Maui With Kids For Almost FREE!

Road To Hana - Amazing!

Think you can't travel to Maui on the cheap with kids? Think again. We spent more than a week in Maui for almost FREE. That's right. Here's how we did it and what we did while we were there. We are a family of 5, but for this trip we just took our 8 year old.

The other two kids went on separate trips, one went to Sweden with her cousin and one went on a baseball trip with his grandpa. 

So when we asked our 8 year old where do you want to go? She said Maui. We booked 3 round trip tickets on American Airlines with miles. 25,000 points each. Easy. 

Then we booked an airbnb.com for 3 nights in Kihei. There are tons of available rentals and since there were only 3 of us, we booked a one bedroom, one bathroom with full kitchen across from the beach. The unit had a pool too. Very convenient. Safeway was down the street so we ate most of our meals at home. We did dine at Coconut's Fish Cafe in Kihei and had probably the best fish tacos ever. And we are from San Diego so that says a lot.

Coconut's in Kihei, Maui - Yummy fish tacos

We took a full day and drove the Road To Hana. This is something we would never do with all 3 kids, but with just 1 it was totally doable. My advice start early like 6am. It is a long drive and day. Think like 12 hours long kind of a day. Bring changes of clothes, towels, snacks, couple pairs of shoes and check out the app tours on itunes or android. They will talk you through the drive and tell you exactly where to stop and where to skip. Be sure to pick up some banana bread along the way.

While in Kihei, we took a one day snorkeling trip to Molokini. We like to spend money on experiences and then use miles/points for travel and hotels. Snorkeling was a bit cloudy as it was very windy that day, but enjoyable. 

Snorkeling in Molokini

After a few nights in Kihei, we moved to Kanapali. Both my husband and I opened Chase Hyatt credit cards so we each had 2 FREE nights at any Hyatt. We cashed them in for 4 nights at the Hyatt Kanapali. Usually you have to pay for parking, but the machine was broken so Hyatt comped our parking for all 4 nights too. Nice. 

Hotels at Kanapali

While staying at the Hyatt, we drove to Lahaina for breakfast, a bit farther north is a nice hike to the geyser and of course, Ululani's for shaved ice. 

Great breakfast place in Lahaina

Nice walk in northern Maui to see the geyser

Otherwise, we just hung at the Hyatt, enjoyed the activities and the beach. The problem with the big hotels is that you are captive to the high prices in the restaurants. We utilized the happy hour at the Hyatt for dinner one night and stocked the in room fridge with sandwich makings and breakfast items. We also attended the luau one night which included dinner. Expensive, but our daughter had never attended a luau so it was totally worth it.

Hyatt Kanapali offers bird visits, daily crafts, penguin and koi feeding

Our favorite, shaved ice at Ulelanis

So total cost of the trip:
Flights 75,000 miles on American for 3 round trip flights LAX-Maui
Hotel   3 nights in airbnb for $100 each night, 4 nights at the Hyatt FREE
Car - rented from Budget for $350 for the week
Food/Activities $1000

We rent out our home while we are on vacation so we probably made money on this trip. Not too bad. 

Southwest drops fares to Havana!

If you are thinking about heading to Havana on Southwest Airlines, book now! The airline just dropped the price of flights to $54 one way or 1,872 points. The return cost $86, but the same 1,872 points. The website says taxes are just $5.60, but when you total the cost of the flight, it calculates taxes and fees at $47.
Southwest is starting flights to Varadero on November 12th and flights to Havana on December 12th.
Exciting!

Woohoo! Southwest opens flights to Cuba

Southwest Airlines announced today that flights will begin Dec. 12th to Havana, Cuba. And right now, you can reserve a one way flight for just 2,232 points + $41.46 in fees. If you choose to pay for the flight, it's just $91 each way. Wow!
Add in your companion pass and BAM!
I booked a round trip flight on Southwest from San Diego to Fort Lauderdale anticipating flights opening to Havana. I booked my Florida flight for just 8,800 points round trip and I can add my husband on the companion pass.
So for 11,000 points, my husband and I can fly from SD to Havana round trip. Awesome!
However, I booked our Florida trip for Dec 1-9. Oops, I am a week early.
But I'm finding flights from Fort Lauderdale to Havana on Spirit Airlines for $150 round trip. Jet Blue anticipates flights to Havana this fall, but they are not open yet. 
I'll keep you posted on how we solve this!

Answer To Reader's Question Re: Southwest

A friend told me the other day that she is 35,000 points short of earning a companion pass this year. She earned the first 50,000 points by opening a Southwest credit card and then the rest she earned through spend.
So she asked me what she should do.
Even though the end of the year is not the best time to earn a companion pass, she is so close that I thought she might want to go for it.
But she has to act quickly so the points post before the end of the year or she will be starting over in Jan.
When you earn the companion pass in January, it is good for the entire year you earn it and the following year. So you are essentially getting 2 years to use the pass.
If you earn it in December, you get it for the remaining time in the year you earn and the following year. So you are essentially getting it for 1 year and a few weeks.
But the flip side is that it is better to earn it for 1 year than no years.
So I advised her to open the second personal Southwest card (Southwest offers a premier and plus card). The cards have a 40,000 bonus with $1,000 spend.
OR she could open a small business Southwest card. The current offer is 50,000 points with $2,000 minimum spend.  Any small business qualifies you for the business card. So if you sell something on Etsy or Ebay or rent your house, you can qualify by using your social security number.
It's a good idea to separate business and personal expenses anyways.

IHG Doubles Points Until Tomorrow

Until Friday, you can purchase IHG points and double your bonus. If you need to top off your account or you are saving for a particular hotel, this might be a good opportunity. I don't usually buy points or miles, but it may make sense depending on your plans.
I researched hotels near the colleges that my daughter is applying to since we may need to visit some of them next year. For some cities, it made sense to buy some points to top off my account, for others, it broke even and for some, it would have cost me more to buy points and then book my hotel. Yikes!
That being said, I only have 5,238 IHG points. It's not my favorite brand, but I subscribe to their offers and opinion survey so in the past few months, they have awarded me 2,000 points.
I haven't decided if I will top off my account to 10,000 or 15,000 which could net me a FREE night or 3 nights if a hotel I'm interested in appears on the point break list. The point break list comes out quarterly and offers hotels for 5,000 per night. They sell out quickly though and are usually in out of the way places.

It's the final countdown!

For the past 2 years, I have had a Southwest Companion Pass which is one of the best values out there. It's a buy 1 get 1 free pass on Southwest airlines. You can book a ticket with miles or buy one and your companion flies free anywhere Southwest flies. I went to the east coast to look at colleges, my daughter flew for free. I went to Washington DC for a family event, my son flew for free. I even took a quick trip up north, my son flew for free. I am planning a trip to Cuba in December, my husband will fly for free.
Awesome!
Quick tip about the Southwest companion pass,  you want to earn it as close to the beginning of the year as possible as it is good for the year you earn it and the following year.
You earn the pass when you collect 110,000 Southwest points in one calendar year. 
Easy if you apply for 2 Southwest credit cards with bonuses of 50,000 points each. You can apply for two if you have a small business or spouse or child over 18.
But how do you get a companion pass for another 2 years when you cannot qualify for a Southwest credit card because you already had these cards and can't qualify for them again.
Not so easy.
But here's my plan. Marriott offers vacation packages that include 7 nights in a hotel and enough points for the airline tickets. They work with a variety of airlines so if you are planning a trip somewhere and have or can earn lots of Marriott points, this might work for you. The package I am focusing on costs 270,000 Marriott points. It will give me 7 nights in a category 1-5 Marriott, but more importantly it will give me 110,000 Southwest points. BAM!
So today I got an email update letting me know that I now have 180,177 Marriott points in my account. That is from 2 Marriott cards (one personal, one business), minimum spend on those cards and additional spend. My husband also got a Marriott card with the 80,000 bonus and he added me as an authorized user for another 7,500. He can share his Marriott points with me 50,000 this year and another 50,000 next year.
So before the end of the year, he will share 50,000 points with me bringing my total to 230,177 and then in January he can transfer the rest of bring my total to 270,000. At that point, I can buy the package and BAM, companion pass.
If we find we need more Marriott points to upgrade to a higher category hotel, we can transfer Starwood points now at 1:3. Since Marriott and Starwood merged last week. I did  a quick search and found beach resort hotels in Nevis/St. Kitts and Panama that looked inviting. We would only need 10,000 Starwood points to upgrade to category 6 and another 10,000 to category 7. If we decide to go for it and upgrade all the way to category 9, it would only cost us 40,000 Starwood points. Tempting.
Cross your fingers and I'll keep you posted!

*Remember anytime you get a credit card, immediately sign up for auto payment. You do not want to incur late fees and you want to pay off your credit card each month.

Iquitos, Peru

Riding on a tuk tuk to the bus station in Nauta

Iquitos, Peru is a throwback to another time! There are very few cars in the town even though the town has almost 500,000 people. Instead, they use a vehicle called a tuk tuk. These are similar to the tuk tuks you see in Thailand, but different.
What struck me was how the streets look with no cars and just tuk tuks.

Plaza de Armas in Iquitos

Iquitos is on the Amazon river and the humidity and heat runs high. However, it's a town so no wild animals running around. Though we did hear a nasty cat fight overnight from our hotel.
Be sure to find a hotel with air conditioning. If you can find one with a pool, then you will be super happy.
Hotels are pretty cheap and basic. Most people just stay here overnight while waiting for a flight to/from Lima or shuttle to take them to the jungle.
We found a hotel on Booking.com and got 10% cash back.

Tuk tuks are front riders instead of side riders like in Southeast Asia

View of the Amazon from the main street in Iquitos

 There are some side trips to do while in Iquitos - a butterfly farm and a stingray feeding area. We did not partake in any of these and instead just chose to walk around, eat a meal and visit a local supermarket.
The market had a hot meal area inside where you could have bought a meal for cheap. We opted for some snacks and drinks from the market instead.
Bottom line, Iquitos is not a destination, but if you have a stop over, there are some options.