Summer 2019 Europe Trip on Points
“The Point. - With a little bit of work and research, I managed to put together a twenty-thousand dollar itinerary, all on points! Needless to say, I’m excited. ”
I have finally settled my summer travel plans so I can finally share here on Distant Points with everyone. In the end, Kath and I , will be travelling for 17 days for a cost of ~ $620 each. While I definitely (re) learned that European flight availability is slim during the summer, I’m glad we pieced together an awesome trip that has us travelling to 5 countries, staying in hotels for 14 nights, and flying on 9 flights!
Our Itinerary
My 17 day summer holiday
I wasn’t looking for an around the world trip, just something I could do in 2 weeks. As you can see we’re headed all over the map. When I put this trip together I had a few goals:
Visit friends in London
Spend 7 nights at the Bodrum EDITION that I got from the Marriott travel package
Meet friends in Ukraine to go to Chernobyl
Reduce costs by using airline and hotel points
Save time and money!
I used these guiding principles to piece together my trip. It’s only 20K British Airways Avios (and $90 in taxes) to fly Toronto to Dublin, a steal. I went on exchange to Dublin in University so I know the city (and the airport) really well. Getting from Dublin to London is easy, but getting from London to Istanbul/Bodrum was tough. There was nothing available that was direct with Aeroplan, United Miles or Avios, and revenue flights were $450+ each, in the end it was cheaper to book a flight to one of my favourite cities, Stockholm, spend the night there, and then fly to Istanbul from there. It’s a great opportunity to visit Stockholm again and review Ryainair. After our stay at the Bodrum EDITION, It is surprisingly easy to book a flight from Bodrum to Kiev and I will have an opportunity to review Pegasus, a popular Turkish low cost carrier. Finally, on the way home I didn’t bother looking for business class flights because it’s a day flight - I just wanted to get home quickly. I found an award flight from Kiev to Toronto via Vienna on Austrian and Air Canada using 30K United miles and $67 taxes for each of us. Needless to say, Distant Points is an accurate name for the blog.
Not bad value on the flight aspect, we paid only 10 percent of our total flight costs. That being said, no tourist would spend $3,300 on our flight home, so my true value has us saving about $700 on each flight.
Our Hotels
Our only plan was to enjoy the famous Bodrum EDITION hotel. Besides that, we were looking for central hotels that wouldn’t break our points budget.
Our first stop, Dublin is an expensive place to stay, just take a look at Marriott prices in July.
Those Dublin hotels aren’t cheap..
Luckily we were able to snag a place at the recently opened Aloft Dublin, a Category 4 Marriott hotel, for 25K Bonvoy points for the night. We arrive at 5:30 am, so we will be able to drop our stuff off and go right into town to explore some of my favourite spots in the city.
Courtyard Dublin (Booking.com Photo)
We’re also lucky enough to have a few friends help us out in the notoriously expensive London, I’m glad we can save a few $$ here too. When I looked for flights to Istanbul through Stockholm, I was worried that I was going to pay a fortune for a hotel in Stockholm, but I was lucky to find the Courtyard Stockholm Kungsholmen for only ~$115, a fantastic deal for summer in Scandinavia. I covered this cost using American Express Cobalt points as 1 point equals 1 cent, which is much better value than using 25K Bonvoy points for this hotel.
In Istanbul, I wanted a central hotel that wouldn’t break the bank. I was tempted by the St Regis or the W, but I went simple and for only 17,500 Bonvoy points I was able to book the Renaissance Istanbul Polat Bosphorus Hotel. Its centrally located and cheap, what I was looking for our 24 hours in Istanbul.
Renaissance Istanbul Polat Bosphorus Hotel looks nice!
The real centrepiece of our trip is the Bodrum EDITION. When I managed to get a seven day booking at this hotel I was thrilled - it retails over $1000 Canadian a night during the peak of summer.
Not cheap…
Bodrum Edition Pool (Marriott)
This hotel is stunning!
I don’t think I’m worthy…
The EDITION brand was created by Ian Schrager to cater to the new-wealthy. On the EDITION website it says:
No two cities are alike; Why should our hotels be? From New York City to Sanya, China, each property is designed to give guests a curated taste of the locale, reflecting the best of cultural and social miliieu. The result is a refreshing collection of individualized hotels (the anti-hotel chain), representing a new generation of luxury.
Needless to say, I’m ready for these views. I’m expecting this hotel to be the best one ever, even better than the JW Marriott Guanacaste. Our plan is to hang out at the hotel, decompress from work, and enjoy the Turkish hospitality. Let me know if you have any suggestions, I’m open to any reader suggestions!
After our magical Turkish experience we’re going for a bit of an adventure. I booked flights to Kiev expecting to meet a friend there to go to Chernobyl, but unfortunately my friends couldn’t make it. Not to worry, I enjoyed my trip to Kiev in the past but regretted that I didn’t make it to Chernobyl so I’m excited to take Kathleen on a little bit of an adventure. We’re staying at the Aloft Kiev, which isn’t cheap at $435 for three nights but I’m trying to qualify for Bonvoy Platinum status so I needed the extra three nights. I covered this cost using American Express Cobalt points as 1 Membership Reward point equals 1 cent, which is much better value than using 25K Bonvoy points for this hotel.
Overall, our hotel redemption looks like this
Great hotel value - most of it driven by the Bodrum EDITION
So that’s that, how does this look? $20K worth of travel for $1200 bucks, I can’t complain. We now have about $1500 budgeted to spend on airport transportation, ubers, and food.
