Last Minute Trip? This Place is Your Best Option! | All The Hacks Podcast Clip
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Children notwithstanding, point redemption regardless,
00:00:10.340 | if you could, today's Tuesday, if I could say to you,
00:00:13.920 | hey, look, there's no work on Friday,
00:00:15.880 | you and your wife can hop on,
00:00:17.240 | just go to San Francisco airport,
00:00:19.120 | take any flight anywhere in the world Thursday evening
00:00:22.640 | for a long, long weekend, where would you like to go to?
00:00:28.620 | - Just the two of us or just the two of us?
00:00:31.060 | Let's assume for the moment that it's just the two of you.
00:00:33.760 | Am I also assuming that for some reason
00:00:37.400 | there's a nonstop flight anywhere in the world?
00:00:40.600 | - That's a fantastic advanced level question.
00:00:43.960 | Let's assume no, we're gonna play it on hard level,
00:00:48.560 | not like magical level, let's be realistic.
00:00:53.200 | - That's a great question, the reason I ask
00:00:54.840 | is I've always wanted to go to the Canary Islands
00:00:56.840 | and they seem quite difficult to get to from the West Coast.
00:01:01.100 | I think, and how long are we going for?
00:01:04.740 | - You're going for the long weekend,
00:01:06.060 | so you fly out on Thursday night
00:01:08.420 | and you'll be back either Sunday or Monday.
00:01:10.580 | - I'm gonna have to think about this.
00:01:14.280 | - Well, I have my answer 'cause I prepared,
00:01:15.940 | can I tell you my answer?
00:01:17.020 | - Yeah.
00:01:17.980 | - So I've been dying to go to Buenos Aires and here's why,
00:01:22.300 | there's a direct flight from many places,
00:01:25.940 | probably from San Francisco, from Houston, from New York,
00:01:28.860 | it's in the same time zone.
00:01:30.600 | And so you can take the flight at like 10 p.m.
00:01:34.020 | and you land, it's like a 10 hour flight
00:01:35.620 | and you land at 10 a.m. local time,
00:01:38.760 | you've not missed any time, there's no jet lag per se.
00:01:43.160 | To me, it seems like the most perfect
00:01:45.200 | like whole new world environment
00:01:47.700 | and it's currency arbitrage because right now
00:01:51.240 | with not only the strong dollar,
00:01:53.160 | but just the rampant inflation there
00:01:55.480 | and all the other stuff,
00:01:56.800 | it now does open up some interesting times
00:02:00.280 | for the dollar traveler to get exceptional value.
00:02:04.000 | - Yeah, we did a trip to Buenos Aires,
00:02:06.200 | I don't know if this is still the case,
00:02:08.060 | I should be prepared, but I didn't know this was coming.
00:02:10.520 | But at the time there were two exchange rates.
00:02:13.080 | So there's the, I think it was like the dollar blue,
00:02:16.600 | which is like the off market exchange rate
00:02:19.340 | and then the one you get.
00:02:20.180 | So you never, at least at the time,
00:02:21.840 | please fact check all this,
00:02:22.880 | at the time you never wanna pay with a credit card
00:02:25.120 | because they're going at the bank rate.
00:02:26.960 | But the other rate was like half the price.
00:02:28.820 | So you would basically like walk down the street
00:02:31.160 | and someone be like, you need currency, you need exchange,
00:02:33.860 | and you'd walk into some random place.
00:02:36.000 | I remember at the time I was like watching YouTube videos
00:02:38.120 | on like how to test the currency if it's real
00:02:41.000 | because everyone's buying all their currency
00:02:42.640 | in like back alleys and now there's WhatsApp groups
00:02:44.860 | and you'd message them and they'd come to your hotel.
00:02:48.080 | But I can only imagine that if inflation has gone rampant,
00:02:50.720 | the dollar has gone more valuable,
00:02:51.560 | it's even more valuable to do this.
00:02:53.760 | - I second that.
00:02:54.800 | The only thing I'd say is we went to Argentina,
00:02:56.680 | Buenos Aires is awesome.
00:02:57.780 | It's incredible.
00:02:58.620 | It's one of the few places in the world,
00:02:59.960 | maybe New Orleans is similar,
00:03:01.320 | where people will say,
00:03:02.160 | "Oh, you've gotta check out the cemeteries,"
00:03:05.160 | which is a strange thing to recommend,
00:03:07.640 | but they're just so interesting and different
00:03:10.180 | than you've seen anywhere and beautiful and ornate.
00:03:12.680 | But there's just so much cool stuff in Argentina
00:03:16.080 | that I wish that you would have more time
00:03:18.720 | than a weekend to go there.
00:03:20.040 | But I did do an episode for you to listen to
00:03:22.840 | with the basketball player, Manu Ginobili,
00:03:25.440 | who's from Argentina,
00:03:26.560 | where he talked about some of his favorite tips.
00:03:28.660 | So check that out before you go.
00:03:31.140 | - I always love to.
00:03:31.980 | - I also did a similar trip for a long weekend to Bogota,
00:03:35.320 | which was awesome.
00:03:36.760 | Even closer, same time zone, really accessible.
00:03:41.600 | Gosh, I don't know where I would go for a long weekend.
00:03:44.580 | - So let me throw some ideas out of there.
00:03:46.420 | Is that okay?
00:03:47.260 | - Yeah, go for it.
00:03:48.080 | - Would you guys go to Hawaii?
00:03:49.920 | - We are going to Hawaii in a few months,
00:03:51.540 | so I feel like I would not go there this weekend
00:03:54.400 | if it was a surprise adventure.
00:03:56.160 | - 10, would you go to Japan?
00:03:58.080 | - 100%, but Japan is not open right now.
00:04:00.160 | - That's right, oh, you're right, you're right, you're right.
00:04:02.400 | Okay.
00:04:03.240 | - So Japan would always be the number one on the list.
00:04:04.840 | It's like, if you want to go on a trip,
00:04:06.360 | we're always like, is Japan possible?
00:04:08.040 | If not, we'll look at the rest of the world.
00:04:09.880 | - Yes.
00:04:10.720 | Would you go to Bangkok?
00:04:11.540 | Would you do anything in Southeast Asia?
00:04:13.680 | - Yeah, so we're actually talking, this is so funny,
00:04:15.640 | all the things you mentioned.
00:04:16.560 | So we're talking about taking a trip
00:04:19.480 | maybe October, November for a couple weeks
00:04:23.060 | with kids and au pair.
00:04:24.940 | And the plan was to go to Japan, but because it's closed,
00:04:27.140 | now we're talking about Bali or Vietnam or Thailand
00:04:30.300 | because we had so much fun there.
00:04:32.120 | The trip, if you hadn't constrained it to a weekend,
00:04:34.260 | would be, let's go to New Zealand.
00:04:35.660 | I've heard incredible things about New Zealand,
00:04:37.360 | nonstop flight, crazy long,
00:04:40.800 | way more manageable without children than with,
00:04:43.540 | and that would be the place.
00:04:45.260 | But I just couldn't imagine going all the way there
00:04:47.720 | and then turning around three days later and coming back.
00:04:50.720 | So that would have been my go-to
00:04:53.980 | had that not been the constraint.
00:04:56.140 | - I love the New Zealand.
00:04:57.220 | Is there any place in South America or Central America
00:05:00.580 | that is interesting to you?
00:05:02.340 | You mentioned Bogota.
00:05:03.820 | I went to Medellin and I have to admit,
00:05:06.960 | I didn't feel safe there.
00:05:08.340 | I felt, we heard a couple stories where there was one day,
00:05:12.460 | I just wanted to go take a nap in the park.
00:05:14.700 | And someone was like, you're not gonna take a nap
00:05:17.240 | in the park.
00:05:18.080 | That's not a thing that we do here.
00:05:20.180 | And the idea to not have your cell phone out
00:05:22.380 | and things like that,
00:05:23.500 | it became enough where I was just kind of spooked eventually
00:05:26.100 | and we bounced.
00:05:26.940 | But I heard so many great things about Medellin.
00:05:29.540 | I'm curious what your Bogota experience was
00:05:31.740 | or if there's anywhere else in Central or South America.
00:05:34.420 | - Yeah, I mean, if I were recommending to other people,
00:05:36.820 | I could go on for a great list of definitely Mexico City,
00:05:41.420 | awesome weekend trip from the US.
00:05:43.980 | You just wanna sit on the beach and relax.
00:05:45.500 | Cabo's a great trip from the US.
00:05:48.340 | Bogota was a great trip.
00:05:49.780 | - Oh, what's up with Oaxaca?
00:05:50.820 | Have you been to Oaxaca?
00:05:52.140 | - I have not, but I've heard cool things.
00:05:54.980 | I haven't been.
00:05:55.820 | So I think one place I'd go for the long weekend,
00:05:58.620 | I'd go to Costa Rica.
00:05:59.740 | I went once before my wife and I,
00:06:03.620 | like, I think we'd even met.
00:06:05.340 | And it was awesome.
00:06:06.720 | And she's never been, she's wanted to go.
00:06:08.700 | And now it's been 10 plus years.
00:06:10.660 | A lot of what we'd wanna do,
00:06:11.980 | we looked at doing with kids and we were like,
00:06:13.660 | gosh, it's just not the right place to go right now.
00:06:17.500 | Like, I wanna go surfing.
00:06:18.700 | We wanna go like hiking in the rainforest.
00:06:21.140 | And like, they're just not the most
00:06:22.620 | toddler-friendly activities.
00:06:24.080 | So to finally answer your question,
00:06:26.900 | if we got thrown on a plane right now, this weekend,
00:06:30.660 | I'd say let's go to Costa Rica.
00:06:32.460 | It's not the most inconvenient from the West Coast,
00:06:35.140 | way easier from LA because there's direct flights.
00:06:37.900 | That's probably where we'd go.
00:06:40.100 | - All the hacks, listen or meet up in Costa Rica.
00:06:44.340 | Get ready. - With a cocktail party.
00:06:45.980 | - With a cocktail party, with the name tags.