Credit Card Travel Benefits: Credit Cards vs Travel Cards

Credit Card Travel Benefits: Credit Cards vs Travel Cards

GENERAL, INFORMATION, TRAVEL
This blog post is the fourth, and final, instalment of my Credit Card Travel Benefits Series and continues on from Credit Card Travel Benefits: Cash vs Credit Cards. In my last blog post, I compared the use of cash and credit cards during an overseas holiday. The results concluded that, with all things considered, using credit cards for overseas travel was the better option. In recent years, reloadable travel cards have become more popular and banks have encouraged their customers to use them while travelling overseas. Once you obtain a travel card you can load money onto it, from your bank account, in your local currency and have it converted to any of the currencies supported by the card. When you load the travel card directly from your bank account,…
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#25 Go to the Grand Canyon

#25 Go to the Grand Canyon

BUCKET LIST, TRAVEL
This bucket list item was completed on 4th January 2013 in Arizona, USA. This blog post will pick up where #26 Gamble in Las Vegas left off. After a successful night of gambling we got some sleep for, our much anticipated, next day. When we realised that we would not be playing in the third day of the WSOBP, we went to the concierge at our hotel and booked a rental car. The concierges in Las Vegas are top notch. They are always happy to help out, no matter how crazy the request. A rental car booking was a walk in the park for them. After breakfast, we made our way to the rental car agency to pick up our navy blue, convertible Ford Mustang. It takes about 4.5 hours…
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Old Ghost Road Mountain Bike Trek

Old Ghost Road Mountain Bike Trek

GENERAL, TRAVEL
The Old Ghost Road is one of New Zealand’s top multi-day mountain bike rides and one of the adventures in New Zealand all together. At 85 km, it is the longest single track mountain bike ride in New Zealand. It goes up over mountains, meanders along rivers and traverses steep cliffs. I have done many adventure activities in New Zealand and a few other multi-day activities but this is one I will remember forever. If this has not been on your radar up until now… it should be. My friends and I began planning for our trek along the OGR nine months in advance to ensure we could get bunks in the cabins before they sold out. We were aiming to start 16th December, which is in the high season.…
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Credit Card Travel Benefits: Cash vs Credit Cards

Credit Card Travel Benefits: Cash vs Credit Cards

GENERAL, INFORMATION, TRAVEL
This blog post is the third of my Credit Card Travel Benefits Series and continues on from Credit Card Travel Benefits: Frequent Flyer Points. I never leave home without at least one credit card in my wallet, especially when travelling. In this blog post I will describe how I use cash and credit cards when travelling overseas. I will also look at the pros and cons of each. After almost a decade of travelling the world with credit cards at my disposal, I have developed a system that works quite well for me. Canada is pretty good for the percentage of merchants that accept credit cards but, since living in New Zealand, I have realised that the percentage is even higher here. Credit cards are so widely accepted in New…
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Travelling With a Baby: Our Experience

Travelling With a Baby: Our Experience

GENERAL, INFORMATION, TRAVEL
I’m sure that a lot of readers of this blog aren’t even thinking about having kids at this time. But there are a lot of millennials following as well, and one by one you’re each getting plucked off the singles list, getting married, and inevitably having kids (or likely skipping getting married and putting that money toward a house or trip!). When you have kids, there’s no need to ditch your travelling habits or shelve your bucket list for when the kids grow up – it’s just time to restructure and reorganize it. Are there trips on your list that are more baby friendly than others? Perhaps, there are some great places you would like to go that would be great for when your little one is 4-6 years old,…
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[#26 Lesson] Gambling is Called Gambling for a Reason

[#26 Lesson] Gambling is Called Gambling for a Reason

BUCKET LIST, LESSON, TRAVEL
This life lesson relates to my previous blog #26 Gamble in Las Vegas. The word gambling is defined as the activity or practice of playing at a game of chance for money or other stakes. What is the most important word in this sentence? Chance. The word chance is defined as a possibility or probability of anything happening. Possibility cannot be quantified but probability can. The probability of an event happening in a casino (The House) is called the House Edge. In simple terms, the House Edge is the mathematical advantage that a game has over an individual, over a long term. The higher the House Edge, the higher the probability that the House will take your money over a long period of play. In short, gambling involves using your…
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#26 Gamble in Las Vegas

#26 Gamble in Las Vegas

BUCKET LIST, TRAVEL
This bucket list item was completed on 31st December 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. After I started working on my bucket list, my friend Kyle was inspired and began working on his own bucket list. I described the process that I followed, which was enough to get him started. He began his research and started adding items to his list. One of the items he had on his list was to compete in the World Series of Beer Pong (WSOBP), which is held in Las Vegas each year. The 2013 tournament was scheduled for three days beginning on 2nd January. One night in March of 2012, Kyle and I were having some drinks with our friends and began talking about the WSOBP. One thing led to another and we…
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[#38 Lesson] Cherish Adventures with Your Close Friends

[#38 Lesson] Cherish Adventures with Your Close Friends

BUCKET LIST, LESSON, TRAVEL
This life lesson relates to my previous blog #38 Eat at a White Castle Restaurant. During this adventure I flew to Florida with two of my closest friends, Dave and Branden. The purpose of the trip was to buy a BMW and drive it back to Canada. On paper, the task sounded easy but we had to overcome multiple challenges and worked together to make it happen. A combination of time pressure and a Category 3 hurricane made our trip even more exciting. I have known Dave and Branden since I was five years old and grew up on the same street as them. We have always been close friends but it seems like every time we go on an adventure, we become closer. This was not our first adventure…
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#38 Eat at a White Castle Restaurant

#38 Eat at a White Castle Restaurant

BUCKET LIST, TRAVEL
This bucket list item was completed on 26th August 2011 in Green Brook Township, New Jersey, USA. The idea for this bucket list item came directly from the 2004 movie, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. For those of you who are not familiar with this movie, I will elaborate. The movie follows the epic journey of two party animals who spend their night in search of their next fix, White Castle hamburgers. White Castle is known for being open late and their $1 sliders. The movie is filled with humour and life lessons and has become a bit of a cult classic for my generation. When I added this item to the list I thought it would be a funny achievement to eat at a White Castle restaurant…
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Travel Insurance… Yes, You Do Need It!

Travel Insurance… Yes, You Do Need It!

GENERAL, INFORMATION, TRAVEL
As a Travel Consultant I get to send my clients off on amazing trips all around the world. They send back photos, postcards … hey, sometimes even a souvenir. That is my favourite part of the job, and it’s why I love doing it. My least favourite part of my job is working with my clients who have had a crisis before or during their trip. I’m here to help, and I’ll always do the best I can … but when my clients opt out of travel insurance and something goes wrong, the consequences can be devastating. I’m not here to be a downer, but I want to tell you all about travel insurance, what you should look for, and how to avoid paying massive unexpected fees on your journey.…
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