My Travel Journey

My love for traveling started at a young age as my parents would pack me and my siblings in our car and drive hours and hours on end to every national park you can think of. Years later I graduated from college and was scraping by financially as I was on my mission to make it as a Division 1 strength and conditioning coach. With my bank account often nearing zero I didn't think travel was posible for me and told myself that traveling to all these schools for jobs and to play games was me traveling. It wasn't until the summer of 2022 when I had gathered up enough money to join my family on a trip to Ireland. We spent 10 days road tripping all over Ireland experiencing a totally different world then I had ever seen. From that point on I was instantly hooked and all I did from then on was think of more ways to travel abroad.

Ireland Countryside

A few months later I was on a date with now my current fiance and we were talking about traveling. She had been all over Europe recruiting soccer players and had told me that if I enjoyed Ireland I would love going to London. Right then and their I texted my siblings and asked if they would go to London with me next summer. After some convincing they were on board and the planning started.

Flights were first but we hit an immediate snag. Round trip airfare from JFK to London was over $1,000, there had to be a cheaper way. With some thinking we thought what if we look for flights home from Paris and just take the chunnel between the two cities. A quick google flight search and the price dropped to $700. Perfect let's book and thats when I discovered the Open Jaw itinerary, flight into one city and out of another, and in our case saved us a few hundred dollars each.

That trip was amazing but when I came back I was already read to plan my next adventure. At this point I had discovered travel credit cards and the world of points and miles. I opened up a Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and so did my girlfriend as we both chased that 60,000 point welcome bonus planning to use it to fund our first vacation together.

The next summer we both used 50,000 points each and $280 in taxes in fees to flight from JFK to London for a few days then to Nice France for a week followed by a quick stop in Dublin Ireland on our way home. 3 Locations for lest money out of pocket then it cost to fly round trip for most domestic flights.

Credit Cards that off transferrable points to airlines and hotel programs are the foundation of my points

I fell into the world of points and miles opening a few more credit cards and reading every blog post on the subject as I could. More trips are already planned and taken all with the help of some points and miles to make the trip more affordable. I am not one of these points influencers traveling first class and claiming I travel for free. I fly economy and still pay for plenty of expenses on trips but having some points and miles has definelty helped take some fo the financial strain off of traveling.

Travel has opened my mind up to the amazing beauty of this world and brings me pure joy every trip I get to take. It has improved my physical and mental health and I can't wait to see where else travel will take me.