Now that Heidi and I are married, it’s time for that age old tradition of the Honeymoon. We had the perfect trip originally planned for November. Heidi & I were flying off to Japan for an amazing trip to Tokyo & Osaka. Staying at amazing hotels (two nights at the Park Hyatt Tokyo) & flying home on Singapore Suites.
Sadly, we have had to cancel that trip. Why? Well it’s complicated but let’s just say that if I go overseas right now, i won’t be able to come back, thanks to a small little clause called “Dual Intent”. So knowing we couldn’t leave the country we decided to again do something different. We both love road trips, driving long distances, seeing things, old school diners on the side of the road. Could we factor that into our honeymoon?
Heidi, ever being the smart woman I love and always the instigator suggested Tucson as part of our trip. We had talked about visiting PIMA & the Boneyard. But we couldn’t just go for that. We talked about Vegas as well. Why don’t we do both? Why don’t we drive all the way there and back to LAX then we don’t lose another flight & the costs (we lost about $500 all up cancelling Japan). So then we started working out where to stop, how long for, what we wanted to do. We kept getting our plans solidified & with a wealth of points & credits available from Barclaycard , Capital One & Amex meant we could get away fairly cheaply. I have a boatload of Club Carlson points from my time working their credit card & with an offer that states that as long as I have their card every 2nd night of a stay is free when redeeming points. Score!
So in the end we decided on 2 nights Vegas, 1 night Grand Canyon (Heidi has never visited), 1 night Sedona, 2 nights Tucson, 2 nights Anaheim & 2 nights at Ontario California. When we looked into picking up the car, the taxes were extremely high. If you pick up a car in vegas, they charge you a fee of like $6 a day, just for picking up there. Even if you were dropping off there, you still had to pay it. So I looked at picking up in LAX and driving through to Vegas. My leave was always a day ahead of Heidi’s, so I checked & the costs were certainly in our benefit. So guess who is driving the car to Vegas? Me!
Our trip doesn’t look that flashy for parts of it. Staying at Holiday Inn Express or Country Inn’s but there wasn’t much choice in some areas & the points come in handy. But we have a couple of splurge places. In Sedona I am giving Kimpton one last shot. My Inner Circle status expires end of this year & after our last try, we are going to see if this will be any better. They have an amazing looking hotel in Sedona & it’s worth giving it a try. In Vegas we found a rate at Mandalay Bay that was pretty spectacular, a suite for $70 a night, yes please!
In really looking forward to this trip. It will be the longest vacation I have taken since I moved to the USA so it should be relaxing. But it is also the first real time Heidi & I will get a chance to get away from life & relax, enjoy our married life & let our hair down.
Bring on the fun!