Garbage or Inspiration???

My mom would call these two piles as garbage. I see them as my inspiration.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to spend a few hours at the Travel and Adventure Show at the Washington Convention Center. The travel show had representatives from many different tourism boards from various countries from all six continents and many different states.

As you can see, I collected brochures and pamphlets for many destinations local and international.

International Pamphlets

USA Pamphlets

These brochures and pamphlets are like porn. Reading these make my heart jump, lets me dream a little and gives me inspiration. Inspiration to plan a a weekend gateway, friend's long weekend or even an aspiration trip.

Most of us collect points to travel to new locations, but one of the hardest decisions is where to go. Throughout the blog, Chris and I have preached that to be successful in this game, you must have goals; travel goals. With a destination in mind, the plan on how to get there and how to pay for (hopeful with points)  it become a lot easier.

Before today, I was collecting points for unknown future adventures, but my few hours at the travel show opened many new destinations for me to travel to: Austin, Alaska, Iceland, and Seychelles Islands.

Tomorrow, I start collecting/earning points for a purpose. Time to get planning on the rest of trips for 2013.

Excuse me as I go to my bedroom with these pamphlets.




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NYT: 46 Places to Go In 2013

I was having a hard time sleeping earlier this week, so I started browsing the internet. It was 2am and the troubles of the week were keeping me up. (You know the basic problems for a mortgage officer: Did I get the paystub for the X loan or what will I do if the appraisal for the W loan comes in low - Yes, we worry about your loans, morning, noon and late at night) Well, I started browsing my normal sites (ESPN, CNN, CNBC, Washinton Post), but I was still wide awake. This led me to a New York Times and travel sections, where the article "46 Places to Go In 2013" which caught my attention.
Produced by Matt Bloch, Alicia DeSantis, Matt Ericson, Ben Koski, Josh Robinson and Josh Williams,all of the New York Times helps travelers of all levels, sometimes we need these type of lists to push our travel boundaries to the next level.

Before going over the list, the article is a must read for no other point of looking at the beautiful photos of each place. In addition to the photos, the NYT provides commentary of each of the 46 Places to Go.

The list of 46 places breaks down as the followed:

US - 7 Places

• Houston
• White Salmon River, Washington
• The Big Island, Hawaii
• The Adirondacks, New York
• Puerto Rico
• Jackson Hole, Wyoming
• Washington, DC

Canada - 2 Places

• Rossland, British Columbia
• Charlevoix, Quebec

Latin America - 4 Places

• Rio de Janeiro
• Nicaragua
• Yucatan, Mexico
• The Falkland Islands

Europe - 16 Places

• Marseille
• Amsterdam
• Istanbul
• Montenegro
• Hvar, Croatia
• Vernazza, Italy
• Oslo, Norway
• Lithuania
• Burgos, Spain
• Lens, France
• Porto, Portugal
• The Jeseniky, Czech Republic
• Pecs, Hungary
• Ireland
• Getaria, Spain
• Paris

Africa - 4 Places

• Accra, Ghana
• Constantia, South Africa
• Republic of Congo
• Casablanca, Morocco

Asia and Pacific: 13 Places

• Bhutan
• New Delhi
• Singapore
• Mongolia
• Philippines
• The Kimberly Island, Australia
• Ningxia, China
• Changbaishan, China
• Koh Phangan, Thailand
• Kalpitiya, Sri Lanka'
• Bangkok
• Waiheke, New Zealand
• Mergui Islands, Myanmar

The result of reading the article was not good; I could not fall to sleep any faster. I stayed up 45 additional minutes more thinking about which places I need to visit in 2013. Not WANT, but NEED. By the next morning, I had made up my mind.

All I am going to mention is that I am going to visit at least two of these places on the list: one in the US and at least one outside. Here is a hint for the one outside of the US: the easiest airport to fly into is also one of the hottest places now to vacation, but where the airport is located isn't where I want to visit. Any guesses?

Are there places on this list that you want to visit?

My 2013 Travel Goals

If you have not figured out yet, I am a goal oriented person. I love goals. They keep me focused and give me purpose. So, it may come of no surprise that I have created travel/points related goals for 2013. Since I preach the importance of creating goals, I will share mine as inspiration to others:

1) Visit either South America or Australia in Business Class

2) Revisit Europe or Africa (in any class)

3) Try at least 1 new airline

4) Visit one state, in the USA, that I have never been to

5) Do one thing I haven't done in Washington,DC each month and report back

6) 600,000 miles/points earned

7) Create and stay within a travel budget


I choose the 600,000 figure for #5 because it breaks down nicely into 50,000 points a month. Can I earn 600,000 points in a year? Probably. I just complete my year end numbers for 2012 and here are how they look:

Points/Miles Earned: 399,000

Points/Miles Spend: 346,000

Balance as of 12/31: 425,000

As you can see, I earned about 400,000 points and spent 350,000 points this year. If I continue to earn about the same number of miles that I spend each year, I feel that I will be in a good place. I don't believe in points hoarding, spend them while you have them, is more my motto.

The most important goal is #7 to me: create and stick with a travel budget. The game is a dangerous and addictive habit. With this hobby, there is always something to spend money on. Be it annual fees for credit cards to mattress/mileage runs, money always seems to be leaving my wallet to feed the habit. To be honest, I have no idea how much I spend on this "hobby" last year. For this reason, I am going to create a travel budget and force myself to stick to it. Any money spent on my "point/travel hobby" must come from this budget. Once the budget is exhausted, my spending for this "hobby" will stop for the year. (I doubt I will hold myself to this - if I exhaust my budget, I will still do things for the hobby, but I feel like I will be more stingy)

What my travel budget will be is still TBD. In year's past, I would move 75% of my bonus each year to a savings account and use that for travel related expenses. However, since I switched my job in 2012, I have no idea what to expect for a bonus. Therefore, I might need to move to deducting a certain amount each paycheck as a method of funding my points habit. Regardless of how I fund my travel budget this year, I need to create a budget, prioritize my expenses and stick to it. Otherwise, this little habit of mine might cause financial problems that I vowed never to get myself into again.

I am excited for what 2013 brings our community. With these goals, I have focus and a direction, now its time to execute it.