Big Trip, Small Budget: 5 Weeks in Europe with Points and $100 a Day

Big Trip, Small Budget: How Kendyl Traveled Europe for 5 1/2 Weeks using Points & $100 a Day (for 2 people)

In this episode of the Lazy Budget Travel Tips podcast, host Genni Franklin welcomes Kendyl Grender, a budget travel expert behind @kendyltravels. 

Kendyl shares her story about how she and her husband spent 5 1/2 weeks traveling through Europe on points and just $100 a day for food, activities, and transportation. 

From strategic credit card use to eating like a local, Kendyl shares exactly how she made it happen, without sacrificing comfort or missing out on epic experiences.

You’ll learn:

• How Kendyl saved and planned for a "mini-retirement"
• The points strategy that helped her book flights and hotels across six countries
• Why she mixes points with smart cash deals
• How she stuck to a $100/day budget without feeling deprived
• Tips for navigating public transportation, eating well, and traveling intentionally

Timestamps: 

• 00:00 Introduction and Special Guest Announcement
• 01:15 Kendyl's Journey to Budget Travel
• 02:28 Planning the European Adventure
• 03:49 Executing the Budget Travel Plan
• 06:02 Maximizing Points and Miles
• 10:00 Detailed Itinerary and Accommodations
• 14:00 Budgeting and Strategic Planning
• 23:17 Alternative Destinations and DIY Experiences
• 27:55 Tracking and Prioritizing Expenses
• 30:56 Saving Money on Must-Do Experiences
• 33:24 Strategizing for Food Savings
• 42:13 Public Transportation Tips
• 50:01 Rapid Fire Questions
• 53:42 Group Trips and Final Thoughts

Connect with Kendyl: Learn more about Kendyl's adventures and tips by visiting her website and following her on social media.

Transcript

“Big Trip, Small Budget: How Kendyl Traveled Europe for Weeks on $100 a Day”
===

[00:00:00] 

Hey, hey, and welcome back to the Lazy Budget Travel Tips podcast. I'm your host, Genni Franklin, and today I've got a special guest joining me. My friend Kendyl Grender from @kendyltravels.

She's a budget travel queen who pulled off a multi-week trip to Europe using a mix of points, smart deals, and just a hundred dollars a day for food and experiences. Yes, you heard that right? A hundred bucks in Europe. for weeks. So if you've ever dreamed of planning a big trip with points without breaking the bank or wondered how to stretch your cash while still living it up abroad, you're gonna want to listen to this one.

So let's get into it. Welcome Kendyl. Thanks for being here.

Thank you, Genni. I'm so glad to talk with you. Like you [00:01:00] said, we're friends, so I hope that this'll be a fun conversation for us.

yes. We are buddies. We met a few years ago and bonded over our love of travel without paying price. Of course.

maybe you could start by just letting us know, What led you to plan this trip to Europe? Also, how many weeks was I wanna say it was like a five to six week trip.

Yeah, it was, I think it ended up being five and a half weeks is five, five and a half weeks and it was me and my husband. So, you know, people always ask me a question either about this or other things about my work and what I do of like, how did you get into this? Or How did you plan this trip?

And I always tell them like, the very, very, very short answer is I was very sad. Like, and I, it's like, I don't know how else to describe it, is like, I was depressed in, in a work depression kind of way. I was in a quarter life crisis. [00:02:00] It was after the pandemic. I had to go back to the office after being at home and feeling like I was thriving.

Like I know a lot of people weren't, but I was honestly thriving, being at home, feeling like I had more control over my schedule. And so I kind of went back to the office one day, I sat in my car crying, looking at the building, like, I have to go in here, like, I have to do this again. And I knew at that point that I was ready for a change.

And so I kind of set up this idea To my husband and presented it as, I wanna quit my job. Not right now, in about a year and I want to take this break and figure some things out. I want to start a travel blog. start an Instagram, and start writing about my ability to travel on a budget use points of miles and help people along the way of how I'm actually doing that.

To go spend five weeks in Europe basically for free. And [00:03:00] he somehow said, okay, I still don't know quite why he decided to do that, but he was like, yeah, sounds great.

I was like, I'm not gonna tell my boss that I'm doing this. But, so I was like quietly posting, quietly, you know, setting up all of the cards, so to speak, to quit my job a year later.

And that meant getting credit cards, having the points and miles, booking things at the right time, getting a sense of, you know, where are we going? When are we going, how are we putting all of these pieces together? And at the same time, knowing one year from when I started this project, I was going to quit my job.

I was going to be unemployed so that I could go to Europe and then figure it out when I got back. And that's essentially what I did. We spent five weeks traveling, six countries. Starting in Rome, ending in Rome throughout the course, going through primarily Eastern Europe and including Turkey.

And [00:04:00] then, use points of miles to stay at hotels we never would've paid for. Right? Like five star, four star, even some three star along the way that I would not have paid for, and then use points for our airfare. And then lived on essentially a hundred dollars a day for food, entertainment and local transportation, which would be, you know, getting around the city, trains between cities.

We spent about $1,200 out of pocket in expenses before the trip because I still wanted to maximize my budget. So we had things like hotels, maybe there wasn't, a Points hotel that made sense here, or maybe there was an extra night we need to pay in this city. And we used points for four nights and we used cash for one night because it just made sense.

and then we did a hundred dollars a day for everything else. So all in all, we ended up spending a little bit over $4,000 for almost six weeks in Europe, five and a half or so. And then throughout the course of that time, that trip could have been, you know. [00:05:00] 10,000, 15,000. People always ask me, well, how much would this have been?

I never ended up pricing it out because I never would've paid for it if I would have. So that's kind of the gist of how this all came together is combination of points of miles and budget travel that I had always done and of fulfillment of not being depressed or work depressed anymore. kind of put all of this into motion to make this happen for us.

Yeah, that's inspiring. 'cause I'm sure a lot of us felt that way to where we just. Have to give ourselves a pep talk every single day going into work. And the fact that you felt that way, you made a plan. I mean, because like some people are like, oh, well this person, they just quit their job and went on this trip.

It's like, no, no, no. I had to plan this out. I have to have a strategy and I'm gonna do this with a mix of credit card points, cash, and whatever other [00:06:00] strategies you have that we'll be discussing. But so you budgeted a hundred dollars a day, and that was for both of you?

For you and your husband?

yes. So we're kind of looking at $50 per person here, for essentially everything once we landed. that's what's covering us, being able to feed ourselves to do things instead of just sitting around to be able to get there, and get around between the destinations as we needed to. So, it was a, it was a tight budget, but it was very doable and I've kind of continued on from the lessons I learned from that.

So doing a hundred dollars a day series everywhere that I go in the world to kind of show people that for two people you can actually do a lot with a little bit of money.

Yeah, and the fact that you also did a combination of cash and points because for a lot of us, we use points to supplement and we are then able to find low cash deals and sometimes it just doesn't make [00:07:00] sense to use points and makes more sense to use cash. And I think that's really important to point out because I don't know if maybe it's from social media or whatever people think. If I'm not using points for every single thing, or if I'm not using points for business class flights or for five star hotels all the time, then I'm just not doing this right.

be realistic with ourselves and like for those people out there who are like, look I just wanna be able to travel the world without paying price. How you did it is definitely how I think most people can do it by like

Yeah.

where I can spend cash or when that doesn't make sense. the points.

Absolutely. And I think that that's a part that I really wanted in my series throughout the year to show is I always like to look at things as how regular people can travel for less, not how someone who wants to accumulate 2 million points a miles every year can do it, because 

that's not [00:08:00] how we travel. We don't, have the spend to make,

get all of those points that way and getting cards all the time, nor do I want to, like, if I'm being completely honest. And so we kind of set ourselves up for success in a way that. was primarily about finding the opportunities that made the most sense strategically to not have to have as many points of miles in order to take this trip while also making sure that it just fit into the budget that we predetermine.

And that's what I always tell people, like, if you have $2,000 for this trip that you're taking, supplement with your points. Don't make it all about your points, because that's what's going to allow you to continue to travel the best way possible, in my opinion.

No, I totally agree.How many points do you think you guys ended up using for this five and a half week trip? Do you know?

Oh, I can tell you we ended up using, between our airfare and our hotels, we used about [00:09:00] 435,000 points a miles. So it wasn't a lot of points when you think about it for the amount of time that included our airfare to and from Rome. it included airfare to and from Prague as well as to and from, Istanbul.

And then it included the airfare from Istanbul back to Rome. So primarily we were using points and miles for the majority of it. Cash for a few of our flights. Let's see here. So we used about 435,000 points in miles, and that was including points with IHG, Hyatt Hilton as well as we used Chase Ultimate rewards in the travel portal because there was a really good cash deal for our flight to Europe.

And we used them to cover the flights from Budapest to Dubrovnik, Croatia. So there were a few nights with our hotels as well as a few of our, airlines that we needed to take that it just made a lot more sense just to use cash for [00:10:00] those.

Yeah.so let's get into where you went and how long did you stay in each destination? 

Sure. So. We started in Rome, like I said, because that's where we got a really good cash deal into Rome. From there, we then flew to Prague and we did, Prague, Vienna and Budapest by train. We flew down to Dubrovnik and did Croatia for a couple of days, and then from there we did Turkey.

So we did Istanbul in the Cappadocia region of Turkey, four nights or so in each destination, except for in, Vienna, we only stayed two nights. Primarily 'cause it was too expensive. But, because of that we used a lot of fourth night, IHG fourth night free with points. So we did that in a couple of the areas along the way, and just tried to maximize those four days as much as possible.

It allowed us to find a way to, maximize our [00:11:00] time, minimize the points required, so to speak, both in IHG, but in other ways that we found the for nights to work well for all of the destinations.

So what type of points did you earn? I know you mentioned some hotels, but like how many points did you use for like hotel points? What hotels? 

So we used 325,000 points for our accommodations. That included I hg points that we used both in Istanbul to stay at a Holiday Inn. Like I said, we are not always five star travelers.we also did Hilton, in Dubrovnik, which we used at the time I had a Hilton Aspire card, so we used our free night certificate and some points for two, of the nights that we stayed in Dubrovnik and then stayed at an Airbnb the other nights.

At the time, chase had a partnership with Airbnb where we could use points, for the Airbnb stay that no longer exist in the way that it was set up back then. We also used points that we [00:12:00] transferred to Hyatt, both in, Vienna as well as Rome. That's primarily what we did. We stayed in an Airbnb in Prague.

We stayed in Airbnb, a few nights in Croatia as well as staying in just a boutique hotel when we were in Cappadocia. 'cause I was really into staying in a cave hotel at the time.

you also mentioned that you book some stuff in the portal too. Right?

yes we did. But it was only our airfare, to and from Rome because there was a thrifty traveler deal at the time, that ended up being so cheap that any kind of points that we would've transferred just did not make sense. 'cause it ended up costing us about 30,000 round trip for each of us.

and with all of our taxes and fees covered and everything, so we ended up just going that route and booking, booking that through the portal. We didn't book any of our hotels through the portal, but we did use the Airbnb program essentially to pay the Airbnb for a 1.25 redemption with our Chase card.

No such thing as a [00:13:00] bad redemption. when we say that, we mean, 1.25 cents per point. you may hear out there that if it's less than 2 cents per point, then it's not a good redemption, but. Here at the Lazy Budget Travel Tips podcast and with Kendyl as well, there's no such thing as a bad redemption as long as you're not paying full price, so you can feel proud about 1.25 cents per point. If it's gonna help you take a mini retirement in Europe for five and a half weeks, like that's a win.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that's great. I think the way that we kind of looked at it is when we paid cash, I just wanted the highest ROI. We had the cash to spend for that $1,200 or so that we ended up spending on our airfare and hotels. And then just finding the ways to maximize it when we were spending cash so that we could ensure that our next trip would be [00:14:00] supplemented by points.

So how did you guys this? Like how did you decide what credit card you wanted to get, what types of points you wanted to earn, how much cash you were gonna be budgeting for this? 

Yeah, I think that to the point you made, a lot of times people forget, like in the communities that we're a part of, it's always like, I did this for free and it just irritates me because like nothing when you travel is free. Like unless you are using points in a portal, you didn't pay taxes and fees and you're going to an all-inclusive

Resort that included a transfer service and you didn't have to tip anybody the entire time. Nothing when you travel is completely free. So for me, I went into it knowing what could we budget for this trip? Like what could we reasonably have set aside? And then where did we need to supplement from that? I knew that we wanted to do primarily Eastern Europe because it's going to [00:15:00] be cheaper.

there was no way for this amount of points, for this amount of cash we could reasonably have the kind of trip we did if we went to Western Europe. So I kind of started with that blueprint and worked it from there. at the time I did this in, 

We went in 2022. in 2021 is when I started building out my ideas, which started with, yes, Eastern Europe, check

I had been before. I knew it was gonna be cheaper. I knew that was gonna be our primary region. That made sense for us. Then the second part of it is, at the time in 20 21, 20 22, there was no software as to say, okay, here's all the points, hotels in each of these destinations. Here's how much they cost every night.

I wish I had that, that this part of the process would've been a lot easier. But I essentially had to go through each of the destinations we thought about and look at hotel options, who hosts them? Is it IHG, Hilton Marriott, what have you, and estimate how many points it costs per night, because [00:16:00] some of them were in currencies like IHG, where it could be 17,000, it could be 24,000.

They could change with the wind. And so I had to get an idea Of an estimate of how many points it was gonna require per night, and for some of the hotels, I couldn't look yet because there weren't enough days ahead. So I had to look at what would be a similar time of year as far as, is it high season, low season, or mid-season, and look at a couple of days to get an estimate for those.

From there, I was able to sit back and say, okay, looks like there's a lot of opportunities to use these points. okay, chase obviously need those points for these Hyatt hotels and so on and so forth. I didn't have a strict plan at the time because I was very aware that all of a sudden this hotel could have no availability or the points require were way too high.

I kind of went into it with a more organic and fluid idea of these. Now that I've built my route, these are my opportunities and here's a backup plan. [00:17:00] Because when you're building a trip this big and this elaborate, you can't be too rigid because all of a sudden you're not gonna have the points you need when it comes time that you have the points in your account and it's time to book it.

which did happen. And we ended up having to get an Airbnb and switch our plans around a little bit, which was totally fine because we already had. The ideas of what we could do as backup plans in each of these locations. so that's kind of essentially how we built it is first, what areas could we go to affordably.

Second, what are our hotel options in these areas? How much is it gonna cost to get there? and then the third part of it is then starting the card process to get all of the points. We did that by getting a card sign up bonus. Essentially, we got the card, we got the signup bonus.

We then used the points immediately. So anytime I got enough points to purchase a part of our itinerary, I went ahead and booked it. If I got an IHG signup and it was, let's say 150,000, [00:18:00] and I knew from that 150,000 I could book Istanbul. I booked Istanbul. If then I got a Chase card signup bonus and I transferred those points to Hyatt immediately.

'cause I knew that Rome was available. So I didn't sit back and say, okay, now I have a half million points. Let's see what I can do with them. I sat there and I said, okay, I have 150,000 of this point. What aspects of this trip does it make the most sense strategically to book today? Because we were only getting a bonus about every two months.

That's about when we met a spending requirement to get that bonus along the way.

Gotcha. Yeah, so that's kinda like opposite of how we planned stuff. But I know that this is for, this is like a unique trip for you

Yeah, it was huge. Yeah.

was a huge trip and Yeah. And, we're going to the UK in October. We're going for about two weeks. I basically, since I'm a little lazy, I like to focus on the flexible [00:19:00] points because I don't really know where I wanna go.

Like, I'll go anywhere, Yeah, I know, like you mentioned, Eastern Europe is gonna be cheaper. There are parts of the world that I know that I definitely wanna go to, but we focus primarily on. Flexible like Chase points for the UK I was basically like, alright, well we have a bunch of Chase I know we wanna go to the uk so I'm just going to use these points that we have.

I think if you have a specific trip, it's like you said, important to see, well What are the chains and brands and what kind of points do you need because. If you are going somewhere where maybe there aren't any Hyatts

Yeah, there's barely any in Eastern Europe. Like I, I will say that that was a big part of it is

Hyatt is great in major cities that are expensive. I. [00:20:00] And in the us but when you get outside of those areas, your options are very limited. 

But sometimes too, you look at that as a Holiday Inn in Istanbul might be 9,000 points a night, maybe 15,000 points a night with IHG. But then you look at, okay, well there is this Hyatt, but it's a very high end and it's gonna cost you 25,000 points a night. And so as I was building out that trip, definitely it made more sense to have a few different hotel currencies to pull from that we're gonna give good value.

But I'm with you. I think

you're building trips, especially if you just wanna see like, where can my points take me? I think that there are opportunities, there are times in place where just having a plan with some flexible currencies can definitely work for you.

Yeah. And it will determine the type of planning you do and the different ways you approach it. 

But let's say, hey, you [00:21:00] say your dream trip is going to the Maldives, then you are going to need to look at the Maldives specifically and think what type of points are actually gonna work for that trip. 'cause I have people reach out to me all the time and they're like, I have. Chase points. I have a hundred and something thousand chase points. I'm trying to get business class to this destination this month. How do I do it? 

Even better this day,

yeah, this, this month, I have to have that flight this day. It has to be a business class, it has to be this airline.

and I have to fly from home.

yes. And I have to fly from my home airport. I can't do any positioning flights whatsoever to them.

I say,we may have to make some adjustments.

Mm-hmm. 

Or you're basically SOL, I'm sorry.

Yes. Yeah. So there's, there's definitely like ways to do it. I wouldn't say that this trip is like my usual way of doing anything. It's just that I [00:22:00] think in this midst of my quarter life crisis, I thought I had always wanted to backpack Europe. I never did it because I was a good girl. I, you know, spent my summers working.

I didn't go do anything when I was in college. And then, everyone said, you know, in my life that it was dangerous and I shouldn't go and I shouldn't do it. And then I went to grad school 'cause I was a good girl. And so I had an internship that summer and then I got a job because I was a good girl. And then I was in this midst of.

I'm almost 30. I've never done this trip that I wanna do. Now, granted, I had been to Europe, like I had been places, I had done things. I was an experienced traveler, but I hadn't done this bucket list idea of I really have it in my head that I wanna backpack and I wanna go to multiple countries on one trip and I wanna make it a thing.

And so that's kind of where that aspirational trip planning ahead can really help you. But it also took a lot of months. and a lot of [00:23:00] planning in order to get from idea to actually executing that. 

I was fortunate that I was in a time of, the world reopening as I was planning it, and I was able to kind of look at this in a, a different lens than I would have otherwise.

And I think that's important not every single trip is gonna take the same exact approach, and it just really depends on what you're looking to accomplish. You know? What you can accomplish in the timeframe that you have and what you mentioned earlier with the spend that you have.

Because not a lot of us have huge spends. you can't count on being able to get new credit cards all the time.

Yeah, I think for us it was very much like we had a plan of action. We had a strategy, and then we just had to implement it in a way that made sense for us with the amount of spend that we had. because we don't buy things we really don't need. like my husband's jacket broke yesterday and instead [00:24:00] of replacing it I said, Hey, we could go bring it and, you know, to the tailor and they could put a new zipper in it.

So we're fairly frugal when it comes to our spend in our everyday lives. So we had to find ways that were more of, okay, what do we spend anyways? And then what can we put on this card to make sense? Which is where we got, the idea of like every 45 to 60 days we were able to get a new bonus as a part of our strategy, and we didn't need that many cards to implement it.

We ended up with, you know, five. Five credit cards that we took out that were able to pay for this strategy and for this to work. so it didn't require a lot of points or a lot of cards in order to do it. It just required some strategy on the backend and some planning. if you were thinking you wanted to do a mini retirement, like my biggest advice was put together a plan of action of where do I wanna go that for a reasonable amount of points.

Because the more points you require, [00:25:00] either the less time you can go somewhere or you're going to have to get more points, and maybe it's gonna take you longer to get there. And then from there, build out a little bit of a strategy of like, how many cards do I think I need? How many points, what kinds of points are gonna make the most sense?

we were very fortunate that we went. To places that we didn't need that many points. And so that, you know, that's always my biggest piece of advice is, pick destinations that are cheaper, that you can have similar experiences along the way because there's pretty views everywhere in the world.

There's good wine in a lot of parts of the world. You know, there's beautiful beaches that aren't going to cost you $500 a night to go to. So it's just a matter of finding those hidden gems or gems that everyone knows about. But maybe you haven't thought about planning a trip there.

Yeah, the world is huge guys. And that's fine if you have like aspirational destinations. There's nothing wrong with going to Maldives. there are so many other places around the world, [00:26:00] and that's a big thing for us is that save a lot of money going to places that other people may not think about.

And we have amazing times. It's, something that I think is a mindset shift for a lot of people, which is super helpful when you're in points, miles, and trying to do budget travel even with cash.

I think so. I think like Budapest for example, one of my favorite cities in the world, there are incredible wine regions, through that area. I. There is, Hungarian food is surprisingly good for Eastern European food. I'm sorry if you're another Eastern European, but your food is not very flavorful in a lot of these areas.

and I say that having studied abroad and, and spent time in the area, considerable time, but. I, I find, you know, that Budapest was a great example of, it's similar to a lot of Europe in some ways in terms of architecture but you're, you're getting that experience of those [00:27:00] activities and things that you can do of a European getaway for a lot less money throughout the course of your visit, both in terms of food, getting around, things to do.

so finding ways that you can, you can utilize alternative destinations is going to help too. And that's definitely what we leveraged a lot in the trip. 

We did spend time in Rome, but what people don't realize in Rome is if you go in off season, which we were there in April, if you go, and you find the local Eats, so please, for the love of God, stop going to the place where the guy is out there with the sandwich menu trying to get you to go in the restaurant.

Like go five blocks from the tourist, attraction and you will find much better food and it's gonna be half the cost. And then also finding ways that we could, DIY as many experiences as we can when we were in those more expensive destinations. And really all in all DIYing our experiences along the way too.

Yeah. So let's talk about the a hundred dollars a day. 'cause I'm sure everybody is [00:28:00] wondering really $50 per person. 'cause

Yeah.

the both of you, and that's for food and activities. How did you do that? How did you track that? How did you prioritize things? Just

I think for me, and we do this all over the world since then, the biggest thing is figuring out like what are your must do activities? Rome is a great example to kind of talk through with people because it's somewhere a lot of people know. They know the activities, and they have some ideas probably in their head of things that they've done or they wanna do there.

a must do. There would be the Colosseum, obviously everyone wants to go to the  Colosseum. Everyone wants to live the Colosseum life. And so you sit back andif you are a normal traveler, You might Google  Colosseum guided Tour or Colosseum tour, right?

And you're gonna get a long list of tourists that are gonna cost you 40 Euro, 60 euro, maybe even more depending on what's included in the Colosseum, in the Roman Forum. but instead, I always [00:29:00] take the destinations of places that are like, yes, I have to go to here. And I look and I figure out, okay, 

how do I do this experience on my own? Um, can asking myself then can I get the same experience or similar experience as if I went and did it this other way that's more expensive? 'cause that's important too. And then the third piece in there is, okay, well then what is it gonna cost me when I put all of these pieces together and how much money am I actually saving?

So for the  Colosseum and the Roman Forum, I looked at one, how do I buy a ticket on my own? And how much is that ticket? Is it cheaper buying in person or online? Okay, write, write all that information down. Two, what is a guide's value? So how much is it really adding to my experience? And then can I get a similar experience on my own?

Uh, watching Gladiator, no, I'm joking. but looking on Wikipedia, watching a YouTube video, like whatever it is, before I go. And then three, is there a way that I can get a free or [00:30:00] cheap audio guide on my own if I really want that experience? in Europe, the one thing I always recommend, Rick Steves is very corny.

he is for my parents and grandparents. He is not necessarily for millennials and younger, as far as, how he addresses travel, how, however, one thing that I really like about him is he has a free Audio Europe app. And he does free walking tours with a local ev, basically all over Europe.

And you can find them on the app. You just put your headphones in and you walk around and it says, no, please move forward. You will see a big column in front of you, turn right, walk down the alley and stop at the statue with the wing, the winged statue, or something like that. And so you just follow these apps and they're completely free.

And so instead of paying, let's say I, I haven't looked at how much it costs to go to  Colosseum with a guide right now, but let's say it's gonna cost you 60 euro. Instead of paying that 60 euro I paid, [00:31:00] you know, I ended up with an, the similar experience for. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I wanna say the ticket now is, I don't know, 18 euro or 20 Euro or something.

So I'm saving, you know, a lot of money on this experience that you have to do in Rome. You have to go to the  Colosseum. but finding ways and avenues that we could, DIY places and then those must do experiences, the food tours, right? Those are things that DIYing just is not the same. there's no real way for you to get a small portion on a, if you DIYA food tour, you have to go with a guide.

so then those must do experiences we were able then to pay more for because we were able to supplement on these other experiences that maybe we could find ways to DIY or find free activities along the way. Now, there were times then that we had enough savings that this idea of a hundred dollars in a day maybe became an average, right?

So like. In [00:32:00] Dubrovnik, we did a day trip to Bosnia that was more than a hundred dollars for the two of us to go on this day trip. But we had saved so much money in other days that we were at spending $70 or $80, or even $50 for both of us in the day that we were able then to use that leftover savings for a must do kind of day activity that was a little bit more expensive along the way.

So that's my biggest piece The other thing you can do, is using shopping portals, Rakuten, waiting for them to have 10, 15% back on Viator is a great way to find savings, on activities there. if you sit back and strategize and say, okay, I want to do oyster shucking in Ireland.

This is actually a real world thing that I did and wanted to do in Ireland. So I'm looking at, okay, what are the experiences, what are the costs? I find one on Get Your Guide that I like. I scroll down to the bottom, I see who's the tour operator. I google the tour operator and I find it, if I book it direct, [00:33:00] I can save an additional $10.

Like that's huge, right on your savings that you do, it requires more work. And I get it, A lot of people are just like, just get me the tour. Like I wanna be done, I want it in my app. And that's cool. Like if that's who you wanna be, you can still be my friend. But if you want to like find the best ways to save, you gotta do it a little bit differently and think outside the box.

And that goes for food too. For food, the best way for you to save is you have to eat where the locals eat, which is really hard for you to figure out at the beginning. But there are a few ways you can do it. I always recommend do a food tour in every place that you go. If you do a food tour the first day, your guide always sends you a list of all of the places.

Not only you Aate at, but all of their favorite recommendations as well. And I guarantee these recommendations are far cheaper and the food is far better quality than what you're getting elsewhere. So you're not only paying for the activity and the meal you get out of it, you're paying for these recommendations that you get along [00:34:00] the way that end up saving you money throughout the process of your visit.

The other thing that you can do within, the food is there are ways that you can go about searching on Google that find places that are cheaper for you to eat. cheap Eats, destination, Google search. Way better than searching best places to eat in destination. Always, always. The other thing is do not use TripAdvisor.

Do not use these places because who is writing the reviews on TripAdvisor for places to eat? They're not local people. Going in Parisians, going in Paris and being like, this is the best steak and frites I've ever had. 

you're not gonna find local recommendations in TripAdvisor for places to eat. You never are.

The other piece of advice I always have for people then to find cheaper places to eat is please stop asking the person at the reception desk, where should I eat?

Because they are going to send you [00:35:00] to the place that they think you would like to eat because you're either a foreigner, or that you're on, you know, touring or whatever it is. so they're always gonna send you to the same place that they send everybody to. Your best bet is to ask them. Where do you eat?

Where would you recommend eating around here? Where do you go with your friends? you know, after work if you wanna go have a drink,finding ways that you can frame it in a reference point for them is going to help you get better recommendations along the way. I always like to frame it as like, if I wanted like a mid-tier or nicer kind of restaurant, I would say, Hey, where around here would you go on a date?

Like, where would you go on a date around here? If you were gonna take someone on a, little bit nicer place, instead of saying, where's a nicer place to eat around here? I guarantee you those two things are gonna be separate recommendations. And the same thing goes for if you want, to get a better idea of where they would just eat.

Because they're not gonna go and eat at the nicer [00:36:00] place where they're gonna send you every day of the week. They're gonna go eat where it's going to be affordable food. With local people along the way. So that's where we saved a lot of money on our food is finding and curating those lists through those specific Google searches, doing food tours and getting recommendations along the way, and then also utilizing, local recommendations and asking them the right questions.

it works everywhere. Like it wasn't just on this trip. I use it all the time. if you just find ways to talk to local people, they're more than happy to give you the right recommendations along the way.

And it's a great way to get a truly authentic experience instead of just doing what everyone else is doing or what, what everyone else, I mean by all the other tourists out there. And guess what, you're already doing the research. You know, you are, you're already watching those YouTube videos. You're already reading those blog posts. If you're my mom, you're already taking books out of the library.

Yeah, no, there are plenty of ways and [00:37:00] avenues for you to find the right recommendations, but I guarantee that the places that everyone's talking about, because it's the oldest or it's the first one to make a dish, is not necessarily the best one making lasagna or, the best hot chocolate that there is to have in this place.

so yes, there are some like cheeky experiences or ones that are, are maybe worth it for just the nostalgia of it. 

ButThe places that have the best food are not telling you they have the best food. They already know they have the best food.

so you have to go outta your way and do the right research in order to find them.

So, but the easy way, the easy hack to do that is just join a food tour. or look in my blog because I always put those places in it. I'm not putting the place that everyone wants you to eat in it.

Yeah. Yeah. and I think it's, one of the things you said was really important too, about how the a hundred dollars a day is kind of just an average 

Think about what's [00:38:00] super important to you. Splurge on that and then save on the things that you wanna do. But you don't need to have that guide, or you don't need to pay for a day tour at a certain place like DIY those, so that you can splurge on the things that are super important to you, and who knows if you're gonna go there.

Again, it's really important for you when you're traveling to these places to do what you want to do, no matter what anyone else says.

Absolutely. My rule of thumb, the way that I personally travel is if I can only have this experience here and now and there's no way that I can DIY it or I don't want to, I will pay for it regardless of the cost, even if I think it's overpriced. But if I can do this experience somewhere else, or I have done this experience somewhere else, then I won't pay for it.

Or if I am like, I wanna do this experience here and now, but I can DIY it and I'm gonna get the same level of experience doing that, then I will do that. [00:39:00] So food tours, yes, always will pay for those. Always do 'em, always recommend them. but the other part of that within how I will, go about it is, let's say an Iceland.

You can only really do an ice cave tour in so many places around the world, right? But if that is a here and now experience, regardless of the price. in Budapest on our a hundred dollars a day, we did a wine cellar experience in the, old cellars of the castle, there. And so that is obviously a here and now experience that you really can't find or do in many parts of the world.

Uh, but I will never pay for a scenic overlook ever again in my entire life. they all look the same to me at this point in time. 

so my advice, if you're looking to save money in those, in, in that realm of it, is to really consider, is this a here and now experience, or am I just like riding the wave of spending a bunch of money because I'm here and [00:40:00] I was on get your Guide and it said I should do this experience.

but it's gonna take you time, right? And time is money. And so you have to figure out how much time do I want to invest in this? I always go into it when I, when I talk to people individually, is, yeah, but this is my job. You know, like I'm very aware that I'm at a different level of what I. Can have the time and capacity to do compared to what you have to do with your kids and your family and your responsibilities that you have and your work.

but it doesn't mean that you can't make that list and say, yes, yes, yes. Maybe I can find a way to like do these three activities different along the way.

Yeah, and if you are using points or finding a really great cash deal and saving money on like your accommodations and your flights, You'll have room in your budget to then do those other things.

Pay for the food tours if you don't want any research, places to eat, pay for activities and like [00:41:00] actual guided tours for things instead of trying to find like the best audio guide because some audio guides really suck. I haven't tried the Rick Steves

Rick Steves is great. I did it at the Louv last year.

Fantastic. he has it, it's primarily in Western Europe, but if you're in that area, it's so expensive. We've done 'em in London and just did like a London walking tour on our own, and you don't have to pay Rick Steves at the end, you know, there's no tipping.

You just get to go on your own. And what's nice too is you do it at your own pace.

Yes.

a group, it's like, okay, moving on. No pictures, no pictures, come on, we're done here. so it's kind of nice getting to do it at your own, at your own pace too, but you know, it's up to you and like, I get it.

Like I don't have kids, so it's a little bit different. If you have two little kids, you probably don't wanna be doing an audio tour like that. so you have to, obviously it's all dependent on, on your situation. But yes, I recommend that app to every single person, because it's so good and so helpful, to find, a new [00:42:00] perspective on a, on a walking tour that you didn't have to pay for.

I'm gonna look that up the next time we go to Europe. Maybe if he has any for the UK trip. I was using his website for some of the plans for that trip, so I'll definitely look that up. 

The other thing that I just wanna mention, 'cause I feel like it's important, is like for us on our a hundred dollars around the world, we also rely on that for getting around. So one thing that I get a lot of feedback on is we take a lot of public transportation and I mean sometimes it is, it is local, like person and I cannot communicate.

We're pointing, uh, Thailand buses, you know, trying to figure out are we going the right way? All of this kind of stuff. And that can be very stressful to people who especially aren't well traveled. And even people who I know who are, are like, I would never do that. my biggest piece of advice is to try taking local transportation.

'cause the worst thing that happens is you go the wrong way and you get off, and then you [00:43:00] figure it out from there. But that's going to save you a lot, a lot, a lot of money when it comes to both getting from the airport to city center, especially in Europe. There's a lot, this doesn't happen everywhere in the world.

but especially Europe and major cities and other parts of the world. There generally is a public bus or public transit kind of system that can get you from the airport into the city and then onto your hotel, which can save you a lot of money, but also getting around and if you're.

Curious or concerned. The easiest thing to do is ask your hotel like, Hey, I wanna go here. What's the train line I need to get on? do I need my ticket? When do I show my ticket? How do I get it? They're more than happy to tell you because they probably take it every day to the get to work.

your Google Maps nowadays is so convenient in almost everywhere around the world where it'll tell you exactly like. This is the line you're on. This is the stop. You get off. This is the direction, this is what it [00:44:00] says. And so you can kind of navigate public transportation like a pro no matter where you are in the world.

Yeah, we love using public transportation, especially in Europe. Like it's, you know, when I travel with my mom or with my husband, with my husband, it's a little easier because he can carry all our luggage and stuff and I can help, but I don't have to, like, when I'm with my mom, I have to carry everything.

so people ask me like, oh, how'd you get from the airport to your hotel?

And I'm like, I took a taxi because of my mom. But with my husband,I can learn a little bit more about going from the airport to the city center or whatever. And I like to point out to people, you definitely wanna research that before you get there.

I always like to have a plan, like, sometimes I do take a car, if it's like in Bangkok, for example, to get to the train into the city center, And so it's so cheap there that I'm like, okay, I'll pay 20 bucks or 25 bucks or something.

But then there's other places like let's say London, [00:45:00] Heathrow, to City Center. They're gonna want like a hundred and I think it's like $150 or something to take you. And you can take the tube for, I don't know, 15 bucks. I'm probably saying all of these as estimates, and someone's gonna be like, it's not $15, it's this.

I'm estimating here. then you kind of sit back and so some of those opportunities you're like, it's like savings versus convenience, you know? And depending on who you are, you have to sit back and say which one matters. I am all about the savings, we will walk two miles.

I hate being ripped off. I hate tourist prices. the more I travel, the more it irritates me. I'll just be like, no, I'm gonna walk and I'll just walk the two miles because I'm mad. But I understand like that is not normal behavior for most people. it's just about finding the balance.

the convenience in many situations, but I get it. On the public transportation thing, we rely on Google so much, like when we were in Spain, I used Google, I used other apps too, just to kind of compare, and I really liked using Google and we [00:46:00] don't use trans public transportation in Florida.

Mm-hmm.

never got lost 

Google Maps is better than Apple Maps. Like if you have choices, Google Maps is. For public transportation always has the best options and really, understands how you navigate that, better than the other alternatives. but nowadays too, you gotta keep in mind that like. Some of my trips and a lot of my travels were before Uber or Lyft or Grab or whatever the equivalent is around the world was available, which has really helped, with tourist prices of getting a fair price, of getting around a lot and navigating public transportation.

but if you're really looking to save, there are a lot of ways, and my advice would be if you've never taken public transportation because you're an American and you have no idea what you're doing, you know, take that trip and just try it once. And then if you, don't like it or you fail, then you don't have to do it again.

But at least try to see if you can do it. because you can [00:47:00] save a lot of money along the way on any trip. And it doesn't just have to be in Western Europe or parts of Europe with good transportation. There are plenty of ways that you can navigate it. use blogs and read. About your options because sometimes, the convenience is cheap enough or outweighs, the inconvenience because we're not all backpackers, we're not all hostel seeking, like, you know, whatever way we can save a buck kind of people, I'm certainly not anymore.

so it really is a matter of looking and navigating your options to make sure that it's worth it.

Yeah, a hundred percent agree. And I think also doing the public transportation, I think it also helps you to learn and to navigate the new city that you're in. And I always feel more comfortable in a city if I know where I am in relation to where my hotel is or what the neighborhoods are 

I always feel a lot safer if I'm not just relying on taking Ubers or whatever, 

Here I am just like, [00:48:00] I like go into everything wild. Like I'm just like, eh, it'll work out. Like I'll figure it out. Just, I think for me, I've just, like, I've traveled so much that now it just feels like it all works out, you know? And I think having that more go with the flow attitude is how I've been able just to feel so much more confident and comfortable throughout the process and having quality research beforehand.

as far as like, you know, I like to use Google Maps too. I pin all these cheap eats I've found before I leave for a destination, all the activities that I might want to do, any place I found that maybe has good souvenirs at an affordable local price that I can bring home. and I go into it pinning all of that beforehand too, which then helps save money as well as maybe I'm at.

at Big Ben, we're gonna use London as an example. And I'm at Big Ben and I have my app that I pinned everything on, on my Google Maps, and then I say, I'm really hungry, right? And so instead of sitting there and saying, oh, I'm really hungry, what can I eat that's right here?

I open up my map [00:49:00] and I already have already predetermined all of these restaurants that are around and I can just sit there and say, okay, I already know this fits my budget. the food's good. and look, it's nearby to where I am right now on this app. So that's another way that kind of helps me navigate and, and when I'm in the city as well, is I've already predetermined some of those things going into it.

Yeah, I like that. I think having the information allows me to be a little bit more, go with the flow with certain things, because if I don't have the info, then I'm like, ah.

I think it helps too, like if I'm with a guide and they're like, oh, this is my favorite place to eat. Okay, let's go on. I just sit there and I open up my Google Maps really quick and I click it and I pin it

Yeah.

So like as we go through cities and people recommend things, I'm always adding and like curating whatever might fit into that.

So all of that to say it all helps, it all makes the experience better and it all helps me save a lot of [00:50:00] money, along the way. 

All right, Kendyl, so let's get into some rapid fire questions. Are you ready?

Yes. I don't know why I feel nervous. Yes,

I promise. I promise

I'm so ready.

Okay. Question number one. Favorite city on this European trip that you did?

Budapest by far. Istanbul. Close second though.

I just love that city. It's so architecturally beautiful. You got the river, the Hungarian food is actually pretty legit.

Okay, next question. Best meal for under $10.

There is really good soup that I've had for $1. I have had some incredible pho for a dollar 50 in Vietnam and some bomb tacos that used to be out of a car garage in Mexico City, all under $2 each of those.

next question. Most unexpected travel win.[00:51:00] 

I think that my travel wins have all been unexpected in a way of every time I'm like, I don't think that I should be able to do this. I would say one of my most though unexpected travel wins in the recent years was I, I am a local travel girl, don't get me wrong, but I go to an all-inclusive once a year and there were like, I stacked like three Hyatt deals on top of it and ended up earning like 20,000 points on like a four night stay.

So I ended up like being able to walk away with quite a few free nights. Even though I spent 800, I got a super good deal. It was $800 for four nights at the all inclusive. So that's a really good win.

I think there's definitely a time and place for an all-inclusive. I don't, you know, I don't believe people who try to tell me that all-inclusives aren't real travel. 

I would vote for that.

Stop you. You do all-inclusives.

not real travel.

real travel.

It's not, it's not real travel. It is, it is [00:52:00] getting the exper, the Western experience somewhere else. That's all it is to me. It is not travel. It is not culturally relevant. It is not. You're not getting any like local food. You're not getting any of that. You're sitting on your bum and you are not thinking, and I'm okay with that, but it's not travel.

I think tra, I think it can be travel for some people and I think that that's totally fine. If you love all inclusives, you can be my friend. You can't be Kendyl's friend, but you

You can, I like all inclusives, but I wouldn't consider it travel to me.

to

I don't even consider the passport stamp. Like, I'm like, oh, that wasn't, I wasn't really in Mexico, like

It's okay guys. All right. Next question. Most useful credit card or travel perk?

the world of Hyatt card 'cause you get about 18% ROI on cash stays. So if you stay in with cash, I like to look at my credit cards as what am I earning back, that I can use for [00:53:00] future stays. And that one by and far always, you're earning enough to get a free stay really consistently with it and you get a free night.

So for $95, I don't think you can really beat that card in that respect.

Yeah, my mom just got that card and she loves it

It's great for cash stays.

All right, Next dream destination for you.

I, my next dream destination is always the next destination I go to. And I'm very fortunate that I'm always getting to go to new destinations, that maybe I've been to, but I'm gonna explore in a new way or somewhere that I've always just really wanted to go to. So, I'm kind of living the dream that I'm always getting a dream destination.

I think it's a great time for you to plug your group trips if you wanna

Yeah.

about this.

I host group trips.

Yeah. So I, one of my actual favorite things about what I do is I host group trips and what we are calling now girls trips around the [00:54:00] world. our group trips are usually small group, eight to 14 people. And we do destinations that I feel like people don't feel like maybe they can do on their own.

And we do them in a more local friendly, local first perspective with those. And then the girl trips are four nights and destinations pretty close by in foreign countries. Think Belize, Mexico, Guatemala, that kind of stuff. and those, we just get together and giggle for four days straight. but I love it.

I love getting to host these trips. I love getting to take you guys on trips that I feel like. Are affordable price points that I would be willing to pay. 'cause that's one of my criteria as I put these trips together, with the team that I work with. love to have other people on them. We always have a good time, on these trips and you can always just find 'em on my website if you're interested.

Yeah, my mom and I were fortunate to join you on your girls trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, and it was

The house,

that

house,

that [00:55:00] house,

amazing.

Just everything was amazing. my mom and I had been to Mexico, but really only on a cruise.

We had never really gotten to explore, like, I wanna say, real Mexico, you know?

It, yeah, it's, we had a local, a local experience.

Yes, it was very local, super authentic. Definitely helped me see and appreciate Mexico in a way that I never thought that I would. And I know that that's something that's really important to you as well with planning these group trips is to like give people another perspective, another like experience they probably would never get if they're planning that on their own or if they're planning with these other big tour groups.

if anyone's listening that they're like, I wanna travel, I wanna have that type of experience, definitely go to insert website. Where should they go? Kendyl?

Uh, you can just go to my website. It's Kendyl travels.com. K-E-N-D-Y-L [00:56:00] travels.com. but definitely check 'em out because have really high, expectations as far as price point and activities and making sure that these are as local, led local first kinds of activities that we can put together at a price point that you can definitely afford in places that you probably wouldn't be comfortable going on your own.

Like, think Thailand, Vietnam, Morocco, you know, all of those kinds of places that are dream destinations in a different way.

Yeah, I love that you make it so affordable compared to other trips that would be considered group trips and the experience is like incredible. So, and you also, for some of these trips where people are like, I wanna use points for my flights 

Mm-hmm.

you also give them tips on how to use their points to find flights.

Right.

Yeah. So we do a service with everybody where they can send in their points that they have and where they're flying from, if they'd be interested in [00:57:00] doing a positioning flight, and then where, uh, what their travel days or, uh, ideal travel days would be for the trip. And then I help put together their, points for their flights.

I let them know like, Hey, these are the points, hotels, if you're staying a few days before, after the trip, or, here's some affordable hotels. So I try to make everything as cheap as possible. And about 70, 80% of people use points for their, their flights on all of our trips. So it makes 'em really economical.

That's awesome. So thank you so much Kendyl for joining me today and for being a friend.

from planning a big trip with points to Europe for five and a half weeks to making a hundred dollars a day go so much further than you would think. I hope that Kendyl's story inspired you to start mapping out your own version of a mini retirement or at least a long weekend getaway. you can follow Kendyl on Instagram @kendyltravels. Go to her website, and, keep up with her [00:58:00] adventures, get even more travel inspiration, maybe find a group trip that works for you. And this episode got you dreaming about your next trip, share it with a friend who could use a little inspiration too.

And don't forget to follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you love this episode, I would so love it and appreciate it if you left a review Because it really helps people find the podcast, and it keeps me going to see how much the podcast has helped people like you travel more for less.

So until next time, keep it simple, keep it fun, and keep exploring. See you in the next episode.