Amazon Discount Until Midnight Tonight!

If you hurry, you can get a 17% discount from Amazon. Until 11:59pm PST 2/22/17, enter the code "BIGTHANKS" in the promo code space and get the discount. You must have at least $50 in your cart of items bought from Amazon OR you can buy a $50 gift card. However, the gift card cannot be an Amazon gift card.
But in case you didn't know, you can buy physical and electronic gift cards to dozens of retailers including Uber, Chipolte, The Gap, AMC Theatres, Panera and much more.
Only one per Amazon account. I just tried and got a $50 Chipolte gift card for $41.37. That's like one free burrito!

Cheap Travel To Mexico City!

If you are looking for somewhere interesting to go and super cheap, try Mexico City. The Hampton Inn Hotel and Suites Mexico City Centro Historico is a category 2 hotel so it costs just 10,000 Hilton points per night and includes breakfast.
You know how much I love breakfast included.
This is a fabulous deal.
Plus if you have a Southwest companion pass, you and a friend can fly to Mexico City for less than 20,000 points. From San Diego, it's just 11,000 points for you and a friend. From New York La Guardia, it was just under 20,000.
In Mexico City, check out the Teotihuacan Pyramids, anthropology museum, floating canals of Xochimilco and the centro historico. Plus eat your fill of tacos!
Adios.

Starwood Bonus Offer Increased!

If you want Starwood points, which I consider one of the best deals out there, you might want to take advantage of this increased offer.  25,000 points when you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months, but with this offer, if you spend another $2,000 in the first 6 months, they will give you another 10,000 points. This offer ends April 5th 2017.

What can you do with 35,000 Starwood points?
1. Starwood has dozens of airline partners and some of them offer a 5,000 bonus when you transfer 20,000 points. So 35,000 points could translate into 40,000 American miles or Kris Flyer miles (my new favorite workaround to book United flights).
2. 35,000 Starwood points could net you 6 nights in a category 3 hotel or 2 rooms for 2 nights and 1 room for 1 night.
3. OR 1 night at a category 9 hotel.

Now imagine if you and your spouse took advantage of this offer, what could 70,000 Starwood points get you?

1. 70,000 points = 85,000 American miles or Kris Flyer miles (one way to Europe with Kris Flyer miles costs 27,500 miles so this is almost 2 round trip tickets)
2. 12 nights in a category 3 hotel - Starwood gives you a 5th night free when you book 4 nights with award points. OR 2 rooms for 6 nights in a category 3 hotel.
3. OR 3 nights in a category 9 luxury hotel

Not too bad. Remember you are just leveraging the spending you are doing anyway. No added money to your budget. Now that's what I call almost FREE family travel.

Taking the Chunnel this summer? Book now!

If you are planning to take the train from London to Paris or vice versa this summer, you should book your tickets now.
I got mine this week for just $65 per ticket. A friend of mine waited until the last minute last summer and ended up paying $200 per ticket.

A search of a random date in July 2017 turned up seats anywhere from $59-$89. You can buy them on http://www.eurostar.com/us-en
Other trains in Europe don't open seat bookings until 60-90 days out.

Starwood Announced 2017 Category Changes

Every year, Starwood announces category changes for their hotels. The nice thing is that they give you advance warning so you can plan accordingly. Some hotels go up in category level. Some hotels go down. The list is out now for the changes coming up on March 7th 2017. Reviewing the list, it looks like hotels in China, India, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Middle East, Mexico are moving down in category. Hotels in Indonesia, Japan, Canada are moving up. Argentina and Peru were mixed with a few up and a few down. Cuba moved down. Europe was mixed, but one notable is the Sheraton Four Points in Venice moved down to a category 1. This is a brand new hotel opening April 15th 2017. A quick search shows rates of Eur 143 or $152 per night. Right now, it shows the points at 3,000 per night which is a great deal, but as a category 1, it could drop as low as 2,000 per night. Wow! That's really almost free family travel.

The Sheraton in Orlando is also moving down to a category 2 or 3,000 points per night which is great for families. So wait a few weeks to book your hotel for Disneyworld.

You can check out the whole list right here.  If you see any other great deals in the list, please post in the comments below!

Marriott is updating their hotel categories in March, but the good news is they are giving us advance warning so we can plan accordingly. Some hotels will go up in categories so you would want to book those now to get the best deal. Some hotels will move down in category so you would want to wait and book those after the change.
Marriott organizes their list by hotels moving up and hotels moving down and then by brand. Some of their hotels in Canada are moving down. A lot of hotels in Houston, TX are moving down. Some in Mexico are moving down.

You can check out the whole list here.   Let me know in the comments below if you find a great deal!

How to travel light with a family

Whether we travel for a week or a month, we pack the same thing in the same bag. My rule is each person needs to wheel their own bag the entire trip. And we travel by plane, train, bus and boat a lot. This photo above sums it up. Each child wheeling their own bag and then my 4 year old riding on my bag which we shared. That's it.
If the trip is more than a week long, we do laundry halfway through. In Peru, we booked an apartment with Airbnb.com halfway through the trip and did a bit of laundry.
In Thailand, we did a load while we stayed with a friend.
As long as you plan on doing a load somewhere, you can pack for one week.
We also pack layers. I remember when I traveled once around Europe in December and wore every piece of clothing in my suitcase. I was that cold!

Here's my packing list:
2 pairs of pants
2 pairs of shorts
6 pairs of underwear
5 pairs of socks
1 pair pajamas
2 bathing suits
1 sweatshirt
1 dining outfit
6 shirts
1 long sleeve shirt
2 pairs of shoes (you wear one and pack one)
toiletries

If you are traveling to a cold weather location, then the packing list gets a bit longer.
For Peru, we encountered everything from cold to really hot. So we had to add gloves, scarf, long underwear and a jacket.
The big issue is always whether we should check one bag and bring sunscreen, shampoo and conditioner or buy it when we arrive or even better hope the hotel is supplying it. For Peru, we checked one bag since we also needed to bring along bug spray and medications for the Amazon.
For Thailand, we bought it all there. Going to the local grocery store is always a fun experience!
The bottom line is pack light and do laundry.