, and probably a lot of wishing I was writing these posts someplace warmer. As I write this I am looking forward to the temperature breaking 60 degrees this week, for the first time in over six months.