Aeroplan Points

 Just got my American Express Cobalt card which is pretty renowned for being the best rewards card for Aeroplan points. 

The transfer is not linked. It's manual. When you travel, simply transfer your AMEX points 1:1 over to Aeroplan points.

Great feature for Travel Planning and Memories

 Do you know how in the movies you see the daring explorers with their wall maps with all the little pins on it? Well, in the 21st century we can do this as well using Google maps! so in Google maps (I’m currently using an iPad) click on the search bar at the upper left corner. Next slide over to the right where it says more. this will take you to a new dialogue window, which, for me defaults to the List tab. it is in your saved area where you can have different folders or custom lists that I use to keep track of places that I want to go, that I have been, or even just things that peak, my interest.

To mimic our daring explorers, world map, I simply have a folder called We Visited… Click on that, and you get a world map with many locations that we have visited since we’ve been married. It’s a great feature that is quite hidden in the Google map, but it’s super handy.

Update

 Ugh. So little time, so much to do. Main flights were booked with Skyscanner. This site turned out to be great for flights. We could set one-way, return, or multi-port trips (which we did). We decided on flying into Lisbon and flying out of Rome.

Accommodations were the kicker. Be prepared to spend a great deal of time researching for hotels, B&B’s, or even hostels. Some places, like Florence, turned out to be cheaper for an ABNB vs hotels, while other places, hotels were a better deal. Because the family wanted to cram as much into this trip as possible, we opted for location over price. All of our accommodations are either inside of the city cores, or within 20min transit.

Next up is inter-europe travel….

Planning for a Big One

 To celebrate our oldest son graduating university, and our youngest son entering college, We are planning a 3 week trip to The Spain, Italy, Portugal regions of Europe. 

There is SO much to do when planning for any trip, but more so when you are gone for weeks across the ocean in a country where you don't speak the language. 

This series will cover every major planning aspect cumulating in a guide of our actual trip.