Category: Travel Reviews

Review: Blue Car Rental – Iceland’s Best Rental Car Company?

by A Purple Life, posted in Travel, Travel Reviews

So I kept hearing about the beauty of Iceland (I guess their marketing push with IcelandAir worked 😉 ) . As a result, I put it on my list to visit at some point. However, after four years of retirement and being a nomad that moves around the world every month, my list of places to visit has been growing instead of shrinking.

I wasn’t sure when I would be able to fit Iceland into my plans, but then I was planning a trip to Europe and had a eureka moment after looking at flights. IcelandAir flights fit all my criteria and let me add a stopover of up to 7 days in Iceland to each flight for no extra money. Nice 🙂 . So I was sold and my trip to Iceland was solidified as a precursor to my mainland Europe adventures. Continue reading “Review: Blue Car Rental – Iceland’s Best Rental Car Company?” →

Is It Worth It? – The Blue Lagoon: Iceland’s Most Famous Hot Spring

by A Purple Life, posted in Reviews, Travel, Travel Reviews

Iceland is known as the land of ice and fire because it has both some of the largest glaciers in Europe and some of the world’s most active volcanoes. Part of having so much geothermal activity from the latter means there’s an abundance of natural hot springs around the country. And The Blue Lagoon is one of those hot springs.

I’d say that it’s Iceland’s most famous since I had heard of it many times before ever visiting the country. It was the only geothermal pool I knew the name of before even arriving. So when my Partner and I were planning this trip with my Mom, we decided to check it out.

My Mom had visited The Blue Lagoon about a decade before during her first trip to Iceland and I was cautiously curious because it appeared that the only reason I had heard of The Blue Lagoon was because they are very good at marketing, which does not always (or even usually in my experience) mean that it’s worth it to visit. Continue reading “Is It Worth It? – The Blue Lagoon: Iceland’s Most Famous Hot Spring” →

Review: Greyhound РMontr̩al, Canada to Boston, MA

by A Purple Life, posted in Reviews, Travel, Travel Reviews

As you may know, I had a less than stellar experience riding a ‘Greyhound’ bus to Canada last month that turned out to be an uncomfortable FlixBus and was also 1.5 hours late. It was a last minute trip that we booked a month beforehand because our Amtrak tickets that I had reserved about a year before, no longer existed. If you want all those details I wrote about them here: Continue reading “Review: Greyhound – Montréal, Canada to Boston, MA” →

Review: 33 Hours In Singapore Air Business Class – $7,734 of Flights for $75 [Part 2]

by A Purple Life, posted in Reviews, Travel, Travel Hacking, Travel Reviews

This is the second part of a very long post about my experience flying 33 hours in Singapore Air Business Class. It was a long and convoluted road that led me and my Mom to this surprisingly long, but enjoyable adventure. In case you want all those details, the first post is here:

So let’s get back into it! When I left off, I had just landed in Frankfurt, Germany from Singapore. Continue reading “Review: 33 Hours In Singapore Air Business Class – $7,734 of Flights for $75 [Part 2]” →

Review: 33 Hours In Singapore Air Business Class – $7,734 of Flights for $75 [Part 1]

by A Purple Life, posted in Reviews, Travel, Travel Hacking, Travel Reviews

A series of unfortunate events happened to my Mom and my Singapore Air flights to and from Australia/New Zealand in the fall of 2023.

As I mentioned in previous posts, we had planned to enjoy 24+ hours in the wild Singapore Air A380 First Class Suites, but instead, because of changes to Singapore’s fleet, we experienced their First Class for the first time, had a shorter visit in the First Class Suites and then experienced this fascinating 33 hour itinerary in Business Class. Continue reading “Review: 33 Hours In Singapore Air Business Class – $7,734 of Flights for $75 [Part 1]” →

Slow Travel Review: San Jos̩, Costa Rica РThe Land Of Pura Vida

by A Purple Life, posted in Budget Check-In, Finance, Food, Reviews, Spending, Travel, Travel Reviews

So I mentioned in my monthly recaps while in Costa Rica all the reasons that I chose to move there for over 2 months, but one of those was because I was shocked at how affordable it was to get there.

I’ve worked out that my flights are usually $200 one-way anywhere in the US. I’m able to get those prices even for longer flights because I book early and I am able to plan my travels around when flight prices are lower. However, despite Costa Rica being way farther than any location in the US, it only cost me about $200 to get there.

Specifically I paid $201.78 on American Airlines to fly from Albany, NY to San José, Costa Rica and $232.34 to fly from San José to Austin, Texas on COPA Airlines to see the Solar Eclipse. Continue reading “Slow Travel Review: San José, Costa Rica – The Land Of Pura Vida” →

Review: Greyhound/FlixBus РAlbany, NY to Montr̩al, Canada

by A Purple Life, posted in Reviews, Travel, Travel Reviews

I’m here today with another travel saga for you. But first, I need to set the stage. In my retirement I’ve been chasing the sun. I prefer to go places that are 70 and sunny and move around the country and the world following that climate.

A few years ago I realized that even the Northeastern US was getting a bit too hot for me in the summer and I knew I never wanted to experience a hot as hell Georgia summer again if I could help it 🙂 . So I looked for another destination. Enter: Montréal, Canada 🙂 . Continue reading “Review: Greyhound/FlixBus – Albany, NY to Montréal, Canada” →

Review: Qantas Domestic Business Class

by A Purple Life, posted in Reviews, Travel, Travel Hacking, Travel Reviews

Here’s another travel saga for you 🙂 . So my Mom and I originally booked a non-stop flight from Cairns (CNS) to Sydney (SYD) as part of our trip Down Under. However, a few months before the flight, we got an email that the non-stop flight we had booked no longer existed and we were now stopping in Brisbane along the way.

Later research would uncover that we wouldn’t be able to make the other non-stop flights on that day. So it’s good that we had built wiggle room into our plan because we had just turned one flight into two. Continue reading “Review: Qantas Domestic Business Class” →