Starting in 2021, US Citizens Will Need A Visa To Travel To Europe

Europe is one of those romantic and popular travel destinations. The history, the food, the culture is an amazing array for the senses. Starting in 2021, US citizens will need the authorization to travel to the Schengen area. The Schengen area includes 26 European countries that do not have internal borders. 

Those countries are:

• Spain
• France
• Italy
• Germany 
• Greece
• Poland
• Austria
• Belgium
• Czech Republic
• Denmark 
• Estonia 
• Finland
• Hungary 
• Iceland 
• Latvia
• Liechtenstein
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Malta
• Netherlands
• Portugal
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Sweden
• Switzerland 

The authorization will cost $8 and be good for three years. "Completing the online application should not take more than 10 minutes with automatic approval being given in over 95% of cases," the European Commission said in a statement.

The authorization is not considered a visa and more than 60 countries are affected not just the United States. 

The European Parliament approved the authorization in July citing security concerns. 

I Got My Southwest Companion Pass! Woohoo!

Southwest Airlines got final approval to start flying to Hawaii and I'm ready. Look what showed up in my inbox this morning. Woohoo! 
Now we just need Southwest Airlines to start selling tickets. 
This is my third Southwest companion pass in the last 6 years. For those of you who don't know what this is. It is one of the best perks ever. 
The pass is a buy one get one FREE pass for two years on Southwest Airlines. Wherever I fly, I can take a companion for FREE. The companion must fly with me on the same itinerary and I can change my companion three times in a calendar year. 
So how did I earn the pass again?

This time, I opened two credit cards: 
1. The Southwest Business Credit Card - Minimum spend $3,000 and a $99 annual fee with a 60,000 point bonus. You also get 6,000 points on your anniversary. 
2. The Southwest Priority Credit Card - Minimum spend $1,000 and a $149 annual fee, but you get a $75 airline credit that can be used for tickets and a 40,000 point bonus. You also get 7,500 points on your anniversary and 4 upgraded boarding passes. 

Then I stayed at a hotel with two rooms on a layover back from South America and one night at another hotel and used the Rocketmiles website to book them so I earned another 5,000 bonus Southwest points. 

And bam, that was enough to earn 110,000 points by end of February. The pass is good through 12/31/2020. I already have two trips booked to the East Coast so I have saved over $2,000. That's how we do it at almostfreefamilytravel.com 

Southwest Flights To Hawaii Are Live, You Can Buy Your Ticket!

Starting this morning, you can now book flights to Hawaii on Southwest Airlines. Woohoo! 

I did a quick search and prices range from $49-$400. That's right I found a flight from Los Angeles to Oahu for just $49. Flights start April 7th. 

You can fly from the following cities:

• Los Angeles
• Burbank, CA
• Long Beach, CA 
• Ontario/LA, CA
• Orange County, Santa Ana, CA 
• Oakland, CA 
• San Jose, CA 

Notably missing from the list was San Francisco, but maybe that's coming. 

One search even showed flights as low as $49. 

Southwest is also offering flights between the islands of  Oahu, Maui and Kona on the big island for as low as $29 each way. Crazy!  

Book early and book often. The great thing about Southwest is that you can change or cancel anytime. Hawaii anyone? 

New IHG Point Break List Goes Live

IHG otherwise known as Intercontinental Hotel Group may be one of those overlooked rewards programs. I'll break it down for you in another post. But one of the unique perks of the reward program is their PointBreaks. 

This quarterly list of hotels is offered reduced points for that quarter. 

Now, this used to be a very robust list and I once snagged a Crowne Plaza in Newark, NJ for just 5,000 points per night. What a deal. 

In the last year, the list of hotels participating has dwindled. However, if there is one on the list that makes sense with your travel plans, you could get quite a deal. 

For example, the list released this week features a Crowne Plaza in the Dominican Republic. It's not all-inclusive, but rooms usually sell for 25,000 points per night. It is listed on the PointBreaks list for just 10,000 points per night. 

It's like getting 2 for 1 at the hotel. Sweet. 

There are 97 hotels listed, IHG will remove them when there is no more availability. 47 are international and 50 are in the US. 

IHG is also running a bonus offer right now when you buy points. I ran the numbers for the same DR hotel and I would save about $75 if I bought the points and used the point break offer rather than just buying the rooms at the current rate. Right now, I only have 830 IHG points so it's not a huge savings. But if you have a stash of IHG points or you are ready to open an IHG credit card that comes with an 80,000 bonus, then it might be a winner! 

Southwest Gets The Verbal Thumbs Up For Flights To Hawaii

Southwest could be days away from offering flights to Hawaii. The airline got a verbal thumbs up from the FAA this week. Formal written approval should follow this week now that the airline has completed a series of test flights. 

Tickets are not for sale yet on the website, but keep checking with flights to follow about a month later. So, save those points and working on your companion pass. Once ticket sales start, then get ready because it will be game on. 

Why You Might Want To Book Your Wyndham All Inclusive Now

Wyndham Dominicus Beach 

One of the best ways to get the most value out of Wyndham hotel points is to book one of its all-inclusive resorts. Since you can redeem 15,000 points for any room at any Wyndham, the all-inclusive hotel gets you the most bang for your buck. 

But, alas, all good things must come to an end.  So on April 3rd, Wyndham is going to a three-tier redemption system for its points. The tiers will be

•  7,500
• 15,000
• 30,000

Now, this is good news if you want to use Wyndham points for the lower end hotels. And Wyndham, whose brands include Days Inn, Microtel, Ramada, Super 8 and soon to be La Quinta, has more than 6,000 hotels that can be classified as budget. Wyndham has not released a list of which hotels will be in which tier, but we can only assume that budget hotels will be in the 7,500 tier, medium hotels will be in the 15,000 tier and all-inclusive will increase to the 30,000 tier. 

Now Wyndham says if you book a hotel now and stay after April 3rd and the hotel moves to the lower tier, you will get a credit for the point difference. 

On the opposite end, if you book a stay for after April 3rd at an all-inclusive, you will NOT be charged the difference when the hotel moves to the 30,000 tier. 

Personally, I am looking at the all-inclusive in the Dominican Republic for a summer getaway so I may book now to lock in the lower rates. I can always cancel up to the day before my stay and get my points back. Be sure to check the cancellation policy for the individual hotel. 

That's how we do it here at almostFREEfamilytravel.com 

My Visit To The Indigenous Village In Panama

Children in the Embera Village

There are several day trips that you may want to do while in Panama City. The Panama Canal is an obvious one and I reviewed a few ways to do that trip in my last blog post.  Another day trip you may want to add is a visit to the Indigenous tribal Embera village. The Embera tribe live in traditional villages deep in the rainforest. My first thought was, tourist trap. But this village didn't feel like that at all. In fact, the day trip was a highlight of our vacation. 

The Embera invite you into the village to experience their way of life, culture, handicrafts, and traditions. The children love showing off their school, playground and of course, borrowing our sunglasses and posing for photos. 

The Embera Village

There are dozens of tour companies offering day trips to the Embera village. We chose the Real Panama Tours. The owner, Soraya, is so personable that she makes the trip even better. Soraya picked us up at our hotel bright and early and we started the 1.5 hour car ride to the Chagres River. The ride is a bit rough at the end. We made one stop at a fruit stand where Soraya showed us unique Panama fruits like passion fruit and how to choose a ripe pineapple. 

We also stopped at the Chagres National Park Visitor Center which features tons of information about the park and river. 

Then we boarded the canoes for a 20 minute ride to the village. 

Riding in a canoe on the Chagres River

There are actually three Embera villages on this part of the river. Soraya said she liked the furthest one because she felt like they enjoyed sharing their culture. The villages rely on the money from the tours to sustain their way of life. 

The tribe welcomed us with a song and then dance. They continued to explain their traditions, culture, family life, education and answered questions. 

Then they served us lunch of fried fish and plantains. We also ate the pineapple and fruit that Soraya brought. Afterwards, we took a tour of the village with the children. They showed us their school, their homes, and playground. 

Lunch at the Embera Village

After the village, we hopped back in the canoes and headed to a nearby waterfall for a swim. 

Waterfall near the Embera Village

The cost for the day was $585 for a family of 5, but we put the tour on our Capital One Venture card and erased part of it. Woohoo! That's how we do it at almostFREEfamilytravel.com