Baelo Claudia, My favorite Roman Ruin, is not in Italy…
As I was researching options for Camp Mom, I discovered this wonderful site called historvius that has interactive world maps that let you search for historical sites by era, date, or person. I especially love this site because it pulls up sites that you might not be aware of, leading you to new destinations. For instance, consider Baelo Claudia, a perfectly preserved (and uncrowded with tourists) town dating from the era of Jesus Christ located near…Cadiz, Spain. Baelo Claudia is the best Roman Ruin I’ve seen, including those in Rome. This leads to one of my top tips for family travel planning: think about the experience, not the destination.
The Deal Kids and European Beaches: 6 Lessons Learned
Every time I travel with the Deal Kids I learn something new- or in this case re-learn what I’ve forgotten. Here in Gran Canaria I’ve learned that taking American Kids to European Beaches might leave you with some explaining to do. Here’s a handy list so you don’t get caught by surprise with your own kids.
Kids and European Beaches: 6 Lessons Learned
- Europeans have a much higher tolerance for nudity in public than we do. Of course I knew there are nude beaches all over Europe. I even thought a few women might unstrap their bikinis in back at the hotel pool. Grandma al Fresco careening down a waterslide? Didn’t expect that!
- When I say public, I mean public. Besides the aforementioned kids’ waterpark we’ve seen nudity at the city beach, hotel pool and just about anywhere folks are catching some rays. I learned quickly NOT to say “don’t look over there” because the first thing anyone does is look over there, right?
- The women that go topless tend to be the women you don’t want to see topless. I’m referring to the “Magda” here. Deal Kid at 12 is still in the “Ewww” phase when seeing boobies as opposed to the “Heh Heh” you’d see from teenage boys. Even so, most of the nudity here gets filed under “things you can’t unsee” as opposed to Playboy.
- Swimming “trunks” show a lot of junk. Our resort is about 1/2 British and 1/2 German in population. I know immediately whether to say “Hello” or “Guten Tag” just by the shorts or lack thereof. Every time Deal Kid exits a locker room he regales me with the same story. “Some old man bent over to pick up his towel and showed me his package”.
- The San Tropez Tan lives on. While I slater the kids with SPF 50 the woman in the next chair is just as likely to be using baby oil.
- Don’t expect a lot of space at public beaches. The Deal Kids remarked on how crowded together the umbrellas and chair were at the local beach. While it will take more effort to find isolated spots, the main drag tends to be chockablock.
5 Lessons Learned While Booking Spring Break Award Tickets to Europe, 2015
I mentioned recently that it’s time to book next year’s Spring Break. Prime tickets are already going fast. Taking my own advice, I’ve been searching fervently for options that fit the Deal Family’s school holiday schedule. I finally found four tickets that worked and got them booked this morning. In doing so, I learned a few tips to share with you. Hope they help with your own planning.
- American Airlines off-peak tickets to Europe are terrific value, but beware: To recap, American Airlines offers award tickets in economy for only 20k miles one way October 15 to May 15. When I started searching AA.com for tickets, every single day was showing at least 4 tickets on every single route. I soon learned why: the vast majority of those flights are on British Airways, which attaches surcharges approx. $700/person/ticket.
- There’s an easy work-around to find availability: Run your searches on Qantas.com. American Airlines will list BA, AA, US, and occasionally Air Berlin or Finnair, but the best searches are run on Qantas. Qantas also picks up Iberia availability. You want to find a flight that does NOT transit London Heathrow, especially on our way home.
- It’s easier to find a way to Europe than to find a way home on prime dates: Work on getting back from Europe first, then fill in the rest. In my experience people are a lot more flexible on the front of the trip and are all rushing to get home on the same dates. Alternatively, if you can stretch your trip, stretch it on the back end.
- Just get over the pond: I’ve booked multiple trips now departing from JFK that were not available from DC. Those shuttle flights just weren’t available as awards. By getting to JFK many non-stop options opened up to Europe. Be sure to check JFK, Chicago O’Hare, Miami, LAX, DFW before giving up.
- Once you find your longest leg, fill in the rest from there: Once I found tickets to Europe (JFK-Madrid in my case) it would have been easy to let it rest. However, once you’ve found the longest leg intra-Europe connections (with less than 24 hours in-between) will be free. Which leads me to our final destination: Gran Canaria! From Madrid flights to Gran Canaria were wide open on both ends of the trip.
Where’s Gran Canaria? Why there?
I visited Tenerife, a nearby Canary Island, in 2012 and have wanted to explore more ever since. The Canaries are prime territory to use Endless Vacation Rentals or there’s an oceanfront category 2 Sheraton that is highly rated on TripAdvisor.
So for a grand total of 160,000 AA miles (earned through 3 US Airways/AA credit card signups over the last year) and $860 in taxes Spring Break is booked. Considering cash tickets on the exact same route run $4,187, I’ll take it!
On wounded tigers and aging bulls
Happy Independence Day, everyone!
As we celebrate all things American today, I wanted to share with you a BBC documentary I caught last night. It was about Ireland and how a thousand millennials A WEEK were forced to emigrate for jobs. Whole towns had lost everyone in their 20s and 30s to Australia, Canada, and other countries where work was available. It reminded me of the devastation left after a world war or the potato famine.
The saddest part to me is that we saw it coming. By “we”, I mean Deal Dad and I, who lived in Dublin in 2003 during the rise of the “Celtic Tiger”. At the time we lived in an experiment in “Mixed Housing” that was a noble attempt to have people paying 1500 Euro a month for brand new apartments in the same building that welfare recipients were getting for free. It failed so spectacularly that our complex was featured in a front page story in the London Sunday Times. No experience compares with opening the Sunday paper and seeing a photo of your balcony!
I also saw what “free healthcare” looked like. Every single Irish professional we knew bought health insurance, which DD and I didn’t understand. Their taxes were so high because Ireland had social healthcare, right? Giving birth at Rotunda Hospital in Dublin with private insurance, I had a private room for a week with a single nurse on call and literally state of the art everything. Down the hall in the public ward, the beds were stacked 12 to a room! I do not exaggerate when I say it looked like a scene from a Dickens novel.
My blog is not political by choice. However, I’m in a place right now (Spain) where unemployment approaches 25 percent and my taxi driver, who got up at 4AM for my 30 Euro airport fare, spent 18 years working in marketing for Nestle.
Seeing this, it’s hard not to reflect on the American Dream and its strengths compared to the European model which is literally crumbling at their feet. Americans operate under the idea of equality of opportunity, not the equality of outcome. While work needs to be done, it is the job of each individual to play the hand he is dealt as best he can. America is a grand experiment that has worked for 236 years. Here’s hoping it works for 236 more.
Original publish date July 4, 2012.
Why Haven’t You Been to the Canary Islands?
I’m just back from my 2nd trip to the Canary Islands and I’ll cut right to the chase: Why haven’t you been yet? I could do a listicle of all the reasons you need to go but will make this simple for you.
You need to go to the Canary Islands, and soon
If you’re European I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir. With almost twelve million visitors in 2015 the Canaries are hardly a secret. However, my informal polling shows more Americans haven’t considered visiting the Canary Islands than have. That’s a real shame.
Officially part of Spain and only a 3 hour flight from Madrid, the Canary Islands feel worlds away. The subtropical climate is often sited as the best in the world with near constant sunshine and little rain. Each one of the seven islands has its own distinct profile and after visiting Gran Canaria and Tenerife I can’t wait to explore the rest.
Best of all for travel hackers? They’re cheap!
Award flights from Spain, England, and Germany are plentiful. If you can’t find space (which would surprise me) many discount airlines fly to the Canaries from all over Europe, often for under $100.
I’ve had no trouble finding low level seats on both American miles (flying Iberia) and Air France/Air Europa (using Delta miles). An option I haven’t tried but would also work is Royal Air Maroc- Morocco is really close to the Canaries. Worse to worse, get over the pond and use Avios- it’s 7,500 to 10,000 each way from Europe. There are over 10 airports- the most common are Tenerife South (TFS) Tenerife North (TFN) and Las Palmas, Gran Canaria (NOT Las Palmas Island, which is different) LPA.
A few points properties exist (the Ritz Calrton Tenerife is a steal on FHR) but you’ll do better with independent properties. Weekly rentals abound and you can often find amazing deals. Spring Break we paid $88/night for a two bedroom oceanfront condo at BlueBay Beach Club that featured a jacuzzi tub…on our balcony. In Tenerife I paid $35/night for a one bedroom oceanview unit at Apartmentos Casablanca in Puerto de la Cruz.
“Cheaper Hawaii with Spanish culture”
That’s how I’d sum up the Canaries in five words but they’re truly so much more. The Canaries are also ground zero for sealife encounters. We checked out the Aldea Village to Gui Gui Beach plus Dolphin Watching Tour from Viator and it was stunning. The Deal Kids and I played (and I mean that- we played) with a pod of at least 15 dolphins that wove in and out of our sight. The Kids even got splashed by a dolphin jump! Seeing dolphins in the wild blows away the experience of visiting an Aquarium.
