How I Traveled to Europe for Nearly Free! (And How You Can Too)

Hello and welcome to my first ever blog post! My wife and I recently took a trip throughout part of Europe. The goal of this post is to show where we visited, how I packed my one bag, and how I booked this trip with points to make it nearly free. So, let’s get into it!
(If you don’t care to learn more about points and miles, feel free to skip the next two sections)

Booking the Flights to Paris

The first start to any great trip is getting there. Now, not everyone has thousands of dollars to drop on flights and vacations, which is a boat that my wife and I find ourselves in. This is why the two of us are big on using points and miles we earn from credit card bonuses to cover the cost for flights and hotels.

I’m in a few different travel groups on Facebook, which means I’ll sometimes see news about good points deals to certain countries for specific dates. These deals are sometimes random and have limited availability, so my wife is used to getting a last-minute phone call from me about vacations.

A typical conversation of ours usually goes like this:
Me: “Val! There’s a points deal for flights from LA to Paris right now for a crazy low amount of points. I don’t know if we’re free or how we’ll get home, but can we book it?”
Val: “Duh. You don’t have to convince me to go to Paris!”
Me: “It shall be done.”

In this instance, I heard there was good points availability from LAX to CDG in Paris. I ran a quick search on Air France’s website since they have an easy-to-use calendar for seeing points costs for flights.
(Pro tip: If you leave your dates blank when searching for a flight on Air France, the website lets you see the whole calendar at once, so you don’t have to search for availability one day at a time).

Once I found a day on the calendar that had a low points fare, I selected the day and found the flight I wanted to book. However, I didn’t book the actual flight on Air France. SkyTeam alliance partner Virgin Atlantic had the same Air France award flight listed on their site for fewer points, so I went to their website and booked it there.

Since Virgin Atlantic is a partner with Chase, I logged into Chase and transferred the exact amount of points out of my Chase account to my Virgin account and booked the flight.

Booking the Return Flights to Los Angeles

After I had booked our flights there, I spent the next few days trying to find us a way to get home. I had no desire to live in Europe indefinitely! Because I had booked a one-way flight to Europe, and not a round-trip flight, I had the flexibility to fly back to the US from a different city than Paris, meaning I could see more of Europe and select a city that had a better points deal for flights to Europe back to the US.

I did some searching on Air France’s website and saw Rome (FCO) to LAX as a great option. Our flights at the time of searching were 24,000 points per person on Air France–which were the lowest I could find at the time!

But, I didn’t stop there. Just like when I booked our departure flight, I went to one of Air France’s partner airlines, Virgin Atlantic to book the exact same flight there for fewer points. I ran a search on Virgin’s website and found the same 6:10 AM Air France flight listed. Before transferring points out of my Chase account to Virgin, I called Virgin to confirm that they could also see the flight availability on their end. (Sometimes flights show up on airline partner websites that aren’t actually available to book, often referred to as “phantom award space”). Once I got confirmation, I moved points from Chase to my Virgin account and booked the return flights—just 30,000 points total for 2 tickets!

By booking the flight on Virgin’s website instead of on Air France’s, I saved us 18,000 points. Had I paid the cash price for the return flight, I would’ve had to dole out a little over $1,500. Keep in mind, there are often taxes and fees you have to pay with any flight booking, whether the flight is booked with cash or points. I earned the points for these flights by opening this Chase credit card. This card allows you to transfer points that you earn to partner airlines. In this case, I transferred to one of Chase’s transfer partners, Virgin Atlantic.

With all the flights booked, it was now time to plan the route of the trip!

Planning the Route

Val and I didn’t know where we wanted to go in Europe. All we knew is we were landing in Paris on November 18 and had to somehow make it to Rome by November 27 for our return flight.

As I was researching where to go in Europe, I came across this helpful website called Trip Snek. The site has you plug in your starting city and ending city as well as the number of days you’ll be traveling, and it will generate an itinerary for you based on your preferences. It lets you specify your pace, how you want to get around, your interests (natural beauty, architecture, cathedrals, etc.), and how long you want to spend in each place.

For example, I plugged in Paris as the starting city and Rome as the ending city and had it generate an itinerary. From there you can tweak it, extending the number of nights in certain cities, or even avoiding some places altogether.

This site gave me a rough idea for our trip’s itinerary, including turning me on to Colmar, a small town in France that I had never heard of nor thought to visit.

Our rough itinerary we came up with was:
Paris: 3 nights
Colmar: 1 night
Bern: 1 night
Florence: 3 nights
Rome: 2 nights

I knew it would be a bit of a rushed trip, but I had limited vacation days for work and had never been to Europe. The challenge was on!

Since Trip Snek takes train routes into consideration when plotting a route, booking trains in advance was a breeze! All we had to do was find the trains between cities and purchase our tickets for them online. To find the trains for each segment of the route, we used a site called Rome2Rio.

Rome2Rio lets you plug in two destinations and it will tell you all the ways to get there. It tells you the cheapest options and fastest options, and even some really inconvenient ones.

We plugged our segments into the site and started finding the trains we wanted to book. What’s nice about Rome2Rio is it shows the estimated price next to each option and even links directly to each train’s site to book.

Most of our trains were booked through a company called Omio, which had an easy-to-use mobile app. In Italy, we rode on Trenitalia and Italo—their apps were all in Italian, so definitely not as easy-to-use!

Packing for the Trip: One Bag Each

For some reason, perhaps to make the trip more challenging or harder to plan, I decided that my wife and I would only be traveling with one backpack each. While difficult up front, this ended up being a worthwhile decision.

Fitting all our belongings into backpacks meant no checked bags that could get lost. It also meant we could avoid dragging roller bags around on all of Europe’s cobblestone streets. We’d be mobile, lightweight, and ready for anything! Here’s a rough overview of what I packed:

Up top you’ll see a black stuff sack, which contains my black puffy down jacket. This was what I wore everyday as my outermost layer. The weather got as low as 30°, so it was probably the most essential item I brought!

I brought a beanie as well. Underneath the beanie is my packing cube, which contained one pair of pants, five short sleeve shirts, four pairs of socks, four pairs of underwear, and two pairs of lined shorts. Not pictured is my hat, insulated water bottle, and my Nike tennis shoes for everyday walking. I also brought some flip flops for casual use.

Additionally, I brought a tech pouch with various charging cables, a foldable duffle bag, a fanny pack for exploring the city, a bag of toiletries, a card game, an external battery, an outlet converter, a fidget cube for long train rides, noise cancelling headphones (in their own case), and two pouches containing my camera gear.

I didn’t need a ton of tech for this trip. I brought a braided USB-C cable to charge my phone and a 25,000 mAh external power bank so I could charge the rest of our gear on the go. The red cable had several adaptors on the end of it, allowing me to charge my headphones, flashlight, and power bank (it also makes my braided white phone cable redundant, but I just brought it anyway). The cube we used to connect to the EU outlets; it supports USB-C and has 4 USB ports so we could charge multiple devices simultaneously. Lastly, the wad of white was my old Apple iPhone earbuds, used as a backup in case something happened to my over-ear noise cancelling headphones.

My camera gear was bulky and added a decent amount of weight, but I decided it would be worth it bring along. My iPhone takes great quality pictures, but since it was my first time in Europe, I wanted to shoot some even better quality photos.

My camera is a Canon EOS 5D Mark III. I brought two batteries for it (one not pictured as it is in the camera) as well as a charger for the batteries. I didn’t end up needing the battery charger, as two fully-charged batteries gave me more than enough juice for the entire trip. I shot on a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM lens, which is my go-to for most pictures. There were a few times where I wish I had a 35mm or even an 85mm lens, though. I also brought a 125 GB memory card (not pictured) and a backup 32 GB card. Lastly, I had a portable tripod for my camera, which I mainly use for long-exposure shots or “selfies” of my wife and me.

Lastly, I had a few gadgets with me. On the left is a HeroClip. This nifty thing clips on to my backpack and allows me to hang it from nearly anywhere. I used this a lot in bathrooms and to keep my bag off the floor in restaurants. I also brought an S-biner. I used this to keep the pockets of my backpack sealed shut—making it difficult for pickpockets to access when I was out and about in the city. It also allowed me to attach my hat to the outside of my backpack. You never know when you’ll need a good carabiner!

For safety and utility, I brought a tactical pen and flashlight. I’m someone that always carries a knife on me, but TSA wasn’t about to let me fly with one. My tactical pen adds a nice layer of safety when walking about at night, and it’s TSA approved! It’s also nice to always have a pen on handy. My flashlight is the Wurkkos FC-11, which is portable and super bright. I used this more than I thought I would—like when we were navigating Rome’s dark backstreets, or trying to find our AirB&B in a dark Paris stairwell.

Here’s a breakdown of my gear list:

Day 1–4: Los Angeles to Paris

DAY 1

To start the trip off, we arrived at LAX for our direct flight to Paris via Air France. We showed up to the airport a couple of hours early and breezed through security using TSA Precheck. Since we had a little bit of time to kill and our flight was delayed about an hour, we headed to the Amex Centurion Lounge, located in the Tom Bradley International Terminal. I had access to this lounge via the Amex Platinum Credit Card. You can bring a guest for $50 a person. Even though I was fully ready to pay for Val to enter the lounge with me, they ended up not charging me to bring her in.

This was our first time in this lounge, and I had a great time! The lounge offered an open bar, buffet, private pods, and even massages! Val and I were able to take advantage of the free massages before boarding our flight, which made for a great start to the trip.

This redeye flight was the longest flight I had ever taken—and I felt every minute of it. I tried to sleep most of the flight to adjust for the time change, but it was a struggle for me.

Prior to leaving on this trip, I had downloaded an app called Timeshifter. It allows you to input your flights and cities and it will generate a plan for you to minimize jet lag. The app would tell me when to sleep, when to see bright light, and when to consume or avoid caffeine. Unfortunately, the app’s recommendation was for me to sleep for the entirety of the flight across the Atlantic, which proved to be a difficult task. But, I did find that the app helped minimize my jet lag, as I slept well and had plenty of energy for most of the trip.

Val also downloaded an app called Airalo, which was what we used to have mobile data throughout Europe. We had purchased a 5 GB data plan for about $20. The app gave us an e-sim, which meant we didn’t have to swap out a physical sim card on Val’s phone—we could activate the plan digitally. Getting data in Europe was just a matter of activating the e-sim within the Airalo app and turning off all cellular data when we didn’t need it.

DAY 2

When we landed, we took a taxi to the Latin Quarter area of Paris and checked into our tiny (but cozy!) Air B&B. One thing I didn’t realize was that in Paris, oftentimes apartments share a single bathroom somewhere in the hallway or stairwell. This was the case for us! The lights in the bathroom would turn off every 15 seconds and the light switch in the bathroom somehow controlled the common lights for every floor in the building…

We also got to see Notre Dame and the Louvre. We ended the cold night with a boat cruise on the Seine (great views of the Eiffel tower) and some late-night crêpes!

DAY 3

The next day we explored Paris on foot, finding a bakery and café downtown. French pastries are definitely top-tier. Everyone I met was friendly and patient as I struggled through some basic French phrases. There were a few of key cultural things we observed that helped us stay polite. First, the French start out every interaction with “bonjour”; it’s considered rude not to. Second, we made sure to watch our volume in public. Americans tend to be quite loud in public spaces, so by keeping the volume down, we blended in more with the local people. Third, we didn’t rush meals. I’m used to American restaurants wanting me to finish my meal quickly and leave so that they can turn over my table to other guests. In France, meals are savored and are an intentional, slow experience. We tried to stay at least 1–2 hours at every place we ate. Now, while it may seem like we were missing parts of Paris by taking a long time dining, we actually felt like we experienced a key aspect of Paris’s rhythms that many tourists can miss.

I also came across a local spot that you won’t want to miss when you visit Paris. If you go into this random mall/department store, called Printemps Haussmann, you can take an escalator up to the seventh floor. On the seventh floor you’ll find a bar and a coffee shop that have an incredible view of the city. You can sit at these large glass windows and sip your drink, or go out onto the balcony to get the breeze. Not a tourist in sight.

DAY 4

We started the day off by visiting a small café in our neighborhood. After a tasty cappuccino and pain au chocolate, we headed off to the Musée d’Orsay, where we got to see some wonderful art. The standout for me were some paintings by Monet. We then got a final crêpe before we hopped on the train to our next town, Colmar.

Day 4–5: Paris to Colmar

DAY 4

Colmar is a small town in the Alsace region of France, located right next to the border of Germany. To be honest, I didn’t really know what to expect when visiting here, but it ended up being one of my favorite places on the entire trip!

After dinner we wandered around the town, enjoying the lights and decorations. There was an old church from 1365 that was illuminated in the center of town. Tired from our day of travel, we retired to our Air B&B, a cozy apartment in the heart of the town. It was one of the best sleeps I had on the trip!

DAY 5

We woke up in Colmar and wandered the streets until we found a small café. We consumed some incredible pastries as we sat amongst locals reading the newspaper. The owner of the café was this little old woman who didn’t speak a word of English. She was a great host! Val and I were perplexed because locals kept going behind the counter to serve themselves or wash their own dishes.

Day 5–6: Colmar to Bern

DAY 5

Bern was an interesting city. It had a lot of character to it, and I noticed there was also less going on than in Paris. Bern is surrounded by bridges and rivers that has beautiful blue water. After admiring the scenery, we made our way to the Bern Minster cathedral in the center of town (which happened to be the tallest cathedral in all of Switzerland). For $7 a person, you can climb the winding steps to the top, which I’m glad we opted to do. The views of the city were magnificent! There are also lots of old church bells in the tower that we got to see.

Something you should know: Switzerland is very expensive. I had heard that before visiting, but I didn’t realize it was that expensive. We’re talking $34-for-a-plain-burger-expensive. After some searching, we found a cheaper restaurant and managed to get some dinner for about $26 a person. We saw a sign advertising a “Los Angeles California burrito,” but I wasn’t going to take my chance with that one!

We ended the day by taking a train to our hotel outside the city. We stayed at a Holiday Inn, which was surprisingly nice and not too far from the city center. I had booked this using IHG points I had earned from their business credit card. I spent 34,000 points to book the room for one night. We also got upgraded due to my IHG Platinum status (also thanks to their business card!). Our stay included a free train pass, as well as free tickets to the waterpark attached to the hotel! If we had more time, I definitely would’ve been splashing it up at the park!

DAY 6

We started off Day 6 with some coffee in downtown Bern. Then it was off to the train station for the next leg of our adventure. We’d be heading south to Italy—hopefully to be greeted by some slightly warmer weather, too!

Day 6–9: Bern to Florence

DAY 6

To get to our next major stop, Florence, we needed to take three different trains. We had booked these months in advance online, so it was just a matter of locating the trains we needed to be on, and then actually getting on them! The train station in Bern was busy and chaotic, with multiple levels, but we were still able to find our first train. I recommend giving yourself an extra 20–30 minutes longer than you’ll think you need when arriving at a train station, just to figure out where you need to be.

Our first stop was in Brig, Switzerland, in the middle of the Swiss Alps. We had a couple hours to kill before our next train, so we left the station to explore the town. Surrounded by snow-capped mountains, it was a sight to behold. We also stumbled upon an old castle with a beautiful garden. Before we hopped back on the train, we had to stop by the local Aldi, which is just as nice, if not nicer, than the American version.

Something that Val and I found a bit confusing was knowing which trains had assigned seats and which trains were just a free-for-all. When boarding at the Brig station, our train platform was packed. We weren’t able to find a seat, so we stood for a little while. We eventually found two open seats and sat there—only to be told to move just minutes later. It turns out, this train had assigned seats, and we were in someone else’s. Our train app didn’t mention any assigned seats, so I recommend pulling up the actual PDF of your ticket to find out if there are seats you’re supposed to be in. Luckily, we saw on the PDF where we needed to be sitting (a few train cars down) and our seats were vacant.

After another quick stop in Milan, we were on our third and final train to Florence. When Val had booked our trains, it was only $7 to upgrade to first class. First class on our Italo train included larger seats, a footrest, and food service like on an airplane. I’d say it was worth it! Once we arrived, we walked from the train station to our Air B&B and called it a night!

DAY 7

Florence is a perfect city in which to wander. Boasting narrow cobblestone streets and scenic views, I felt like there was a new experience around every corner. We explored bridges over the water, found a bookstore located in a historic theater, tried out some delicious pizza, and walked alongside one of Florence’s original city walls. A little before sunset, we grabbed some gelato to-go and hiked to the Piazzale Michelangelo for some great golden hour views of Florence.

We started our night by visiting a small restaurant for dinner known as Il Contadino. We sat outside under string lights and among a host of locals enjoying a Friday night dinner; the city was alive around us. My pasta with a wild boar meat sauce was one of the best meals of the trip. We got appetizers, bread, pasta, tiramisu, and 3–4 glasses’s worth of wine each for $38 total. If you’re in Florence, you’ve got to give this place a try!

From dinner, we wandered until we came across a Christmas market in one of the city’s plazas. There were vendors from all over, selling specialty food, crafts, and mulled wine.

Our accommodations for the next two nights were at a superb hotel called IL Tornabuoni. It’s centrally located in Florence, so everything is a 2–15 minute walk away and the amenities are top-of-the-line. The staff was wonderful too—Andrea and Michael gave wonderful recommendations. We were even upgraded from a standard room to a suite upon check in. It’s one of the nicest hotels I’ve stayed in ever, and the best news is that you don’t have to pay top-dollar to stay here.

IL Tornabuoni is part of the Hyatt Unbound Collection, which means it can be booked with points. To book, I first ran a search on Hyatt’s website to find availability. I was able to see that the standard room rate was bookable for just 21,000 Hyatt points per night, which was a steal.

You can use the points calendar feature on Hyatt’s website when searching to see what the base award rates are for each night. However, Hyatt won’t let you see the grand total of points needed for your entire stay unless you already have a sufficient amount of points in your Hyatt account. So, to figure out how many points are needed, you’ll have to look at each night at a time and add up the required amount of points per night to get your total. Once you know your total, then you can book. In my case, I transferred 42,000 points from my Chase account to my Hyatt account to book our two-night stay. This transfer is almost instantaneous, meaning I could book my stay within minutes of finding availability. Had we paid cash for the two nights, it would’ve cost us a little over $1,100. Chase points to Hyatt is a great sweet-spot where you can derive a ton of value.

DAY 8

We started off our day early to beat some of the crowds at the Accademia Gallery of Florence, home to Michelangelo’s famous sculpture of David. Inside the museum were other sculptures, as well as a section featuring various historical instruments. You’ll want to book your reservation in advance for this one, as the no-reservation line was quite long. The museum will give you a time slot to visit, and we were able to gain entry rather quickly.

In the afternoon, we hiked up to the Basilica di San Miniato. We spent a couple of hours taking in the interior of the church and exploring its surrounding grounds. Buried at this church were thousands of people, some born as early as the early 1800s. We stayed for sunset, as the church as an amazing view of the city (better than Piazzale Michelangelo’s view in my opinion, and with 1/10th of the people!).

We ended the night with a candlelit dinner in a restaurant right outside of the Duomo. This place (La Cupola) came recommended to us by our hotel bellman. It did not disappoint! Val had a tasty gnocci, while I ordered a tender beef filet with vegetables. If you have extra cash to spend, I heard they have one of the best Florentine T-bone steaks in the city.

DAY 9

Day 9–11: Florence to Rome

DAY 9

After a few hours on a train headed south, we finally made it to Rome, the last stop on our trip. We wasted no time walking to find a small handmade pasta place. We then headed to the center of town, where the majority of the sites are located. Rome is a much larger city than Florence, but luckily the majority of the significant sites are only a few minutes’ walk from each other.

We saw the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, the Roman Forum, the Temple of Venus Genetrix, Septimius Severus Arch, and the Mamertine Prison (where Paul wrote 2 Timothy during his second imprisonment in Rome). And of course, we saw the looming Colosseum. It was hard for me to process just how old the landmarks are; it was a surreal feeling for me to be standing amongst ancient ruins while snapping a picture on my phone.

After some sightseeing, we headed to the west of the city to check into our hotel, a five-star hotel called The Hotel Indigo Rome. I had booked this hotel since it is under the IHG hotel umbrella, meaning I could make use of my IHG Platinum status—which got us an upgrade to a suite, including a full fridge of drinks and snacks, and use of the spa. I had the spa all to myself, and got a ton of use out of the sauna, steam room, and Roman baths. There was also a rooftop bar that had a great view of the city.

To book this hotel, I ran a simple search on IHG’s website to check availability. Thanks to opening the IHG Business credit card, I had an Anniversary Night Award available. An Anniversary Night Award allows you to book a free night at any IHG property that costs 40,000 points or less. You don’t need to pay any money or spend any points to book an Anniversary Night Award. If you opt for booking a property that’s above the 40,000 point threshold, you can simply pay the overage in the form of points, cash, or a combination of the two.

In our case, I opted to pay the 20,000 point overage to book this Queen Standard room (which later got upgraded to a King Premium Suite). The cash price for our room would’ve been $578 a night—no thank you! In retrospect, it was a great strategy to have our accommodations slowly increase in quality throughout the duration of our trip.

That night, Val and I wandered our way up north to Vatican City. The architecture was astounding, and the entire area was still and quiet. The time to visit is definitely at night once the majority of the crowds head back to their hotels.

To end the night, we made the trek to a renowned Roman pizza place, Bonci. Unfortunately, Val and I both found it underwhelming, and it wasn’t in the nicest neighborhood either. With full bellies and tired feet, we headed back to the hotel for our final night of quality sleep.

DAY 10

This was our last real day of adventure. We slept in and ventured out into the west side of the city for some breakfast, and then went back to the hotel to pack up for the day (and night). Thanks to my IHG status, we were able to utilize our late checkout benefit to maximize our time there. Val and I then ventured off to visit Rome’s botanical gardens, which ended up being a peaceful break from the tourists and bustle of the city. The view overlooking Rome was an added bonus.

The afternoon is where our plans took a slight turn. It started pouring rain, which really put a damper on our ability to keep exploring the city. We ended up fast-walking to the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome, where you can find lots of restaurants lining graffiti-filled alleyways along narrow cobblestone streets. We found respite from the rain in a cozy restaurant by the name of Pasta e Vino Osteria. This place wins the award for best pasta I had on our trip. My pesto fettuccine was rich in flavor, and I had plenty of time to savor it as we waited out the downpour outside. We also got to sing happy birthday in Italian to our server’s daughter, and one employee even offered to teach me how to hand-roll pasta.

After dinner, we made another stop to grab our final gelato of the trip. If you’re looking for gelato with unique and fresh flavors, you’ve got to swing by Otaleg…when in Rome (ha ha). I wish I could explain to you the perfection of my lightly textured mango and whipped cream gelato. It was the perfect conclusion to our informal Italian food tour!

This is the part where I explain our plan and how it fell short. In an effort to maximize the time needed to adjust time zones when arriving back in California, we had booked a return flight that would put us in LA around midday. That meant our flight out of Rome was at six in the morning. Now, Val wisely likes to be at the airport a two to three hours before an international flight, and the airport is about 45 minutes outside of the city. The result: we would have to leave for the airport around 2:00 AM, which made it hard to justify booking a hotel for another night.

So, rather than pay for a hotel room we’d only use for three hours, we instead decided we’d pull an “all-nighter” in Rome. We figured that the city would be alive late at night, making it easy to enjoy ourselves for a while until heading to the airport around two in the morning. Boy, were we wrong! Rome was strangely quiet that night, not nearly as lively as it was in Florence. (I’m sure the incessant rain didn’t help.) We posted up at a bar for a while, and then headed to Ai Marmi—one of the oldest pizza places in Rome, and a local favorite. The food was good, but the people-watching was even better. Then, with nothing else to do, and with rain that was dumping harder with each passing minute, we caved and left for the airport early, at just 10:30 PM.

When we first had made our plan, I knew we’d be sleeping in the airport for at least a little bit. However, I didn’t anticipate that FCO airport would have only cold tile floors and chairs with metal armrests. We scouted the entire airport and couldn’t find a single bench or flat surface to sleep on. I somehow managed to sleep for five hours sitting upright, and I honestly felt decently rested afterwards.

Day 11: Rome to Los Angeles

DAY 11

At 4:30 AM, the Plaza Premium lounge opened, which meant we could freshen up before our flight and that we could escape the cold, rigid chairs of the terminal. The Plaza Premium lounge is part of the Priority Pass lounge network, which we had access to due to my American Express Platinum credit card. The lounge had comfy chairs with outlets, hot breakfast with pastries and juices, and even a barista taking coffee orders. There were two other lounges next door that we also had access to, but we had limited time before our flight and didn’t get a chance to explore.

Our first flight was a quick two-hour flight from Rome (FCO) up to Paris (CDG) via Air France. We then had a two-hour layover in Paris, which surprisingly, ended up being quite the time crunch. Our flight from CDG back to LAX was in a different terminal than where we had just arrived. CDG has this weird setup where you have to go through customs when switching terminals, even though you never leave the airport. There are different lines depending on which country you’re a citizen of, so we had to make sure we were in the right line. We saw an American woman get turned away after waiting in the wrong line without realizing it, which means she had to go all the way to the back of the American line! Customs, plus a long walk between terminals meant our flight was boarding by the time we arrived (so much for having a chill layover). I didn’t even have time for a restroom break between flights!

Our last flight was uneventful, and although longer, seemed to go by faster than our original flight to Europe. Once we landed in LAX, we made the long trek to customs. Since Val and I both had global entry (which you can get for free with either the Amex Platinum card or the IHG Business card), customs took about 20 seconds. If you don’t have global entry yet, you’ve got to get it—it’s a game-changer. Plus, global entry automatically gets you TSA Precheck, allowing you to breeze through security lines when departing from the United States. A hassle-free experience upon arrival was exactly what we needed to finish out our trip. From there, it was straight home, where we both fought to stay up as late as possible to minimize any jet lag.

Things I’d Do Differently

We had an amazing trip, which ended up even better than I had imagined it! Now that I’ve had some time to reflect, there’s a few things I would do differently for the next time:

First off, I’d bring another pair of pants. Even though I often wear shorts (even in cold weather), there were many times where wearing shorts felt too out-of-place. Pants ended up being my go-to, so being able to rely on more than one pair definitely would’ve helped.

I also would swap out all my socks to be wool socks. My wool socks outperformed my synthetic socks; I was able to wear them for multiple days without them smelling in any way. Wool is also great at both warming and cooling when needed. A long sleeve wool base layer also would’ve come in handy in the colder climates.

I wish I would’ve been more prepared for any rain. I didn’t have the space for my rain jacket, and I didn’t pack an umbrella. I think I’ll have to find a way to include one or the other for a future trip. Since we both had camera gear in our backpacks, having some sort of rain fly that goes on the outside of each pack would’ve given me more peace of mind without taking up much more weight or room.

Our trip was destined to be fast-paced no matter what. I actually liked how much we got to see in a short amount of time. However, I do wish we had 1–2 extra days in Paris. I felt like there was a lot more to the city that we didn’t get to experience. But, I know we’ll be back!

The last thing I would do differently is how we handled the final day of our trip. I think I’d go back and book a return flight later in the day. This would’ve justified another night in a hotel and given us more time to explore. It also would’ve meant I wouldn’t have had to sleep in an airport chair all night! There’s definitely something significant about ending a trip on a restful note; I feel like the last leg of the trip affects how all the earlier days of the trip are perceived. I could even see myself splurging some extra points on a business class flight for the way back, which would give a much more restful end to the trip.

But overall, none of the choices we made were awful, just slight inconveniences in the grand scheme of our trip. I’m looking forward to continuously refining what works for the two of us as we travel. Everyone travels a little bit differently, so make sure you plan the kind of trip that’s best for you!

Conclusion

If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading! This trip brought me closer to Val and helped me fall in love with new countries. I’m grateful for all the beauty in this world and the lasting memories we created. If you want to plan a trip like this, or want to learn more about points, miles, and credit card bonuses, please don’t hesitate to contact me! I’d love to help however I can.

God bless!
— Sam

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Link to this article: samcarleton.com/europe