I’ll be honest – I was scared for this flight from Seattle to Singapore. It would be my first 13.5 hour flight in economy (I know, princess much?) and it was also basically double the length of my previous longest economy flight: 7 hours. I was worried and thought this flight would convince me to dive even deeper into travel hacking and never ride long-haul economy again. I shouldn’t have worried. This flight on EVA Air was great and solidified my place as an international economy passenger.
Continue reading “Review: EVA Air”
Category: Travel
A Retirement Prequel
My recent trip to Singapore was the first vacation in years that was more than a week chilling on the beach. The last similar trip I had was exploring Europe – mostly alone – for 2.5 weeks. Usually my Mom is interested in being in a luxury bubble and not actually learning about or exploring the local area. Singapore was different and it gave me an unexpected and unique insight into my life in retirement. Continue reading “A Retirement Prequel”
Singapore: A Travel Blog
SINGAPOREWelcome to Disneyland! Jk – it’s Singapore. And it’s basically a grown up Disneyland. I had no expectations when visiting Singapore, but was quickly blown away. I also realized that this is the first vacation I’ve taken in a few years that was not based on luxury and beach relaxation. Instead I was being a real explorer again! So I’ve decided to start a new series that catalogs tips I learned during my travels and how much it cost. Continue reading “Singapore: A Travel Blog”
NYC: My Old Stomping Ground
It was -13 degrees and understandably I was freezing. There was snow covering the hills of upstate New York. It was time to say goodbye to my partner’s family for the Christmas season and head home in the most indirect way possible 🙂 . Continue reading “NYC: My Old Stomping Ground”
Turning Down A Free Vacation
My Mom texted me the other day asking if I had already bought my tickets to work from her house for 2 weeks this summer. I replied that it’s only 6 months away so of course I have 🙂 . She said that she’d like to treat me to a long spa weekend in Phoenix during my time there. Continue reading “Turning Down A Free Vacation”
Frugal Mini Travel: Camping
We recently added a new hobby to our permanent repertoire. The stereotype of a Seattleite is a crunchy, liberal, outdoors person…and I must admit that’s pretty much accurate 🙂 . In Manhattan weekend activities included going to bars, going to bottomless mimosa brunch and complaining about your week. It was a bit of culture shock when we moved to Seattle because weekends are completely different. Continue reading “Frugal Mini Travel: Camping”
I Don’t Regret Spending $7,000 On A Plane Ticket
Now hold on! Hear me out. My Mom came to Seattle for my birthday and we started talking about money – as usual 🙂 . My favorite. My partner commented that while his values and spending have never really changed – mine have. And he cited as as example me spending $7,000 for a $21,000 roundtrip First Class ticket on the luxury airline Emirates to the Maldives while in my second year in NYC. While we were talking I realized something shocking: I don’t regret buying that plane ticket. Despite it being 35% of my current budget I don’t regret what I did. Let’s go back in time and investigate why. Continue reading “I Don’t Regret Spending $7,000 On A Plane Ticket”
How I Saved $1,912 With Travel Hacking In 2017
This year I flew to:
- Disneyland LA
- Phoenix
- Maine
- Thailand
- Atlanta
- Upstate New York
- Atlanta for Christmas
- (Planned) Singapore in February 2018
- (Planned) Ecuador in May 2018
Most of these trips have been domestic and I was able to find cheap flights so travel hacking was not necessary or beneficial. I also took understandably less trips since I was employed the whole year 🙂 (the horror!) Still, I was able to decrease my costs in the following ways:
Continue reading “How I Saved $1,912 With Travel Hacking In 2017”