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Travel Party of 5 | Points & Miles for Family Travel
Let us pull back the curtain and show you how you can maximize money you're already spending to earn enough credit card points and miles to travel with your family for nearly free.
We've used credit card points and miles to take our family of 5 on trips to places like Costa Rica, San Diego, Disneyland, Oceanside, NYC, Washington DC, Hawaii, and next year we have already booked Paris, Spain and Japan!
Using credit card points and miles (often called travel hacking) doesn't have to be overwhelming or take a ton of time, and we can show you how.
Can you earn a lot of points and miles without opening up multiple credit cards? Only if you have a really high amount of spend each month. For people with larger families, opening new cards is the easiest and fastest way to earn enough points and miles to take a couple of really low cost (but not low budget) family vacations every year!
If you want to learn ways to help you and your family travel more affordably using credit card points, this show is for you.
Travel Party of 5 | Points & Miles for Family Travel
Visit Arizona: The Polar Express & Bearizona in Williams, AZ
Thanks for finding our podcast! We are a family of 5 who does most of our travel using credit card points and miles and we share how we leverage credit card offers to earn a ton of points/miles so we can afford travel as a larger family.
Follow us on Instagram @TravelPartyof5
Today's episode is all about our recent weekend trip up to Flagstaff, arizona, to take our kids to the Polar Express. So listen in if that is something on your bucket list. Hi, I'm Raya.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I'm Dwayne, and we are your hosts of the Travel Party of Five podcast, where we share how we travel as a family of five around the world.
Speaker 2:We will also share how we use points and miles to travel as affordably as possible and sometimes even completely free.
Speaker 1:So if you're wanting to travel more with your family but you're not sure how, we'd love for you to listen in.
Speaker 2:So welcome to our podcast, where we hope you learn a thing or two to get you closer to your next trip.
Speaker 1:Really quickly, before we jump into today's episode, I'm going to quickly draw the winner of our $50 gift card raffle. And as a reminder, that was if you left a podcast review and submitted us a screenshot to our email, you were entered to win a $50 gift card raffle. So I've entered all of the names into a random, uh like wheel generator and I'm going to do it. Right now I'm going to spin it and it is Angie. Congratulations, angie. It is Angie. Congratulations, angie. I will be sending you an email. By the time this episode airs, you will have already received the email. So if you haven't checked your email, go check and we will get you the $50 gift card of your choice. Thank you so much to everyone who entered, and now on to today's episode. Hi, friends.
Speaker 2:Thanks for tuning in.
Speaker 1:Welcome back, yes.
Speaker 2:Happy holidays to you guys.
Speaker 1:Merry early Christmas. Yes, this is our last episode before the end of the year and it's probably going to be a short one, but we wanted to do a quick episode on our recent weekend trip up to Flagstaff, arizona, because we took our kids all three of them to the Polar Express.
Speaker 2:Which is in Williams Arizona. Actually, yes, About half an hour Was it east North?
Speaker 1:It is west.
Speaker 2:West.
Speaker 1:West of Flagstaff. So we used points. We stayed at the Hyatt Place Flagstaff. It's actually the second time we've stayed at that property this year and it just it's an, it's new, it just opened this year, yeah, and so we. It's a category two Hyatt. It's the only Hyatt option in Flagstaff, and so category two you're looking at anywhere from 6500 to 9500 points a night. Um, december is generally off peak, but sometimes on peak because it's a ski town, yeah, so, um, we stayed two nights. We drove up friday and drove back early Sunday and it's a completely fine hotel. It's great for families. It's not luxury, but no high at places.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely not luxury.
Speaker 1:One thing that people ask us a lot is how we fit five people in one hotel room, and so I've been trying to answer that question, as we stay in different rooms because it's it's a little different every time, and so this particular hotel room, I think we had two queen beds and then there was also a sofa bed, and so when you pulled out the sofa bed, there was still like a. The sofa bed was kind of like a corner couch. So you pulled out the sofa bed into the bed and there was still like a loveseat section of a couch left. And so what we did in this scenario is our boys slept on the couch bed like the pullout couch, and then we set up the little loveseat couch section for our four year old daughter, and so we put like a sheet down and, you know, a pillow and blanket there for her, and so we put like a sheet down and you know, a pillow and blanket there for her, and then Duane and I each had one of the beds to ourselves and one of the boys ended up taking turns sleeping with one night with me, one night with him.
Speaker 1:But that was, you know, enough room for five people easily. It's a really good option for families. All Hyatt houses and Hyatt places in general are good options for bigger families. They generally have a pull-out sofa bed plus one or two regular beds. Right, and this hotel's in a good location. It's close to everything and we would totally go back there, yeah for sure.
Speaker 1:They have an indoor pool, which when we were there in March, we didn't go in the pool, but I remember going in there and feeling like it was really warm and steamy. Uh, so we brought our bathing suits and thought it would be fun for the kids to be able to swim. Um, the water was freaking cold.
Speaker 2:Yes, I didn't even get in.
Speaker 1:I couldn't get in all the way. I went halfway in and then I said nope, I can't do this same with our daughter, and our boys swam for maybe 15 minutes, but it didn't last very long. It was cold. I don't think it was heated it was definitely not heated and there's no hot tub.
Speaker 2:So just as a side note, don't know why they don't have a hot tub there, which is pretty crazy to me.
Speaker 1:Probably because it's a Hyatt place, so they do have breakfast. Generally at a Hyatt place, your breakfast is free, same with the Hyatt house. However, some places have been charging for breakfast now. Some places have been charging for breakfast now, and so when we were there we noticed there was a sign that said like there was like a hostess checking people in.
Speaker 1:Yes, for breakfast, specifically For breakfast, yes. And so I asked because they told us breakfast was complimentary, which you know we have globalist status, so that's normal. Complimentary, which you know we have globalist status, so that's normal. But I was curious like how, like number one, what are other people paying? And like how are they deciding? Like is it just not globalist status? And I'm pretty sure that the woman at the checkout or like reservation desk told me that if you are discoverist and higher, it's free, and discoverist is high, it's lowest status so it was free for us yeah, it was free for us.
Speaker 2:I mean listen I did um, yeah, it's not the best breakfast you'll ever have no, and if I were gonna pay, I wouldn't eat there no especially if I have to pay for. All five of us like no but I'm pretty sure it was eight bucks a person. I could be wrong, don't quote me on that, but I heard it was eight bucks a person.
Speaker 1:I feel like that's what I've also heard. So I mean, for a family of five that's forty dollars a day.
Speaker 2:Again. I mean you can get cereal. There's bagels, but like the hot food, was you know?
Speaker 1:it's mediocre at best, and I mean it's fine for kids. Our kids think it's for the most part great. They like to eat the cereal and you know all the little pastries and bagels and whatever. It's great for a free breakfast. It's not good if you have to pay. That's my two cents. So, anyways, we were there for two nights and our plan on Saturday night was to do the Polar Express. We bought tickets over the summer. We've been once before, but at the time that we went we only had our oldest, and so he's the only one that's been, and we really wanted our younger two to experience it before they get too old. And so, um, that was the plan for saturday night.
Speaker 2:But we also wanted something to do saturday morning, and so we decided to do barizona, which is also in williams yes, it's basically a drive-in zoo where you stay in your car and drive through the zoo where, like, the animals can just come up to your car if they like yeah, like wolves, bears, and so we've been to barizona once before. We went in the summer of 2020, and so this was our second time so when the world was closed, it's only one of the few things you could do, yeah we like drove up.
Speaker 1:It's a three-hour drive from phoenix. We drove up in the morning, stopped at a gas station like the kids ate lunch in the back of our van, we did the zoo part and then we got back in our van and drove back home and we were, we didn't stay anywhere, we just yeah, we were trying to social distance but also get out of the heat of the phoenix summer. So, and we really enjoyed it, it was a really fun time. Um, I think that, it being winter, the animals were a little more sleepy this time, do?
Speaker 2:you think. I mean yes and no. I mean there were, there were definitely some action.
Speaker 1:I mean we saw the wolves, the bears, the wolves walked right next to our car you have to roll up your windows when you're in the wolf part because they're wolves and the bear part. We saw several bears sleeping in trees, which was pretty funny actually, in the tree like looking so uncomfortable but snoozing away. Yeah, um, williams is about a half an hour drive I think duane already said this from flagstaff and it's an easy drive, so super easy. We popped over there. They also have a walk through zoo area, so prepare to get out of your car at the end and, like, bundle up if it's cold and you can walk through. They have a couple of jaguars which are our 10 year old is obsessed with, so he liked that and I don't know. They have some other animals, like some kind of moose or something. Elk, what were they?
Speaker 2:Yes, they were moose what were they?
Speaker 1:yes, they were moose, and so you know the kids like to see all the animals and they had um otters and all kinds of stuff. So it's it's fun for kids um helo monsters yeah, so would definitely recommend barizona if you're up in that area yes, definitely recommend it.
Speaker 2:It is a little bit expensive, though. I thought they would charge by the car, but they charge per person.
Speaker 1:Yes, so it was like what, 150 dollars?
Speaker 2:yeah, it was something like that yeah, it's not. It wasn't cheap and and you only drive through for what took us like maybe 40 minutes. Oh I don't even think yeah, maybe half an hour to get through it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so yeah, but I mean totally worth it yeah, I think it's fun to do once in a while. Um, let's talk about the polar express. So the way the polar express works is you buy the tickets in advance and then it's a train. You get on a train it's based off the. The book, yes, the book the kid's story, the book, the movie. Um so like probably have your kids watch the movie in advance, and so you, you basically go, you get on a train, they serve you hot chocolate cookies.
Speaker 2:Um, you know the they do a little dance. Yeah, there's two servers on the train that do a little dance.
Speaker 1:You know everyone sings christmas songs yeah, you drive to the north pole and you see santa's village and which, I must say, the first time we went in 20.
Speaker 2:What was that? I think it was like 2017, maybe I don't know if they had just started it, but the north pole when we got there was pretty you know what it was 2016? Yeah, yeah it was the north pole was made out of like cardboard boxes.
Speaker 1:It looked like someone just it was magical for a two-year-old but like, not magical for us.
Speaker 2:It was pretty bad and it got a little upgrade yes, it did get a little upgrade, like it doesn't look like cardboard anymore, it looks like someone built it with like wood. So I mean it definitely upgraded it. I think again, like she said it's, it's for the kids. Um, yeah, you basically just ride this train. For what? Half an hour to the north pole, maybe 40 it's 40, it's it's like 90 minutes total.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it's around 40, 45 minutes there, and then you go back. You, um, santa, comes on the train, he hands out bells, um, which is, you know, part of the story. And I will say the hot chocolate. It's more like warm chocolate, it's not actually hot, and if you are going to do this, I would just recommend like bundling up and also maybe bringing a blanket or two, because I was freezing the entire time and so was our daughter. It was cold. You're inside in the train, but it's not heated. So it was cold.
Speaker 2:You're inside in the train but it's not heated. Yeah, I mean it wasn't that cold. But we had the same problem the first time we went. The windows fog up and it gets foggy. You have to constantly wipe the window to see out of it.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, I mean, overall, kids loved it. Yeah, the kids had a great time. They really liked singing the christmas carols and they, they enjoyed it, and so that's really the point. Um, I will say it's not cheap. I think it was around 350 dollars for definitely not cheap the five of us to go. Um, they have packages and there's a hotel like the grand Canyon railway hotel, I think is what it's called. You can stay right there, which I guess would be fine, but I mean, it's like expensive. It's like three to $400 a night when they're doing the polar express. So, uh, that was a no for me, and so that's why we used points instead to stay at the Hyatt and drove the 30 minutes and it was completely fine, like no issues whatsoever. So if you want to do it but you don't want to spend that kind of money, that's what I would recommend doing is staying in Flagstaff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if I had one piece of advice, I would just say take an earlier train. We did the 730 train, which I think was a little bit too late because the kids were tired on the train. They were tired yeah, and then as soon as we got in the van to drive back, two of them knocked out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true. They do have a 5.30 also that we could have taken.
Speaker 2:Is there only two trains a night? I think so. Yeah, Definitely take the are up late.
Speaker 1:Yeah, our two of ours were pretty tired. Um, and then I think so as far as food, just really quickly like we have gone to fat olives in Flagstaff a few times now and we really enjoy it.
Speaker 2:Um, the pizza pizza and the burrata.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they have a good burrata appetizer. The pizza is really good. Their um pastas are like not not as good, but the pizzas are good, so we enjoy that.
Speaker 2:I feel like the first time we went, we we got a pasta. That was. That was pretty good.
Speaker 1:This time it was we got a fettuccine and it was. It was all right. Yeah, it was all right um, but pizza for sure is is pretty good yes, and do you remember the name of the other place we ate at before the Polar Express? It was a brewery of some kind. There's a lot of breweries, oh Wild something. It was called Beaver Street Brewery and we had dinner there and that was good too. We enjoyed that. Yeah, duane went from I'm not very hungry to getting a steak.
Speaker 2:And I ate it all After I said I was going to save some to eat later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was like the steak will be great to eat later, and then it was gone. So, yeah, good food all around. We enjoy Flagstaff. It's a nice little getaway. But I will say my toxic trait is that I look at the weather app and I think, okay, 32 at night and like 55 during the day, like I'll be fine, like I don't really need a winter coat. And then I don't bring a winter coat and I am freezing every time. And so don't be like me and bring a winter coat. Yep, I brought winter coats for all the kids, but for me I was like, oh, this light jacket will be fine. It was not fine. So that's my advice.
Speaker 1:I was in shorts a couple of days, dwayne was wearing shorts, although you were going to wear shorts on the train and you changed and you were happy that you did.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it was cold that night. Yeah, Even driving back it was like 20. It got down to like 27.
Speaker 1:It cold that that night. Yeah, even driving back, it was like 20, it got down to like 27. It was pretty cold, yeah, so, um, anyways, okay, if you are visiting flagstaff and you want to do the polar express hope that was helpful buy the tickets in advance, um, bring a blanket bundle up and be prepared to sing. Yeah, yeah, do we. Oh, you wear, you can wear jammies too. Our kids wore jammies, we didn't. Yeah, there was a lot of families in jammies, though.
Speaker 2:Matching jammies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what were you going to ask?
Speaker 2:I was going to say did we do a podcast on snowball? We did yes About how we thought that we could hack it without any lessons and instead we just hurtled down the mountain like, so yeah, that's. I was just bringing that up because that's.
Speaker 1:Another thing you can do is snowball goes, yes, skiing or snowboarding it's also another thing they're known for yes, earlier this year in march, duane and I went and attempted and we have a whole podcast episode on it. So if you want to hear about that adventure, um, I would recommend listening to that episode, because we almost tied.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, we did. As a matter of fact, we went in what March? Yes, it was March 1st. I hurt my arm and it recently just started to feel better. And this is what 10 months, it's December, yeah, like nine months later, yeah, so, yeah, like Dwayne couldn't lift his arm above his head for many months. Yeah, I mean seriously, like up until a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't do that.
Speaker 1:Yes, again, because we were hurtling down the mountain without any lessons, because we just thought, like, we'll figure it out, it'll be fine. It wasn't fine. Anyways, okay, um, I hope that you have a fantastic rest of 2024 and a wonderful new year, and we will catch you back here in 2025 with I don't know some, some 2025 goals and our kind of plans and strategy, because, uh, we don't have any points left.
Speaker 2:We've used them all to book our 2024 travel, so so, yeah, we'll see how many cards we have to open up next year. If we can, yeah, if we can, if they let us Okay.
Speaker 1:Happy holidays.
Speaker 2:Merry Christmas, happy new year.
Speaker 1:We'll see you in 2025.
Speaker 2:Bye, have a good one.