Anytime Rac and I are not traveling, we are constantly planning and piecing together our next trip. You see, we have this crazy goal of visiting 100 countries and we’re almost half way there! Since our vacation time is very limited, our travel philosophy revolves around hitting up as many places as we can in a short amount of time. Last year alone we did a 10 country trip in less than a month and followed it up with a 6 country West-Asia tour.
You can say that we are obsessed with traveling. The days that we’re not traveling, we daydream about our future destinations. There is just something about being transported to another part of the world to experience the sights, the people and their culture. Below are some of our future travel plans..
El Nido, Palawan, Philippines
This trip is going to be after our wedding in November this year. Not quite our honeymoon since we’re traveling with family but it’s all good. The planning started when my cousin invited us and even offered to pay for our accommodation as a wedding gift. Who are we to say no? After a quick convo with my sister and a quick search for flights, we booked five tickets with Zest Air for a 4-night stay in paradise. We fly into Puerto Princesa and take a local bus to get to El Nido. Not only do we get to visit one of the most amazing places on earth (Rac’s favorite), but we get to spend some precious quality time with loved ones. Really looking forward to the white sand beaches and the diving scene around the islands!
Aman Resorts, Bali, Indonesia
We have always been fascinated by Aman Resorts. After reading extensively about them online, we were amazed by the outstanding customer service they’ve become so famous for. They’ve always gotten rave reviews and even have a cult-like following of so-called AmanJunkies. Although a little pricey, we figured that this is one of those once-in-a-lifetime things and what better time to experience Aman than for our honeymoon. We booked a 3-night “Bali Break” package where we will be staying in all three Aman Resorts in Bali. We start off in Amandari then Amanusa and then spend our last day in Amankila. Since we booked through a Virtuoso travel agent, we are going to receive plenty of freebies like free breakfast, lunch/dinner as well as room upgrades and free spa treatments. We also reserved an Eastern Bali Bike tour as well as a night dive with our stay. Originally, we were going to book our flights through Philippine Airlines and Tiger Air. Fortunately, during the day of our booking, promo fares from Cebu Pacific became available for a fraction of the price! We just had to adjust our dates and we ended up having one more extra day in Bali. With that, we are going to transfer to Conrad Bali which will be our base for exploring the city on our last day.
Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort & Spa
As a HHonors Gold member, I’ve tried to remain loyal and at the same time enjoy the perks of elite status whenever we travel and stay at Hilton branded hotels. Earlier this year, Hilton greatly devalued their loyalty program by increasing the amount of points required for award stays. This meant that we had to act fast and use all of our remaining Hilton points for a future booking to get good value on them. Initially, we booked 8 nights at the two Hilton resorts in Bora Bora. After searching for flights, we found out how hard (and expensive) it is to get there from Europe and decided to visit Seychelles instead. The cost of the rooms was about $1,000 a night so our 290,000 point redemption definitely provided great value. To make it even more special, our stay is booked for November next year for our first year anniversary. We haven’t booked plane tickets yet since it’s too early but upon looking at flight options, it looks like we can have some interesting 1-day stopovers in countries like Kenya, Turkey, Egypt, etc. Can’t wait for the trip!
Prague, Czech Republic & Poland
This trip will happen in October with a local travel company, Nikkitours. These tours are normally fast-paced and provide great value with the amount of sights you hit up in a short amount of time. A bunch of guys from work have already signed up for the tour so I’m really excited to see what these places have to offer and cross two more countries off the list!
Oktoberfest, Munich, Germany
This trip will actually take place in September during the opening weekend of Oktoberfest in Munich. It’s another trip from Nikkitours and I’m really excited since it is my first Oktoberfest experience and I’m going with a bunch of guys from work. Should be an awesome experience!
World Cup 2014 Brazil, Machu Picchu, Peru
This trip is still very much in the works but since Rac is a huge fan of defending world cup champion Spain, what perfect way to visit Brazil than during the World Cup? Since we’re already in South America, we figured that we should take advantage of the opportunity and hop over to Peru to cross out one of our bucket list places, Machu Picchu. Rac insists on doing the hike to Machu Picchu as opposed to just taking the bus up there. Really hoping this trip happens!
It’s truly a blessing to be able to go on these once-in-a-lifetime trips multiple times a year. The combination of having a job that allows me to live in different countries as well as the knowledge that we’ve gained from Travel Hacking has allowed us to visit all these wonderful places for a fraction of the price.
TravelhackRR 