Travel Party of 5 | Points & Miles for Family Travel

Our "Die with Zero" Bucket Lists - The Points & Miles Version!

• Raya & Duane

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Points and miles transform dream destinations from distant fantasies into achievable adventures, opening up the world while presenting the delightful challenge of deciding where to go next.

• Our kids' bucket list items reflect their personalities - our 5-year-old wants Asia and Africa because of a song
• Our 8-year-old dreams of Miami and Philadelphia to watch his favorite football teams 
• Our 11-year-old hopes to see jaguars in Brazil and return to New York City
• We're already checking off bucket list destinations this year with Europe, Japan, and Christmas markets
• Thailand, Scotland/London, and Italy are our planned bucket list trips for 2025
• The "Die With Zero" philosophy influences our travel planning - prioritizing experiences at the right life stage
• International bucket list includes African safari, Scandinavian summer, Norwegian fjords, French countryside, Peru, and more
• Luxury hotel stays like JW Marriott Masai Mara and Park Hyatt Vienna make our accommodation bucket list
• Premium cabin flights on Emirates, Turkish, Japan Airlines and Qatar's Q Suites round out our travel dreams

Don't be afraid to dream big with your travel bucket list - it should be inspiring and remind you what's possible. Points and miles can make those dreams feel closer to reality.

What destinations are calling your name? We'd love to hear about your family's travel bucket list! Follow along on Instagram @TravelPartyof5 as we continue checking dream destinations off our list and sharing the journey with you.


Speaker 1:

One of the best things about points and miles is that it can really open up the entire world to you. Suddenly, that dream trip doesn't feel so out of reach. But with so many doors unlocked, the hardest part becomes deciding where to go next. In today's episode, we're sharing our family's travel bucket list the places that keep us daydreaming and the trips we hope points and miles will help us check off in the years to come. So listen in. Hi, I'm Raya.

Speaker 2:

And I'm Dwayne.

Speaker 1:

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. Welcome back, Hello friends. Thanks for tuning in.

Speaker 1:

I think we have a pretty fun episode today. It was fun for me when I like sat down to kind of do the outline for it in. I think we have a pretty fun episode today. It was fun for me when I sat down to kind of do the outline for it and I just told Dwayne, right before we clicked record, that this might be the most thorough outline I've ever done for an episode.

Speaker 2:

Yes, it is quite thorough.

Speaker 1:

So we're talking all about our bucket list items today.

Speaker 2:

Why are we talking about our bucket list items today? And why are we talking about our bucket list?

Speaker 1:

So I the other day was exhausted and was trying to think of some podcast episodes and I have like a whole list that I kind of work off of and pull you know topic ideas from and I'm always adding to it and then I just kind of I choose based on like what's been happening and like what maybe makes most, most sense and is most relevant. But the other day when I looked at my ideas I hated all of them. So I turned to Instagram and I asked on Instagram and got probably the most responses I've ever gotten from a question box about what do you guys want to see on the podcast, and a solid six, seven, eight of them mentioned, like what's on your bucket list? What are your bucket list items? Like, what about your kids bucket lists? And so I thought, oh my God, that's a great episode idea that people have spoken, and so that's where that came from.

Speaker 2:

Here we are.

Speaker 1:

And what's even funnier is, maybe two weeks ago I downloaded the bucket list app and I had actually already started making my bucket list because generally it lives in my head and I thought I'm sure that I'm sometimes forgetting things that are on my list, and so it would be great if it was all in one spot, and so I thought this is timely. Right, it's a timely topic. So before we jump in, I wanted to do a quick plug that if you have not signed up for the travel strategy points consultation and you're considering it, the price is going to go up in a couple of weeks, and so I would do that sooner rather than later. Right now the cost is $97. You get a full 60 minutes booked with me and that comes with like a pre-travel questionnaire about what points you have and kind of where you want to go, so that I can do some research before the call about how to best help you book your trip. And then we spend the entire hour kind of talking through strategies, and I mean we could even walk through booking it on the call if you wanted to. We can use that hour however you want, but the price is going to go up in a couple of weeks, and so I just wanted to kind of plug that one more time.

Speaker 1:

I'll link it in the show notes if you are wanting to sign up Again. This is like if you're advanced in points and miles. This is not for you. This is for people that are newer to the hobby and maybe have accrued the points but are either not sure how to best redeem them for the trip that they want or are maybe like afraid they're not getting the best value and just kind of want someone to walk them through it once so that then they can do it in the future on their own. So, anyways, that is what that is for. I will link it in the show notes and let me know if you have questions. Okay, I'm excited to talk about the bucket list. Go ahead.

Speaker 2:

No, I was just going to say I was listening to a podcast this week and you know the bucket list. The term bucket list originated in like 2006. That's it. Yeah, when did it come from? I think it was from the movie, but I can't remember what podcast I was listening to. But the person on it was saying that he's pretty sure he started it or she. I can't remember who, but I have to go back and listen to my podcast again what podcast.

Speaker 2:

Was it? It's either conan o'brien or the smart list podcast oh, that's the one with jason.

Speaker 1:

What's his name? What is his name? Jason bateman bateman.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, yeah yeah, so I thought I'd just share that that is interesting.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so a google search has told me that the phrase bucket list has like originally came from the phrase kick the bucket right, which means die, and but was then popularized by the 2007 film the Bucket List, which had what Jack Nicholson in it right.

Speaker 2:

And Morgan Freeman.

Speaker 1:

There's also a Reddit thread that says sorry to break it to you, the term bucket list did exist before 2007,. Which is funny, anyways. So, on the note of the bucket list, if you guys don't know, the bucket list family which maybe is crazy because they have literally millions of followers on YouTube, but not that crazy because I just discovered them, like less than a year ago, and before that had never heard of them they have an app now and the app their app is what I downloaded to kind of keep track of my my own bucket list and our family bucket list. So that is the app that I use. I'm sure there are others, but I happen to like them as a family and their their YouTube videos are incredible. They have one from a couple years ago of them and their kids swimming with whales and it is like I sat staring at the television with my jaw on the floor. I don't know if we've ever talked about this on that on the podcast before, but I was like this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen on YouTube, like it is incredible. So if you have no idea what I'm talking about, highly recommend going and checking out their channel. They don't post like they were traveling full time for a long time and they don't do that anymore. Their kids are a little older, but you can still go back and watch some of their older videos, and I mean it's, it's incredible.

Speaker 1:

So anyways, okay, let's dive in. First and foremost, one of the questions was around our kids bucket list. So we did ask them like what is on your bucket list? And for reference, our kids are five, eight and 11. And so we asked our daughter she's the youngest, she's five. What did she say?

Speaker 2:

Asia and Africa.

Speaker 1:

And we said how do you know about Asia and Africa?

Speaker 2:

She said there's a song.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, apparently there's a song, and so that's her bucket list. And what did you tell her about Asia?

Speaker 2:

We're going in September. Yeah, so she'll be checking that off real quick Our middle son who's eight.

Speaker 1:

what did he say?

Speaker 2:

this is probably my favorite. He wants to go to beautiful miami and, okay, philadelphia and why does he want to go there? Because he wants to watch the miami dolphins and the philadelphia eagles.

Speaker 1:

Yes, he's a big football fan. He himself plays flag football and loves to watch football on the NFL football.

Speaker 2:

But he has five favorite teams.

Speaker 1:

Yes, he has a lot of favorite teams.

Speaker 2:

One of them is not my team, which is sad.

Speaker 1:

Yes, dwayne is a Bears fan, and none of our kids like the Bears in any way. They've all chosen other random teams. And I'm a Giants fan, and I will add also none of our kids like the Bears in any way. They've all chosen other random teams. And I'm a Giants fan, and I will add also none of them like the Giants either. So that's fine. So those were his two items, miami and Philadelphia, and then our oldest. He needed some prompting, okay, but he does want to go to Brazil to see jaguars. He loves jaguars. He has loved jaguars and big cats for years now, and so that is pretty high on his list.

Speaker 2:

I mean, when I think of Brazil, I don't think of jaguars.

Speaker 1:

I know. Well, he also said Peru and I said, why Peru? Because that's on my bucket list, but I think maybe not for the same reason. And he's like, well, they have Jaguars there. And I thought, do they? I don't know, they probably do. He also said back to New York City, that was where. So we have a birthday tradition for our kids that when they turn nine they get to choose a trip domestically of their choosing and they get to go with Duane and myself, and this started because I took our oldest on a trip, except Duane didn't go. I was going to say that hasn't started yet.

Speaker 1:

It has started. You just didn't go on the first one, and the reason was I was going for a baby shower, and so we kind of added the New York City during Christmas time onto that trip, and that was why Dwayne didn't go. But we have one coming up next month for our eight-year-old, soon to be nine-year-old, and Dwayne is going on that one. So thank you.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and we're going to Dallas, which we are going to Dallas. I've never been, so I'm excited for Six Flags.

Speaker 1:

We're going to go to six flags and we're going to go to a football game. So yeah, we will have an episode all about that, for sure. And then the other thing our oldest said was he said I mean, I've never been to Texas. Spoiler alert, yes, he has been to Texas, actually when he was like six. So I was like okay, well, so those are our kids Asia and Africa for the five-year-old, miami and Philadelphia for the eight-year-old, and the 11-year-old has Brazil, new York City and maybe Texas.

Speaker 2:

Again to New York and again to Texas.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So like I would love for our kids. Like this is how I envision the future. I envision our kids making full on PowerPoint presentations to like campaign for where our next vacation destination is as a family. Like that is what I want to happen in the future and it will bring me so much joy to sit and watch their presentations and kind of see, like how they do it and why they want to go there and how they try to convince us to go there. But our 11 year old could do that now, but the little two are they're just too young. So that is what I see happening in my future and I'm pretty excited for that.

Speaker 1:

Um, yeah, so I mean, they've been a lot of places already, so I know, and I think part of like, part of that almost makes them like not I don't know what the word is, but like not I don't want to say excited, but like. You know, when you like, like you have like a dessert every day, right, then you don't get excited about dessert because you have it every day. You know it's almost like the like, the same thing, like when I was a kid we traveled maybe once a year and we drove from New York to Florida in an RV. Like that was our vacation. One year we went to Maine, like it wasn't, like that was it, and so I was super excited to like see all these other places and like travel internationally. All that because I never got any of that as a kid.

Speaker 1:

So I do worry that our kids are going to get so much of that that they don't either enjoy travel or don't want to travel anymore. I don't know. I guess we'll have to see how that pans out, because we can't control that. But no, okay, Before we dive into kind of our bucket list items and I have it broken down by like domestic and international and all that fun stuff I wanted to give a little bit of context around how and why I think about my bucket list and that comes from a book called Die With Zero. Have of main themes of the book and it's have you heard of the financial independence? Retire early community.

Speaker 2:

Maybe from you, but yeah.

Speaker 1:

So the FIRE community, which stands for financial independence, retire early are basically people who save like a hefty chunk of their income now so they can retire early. We are not necessarily in that bucket, but we do max out our 401ks and all that fun stuff, so we're on our way. The die with zero is kind of a direct contrast to that, where it basically talks about using the money that you have earned and saved while you are alive so that when you die, there's there's nothing left and that's definitely my parents, definitely not your parents oh no, it's not my parents at all.

Speaker 1:

Um and and the. The idea is like you want to create. You know you don't want to be so frugal that you're like not allowing joy into your life and that you're not spending money on the things that you love, and obviously that's super different for everyone. What I love is travel. For some people, it's like I'm going to blow $20,000 to invite 50 of my closest friends to this birthday party that I want to throw for myself. There can be all kinds of things, right, dwayne? Why are you laughing?

Speaker 2:

I never met anyone like that. I don't think. And I don't think you have either I don't know what made you use that. I'm saying I would be one that would buy a fancy car or more shoes, or you know what I mean. Like, yeah, a sports car. That's.

Speaker 1:

That's me, definitely not you I felt zero joy when you said that, um, anyways, okay, as you can see, it's different, right, for everyone. But that's the the premise, right, and then the like one. One of the main themes of the book, right, is that there's no point in saving so you have millions of dollars to leave behind if it's preventing you from, like thoroughly enjoying the life that you are living right now. The other premise of the book is that you should kind of think about your life in like decades, right 20 to 30, 30 to 40, 40 to 50, 50 to 60. Because as you get older, not only is what what's important to you going to change, but what you're capable of doing is going to change, right. So, like, if you have on your bucket list, well, I want to hike, like you know, mount Everest. Well, that should probably happen in your 30s or 40s, right, because eventually you're not going to be physically able to do that hike, right. And then, on the flip side, like if you're like, oh, I want to read War and Peace, well, maybe, save that for like the 70 to 80 decade, when you're less mobile and have more like time sitting around, you know. And so that's kind of how I have structured my bucket list.

Speaker 1:

Spoiler alert Dwayne has structured nothing on his bucket list at all and I think, like when you travel with the family, the other layer of that is like currently, like we're in our early 40s and very like capable, decent, shaped, shaped people. There's really not much we couldn't do, although I will say I have no desire to help to hike Mount Everest, you know, like zero. But the ages of our kids have to get factored into these trips as well, because there's a few things on my bucket lists where it's like the kids are too young to do this now, but in like three, four or five years it'll be perfect. So I think that's like kind of the added layer on top of not only of what we are capable of, but what are our kids capable of? You have anything, any thoughts on any of that?

Speaker 2:

No, I think you nailed it right on that there.

Speaker 1:

So one question that I got on Instagram and as a suggestion for a podcast episode was how do you choose where to go? And that's part of how we choose Right. We look at, kind of what we're capable of doing and what our kids are capable of doing and we kind of contrast that with these items on our bucket list and decide like, ok, this year, at the ages that they're at, like maybe these are the two or three trips that make the most sense, like, maybe these are the two or three trips that make the most sense. So, first and foremost, we're going to talk about things we are already checking off of our list for both this year and next year.

Speaker 2:

Yes, so this year I checked off Europe as well as the kids.

Speaker 1:

Yep.

Speaker 2:

In about a month a little over a month we'll check off Asia for our daughter.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and the rest of us, and the rest of you, I've been there um.

Speaker 2:

and then in november we will check off christmas markets, which is very high on your list like yes, like probably in the top three on my bucket list for at least 10 years.

Speaker 1:

Like I've been rattling on about christmas markets for longer than I can remember, ever since I like learned of their existence, okay, and so it has been a long time coming and I am stoked for this, like to the point where I hope I'm not disappointed. You know like my expectations are high, so I feel like I need to be careful.

Speaker 2:

Well, I mean, from what I've seen, they're pretty incredible.

Speaker 1:

I mean they look incredible like the photos look so magical, like I'm, I'm excited yeah it's like nothing in the states. Nothing compares.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely not, no and I'd just like to add I mean, I checked off europe this year, but not all the places I wanted to go in europe yeah and then year we're going to check off another piece of Asia, Thailand, yes which I'm pretty excited for.

Speaker 1:

I'm super excited about Thailand too, because do you? I don't know if you remember this, but I I remember this when so when Dwayne and I first met, literally like a week later, I was leaving to go backpack Europe for three months, and so I was gone for the entire summer.

Speaker 2:

Yes, of course I remember that.

Speaker 1:

And I, I know you remember that. But when I came back in, like September ish, I was like the next place I want to go is Southeast Asia. I was like that's where I want to go to next. And like that was my plan was to work on saving enough, saving up enough money to do that the following year Except.

Speaker 2:

You went and got yourself pregnant, so that that had to be put on the back burner there.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and so all traveling plans came to a screeching halt, and instead of going to Southeast Asia in 2013, we had our first son in 2013.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

In December, yep. So Thailand feels like extra special to me because, like that's obviously also been on my bucket list for more than 10 years.

Speaker 2:

So yes, and I have a really good friend that lives there and apparently he's a chef, so hopefully we can meet up with him and eat some good food.

Speaker 1:

One thing that if you don't know or haven't noticed about Dwayne is Dwayne has friends that live everywhere, and I think that comes from growing up as a military brat on an army base in Japan. Like his friends live everywhere, yes, in all kinds of countries, like it's crazy. So, yeah, I hope we can go to his her, his restaurant.

Speaker 2:

Terrence shout out to you.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, hopefully we can do that. Okay, what else is on our? What else are we checking off our bucket list for next year?

Speaker 2:

Scotland and London for me.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, that's right. Right, yep, london and Scotland, we're gonna do both together. Scotland was actually a request of my mom and I mean it's been high on my list too, because I love Outlander, like love it, and so excited to go to Scotland. But going back to the whole die with zero kind of mentality is my mom has always wanted to go to Scotland. But going back to the whole die with zero kind of mentality is my mom has always wanted to go to Scotland. She's been to Ireland but not Scotland, and my mom is like close to 70.

Speaker 1:

And so we are getting to the point where my parents are getting a little older. They're starting to slow down, of course. As I'm saying this, they're literally driving like their renovated van across the country on their way up to like, oregon. Right now is where they are. They've been gone most of the summer, so I don't know if they think they're slowing down, but to me they're slowing down a little bit. So prioritizing this trip while my mom is still able to take it is, I think, super important. So thatizing this trip while my mom is still able to take it is, I think, super important. So that's part of how Scotland kind of made it into 2026. You know my parents.

Speaker 2:

unfortunately, they have slowed down.

Speaker 1:

They're a lot older than your parents, but yeah, but your parents still, they're still, they still travel a good amount and they're very social domestically.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes, they're very social, more social than us I mean, yes, they, yes, um, okay, and then third on our list that we think we're going to check off next year, but like it's not fully booked and like plans could change. But the tentative plan right now for our fall break is Italia, yes, and so I've been to Italy twice, so this would be my third time doing in. The kids have never been, and I love Italy so much Like I would go back 100 times. We also will likely go to a few places in Italy that I haven't been, so it'll be a nice mixture of like familiar versus not. And one thing that I love about traveling is like getting to experience a place through the eyes of someone else that I love, right. So taking Dwayne to see like the Roman Forum in Rome, I think he's gonna like think that's incredible, right. Getting the kids like to eat Italian pizza and pasta in Italy, like I think they're going to love that.

Speaker 2:

So I'm definitely gonna love it. I mean, I took pictures of every street in Spain and France.

Speaker 1:

Yes, Every, every time I turned around, Dwayne was taking a picture of like an alley or a street and he's like it's just so, so pretty. I'm like I know, Okay, so those are the things that we will check off this year, have checked off this year or are going to check off next year. Let's start, let's do domestic first, and you go, and then I'll go, and then we can move on to international. What is on your domestic bucket list? What did you first say when I asked you?

Speaker 2:

mean, honestly, I said nothing. And then I thought about it and you know, I said cape cod, never been to the northeast us. You know I would go for the. You've been to new york? Well, new york, yeah, I would go for the seafood for sure. Yeah, but I would only go in the summertime. Yes, yes. So throw that out there.

Speaker 1:

Cape Cod is one of mine too. I've been to Cape Cod. I grew up when I was very little. There was a few years in a row where every summer we would drive from where I lived in New York to Cape Cod and we would rent a cottage and my aunts and my uncles and my cousins and my grandparents and everyone would be there and it was so fun. I like remember just slurping down clams dripped in butter, like it was so good. I was like four, but it was so fun. I remember walking to the? Um the pool on the gravel with bare feet and it hurting my feet. And I remember walking along the side of the road carrying, like, all the beach stuff walking to the beach. Super fun, yeah, I'm for it. Um, I think there's another thing on your bucket list though that's domestic that maybe you forgot what would that be?

Speaker 2:

alaska? Oh yeah, yeah, sure, an alaskan cruise? Yes, yeah, I have um. An old co-worker of mine is on alaskan cruise right now and she's posting pictures of whales and just the scenery doesn't it look incredible?

Speaker 1:

yeah, so my bucket list is an Alaskan Cruise, cape Cod slash, nantucket, because I love Elin Hildebrand and all her books and she writes about Nantucket as if it's the most magical place on earth and I have to go there and experience that at least once in my life. Um, and then the other thing that's on my bucket list is yellowstone national park and, like the grand tetons, that area that is also pretty high on my list yeah, I can agree with that um, okay, let's move on to international, because that list is much longer.

Speaker 1:

What is on your international bucket list?

Speaker 2:

well, when you first asked me, I said the Maldives, mm-hmm, like Bora Bora. What else did I say? I forget? You said Australia, oh, australia, new Zealand.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

I want to see the toilet flush the other way. Do you know what I mean? I think that's true.

Speaker 1:

Is that true? It is true, come on, is that? True, it is true. Come on, is that true? Yeah, it's true.

Speaker 2:

It's like the only reason why I want to go there.

Speaker 1:

Oh my God, no, it's not. Wait. I was watching like House Hunters or something you had on the other day and I'm pretty sure it was in. Well, it had to have been in Australia. There was like people were looking at a house and there was just a kangaroo hopping along the street we're looking at a house and there was just a kangaroo hopping along the street. A lot more than kangaroos, all types of freaking critters out there, yeah, um, okay, so, okay, so wait. So, bora bora, maldives, australia, do you have any like?

Speaker 1:

new zealand new zealand do you have like? Are you thinking some of those as like couples trips versus family trips, or what are your thoughts?

Speaker 2:

I mean new zealand. I'll show you for sure family, but like maldives and like borobor, I think you know couples I mean I would love to take the kids, but it would be really expensive for all of us to go.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh it would be so expensive. Especially the maldives is so far. Borobor is actually not as far um, especially because we're on the west coast or like fiji, you know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, south pacific for sure um, I think you can't stay in an overwater bungalow when you have kids anyways nor would we, because my anxiety couldn't handle it but, like, I think your kids have to be over a certain age before you could even do it. So, um, okay, this is my international bucket list. It is very long, okay, so I like, in fact, it's so long I'm not even going to list it all, but I'm going to list, like, maybe, like I don't know how many things are here, like six, seven, eight things. Okay. So, number one an African safari. I'm going to list them and then we're going to talk about a few of them. So, number one African safari.

Speaker 1:

Number two I really want to spend like a several week trip to like Denmark, like Copenhagen area, and then maybe Sweden in the summer, where the sun doesn't set until like midnight and you can just like, really like squeeze every second out of every day. I recently saw someone do a Norwegian fjords cruise and I thought that looked incredible. They did it with kids, so I was like, okay, yes, add that to the list. Something that has been on my list also since I traveled to Europe like 12 years ago, is I want to rent a car. I want to drive from Paris all the way down through all, like through Normandy, and then through all the little French towns all the way down to the coast, like Nice, cairns, that area and stay in the little French towns. Um, I think doing that with the kids would be fun too, as long as you're not driving a ton every day. Peru and Machu Picchu.

Speaker 2:

Yes, that's definitely on my list too, for sure.

Speaker 1:

South Korea, and Vietnam and Singapore.

Speaker 2:

I've been to South Korea, not Vietnam.

Speaker 1:

I want to go to Istanbul and Cappadocia for the hot air balloons Looks stunning I call it Cappadocia.

Speaker 1:

I did for a long time, but it's not. In fact, when I heard someone pronounce it Cappadocia, I thought that's not how you say it and then I looked it up that is how you say it. Actually it's like the same thing with Edinburgh in Scotland. It's not Edinburgh like I thought. And then Iceland is also really high on my list. These are all like family ish trips. And then I also have some couples travel, which I have. Bora Bora in Greece, the Maldives would be nice to. It's just really far. So, like Bora Bora in Greece are are higher on my list. And then I also have kind of like a solo travel category, predominantly what go and or like a girl's trip, predominantly what goes in there is trips that I really want to do, where my kids can't come and Dwayne doesn't want to go. So the only item in that group right now is to hike the Dolomites in Italy.

Speaker 1:

If you guys follow the points, mom on Instagram, she did this like maybe back in June or somewhere over this summer, not long ago, she did this hike with her daughter and you basically do these hikes every day and you hike between these like little huts and when I say huts like they're like hotels that are like very nice and then you like stop, you know you do your hike, you're, you know, exhausted and you get to your little hut and I'm putting that in air quotes because it's like literally a luxury hotel in the middle of the mountains and you have like a beautiful, comfortable room and bed you sleep in and they feed you, and then you kind of wake up the next day and do the same thing, and some days are longer hikes than others. She did it with a company that I forget the name of, but I was like, oh my God, I am going to do that and that needs to be probably in my 40 to 50 year old time frame, you know. So that means I've got like seven-ish years to make that happen.

Speaker 2:

So and I said I was showing Dwayne- remember I was showing you and you were like yeah, I don't want to do that.

Speaker 1:

Not on my list, so yeah, so I need to. If anyone out there wants to buddy with me and go on this trip, let me know, because the only person I could think that might do that was, like, maybe one of my best friends or my sister and I don't know. Okay, I also may. Oh, I'm sorry. Let me back up going back to some of the the trips. So African Safari, for example. This is where our kids ages and kind of where they're at comes into play. So our youngest is five. When you're on a safari, you're doing game drives, likely once or twice a day, at least once and often twice, and it's a lot of time, just like sitting in a Jeep. And so our youngest is five. I just don't think that would be super enjoyable for her or for our eight year old. So I feel like that is maybe like a three years out for us to where it's enjoyable for everyone and no one is like fidgeting, squirming, like losing their mind sitting in this jeep all day. You know, what do you think about that?

Speaker 1:

yeah, they're not ready for it no, and it would just be really stressful for us to to try to manage their squirminess our oldest one I think is ready. Oh yeah, he could, he would be great, he would love it, the other two not ready our oldest love. All of our kids love animals, but our oldest loves animals like so much he would love it yeah, our, our youngest would try to pet the lion.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, can't do that nope, can't do that and she wouldn't listen when we told her not to. So she's in in a phase right now where she knows best. But some other things like the Sweden kind of Denmark Copenhagen summer, I envision we could do that now. Machu Picchu is another one where our kids need a few more years before we can make that happen.

Speaker 2:

I think it's a lot of hiking right.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you don't have to hike it, you can also like you know they have like a bus or a train or something, but it's still like a lot of early mornings and like a friend of mine hi, rania, friend of mine just went on this, did this trip a few months ago and she was like there were no kids in like her group and she's like there was a lot of like early wake up calls and it's just like kind of an exhausting trip. It's definitely a trip, not a vacation, and so that's again just something that we need a few more years before we can we can take all the kids on that.

Speaker 2:

Is that one of the seven wonders or no?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think it is.

Speaker 1:

I'm pretty sure. If it's not, someone will tell me on instagram for sure. Um, okay, lastly, I also have a few hotels that are on my bucket list. Uh, duane does not have any kind of hotel bucket list, so I didn't. I didn't ask him because I already knew, but I'm just going to quickly list a few hotels on my bucket list, and some of them are going to coincide with some of the trips that I have listed.

Speaker 1:

So number one is the JW Marriott Masai Mara. That is where I would die to stay on an African safari. I have heard absolutely incredible things about it. So, excuse me, while I try to earn a million Marriott points so I can afford to take our entire family of five there. Next up is and these are in no particular order, just as I thought of them, park Hyatt Vienna is really high on my list. So as long as Christmas markets go well this year, maybe we can plan another Christmas market trip where we do like Vienna, prague, those other countries I like the sausage from there Vienna sausage. The Park Hyatt Vienna is in an old bank and so like oh, I remember you showing me that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it looks so beautiful. Um, another one is the Conrad Bora Bora. So that's actually under construction, starting, I think, early next year. It's under construction now but they're like fully closing it starting early next year. So but Bora Bora will be one of our couples trip, like in the next one to two years for sure. Park Hyatt, maldives is another one. Again, maldives are really far, so that's our youngest needs to be a little older before we go that far away from her. I think the Canavesia Suites in Greece Super high on my list the Grand Hotel Victoria in Lake Como. Potentially we might do that when we go to Italy next year. Again, we don't have anything booked, but we'll see. The Park Hyatt, kyoto.

Speaker 1:

We are not staying there this trip, we're staying at the hyatt place makes me sad but like nothing but great things about that place I know if duane and I were to do like a luxury japan trip, this is where we would stay, not with the kids. It's too many points for you need two rooms. It's a whole. It's a whole thing, but we would. That's where we would stay. 100 if it was just the two of us. And then then pretty much any Waldorf Astoria I want to go to. I would love to stay at the one that just opened or reopened in New York City. I want to go to the one in Cabo. Yeah, so any Waldorf Astoria except for maybe, like Vegas.

Speaker 2:

Do they have one there?

Speaker 1:

They do, and I mean the Biltmore. Here is also a Waldorf which I've stayed at and it's very nice, but like I want like the luxury Waldorfs. You know what I mean. Yes, so I also have a few flights on my bucket list. Again, I know Dwayne doesn't have any of these, but I feel like, because I've only flown business class one time and it was on Air France. So I feel like my bucket list for flights is pretty basic, but we've got, like you know, your Emirates, your Turkish Japan Airlines and Q Suites. Those are like kind of my four big flight bucket list items that will probably take a while to knock off. But yeah, so those are. Those are my bucket list flights for now. What else, anything else to talk about?

Speaker 2:

No, I mean, I think that's it, unless you got something to add. No, no, no, Okay, so so yeah this wasn't very informative, but hopefully you enjoyed listening.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, maybe you got some like fun trip ideas out of it. We would love to hear your bucket list ideas for you and your family, because I'm always looking for more trip ideas. So definitely send them to me over on Instagram at Travel Party of Five. I think the best part about Points and Miles is that it really opens up a whole new world, but at the same time, that can be super overwhelming, because then it's like well, how do I know? Like how do I decide where to go out of all these places? And so I just think I'm going to be a little cheesy here for one second and I'm going to wrap up this episode by saying don't be afraid to dream big.

Speaker 1:

Your bucket list doesn't have to be realistic, it doesn't have to be practical. It's okay if it's big. It's okay if it's big, it's okay if it's daunting. It should be inspiring, it should remind you of what's possible, and I think points and miles can just really make those big dreams feel a little bit closer. And so the first step is obviously giving yourself permission to imagine that you actually can go to all these places. Dream big, make the list, use whatever app you want, write it on paper it doesn't matter, and then start taking the steps to make it happen. Open the cards, figure out how to redeem the points. If you have the points and you're not sure, dm me on Instagram. We can chat and, as always, make sure to follow along at Travel Party of 5 as we check things off of our list and share them with you. We would love to see you there.

Speaker 2:

Yes, so thank you for listening and we appreciate you. Yeah, catch you on the next one. Have a good one, bye Bye, bye, bye.