This is the second installment of a Travel Series I decided to start with the intent to share information about places we’ve been to and ways to minimize expenses using travel hacking strategies. Traveling can get expensive but if you’re flexible, plan in advance, and do a little bit of due diligence, you’ll be surprised by the results.

Our destination for this trip was Portland, Oregon. Even though we didn’t plan this trip with too much time in advance everything worked out. We were fortunate to find reasonably priced plane tickets and a nice hotel.

This time, we decided to take advantage of a signup bonus my wife was awarded when she signed up for the Chase Saphire Preferred credit card. Transferring the points to Southwest was super easy and only required a total of 29,658 points plus typical fees. This means we spent the equivalent of $297 dollars plus $17 in fees on plane tickets for 3 adults.

Airbnb vs Hotel

I spent quite a bit of time looking at Airbnb’s in the Portland area. We found a ton of options but the closer to the city the more expensive it got. One option was to stay in the suburbs but that would have meant 1) spending quite a bit of time in transit using public transportation or 2) needing to rent a car for our entire stay. We knew Portland had excellent public transportation so I decided to check out hotels using the Chase Ultimate Reward portal. My hypothesis was that a hotel in the city was going to require a huge amount of points … wrong!.

I found a DoubleTree by Hilton right in downtown and I have to say they had a killer deal. Not only that, it was right across the street from the light rail system. Our stay was covered with only 29,686 points (or the equivalent of $297). I used Chase’s UR Portal to take advantage of the 1.5X points bonus you get for every dollar spent.

Great Timing for a New Credit Card

I normally use the Chase Sapphire reserve because of all its perks, especially in the traveling category. Nevertheless, we are fans of timing opening of new credit cards (per the mission statement described on this post) to cover fixed and planned expenses.

Before this trip, my wife got approved for the Chase Business Ink Cash which offers a 50,000 point signup bonus if you spend $3,000 in 3 months. The card came in the mail a few days before the trip so the timing could have not been more perfect. We used this card to cover all our expenses while visiting Portland.

If you’re visiting Portland, I totally recommend taking advantage of public transportation. It is absolutely phenomenal. We didn’t need a car for the first 2 days; however, we rented one the following days to visit Wooden Shoe Tulip Fest, Multnomah Falls, and Cannon Beach.

Below is a summary of all expenses during this trip:

Category	Amount ($)
Hotel (4 nights)	$0
Flights	$17
Car Rental	$80
Restaurants	$271
Parking	$38
ATM	$40
Gas	$30
Tourism	$34
Taxi	$36
Total	$546

As you can see we really enjoy exploring restaurants especially those that are recommended by the locals. It would have been nice to do groceries and save a little bit but we didn’t have that option. Regardless, if you divide $271 by 4 days by 3 meals you get ~$23/meal. That wasn’t necessarily the case but that number doesn’t sound too bad for a city like Portland.

Below is the list of places we visited:

• Pioneer Square
• Washington Park
• Hoyt Arboretum
• Japanese Garden
• 23rd Avenue
• Wooden Shoe Tulip Fest
• Multnomah Falls
• Vista House
• Pearl District
• Powell’s Books
• South Waterfront Park
• Cannon Beach

Below are some of our favorite pictures from our trip to Portland.

Lessons Learned

• We love Airbnb but don’t forget about hotels: Travel hacking does not only apply to plane tickets it also extends to hotels, car rentals and other categories. Depending on your trip duration, location, and particular preferences a hotel might make more sense than an Airbnb.
• Flexibility: initially, we thought we wouldn’t need a car; however, some of the places we wanted to visit were not easily accessible using public transportation. In my opinion, flexibility is important when traveling. Planning is key to make sure you stay within budget; however, miss out on experiences just because you didn’t consider them in your original plan. You’re already there so you might as well take full advantage of what a city has to offer. I can guarantee you it will be more expensive to make the trip back for sure. Last but not least, consider using a credit card like the Chase Sapphire Reserve to lower expenses of renting a car.
• Trip Duration: We knew there were a ton of interesting places to visit in Portland. We thought 4 days would be enough but I don’t think it was. We covered 80% of the items on our list but we think an extra day or two would have been perfect; however, we liked Portland so much that even if we would have stayed the extra days we would probably visit this city again.
• Demystifying the West Coast: Initially, we thought that visiting Portland would be super expensive. It wasn’t until my wife started doing some research that we found it was actually very affordable. On top of that, a lot of the things we ended up doing were 100% free!. To make things even better flights were reasonable and so was the hotel. Overall, this has been one the cheapest trips we’ve made (granted it was only 4 days) and we loved every minute of it. We will be back for sure.
• Hiking and strollers don’t get along: We knew we wanted to visit Washington Park. This is a beautiful destination with great hikes and views. For a minute we thought about traveling with our baby hike backpack for our 18 months old but decided not to at the last minute. I’m a big fan of traveling light (yes, my wife and I fight over this 🙂 ) so the idea of bringing an extra piece of equipment was not going to work. Now, I realized I made a mistake. We could have perfectly brought both the stroller and the backpack. We still made it to Washington Park but unfortunately, we had to stay within reasonable hikes that still made it quite the workout for my legs and back.

Final Thoughts

• Portland was a very nice destination and even though we didn’t plan our trip weeks and/or months in advance, I’m surprised with how affordable it was.
• We feel fortunate to be in a position to travel and discover amazing places that the US has to offer.
• Traveling can be expensive but it doesn’t have to be. There are ways to hack the system if you do your due diligence and are intentional about your approach.
• Travel hacking is the real deal. I’m not even close to being an expert in this subject but I’m trying to learn as much as I can so that we can take advantage of this strategy while continuing our pursuit of Financial Independence.
• We hope to continue to explore the US territory so the journey continues. Stay tuned for my next post on this travel series.

Until next time … JJ