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The Selfish Years

~ Over 200 cities, 42 countries, 6 continents and counting.

The Selfish Years

Category Archives: Travel Hacking

Our Earning and Burning in 2015

11 Monday Jan 2016

Posted by misterselfish in Infant Travel, Travel Hacking

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

2015, Selfish Year, Selfish Years

2015 was a big year for our household with the addition of Ivy (a.k.a Baby Selfish) who officially ended our Selfish Years.

With most of our time devoted to keeping Baby Selfish alive, I managed to release a second game with my company, and focused on earning points and miles since burning them was less of an option. The biggest hit on our old lifestyle (other than sleep) was to this blog.

When I look back, our last post was over 6 months ago, which is a lifetime on the Internet. It’s hard to write a travel blog when you don’t travel and it’s especially hard to travel with a baby, so we significantly scaled back our travels last year.

IMG_2465

She is cute though.

That being said, while she didn’t travel as much as I’d like, Baby Selfish flew 13 segments and more than 23,000 miles last year – not bad for an infant!

2015 travel

So how did we do on the earning and burning side and where did we earn? More after the jump!

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Heading to Turkey and Tanzania!

28 Tuesday Jan 2014

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, Africa, Europe, Hyatt, Travel Hacking

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Grand Hyatt Istanbul, Grand Migration, Istanbul, Safari, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Tanzania, Turkey, United Airlines

Mrs. Selfish and I have been enjoying our time in San Francisco. We’ve seen the Golden Gate bridge from just about every possible angle. We’ve day-tripped to Sonoma, and Napa. We’ve even taken a few short weekend trips to Carmel, San Luis Obispo, Vancouver, and San Diego (trip reports coming soon!).

But with the pending United devaluation coming up, I decided it was time to burn through our United stash and slash a couple more items off our bucket list. So a few weeks ago I booked tickets to Istanbul, and Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.

map

120,000 UA miles in business to Europe and Africa!

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The Costs of 1 Year of Selfish Traveling

01 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, Asia, Australia, Best Of, Europe, Oceania, Travel Hacking

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

Miles, Points, Selfish Years, The Selfish Years, Travel Hacking

This is the final part of our 15 part series on the Best of Our Selfish Years of Traveling. You can check out the other parts below:

  1. It’s Almost Over: The Selfish’s Top 20 Experiences
  2. Now THIS is Living: The Selfish’s Top 10 Stays
  3. Stop Drooling: The Selfish’s Top 20 Eats
  4. The Selfish’s Top 10 Biggest Letdowns
  5. The DO’s of Traveling
  6. The DON’Ts of Traveling
  7. 10 Tips for Haggling Abroad
  8. 15 Things to Pack for a Year Long Trip
  9. 33 Things We Learned While Traveling Abroad for a Year (Part 1)
  10. 33 Things We Learned While Traveling Abroad for a Year (Part 2)
  11. 33 Things We Learned While Traveling Abroad for a Year (Part 3)
  12. The Selfish Guide to Photography – Part 1
  13. The Selfish Guide to Photography – Part 2
  14. A Selfish Year in Pictures

The World

Our great Selfish Years adventure started when I discovered the world of miles & points, back in September 2011. Mrs. Selfish and I applied for 2 Citi AA cards, for a grand total of 150,000 AA miles a piece: enough for two business class tickets around the world!

We’ve done some pretty awesome things, flown some amazing flights, and stayed at some world class hotels. So how much did it all stack up?

Let’s look at the numbers, shall we?

trip map

Mrs. Selfish and I spent a grand total of 372 days of straight traveling, leaving the States in August 2012, and returning in August 2013. During the course of the trip we saw 102 cities and flew 61 flights across 25 countries. selfish-days-by-country

We spent the most days in France, followed by Japan, Australia, and England. Expensive countries, indeed – though surprisingly, Australia was the MOST expensive country – coming in at roughly 50% more in costs than any other country.

Some random factoids:

  • Miles traveled: 70,150
  • Number of pictures taken: 50,326
  • Average number of pictures taken daily: 136
  • Best award redemption (value for cost): Park Hyatt Sydney
  • Best business class flight: Qantas, Sydney to Los Angeles
  • Number of beds we slept in: 97
  • Average number of days in same bed: 3.81
  • Best bed: Heavenly Bed, any Westin Hotel
  • Amount of time spent packing & unpacking bags: 3.36 days
  • Number of massages: 46
  • Number of native languages we encountered: 16
  • Number of languages we learned “hello” and “thank you” in: 8
  • Most expensive economy ticket: Siem Reap to Bangkok at $1.31 per mile
  • Most free attractions: Paris
  • Days we spent no money: 1

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I wish I was still relaxing at the Hilton Queenstown

17 Saturday Aug 2013

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, Hilton, New Zealand, Oceania, Queenstown, Travel Hacking

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Hilton Queenstown, New Zealand, Oceania, Relxation Room, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Travel Hacking

After the disappointing stay at the Hilton Auckland, Mrs. Selfish and I decided to give the Hilton one last go at the Hilton Queenstown.

From everything we’d heard, Queenstown is the most beautiful city in New Zealand, and the Hilton Queenstown is one of the best hotels in the city.

Neither disappointed.

Queenstown Hilton 01

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One Night is All You Need at the Hilton Auckland

08 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, Hilton, New Zealand, Oceania, Travel Hacking

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Auckland, Auckland Hilton, Food Alley, New Zealand, Selfish Year, Selfish Years

Mrs. Selfish and I arrived in Auckland on a late flight from Melbourne for the start of a two week drive from north to south. With limited time, Mrs. Selfish and I hit Auckland with two things in mind: good food, and a good point redemption.

After a little research, I stumbled across the Hilton Auckland, a category 7 redemption with a central location downtown – only a 20 minute walk away from our car hire company.

The oh-so-tasteful lobby

Getting there and Checking In

The Hilton Auckland is located on Prince’s Wharf, which is roughly a 30 minute drive into town. Since we couldn’t pick up our car rental until the following morning, that left us with very few options.

Fortunately, we found Super Shuttle, which ended up costing $43 NZD (~$35 USD) for the two of us and took approximately 45 minutes to reach the Hilton.

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Fun in Paradise at the Hilton Bora Bora

18 Thursday Jul 2013

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, French Polynesia, Hilton, Oceania, Travel Hacking

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

AXON award, Bora Bora, Hilton, Hilton Bora Bora, Oceania, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Tahiti, Travel Hacking

Editor’s note: This is the second of three posts on the Hilton Bora Bora. Check out our other posts here:

  • 5 Nights at the Insanely Beautiful Hilton Bora Bora
  • The Good and Bad Eats of Bora Bora

Today is a continuation of yesterday’s post on the Hilton Bora Bora. Whereas yesterday I was talking about how to get to this amazing resort, and how beautiful Bora Bora is, today I’ll be discussing what you can actually do there – other than the usual relaxing, eating, and napping, and taking long walks on the beach.

I jest of course, though there are plenty of beaches for strolling if you like that kind of thing. Not those shelly beaches either – these are powdery sandy white beaches!

Diving in Bora Bora

Since Mrs. Selfish and I are both certified divers, we decided a dive in the crystal blue-green waters of Bora Bora was a no-brainer. Unfortunately, options in Bora Bora are pretty limited, with only 4 companies. The 2 larger ones felt a little crowded and impersonal to us, so we ended up going with Dive N’ Smile, which was a one man operation run by Patrick.

Bora Bora - Activities 004

Patrick picked us up promptly from the Hilton and suited us up. Not only was his equipment brand new (and very nice!), but he also had steel tanks, which is not something we’ve never seen before.

Although the reefs around Bora Bora are dead, thanks to a hurricane that ripped it up a few years, there is a ton of wild life! We ended up spotting half a dozen lemon sharks, a giant school of blue-spotted eagle rays, and a couple of very active eels.

DCIM\100GOPROBora Bora - Activities 008Bora Bora - Activities 009DCIM\100GOPRODCIM\100GOPRO

Visibility was great, the animals were amazing, and the equipment and instruction were on point. Overall this was definitely one of our better dive experiences and I would highly recommend Dive N’ Smile. If anyone is thinking of going, shoot Patrick an email at: diveNsmile@mail.pf.

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5 Nights at the Insanely Beautiful Hilton Bora Bora

17 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, French Polynesia, Hilton, Oceania, Travel Hacking

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

AXON award, Bora Bora, Hilton, Hilton Bora Bora, Oceania, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Tahiti, Travel Hacking

Editor’s note: This is the first of three posts on the Hilton Bora Bora. Check out our other posts here:

  • Fun in Paradise at the Hilton Bora Bora
  • The Good and Bad Eats of Bora Bora

After our evening of cold croque monsieurs in Tahiti, Mrs. Selfish and I awoke early the next day and boarded a plane for Bora Bora, one of the most beautiful (and expensive) places on Earth.

Having read good things about the Hilton Bora Bora, I was anxious to check out our new home for 5 nights – an overwater bungalow in some of the most magnificent waters I’d ever seen. I booked the stay before the Hilton Honors great devaluation using an AXON award and an extra night, so the total came to 195,000 HHonors points.

Getting there and check-in

Getting to Tahiti itself can be quite difficult on miles and points, though flyertalk has several threads devoted to the topic as I mentioned yesterday.

Once you’ve reached Tahiti the intra-island flight from to Bora Bora is costly at roughly ~$450 round trip. Air Tahiti Nui has multiple flights a day starting in the early morning and ending mid-evening, but unfortunately none of these accept points or miles, just cold hard cash.

Pro-tip: Sit on the left side of the plane for stellar views of Bora Bora

After landing, you have two options for getting to the Hilton Bora Bora: a) take Hilton’s fancy speedboat to the property for roughly $125 per person round trip, b) take the boat into Viatape (the main town) and then catch Hilton’s boat from there for roughly $8 round trip. While we chose option B, we ended up giving our bags to crew of Hilton’s speedboat, which they brought to the hotel for us. I highly recommend this option.

Getting to Bora Bora proved more difficult than most destinations: with 2 flights to Tahiti, a plane to Bora Bora, a shuttle boat to Viatape, and a boat to the Hilton Bora Bora, but man is it worth it.

Bora Bora is easily the most beautiful beach destination we’ve ever been to, beating out Koh Samui, Bali, Danang, and Cancun. Since Mrs. Selfish and I wanted to maximize our time at the resort, we took a late-morning flight in, and an early evening flight out and boy was I glad we did, the Hilton Bora Bora is gorgeous.

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Heading to Bora Bora: Tahitian Dreams

16 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, French Polynesia, IHG, Oceania, Travel Hacking

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Intercontinental Tahiti, Oceania, Roulottes, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Tahiti

When Mrs. Selfish and I originally planned our Selfish Year of travels, we had no intention of visiting the South Pacific. That all changed in March when Hilton announced a massive devaluation in their HHonors Award Program. Hotels that once cost 50,000 points a night we’re suddenly going for as much as 95,000 points – an almost 100% increase!

Having acquired a taste for the Hilton’s nicer properties after staying at the Conrad Koh Samui, I started looking into other places to burn Hilton points. So when my cousin in Sydney proposed we meet up at the Hilton Bora Bora, I jumped at the chance.

Especially after seeing pictures of Bora Bora.

Aw yeah.

Unfortunately, getting to Bora Bora is quite difficult. Only a limited number of airlines fly to Tahiti, and once there you have to catch one of the inter-island flights, which are quite expensive.

To make things even trickier, you’re more or less required to spend two nights in Tahiti as well. Fortunately, Mrs. Selfish had a number of Intercontinental Hotel Groups points saved up, so we ended up booking two nights: one for the flight in, and one for the night before our morning flight out.

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Finishing Sydney with a Bang at the Park Hyatt

15 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, Australia, Hyatt, Oceania, Sydney, Travel Hacking

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Oceania, Park Hyatt Sydney, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Sydney, Travel Hacking

Mrs. Selfish and I visited Sydney a total of three times during our Selfish Year of travels, since Sydney is the major airport in the Oceania region. During our first stay, we stayed with family in the Manly area. For our second stay, we rented a flat downtown – in the seedy red light district.

Our third and final stay was different, however. Having booked us flights to Cairns to dive the Great Barrier Reef I was having a heck of a time finding a flight that would connect us through Sydney in time to catch our flight to Tasmania.

Finally giving up, I decided we’d have to spend one more night in Sydney. And we’d have to do it in style.

At the Park Hyatt Sydney.

Aw yeah.

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5 Nights of Pampering in the Park Hyatt Tokyo

01 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, Asia, Hyatt, Japan, Tokyo, Travel Hacking

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

Japan, Park Hyatt Tokyo, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Tokyo, Travel Hacking

For our last five nights in Japan I booked us at the mother of all hotel redemptions – the Park Hyatt Tokyo. Famously shown in “Lost in Translation,” the Park Hyatt Tokyo has become a point-collector’s dream redemption: a luxury hotel in the middle of Tokyo, with killer food, killer views, and a killer price tag.

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Use British Airways Avios to Save Major Ca$h

26 Sunday May 2013

Posted by misterselfish in Travel Hacking

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Avios, British Airways, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Travel Hacking

Since starting our Selfish Year voyage, Mrs. Selfish and I have flown a total of 58 flights, 28 of which we paid for with points.  The remainder of the flights we paid for with cash, and while none were completely cringe worthy (other than, perhaps the Air Tahiti flight to Bora Bora), they added up to a sizeable sum when combined.

So when I started looking into booking our additional flights in Japan I turned to an often under-appreciated currency – British Airline’s Avios miles.

ba-award-chart

When to use Avios Miles

British Airway’s Avios miles are almost completely worthless when flying British Airways themselves, thanks to their extremely high fuel surcharges.

However, they are superb points for saving money on short haul flights, especially if your flight matches the following criteria:

1. A short distance flight, ideally less than 1150 miles, or better yet, less than 650 miles. As always, use a tool like the Great Circle Mapper to determine the distance between city pairs.

2. Are you flying in a market where British Airways has strong partners? For instance, are you flying Japan Airlines in Japan? Quantas in Australia? American Airlines in the States?

3. Is the market you’re flying in expensive? Japan is a really good fit here, as is America in some cases.

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18 Hours in Fukuoka: The Grand Hyatt

24 Friday May 2013

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, Asia, Hyatt, Japan, Travel Hacking

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Grand Hyatt Fukouka, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Travel Hacking

After bidding farewell to the Westin Chosun in Seoul, Mrs. Selfish and I boarded the 5am airport bus for Incheon Airport.  Two flights and 9 hours later we arrived in Fukuoka Airport, Japan!

When looking at Japan, Mrs. Selfish and I knew we wanted to spend the majority of our time split between Kyoto and Tokyo, and about a week in less visited areas of Japan.

After further research, we determined we’d spend 2 nights in Kurukawa Onsen Town – a charming town on the southern island of Kyushu. The most direct way there involved flying into Fukouka for a one night stay.

Within moments of hitting the city, I knew we’d made a big mistake.  Fukouka is an amazing city, worthy of at least a few days of exploration, and is considered by some to be the food capital of Japan.

And the Grand Hyatt is no slouch either. Coming in as a category 3 hotel, the Grand Hyatt cost us a paltry 12,000 Hyatt points – which I transferred from our Ultimate Rewards pool.

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Staying at the Westin Chosun

20 Monday May 2013

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, Asia, Seoul, South Korea, Starwood, Travel Hacking

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Selfish Year, Selfish Years, SPG, Starwood, Westin Chosun

Since we were spending our 4-year anniversary in Seoul, I decided to book us in a hotel I knew Mrs. Selfish would love: the Westin Chosun.  After staying at the Westin Munich and the Westin Bangkok, Mrs. Selfish and I were solidly in the Westin camp, thanks largely due to their “heavenly bed.”

The Westin Chosun was a great pick.  Not only did it match the Westin brand (even maintaining the Westin smell, which is kind of creepy), but the location is extremely convenient.  It’s within walking distance of many of Seoul’s historic sites, and only a short metro ride away from Gangnum and other areas.

It also gave me an opportunity to take advantage of Starwood’s buy 4-nights, get 1-night free redemption policy. The Westin Chosun is a category 5 hotel, so booking a room cost us 48,000 SPG points.

Getting There & Check-In

Seoul 036

Getting to the Westin from Incheon Airport was a very smooth process, thanks to the airport limousine bus service, which departs from bus stop 4B/11A.  Mrs. Selfish and I purchased two tickets on the bus for about 15,000 won each (around $14.50), and only had to wait 5 minutes.  An hour later, we arrived at the Westin!

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JW Marriott Beijing – One Classy Category 4 Hotel!

11 Saturday May 2013

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, Asia, Beijing, China, Marriott, Travel Hacking

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

JW Marriott Beijing, Selfish Years, Travel Hacking

Redeeming for miles and points is a strange beast.  On the one hand, part of me (and I suspect part of many miles & points addicts) wants to redeem my points for the most expensive hotel I can get. On the other hand, another part of me wants to stretch my miles and points across as many days as possible since we’re in this for the long haul.

Sometimes there’s a happy intersection where a quality hotel, for whatever reason, is a complete steal at its current redemption rate.  The JW Marriott Beijing is one such hotel.

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Saving money by renting apartments

07 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by misterselfish in Accommodations, Travel Hacking

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Accommodations, AirBnB, Chiang Mai, Paris, Selfish Year, Selfish Years, Shanghai, Travel Hacking

While staying at luxury hotels can be quite exciting, nothing beats the feeling of coming home.  Before we started our selfish year of travels, Mrs. Selfish and took tons of weekend trips, culminating in our once-a-year international trip over the Thanksgiving holiday.

While getting out of the States and traveling to new countries was exhilarating, it was also exhausting. If you’re from the States, vacationing is about three things: maximizing, maximizing, maximizing.

By the end of each international trip, we were more tired then when we had started.  Coming home in itself was a treat – a chance to catch up on sleep and get back into the ol’ routine.

Traveling for a year straight is the same deal, except now there is no home to come home to.  It’s exciting, but also tiring – not to mention expensive.  Fortunately, that’s where apartment rentals come in.

Our loft in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

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Who’s Selfish?

Mr. and Mrs. Selfish are an obsessively organized couple who sold all their junk to travel abroad for a year. Now settled in San Francisco, they have since visited over 200 cities in 44 countries over 6 continents. This site chronicles their travels.

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