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00:01:34.640 | Hey everybody, I'm Chris Hutchins and welcome to All The Hacks.

00:01:39.520 | I am so excited you're here.

00:01:41.360 | This show is about upgrading your life, money, and travel all while spending less

00:01:47.280 | and saving more.

00:01:48.200 | And I started it because I'm a diehard optimizer on my own quest to find every

00:01:53.120 | hack there is.

00:01:54.480 | I love doing all the research to get the best experience in life without the

00:01:58.880 | expensive price tag and then breaking it down to share with everyone.

00:02:02.720 | Each episode, I'll talk with a new expert and dive into all their secret deals.

00:02:07.920 | So today I'm talking to Lee Rowan about travel.

00:02:11.760 | Not only has Lee been a travel hacker for years, but he also used to be the COO of

00:02:16.840 | the Points guy and now runs his own travel company called Savanti, where he and his

00:02:22.000 | team help their clients take the most incredible vacations, whether that's

00:02:26.160 | optimizing points for free first class flights around the world or finding the

00:02:30.040 | best deal for a villa on the Amalfi Coast.

00:02:32.560 | In our chat, we'll walk through all the hacks you need to know to save money and

00:02:37.160 | have an incredible, authentic experience on your next trip.

00:02:40.360 | Before we jump in, I just want to mention the All The Hacks newsletter.

00:02:44.160 | It's the other place I'll be sharing all the cool stuff I'm learning about and the

00:02:47.440 | new hacks I find.

00:02:48.800 | So if you're not already subscribed, you can head on over to allthehacks.com/email

00:02:53.200 | and get signed up.

00:02:54.040 | So let's jump in.

00:02:55.080 | Lee, thanks for being here.

00:02:56.600 | My pleasure to be here.

00:02:57.880 | Thank you for being here.

00:02:59.280 | I think this is the first podcast you've actually done in person this year.

00:03:02.560 | Is that right?

00:03:03.080 | Yeah.

00:03:03.560 | So it's always tricky to find the intersection of vaccinated person who lives

00:03:07.720 | nearby that also has all the hacks.

00:03:09.920 | So thank you for being here and fitting all those criteria.

00:03:13.400 | Why don't you tell a little bit of background of yourself and let people know

00:03:16.760 | how you got to do all this crazy travel stuff.

00:03:18.920 | Sure.

00:03:19.320 | I'm here in the Bay Area and I've been in the Bay Area for almost 20 years as an

00:03:23.080 | entrepreneur, a startup guy, somebody who's bounced around between advertising

00:03:26.080 | and marketing and now finally travel.

00:03:27.840 | And I came to this role accidentally.

00:03:30.360 | So I call myself the accidental travel agent.

00:03:32.280 | And that's because I was a traveler who really figured out how to hack my own

00:03:36.680 | travel for me, how to do it the right way, using the right credit cards and points

00:03:40.080 | and miles and loyalty games to sit in the best seats and the best aircraft to fly to

00:03:44.800 | the best airports with the best service.

00:03:46.400 | And of course, the best part for me is to stay in the best hotels at the best

00:03:50.560 | available rates with the most perks, amenities, upgrades, all that stuff.

00:03:53.840 | And so the way I really figured it out was by trial and error, by figuring out

00:03:57.640 | which online content sources websites had the best news or the best credit card,

00:04:03.120 | mileage information, et cetera.

00:04:04.360 | And I put together this sort of methodology around how to travel.

00:04:07.640 | So long story short, I was at an ad agency and left that ad agency to go join the

00:04:13.520 | points guy. After running that business for a year, I came back to the startup

00:04:17.360 | world and really did so because a lot of my friends who were running startups of

00:04:21.400 | their own requested me to manage travel for them like I was doing it for me.

00:04:26.320 | And what that meant was understanding which credit cards they had,

00:04:29.520 | understanding why they were traveling.

00:04:30.920 | Was it for work or pleasure?

00:04:32.120 | Who was paying?

00:04:32.960 | What type of experience they wanted to have?

00:04:35.040 | So I set up Savanti Travel about five years ago and we do that now full time.

00:04:40.040 | We're providing full service travel management to busy executives around the

00:04:43.880 | Bay Area and around the world, helping them manage all of their travel.

00:04:46.680 | I thought it would be a great idea to do an episode on breaking down an entire

00:04:51.240 | trip, which is something that you guys have probably done for thousands of

00:04:54.760 | people, thousands of times and just start at the beginning.

00:04:57.360 | Right now, I feel like everyone is in need of a vacation.

00:05:01.240 | I don't know if you've gotten a chance to like explore and leave the Bay Area yet,

00:05:05.160 | but I'm going to this week and I just I'm very excited.

00:05:08.920 | The anticipation is real, isn't it?

00:05:10.440 | Yeah.

00:05:11.040 | That moment you step back on the plane your first time back, there's the sense

00:05:15.640 | of release and of relief, right?

00:05:17.600 | Because there's so much to be scared about, to be fearful of and the unknown

00:05:22.920 | of traveling right now.

00:05:23.760 | And the reality is that travel is very safe right now, right?

00:05:26.240 | There's all those studies about planes and the HEPA filters and all that jazz.

00:05:29.080 | We don't need to get into that.

00:05:29.920 | But the reality is travel is safe.

00:05:31.800 | And if you do it safely and do it correctly, you can have an amazing time.

00:05:34.760 | So when I think about travel planning right now, whether it's for corporate

00:05:38.200 | stuff on the Savanti side or it's for leisure, personal vacations, family

00:05:42.000 | trips, whatever, I really think about what's your mindset, right?

00:05:45.720 | Like the biggest hack for me is understanding after the trip, what do

00:05:49.240 | you want to look back on from that trip and say, this is what I'm trying to

00:05:52.720 | achieve with this trip while you're planning it.

00:05:54.880 | So a great example for me when I'm planning a trip for someone is to

00:05:58.520 | actually ask them that question to say, hey, listen, you're back from the trip.

00:06:02.000 | What did you post on Instagram?

00:06:03.640 | What's your social media posts look like?

00:06:06.040 | What's your memento from that trip that you're like so happy you have

00:06:09.960 | because you're so grateful you did it?

00:06:11.840 | And let's start there and let's work backwards.

00:06:13.880 | And do people always have an answer or do you have to coach them to get an answer?

00:06:16.840 | Some people are like laser focused.

00:06:18.680 | I'm going back to Italy to sit in my favorite cafe to sip a cappuccino while

00:06:22.400 | I watch the pigeons in the square.

00:06:23.600 | That's their thing and they're going to achieve it.

00:06:25.080 | And that's great.

00:06:25.600 | Some people really like they're, they're taking it back by that question.

00:06:29.680 | They're like, what am I trying to solve for here?

00:06:31.200 | And so each level of travel planning, I like to break down to what am I

00:06:35.200 | trying to solve for here?

00:06:36.160 | And if I know what we're trying to solve for with each element of the trip, then

00:06:39.520 | we can knock this thing out of the park.

00:06:40.600 | Yeah.

00:06:41.120 | For me, I feel like maybe I'm just a bit too optimized, but I always start

00:06:45.480 | with a really high level goal.

00:06:46.680 | So it's, I want to go to a beach.

00:06:48.560 | So in this upcoming trip, I just want to go somewhere warm where I can go to a

00:06:52.200 | hotel and sit outside and order good food and relax.

00:06:56.600 | And the challenge is I didn't actually care where, right?

00:07:00.240 | And so it was really tough for me because there's probably, I don't know, 15 places

00:07:05.080 | you could go where it's warm, where there's a nice resort, could be Hawaii,

00:07:09.160 | could be Mexico, could be Central America, could be the Caribbean.

00:07:11.880 | And so my biggest challenge is there's an unlimited number of options and I

00:07:16.680 | really wanted to focus on price.

00:07:19.000 | So if I could go to any of those places and one of them was half the cost, I, I

00:07:23.640 | wouldn't even really care.

00:07:24.560 | So, you know, my strategy was if I don't know exactly what I want, it's, is there

00:07:30.000 | a place that is like much cheaper than everywhere else?

00:07:33.120 | I do that with Google flights destinations.

00:07:35.640 | You go and you say, I'm in San Francisco.

00:07:37.320 | I want to go somewhere nonstop.

00:07:39.840 | We have a nine month old, there's no changing planes.

00:07:42.080 | And I'm just like browsing around.

00:07:44.160 | I was like, okay, so Cabo's this much, Cancun's this much, Costa Rica's this

00:07:47.480 | much, Hawaii's a little bit more expensive.

00:07:49.760 | And so that's how I ended up saying, I'm willing to go anywhere that's warm, but I

00:07:55.600 | just want to figure out when it's cheapest.

00:07:57.200 | And you could even say anytime in the next six months and get an idea of the best

00:08:00.840 | dates, and it's pretty flexible in searching for that.

00:08:04.400 | Is that advice you give people?

00:08:05.840 | Yeah, sure.

00:08:06.400 | Of course, because that's what we know you're trying to sell for, right?

00:08:08.840 | You know that price is the motivating factor next to warmth, right?

00:08:13.160 | So assuming warmth, assuming seasonality, assuming now price, now we have to look at

00:08:17.240 | how you're going to pay for those tickets.

00:08:18.560 | If you've got cash, Google flights is fantastic.

00:08:21.200 | It'll tell you exactly the cheapest airfare you want to find for the markets you want

00:08:24.840 | to find it for based on the dates you have, et cetera.

00:08:27.160 | It's great.

00:08:27.640 | And if you use the Explore functionality there, it's really incredible.

00:08:31.000 | There's also a bunch of mileage opportunities, right?

00:08:33.880 | And so it depends on what your digital assets are, your mileage, your points that

00:08:38.160 | you could use.

00:08:38.680 | There are some search engines that are really good for that.

00:08:40.640 | One of them is called Juicy Miles.

00:08:42.360 | It's a $30 a month subscription.

00:08:44.480 | If you're really into points and miles, it's great because you can plug in your

00:08:47.480 | routing.

00:08:47.920 | You can take a look at the different credit cards or the different other mileage

00:08:51.520 | programs that are there.

00:08:52.440 | And you can look at how you can pay for those tickets.

00:08:54.920 | And when you compare those tickets on the mileage side versus what Google flights is

00:08:58.680 | charging, you can see side by side sort of what makes sense, what's the good

00:09:01.960 | comparison, which asset to use when.

00:09:03.640 | So we have another episode about miles and credit cards and points.

00:09:07.720 | And I also made a guide to my top cards and the best signup bonuses right now at

00:09:12.240 | allthehacks.com/cards.

00:09:14.000 | So we won't go deep, but is there a just quick rule of thumb you use if you're

00:09:18.440 | looking at a flight on United and it's X dollars and Y miles, is there a quick way

00:09:23.240 | that you make a decision of whether the miles are maybe a good idea?

00:09:26.080 | Yeah, I want to get two cents per mile.

00:09:28.800 | So what that means is if I'm looking at a thousand dollar airline ticket, if it's

00:09:32.800 | basically 50,000 miles or fewer, great deal.

00:09:36.640 | If it's 64,000 miles, it's a terrible deal.

00:09:39.680 | And very often right now with a lot of the airlines, they're doing variable pricing.

00:09:43.720 | So it used to be a set price for a set destination or set of destinations.

00:09:47.840 | It's no longer that way.

00:09:49.120 | So you really do have to check, log into your account, take a look at what mileage

00:09:52.720 | you have, take a look at what the airline is trying to charge on their publicly

00:09:56.160 | available website and figure out what the good deal is.

00:09:58.240 | By the way, at the end of the day, you're not getting two cents of value per mile.

00:10:02.080 | Who cares if you feel like you're getting value out of it?

00:10:04.200 | Great.

00:10:04.640 | That's what matters in the end.

00:10:05.640 | Sometimes it's cash flow, right?

00:10:07.000 | Like I want to take a vacation.

00:10:08.120 | I don't have the cash right now.

00:10:09.400 | Use the miles.

00:10:10.600 | I never look back.

00:10:11.640 | Vacation.

00:10:12.120 | Yeah, right.

00:10:12.720 | Yeah.

00:10:13.000 | Okay.

00:10:13.240 | So let's say we're not using miles.

00:10:15.000 | Does it matter where you buy flights?

00:10:16.520 | Can you just buy them on Google flights?

00:10:18.160 | Do you buy them on the airline website?

00:10:19.640 | Great question.

00:10:20.520 | So in today's day and age, this is a bit of a whole different conversation a year

00:10:24.480 | ago, pre-COVID, but in today's day and age, cancellation and flexibility are the

00:10:28.200 | things that matter the most when you're booking travel.

00:10:29.960 | And so what really matters there is booking directly with the airline and

00:10:34.560 | understanding their cancellation policy when you're booking, because that's the

00:10:37.560 | policy that you're going to be bound by with those funds that you're using to buy

00:10:40.760 | that ticket.

00:10:41.280 | Now, if you're booking through a third party, let's say Expedia or Travelocity

00:10:45.000 | or any of these other online travel agencies, you're fraught with peril.

00:10:48.760 | If you do that, you're running into an intermediary that's between you and the

00:10:52.480 | airline that could really stop up the release of or the change of your ticket.

00:10:56.240 | So I really caution highly against that.

00:10:58.680 | Now I'm a little biased because I'm technically a travel advisor in the travel

00:11:02.280 | agency community.

00:11:03.240 | Booking with a travel advisor often makes a lot of sense because travel advisors

00:11:07.200 | will have access to special rates, things that are unpublished, net rates, for

00:11:11.280 | instance.

00:11:11.720 | These are on flights.

00:11:12.760 | These are on flights.

00:11:13.520 | Correct.

00:11:14.080 | And so you-

00:11:14.440 | Specific kinds of flights?

00:11:15.800 | Usually it's international business, but sometimes even domestically there are,

00:11:19.520 | with some economy fares even, there are unpublished corporate rates available

00:11:24.120 | that travel agencies can tap into.

00:11:26.120 | So it does actually pay to ask, if you have a travel advisor, what rate you could

00:11:31.680 | get on a particular flight, especially if it's an expensive one, right?

00:11:34.720 | I can't exactly quote things off the top of my head, but let's just say a

00:11:38.480 | transcontinental flight from San Francisco to New York would cost $240 one

00:11:42.400 | way in economy.

00:11:44.080 | There's a good chance that there's a corporate rate available, and that might

00:11:46.360 | be $179.

00:11:47.360 | That's a meaningful savings if you're doing that a few times a year, or for a

00:11:50.680 | few people on the same flight.

00:11:51.600 | And are there specific travel advisors that offer these kind of discounted

00:11:55.360 | fares, or do you just have to kind of-

00:11:57.080 | Best to ask around.

00:11:58.000 | Yeah.

00:11:58.440 | They tend to be the ones that work with the higher end agencies.

00:12:01.240 | So you could look at the virtuoso.com website, which is a collection of about,

00:12:05.320 | I think, 20,000 travel advisors globally, and see if any of those have the

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00:14:56.080 | Any tips on picking the flight?

00:14:58.520 | You know, when you're going to New York, there's seven airlines.

00:15:01.000 | If you have a loyalty program and you live in San Francisco and you've decided

00:15:04.040 | I'm all in on United, it's an easy choice.

00:15:06.400 | But if you're sometimes taking an international trip, or if you're going

00:15:09.720 | somewhere you don't fly often, and you could fly any airline, is there any quick,

00:15:13.880 | easy way?

00:15:14.680 | I mean, you probably know this off the top of your head, which airline you want to

00:15:17.800 | fly?

00:15:18.280 | Who's got the best seats?

00:15:19.520 | Is there any hacks to figure out the best one?

00:15:22.120 | So unfortunately, the answer is not that easy, because it's a lot of amassed

00:15:26.480 | knowledge over time.

00:15:27.400 | And if you even do look at United, going back to New York for a second, they fly

00:15:31.600 | into their hub of Newark from San Francisco.

00:15:33.680 | But now they also fly into JFK, and they're flying different aircraft to those

00:15:37.320 | different destinations.

00:15:38.280 | So if you're sitting up in business, there's actually quite a difference between

00:15:41.360 | a 1-2-1 seating in business on a 777 or on a 787 Dreamliner versus the old school

00:15:47.720 | 2-4-2 seating in business on a 777 for United going into Newark.

00:15:51.520 | So it really does pay to actually go onto their website, study the seat map of where

00:15:56.160 | you're going to be sitting, and then take a look at reviews.

00:15:58.600 | Look at online on SeatGuru or any of the review websites to actually find out,

00:16:02.880 | OK, what's this experience like?

00:16:04.200 | By the way, what is this experience like during COVID?

00:16:06.720 | Am I going on a five and a half hour flight and they're not serving food?

00:16:09.160 | Like, that's going to suck.

00:16:10.400 | So make sure you plan ahead and you buy food at the airport and you bring water

00:16:14.760 | and all of these things you might need for the plane.

00:16:16.880 | I definitely think that if COVID has taught us anything, it's that everything you knew

00:16:21.280 | about travel has completely changed.

00:16:23.240 | And it's now time to re-research even the stuff that you were super familiar with.

00:16:27.320 | So feel free to ask people online, reach out to the airline itself, though expect

00:16:31.640 | long hold times, maybe Twitter is better for that one.

00:16:33.840 | But do expect that you've got to do a little bit of research before you get back

00:16:38.400 | on the road and make sure you're getting the right experience you want to have.

00:16:41.280 | Awesome. So when it comes to flight deals, I haven't actually ever tried this, but I

00:16:46.120 | was walking through Costco the other day and there's this big banner for like, Costco,

00:16:49.240 | we plan your vacation, we have flights and hotels.

00:16:51.400 | Is that ever a good deal?

00:16:53.000 | No. So here's the thing.

00:16:54.320 | Costco has its great upsides.

00:16:56.960 | Rental cars, for instance.

00:16:58.120 | Incredible rates and deals.

00:16:59.520 | They have 20-ish percent discount off of publicly available rates.

00:17:03.240 | You're going to rent a car and you want to use your Costco account.

00:17:06.200 | Totally do it. It's a great idea.

00:17:07.760 | Also, all of their car rentals are fully refundable.

00:17:10.680 | So you could even rent three or four from different car rental agencies and you could

00:17:15.080 | easily refund them if you need to.

00:17:16.560 | Not a problem. Great, great to use them there.

00:17:18.600 | However, if you do use Costco, I highly recommend if you're going to work with them

00:17:23.800 | on the rental car basis, that you actually reconfirm your rental before you rent it,

00:17:27.720 | before you pick it up.

00:17:28.600 | So we usually will call for on behalf of our clients.

00:17:31.000 | We'll call a day or two in advance of their arrival and say, hey, FYI, Chris is coming

00:17:34.960 | to town. He rented through Costco.

00:17:36.600 | Just want to reconfirm everything is up to snuff with his rental so that you, Chris,

00:17:41.160 | when you get there, don't have any problems or surprises.

00:17:43.240 | Yeah. And during COVID, I've seen so many stories lately of rental car companies

00:17:48.280 | running out of cars, people renting U-Hauls to drive around Hawaii.

00:17:51.680 | So this is a great hack.

00:17:53.600 | Yeah. I was just in The New York Times talking with them about this exact thing.

00:17:56.920 | It used to be that when you booked a hotel, you'd call the hotel and sort of work with

00:18:00.040 | them, but you would never call a rental car.

00:18:01.640 | Now you're actually doing that more.

00:18:04.120 | You're calling the branch office at the airport that you're going to.

00:18:07.640 | Not the 800 number for Hertz, but the actual branch office and saying to them, hey, I'm

00:18:12.360 | Chris. I'm going to be arriving this date on this time, this flight.

00:18:15.440 | Please make sure that my vehicle will be there.

00:18:17.560 | And they will note it.

00:18:18.400 | I'll even go so far as to ask the name of the person who will be there at the front

00:18:22.720 | desk, because when I check into that counter, if I'm going to the counter, I want to make

00:18:26.720 | sure that they know who I am and that they've flagged my vehicle as a VIP vehicle.

00:18:31.120 | And it works.

00:18:32.120 | We did it in Hawaii a couple of weeks ago and it was great.

00:18:34.160 | And it's not VIP that you're someone special.

00:18:36.280 | It's just you took the time to call.

00:18:37.760 | Correct. That I actually have a vehicle there.

00:18:39.160 | They didn't give away to somebody else.

00:18:40.280 | Yeah. Now you asked about Costco and booking flights.

00:18:43.080 | The answer, I think, really is no, right.

00:18:45.040 | Costco is not a good channel to book flights and nor is Expedia or Travelocity, like I

00:18:50.000 | said earlier, because you're adding an extra intermediary between you and the airline.

00:18:53.720 | Now, when you're bundling things together, there is a different option.

00:18:57.520 | What a bundle is you buy, let's say, a flight and a hotel together.

00:19:00.600 | And actually for this, I would go directly to the airline.

00:19:03.320 | Pretty much every major domestic airline has what they call a vacation website.

00:19:07.360 | Doesn't mean you need to use it for only vacations.

00:19:10.120 | I may have used it a couple of times to hack a business trip together for somebody.

00:19:13.440 | But basically, you can book a hotel and an airline flight bundled together at often a

00:19:19.360 | lot cheaper than what you would see online for those two separate components.

00:19:22.840 | And the way you do this is you either book a hotel you're going to use or you maybe you

00:19:27.600 | book a hotel you won't use, throw away a hotel and bundle it with the flights you want.

00:19:31.560 | Good example of this, LA to London can often be seven, eight, ten thousand dollars round

00:19:36.800 | trip in business. But if you book it on the American Airlines website and you throw in a

00:19:42.360 | hotel, you can actually get that seven or eight or ten thousand dollar flight down to

00:19:47.120 | even five or six thousand dollars simply by adding in the hotel.

00:19:51.120 | And why that matters is that you're getting an unpublished sort of special fare that the

00:19:56.960 | airline would never market on its own, but they will market it in conjunction with a

00:20:00.760 | hotel. Could I just pick a one star hotel and bundle it?

00:20:03.760 | Not going to say I've done it a lot of times, but maybe I have.

00:20:06.080 | Absolutely. Amazing.

00:20:07.760 | So no Costco, yes, airline vacation websites.

00:20:11.000 | Exactly. Any other flight hacks?

00:20:13.480 | But I think the best thing about flights is to understand in this post-COVID world how

00:20:19.280 | flexible they can be.

00:20:20.400 | And so points and miles really offer a ton of flexibility because even pre-COVID, the

00:20:25.640 | worst case scenario with them, you had a two hundred and fifty dollar change in

00:20:29.400 | redeposit fee, which was a lot cheaper than the standard published fare of four

00:20:33.520 | hundred dollars to change your ticket.

00:20:35.080 | But nowadays, if you understand what you can do with change and cancellation, you can

00:20:39.680 | actually hedge. You can buy a bunch of cheap flights and hold on to them and maybe

00:20:43.880 | never use them, but at least revolve them into your next cheap flight.

00:20:47.240 | It's free to change now. It's free to cancel.

00:20:49.120 | Unless you have a basic economy fare, which I saw this morning.

00:20:53.160 | Yeah. All the domestic airlines except one, it was probably maybe JetBlue.

00:20:57.200 | Basic economy fares have lost their flexibility.

00:21:00.360 | Correct. If you're taking a flight and you don't care about any of the perks, basic

00:21:04.120 | economy may work for you.

00:21:05.480 | Maybe. Maybe.

00:21:06.720 | Last minute.

00:21:07.360 | But I would say always make sure when you're looking on Google flights that you add

00:21:11.640 | in a carry on as something you're bringing and you'll notice the fares go up because

00:21:15.520 | some of those super cheap flights are basic economy.

00:21:17.320 | And they're now at the point where if you can't take the flight, there's no refund.

00:21:21.040 | There's no changing anything.

00:21:22.520 | So be extra careful with basic economy flights from now forward.

00:21:26.120 | Cool. OK, so flights.

00:21:28.040 | We've got flights figured out.

00:21:29.360 | I actually think that the hotel can make the vacation more than the flight.

00:21:33.880 | I've had my fair share of flights that were incredible, but the hotel seems to always

00:21:38.200 | be what lands everything.

00:21:39.680 | How do you even begin to start thinking about finding a hotel?

00:21:43.000 | My biggest challenge, and I wish I had an answer, is when I'm going to a place, I'm

00:21:47.920 | just totally overwhelmed.

00:21:49.360 | There's so many places you can stay.

00:21:51.800 | Everything seems to be four to four and a half stars on TripAdvisor.

00:21:55.000 | Right. How do you start to narrow down the scope of all the hotels you can stay at?

00:21:58.680 | Yeah. So this is a great question and one that is not easily answerable.

00:22:02.080 | But my simple answer is this.

00:22:04.720 | Ask people, ask someone who's been at the destination, ask a travel advisor, ask

00:22:09.640 | people on social media, search for hotels in social media.

00:22:13.040 | Actually, take a look at what Instagram photos people are posting or what reviews

00:22:16.720 | they're posting on Twitter even or Facebook.

00:22:18.440 | A lot of this content is public and it's not available in the TripAdvisor channel,

00:22:22.080 | which, again, like you, I think is pretty biased.

00:22:24.480 | You're either writing a five star review or one star review.

00:22:27.120 | It doesn't really give you a ton of insight.

00:22:29.080 | So take a look around at other places online to get good destination advice, but

00:22:32.840 | especially ask your friends with good taste or ask people you might know who've

00:22:36.360 | recently been to the destination for their advice.

00:22:38.680 | But I think that the key thing is once you settle in on one or two hotels, really

00:22:43.520 | understand from their website, what are they offering?

00:22:45.880 | What are the amenities? What's closed during covid?

00:22:48.160 | What can you expect when you check in?

00:22:50.480 | What are the rooms looking like?

00:22:52.000 | Is my partial ocean view really of a parking lot?

00:22:54.440 | And there's a sliver of an ocean back there.

00:22:56.600 | Partial ocean view seems like the biggest.

00:22:58.640 | I feel like I stayed at the Fairmont in Hawaii and I was like, I'm supposed to

00:23:02.520 | have a partial ocean view in there.

00:23:03.800 | Can you see the ocean if you lean over the balcony?

00:23:06.440 | I was like, yeah, the lanai overlooking the garden that's been covered in

00:23:11.320 | greenery. It's not ocean.

00:23:12.640 | But really, if you look around online, you'll find the right resources.

00:23:16.040 | But then there's the question of how do you book it?

00:23:18.200 | And I think this is another great example of book direct and book with

00:23:21.880 | knowledge. You do not want to go through an intermediary here that's not adding

00:23:26.080 | any value. Right.

00:23:27.080 | You and I chatted recently about TripAdvisor Pro or TripAdvisor Plus or

00:23:32.200 | whatever this new thing is that they're putting out.

00:23:33.920 | And it's an interesting take.

00:23:35.640 | What it is, it's ninety nine bucks a year and it will theoretically get you

00:23:39.400 | cheaper access to the same hotel rooms that you'd see online.

00:23:42.880 | You don't get benefits and amenities.

00:23:44.520 | You just get a cheaper price.

00:23:45.600 | I know anyone thinking about, do I want to spend ninety nine dollars to get a

00:23:49.000 | better rate? Is it actually going to be cheaper?

00:23:51.520 | No. The net answer is, yes, sure it is.

00:23:54.000 | To your credit card, it'll be cheaper.

00:23:55.200 | But the experience will also be cheaper.

00:23:57.000 | And so therefore, you really don't want to do it.

00:23:58.760 | OK, here's why.

00:23:59.960 | What TripAdvisor is doing with their Pro or Plus, whatever it is, thing is

00:24:04.240 | they're basically rebating back to you some of their corporate negotiated

00:24:08.080 | contract rates.

00:24:09.120 | So let's say the room is five hundred bucks online, right?

00:24:11.840 | It's an expensive room.

00:24:13.040 | They're going to give you that room for four sixty five.

00:24:15.880 | And why are they doing that? Because on the back end, they're probably getting

00:24:18.960 | whatever, 10 percent off when they market that room as commission or a rebate

00:24:23.880 | from the hotel.

00:24:24.880 | And so they're giving you a portion of that to basically offset the cost.

00:24:28.800 | Now, that's great.

00:24:30.480 | But if you actually went to the hotel and you paid five hundred dollars for that

00:24:33.600 | room, you'd probably be getting free breakfast.

00:24:35.640 | What's the value of that? Is it more than thirty five bucks?

00:24:38.080 | Probably. Or if you go through a TripAdvisor or your credit card, you may be

00:24:41.800 | getting free breakfast and a hundred dollar credit.

00:24:43.840 | Well, a hundred bucks is clearly more than thirty five.

00:24:46.120 | So I think what's a really good takeaway here is understand the channel through

00:24:49.640 | which you book, because the channel matters the most when it comes to hotels.

00:24:53.720 | If you can't book it directly for some reason, find a way to book it.

00:24:57.720 | That's going to get you the best value.

00:24:59.400 | It might be through a TravelAdvisor.

00:25:00.920 | It might be through your credit card, might be through like a perk at your

00:25:03.840 | company or your office where they have a weird travel portal you've never been to.

00:25:07.800 | Like, look at that.

00:25:09.000 | But find the best value for your booking and book there.

00:25:11.640 | And so booking from the hotel, number one choice.

00:25:14.760 | What's the experience going to be like if I book from the hotel's website versus

00:25:19.880 | Expedia? Yeah, that's a great question.

00:25:21.720 | So in the hotel biz, it's all about relationships.

00:25:25.120 | What they're looking to do is build a relationship with every guest that comes

00:25:28.800 | through that door to make sure that guest will keep coming back over and over again.

00:25:31.720 | And so when you book directly with the hotel, they have the most amount of

00:25:35.800 | information on you as a guest as they can possibly have.

00:25:38.960 | You book through third party, you book through Expedia or even American Express

00:25:42.760 | Travel, which is ironic.

00:25:43.840 | You come through as Expedia guest in their system.

00:25:47.320 | That doesn't exactly give them the information they want to know.

00:25:49.680 | They want to know who you are, why you're traveling.

00:25:51.680 | Is this business or leisure?

00:25:52.800 | You're celebrating something.

00:25:54.120 | When are you arriving? When are you departing?

00:25:55.680 | All of these things matter to them because they can customize your stay in a way

00:25:59.360 | that when you book through a third party and none of that information is given that

00:26:02.720 | they can't. Right.

00:26:03.720 | So the more info you can give to the hotel, the better.

00:26:07.240 | And the best way of doing that, honestly, is booking direct and then following up

00:26:10.840 | with the hotel with an email to say, hey, I'm Chris.

00:26:13.600 | I just booked directly on your website.

00:26:15.320 | This is the room I booked.

00:26:16.720 | These are the dates I'm staying.

00:26:17.720 | This is the confirmation number.

00:26:19.160 | I'd love you to know this about me and share whatever you want to share.

00:26:21.960 | Oftentimes we, on behalf of our clients, will share social media profiles.

00:26:26.560 | We'll share where they're coming from on their trip.

00:26:28.960 | Maybe this is stop one of a five stop trip.

00:26:31.440 | Maybe they're just coming away for a quick getaway for the weekend.

00:26:34.320 | Maybe it's just two people staying for the first two nights and then they're joined

00:26:38.280 | by the third by on the third night.

00:26:39.880 | Whatever it is, we're sharing that level of detail.

00:26:42.360 | This person likes fish.

00:26:43.640 | They don't like chicken, whatever.

00:26:45.280 | And the importance there is that they're going to make sure the hotel is going to

00:26:48.200 | make sure that they take this data into account and they've really customized the

00:26:51.920 | stay to that guest's needs.

00:26:53.560 | So I don't ever hesitate to send a note to a hotelier and say, hey, this is a

00:26:58.480 | really important person to me and here's who they are and here's why.

00:27:01.040 | And then right before the stay, follow up with them again.

00:27:03.680 | Hey, Chris is coming to town.

00:27:04.920 | Please dial him in.

00:27:06.080 | These are the things that matter.

00:27:07.320 | But I can do this myself if I don't have a travel agent.

00:27:09.880 | I can just call and say, or how do I even get the email?

00:27:12.480 | Email.

00:27:12.960 | So I think email's best because it's in writing, number one.

00:27:15.640 | And number two, it allows you to go back to that same email and add to it because

00:27:19.400 | you will never really forget something.

00:27:20.520 | But the best thing to do is to find the email for either the concierge or the

00:27:24.480 | reservations team at that hotel.

00:27:26.200 | When you book online through the website, you'll usually be given an email with a

00:27:30.400 | confirmation that actually has that information in it.

00:27:32.760 | And it might even have the GM or the director of sales or somebody's name.

00:27:36.080 | We can't wait to welcome you, Chris.

00:27:37.760 | Sign John Hopkins.

00:27:39.160 | Oh, you're going to email John Hopkins and let him know you're coming.

00:27:41.160 | And then John and his team will take care of you.

00:27:43.600 | And if you don't get an email, is there any like secret to the website or can I

00:27:47.560 | just call them and ask them for the email?

00:27:49.120 | Call them.

00:27:49.520 | In fact, call them, get to the front desk and ask somebody at the front desk and

00:27:52.720 | say, hey, listen, who can I email and say who I am or who can I email in advance of

00:27:57.160 | my stay, just so you guys have a little more information on me and what we're

00:27:59.840 | looking to do.

00:28:00.520 | And is that the concierge?

00:28:02.200 | Who is that?

00:28:02.800 | They'll direct you to the right person.

00:28:04.400 | But I highly recommend writing that email because it's going to give a level of

00:28:08.360 | depth that the hotel wouldn't have otherwise.

00:28:11.160 | And it's the best way of hacking your way to an upgrade or hacking your way to a

00:28:15.720 | better experience.

00:28:16.480 | I'm going to Mexico next week.

00:28:17.880 | Yeah.

00:28:18.120 | I email the front desk and say, hey, I'm coming.

00:28:21.280 | I'm really excited to stay with you.

00:28:22.720 | Do you really think that's going to improve the chances I get upgraded?

00:28:25.480 | Totally.

00:28:26.120 | Because what you're going to do is you're going to say, I'm coming with my wife.

00:28:28.600 | This is our first trip.

00:28:29.520 | Also coming with a nine month old.

00:28:30.960 | Can you please confirm that there's a crib in the room?

00:28:32.800 | We're arriving at this time.

00:28:34.240 | Will the room be ready when we arrive?

00:28:35.720 | All of these questions you're asking are questions they want to know, that they

00:28:39.440 | want to actually have asked to them.

00:28:40.880 | If you just show up and be like, where's my crib?

00:28:42.440 | Didn't you see I have a nine month old?

00:28:43.520 | Like they're totally caught off guard.

00:28:45.080 | So they're going to be able to prepare for you in advance.

00:28:47.600 | And they're going to flag you with a little star on their morning check-in

00:28:50.560 | lists.

00:28:50.960 | And they're going to say, okay, this guy's already reached out.

00:28:52.800 | We know who he is.

00:28:53.600 | And that's going to give them so much more fodder to work with while you're

00:28:56.760 | there.

00:28:57.080 | Look, it may be that they can't give you an upgrade because they're sold out.

00:29:00.400 | Maybe they give you a welcome drink or an amenity or something else that you

00:29:03.480 | wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

00:29:04.680 | That's very possible.

00:29:06.120 | You're probably also going to have a letter in your room from the GM being like

00:29:10.440 | Chris, thanks for reaching out.

00:29:11.920 | Thanks for trusting us with your stay.

00:29:13.440 | Looking forward to making this special.

00:29:15.160 | You know what?

00:29:15.560 | When you get into your room, email the GM and be like, I'm in the room.

00:29:18.320 | It's great.

00:29:18.960 | Like some more towels or whatever you need.

00:29:21.080 | And then the GM will take it.

00:29:22.120 | Nice.

00:29:22.840 | And I assume I'm not getting any of this if I book through Travelocity.

00:29:26.960 | They're not going to know who you are.

00:29:28.200 | They're not even going to know your name is Chris sometimes.

00:29:30.320 | Like seriously.

00:29:31.000 | So that's the thing I think is most important to understand is that travel and

00:29:34.640 | hotels in particular are all about relationships.

00:29:37.200 | And so the more you can connect with your hotelier and your destination, the

00:29:42.320 | better your experience will be.

00:29:43.160 | And that also means by the way, that they'll unlock doors for you outside

00:29:46.040 | of the hotel in that city, right?

00:29:47.960 | If you need restaurant recommendations or experiences, they're really a good

00:29:52.280 | gatekeeper to help you.

00:29:53.280 | And I've always wondered, I've asked the concierge for restaurant recommendations.

00:29:57.720 | And sometimes I feel like I always go and double check.

00:30:00.680 | I look these restaurants up some hotels.

00:30:02.640 | They're great.

00:30:03.280 | Sometimes I'm like, eh, is this place that good?

00:30:05.920 | Can you trust the concierge?

00:30:07.360 | Yeah, it's a great question.

00:30:08.440 | The first place they're always going to recommend is the hotel restaurant, right?

00:30:11.520 | Cause that's the thing I do.

00:30:12.280 | Then they're going to recommend their cousin's place for whoever's giving them

00:30:14.920 | a kickback.

00:30:15.440 | But then down the line, there might be some other ones.

00:30:17.800 | And I'm, I'm grossly overgeneralizing here that I think concierges do incredible

00:30:21.200 | work and we'd be lost without them in a lot of ways, but I do think you'd have to

00:30:25.000 | take their recommendations with a grain of salt, right?

00:30:27.240 | Not every concierge is amazing.

00:30:29.520 | The Cleft Door people who are really truly spectacular, they know their markets

00:30:33.600 | inside and out, and I would listen to them.

00:30:35.560 | And I'd email them in advance for a guide to the city, right?

00:30:39.360 | What can I do?

00:30:40.120 | And oftentimes they will be able to provide incredible levels of detail of

00:30:44.200 | what's open, what's not, what's happening, what's hot, all of that, and that level

00:30:48.400 | of access.

00:30:49.000 | So definitely leverage them, definitely take what they say with a grain of salt,

00:30:52.560 | but know that you can get fantastic access from concierges that you may not

00:30:57.120 | be able to get yourself.

00:30:57.840 | Yeah.

00:30:58.520 | I've one time asked, can you give me a restaurant recommendation?

00:31:00.960 | I got an okay recommendation.

00:31:02.600 | And then I was like, I'm going to be here five days.

00:31:04.440 | Can you give me a few?

00:31:05.440 | And then I like looked at number three, number four, and they like, they can't

00:31:09.200 | give you five cousins because they probably don't have five cousins, but the

00:31:13.200 | third and fourth recommendations were good.

00:31:15.080 | So that's hotels.

00:31:16.160 | Sometimes you're just traveling with a big family.

00:31:18.520 | Maybe you want to rent a house.

00:31:19.680 | Maybe you want to rent a villa.

00:31:20.880 | Maybe you want a different experience, Airbnb, VRBO.

00:31:23.880 | I noticed there's not a lot of comparison shopping, right?

00:31:26.800 | It's not like I can go to five sites and see if it's cheaper somewhere else.

00:31:31.000 | Is there any hacks for trying to book a house or a villa somewhere?

00:31:34.440 | Yeah, there are a ton and boy, wouldn't it be great if you could come up with the

00:31:38.200 | comparison shopping engine for homes, home rentals, it would be incredible.

00:31:42.040 | But yeah, the short answer is yes, there are.

00:31:44.080 | What I like to do is search with a couple of different tabs open, both for VRBO and

00:31:48.040 | Airbnb or HomeAway or other hyper-localized sites.

00:31:51.880 | And the way I've hacked it is oftentimes a lot of these vacation rental properties

00:31:55.920 | that are specifically for vacation rentals, right?

00:31:58.720 | They're not like somebody's home.

00:31:59.720 | They're just renting out on the side like we do here, but they're actually vacation

00:32:02.960 | rentals. They'll often have their own website that you can book directly on for

00:32:08.280 | that home. And the way I find them is I go to Airbnb or VRBO.

00:32:12.040 | I take a couple of the photos from their listings and I run a reverse Google image

00:32:17.280 | search. So like a screenshot, the front of the house or the pool or something that's

00:32:21.120 | pretty unique to that home.

00:32:22.880 | And then I'll run it into images.google.com.

00:32:25.840 | There's a little button you can click to actually upload a photo.

00:32:29.080 | I'll reverse image search to see, OK, where else is this image listed?

00:32:32.480 | And inevitably, if they're listing it on VRBO or if they're listing it on HomeAway,

00:32:36.120 | it's going to show up on Google for their actual vacation rental website home

00:32:40.720 | address. So I go to that address and I take a look at the rates and say, OK, is it

00:32:44.880 | available here? Is it cheaper than I'm seeing on HomeAway or VRBO or Airbnb?

00:32:49.640 | Then if so, I just reach out directly through their own website, contact the owner

00:32:54.200 | and do the contracting there.

00:32:55.960 | Oftentimes that can save 10, 15, 20 percent on a home rental.

00:32:59.120 | So we definitely recommend doing that.

00:33:00.760 | Also, you get to then know the homeowner before you transact with them.

00:33:05.360 | So you know if this person's like weird or if they're cool.

00:33:09.440 | And that's really helpful, too.

00:33:10.920 | So that's hotels, that's villas.

00:33:13.040 | Now let's talk about just getting to a country.

00:33:15.600 | So I'll start with one thing I love to do when I get in a country.

00:33:19.000 | And I'd love to hear if you have any hacks for what to do, what to see, how to figure

00:33:23.200 | it out. But the first thing I always do, unless I'm going to just relax at a beach, is

00:33:28.760 | my wife and I book a food tour.

00:33:30.160 | And there's a ton of sites online that have food tours.

00:33:33.680 | Airbnb now has these local experiences.

00:33:36.080 | And we'll just go on a three hour tour in the morning, usually go to a market in the

00:33:41.200 | middle of the city with someone local.

00:33:43.320 | You get to see how the market works, how people operate, how selling works.

00:33:47.280 | We also probably end up eating two or three things.

00:33:50.120 | And you get to ask a thousand questions about the culture, about the city, learn new

00:33:55.000 | stuff. That's like my way to get immersed just right away and really get a sense of

00:34:00.160 | what the country's like. But that's my hack.

00:34:02.760 | I don't have anything else.

00:34:03.800 | How do you figure out what to do?

00:34:05.120 | Is there anything you do?

00:34:05.960 | So there are two steps to this.

00:34:08.160 | First is you want to plan way ahead of time what you're going to do.

00:34:11.200 | But we'll get to that in a second.

00:34:12.560 | Second is when you get there, what's the first thing you do?

00:34:15.440 | And I love the idea of a food tour, right?

00:34:17.400 | Because there's no better way of really understanding a market or understanding a new

00:34:20.480 | place you've ever been.

00:34:21.480 | I think if you're not into doing a food tour, it's a little too dicey for you right off

00:34:25.120 | the bat. I think taking a walking tour with a guide is a great idea.

00:34:28.000 | You can often find cheap or sometimes even free walking tours, a lot of them leaving

00:34:32.320 | from your hotel, for instance, to get to know your neighborhood or an area.

00:34:35.880 | And that is a great way of not only getting out and working out that jet lag, but also

00:34:40.080 | really getting to know how a city operates.

00:34:42.200 | But let's step back and figure out, OK, we're going to a new place.

00:34:46.760 | I've got no idea about the destination.

00:34:48.200 | What do I do? How do I plan this?

00:34:49.760 | First things first, always helps to ask around who you know who's been there, who on

00:34:53.360 | social media you follow, who's recently been there.

00:34:55.160 | Just get a taste of that so you can make sure you write down those things on your

00:34:58.240 | agenda. Secondly, and this is a hack you showed me, actually, go to your local

00:35:01.960 | library, take a look at what guidebooks are available for that area.

00:35:05.560 | I mean, guidebooks, Lonely Planet, it sounds like it's like an old school 1977 thing.

00:35:10.000 | It's so valuable.

00:35:11.440 | Every trip we take, I go look and you don't even have to buy the book for this, by the

00:35:15.240 | way, I go to Amazon and I search for the Lonely Planet.

00:35:18.440 | And the first five pages are like top 25 experiences in this country.

00:35:22.560 | And I try not to go too micro.

00:35:25.080 | So I might look at the country guide instead of the city guide, because the country

00:35:28.600 | guide might only have two or three things in a major city.

00:35:31.120 | And I don't want to know the 20 things.

00:35:32.640 | I want to know the two or three things.

00:35:34.120 | Right. But the hack that's awesome is there's this Chrome extension.

00:35:38.200 | I think it works on other browsers, too, called Library Extension.

00:35:40.920 | And I'll put links to everything we talk about in the show notes.

00:35:44.280 | But you install it.

00:35:45.880 | And when you're browsing Amazon, if that book is available from a local library in

00:35:51.080 | digital format for free, which I'd say 50, 60, 70 percent of the time it is, and this

00:35:56.600 | isn't just travel books, any book, they immediately link you out to the site and you

00:36:01.040 | can go download that book for free and usually get 30, 45 days and you can go through

00:36:05.840 | the whole thing. It's amazing.

00:36:07.480 | Exactly. So I think that reading guidebooks, not only does it bring back the nostalgia

00:36:12.320 | of travel of yesteryear, but it also is like a really great way of understanding somebody

00:36:16.920 | else's perspective on a city and getting to know through somebody else's eyes what

00:36:21.320 | they think should be the top sites.

00:36:23.600 | And look, in every guidebook, it's always going to be the same top 25, more or less

00:36:26.680 | for every city. But when you want to get into specialized experiences, OK, I want to

00:36:30.360 | go see Jewish Prague or I want to go on a food crawl in Rome or I want to go on a bar

00:36:35.840 | crawl in Ireland.

00:36:36.880 | We turn to destination management companies and DMCs.

00:36:41.280 | And so the best thing to do is just Google Ireland DMC, right, or Rome DMC, and

00:36:47.360 | you'll come back with a bunch of different people, providers who can actually sometimes

00:36:51.480 | offer free itineraries on their website of what they would take around for clients.

00:36:56.440 | So are these like tour guides?

00:36:57.800 | Yeah, they're a mix of like tour operators and tour guides.

00:37:00.880 | So tour operators mean somebody who puts together an itinerary, whether it's for one

00:37:04.560 | person or a thousand in a city.

00:37:06.560 | They don't necessarily have a big red open top bus.

00:37:09.960 | They sometimes are operating at a sprinter vans or even taxis and Ubers, but they're

00:37:13.760 | taking you around and showing you the city from the inside with a local guide.

00:37:17.160 | And sometimes they're great and they're inexpensive.

00:37:19.920 | Sometimes they're very expensive.

00:37:21.240 | So you can find a DMC that suits your needs in every market.

00:37:24.120 | But I think the key thing to do with DMCs is look at what their itineraries are that

00:37:27.800 | they're showing online and get a sense of what you'd want to do in that city.

00:37:30.760 | Maybe it makes sense to reach out to them.

00:37:32.560 | Maybe it doesn't. Look, if you work with a travel advisor, they'll recommend certain

00:37:36.400 | DMCs in certain cities based on your travel profile and what you're looking for.

00:37:40.600 | But again, that may be overkill for your needs as well.

00:37:43.200 | And you don't have to book with them, right?

00:37:44.720 | You can just look at their itinerary and say, wow, they do these seven things in

00:37:49.480 | Jordan. But like this, only this one sounds interesting.

00:37:52.440 | Let me just search around and find someone that does that.

00:37:54.720 | Well, bingo. And so for that, we have a bunch of different other micro DMC options.

00:37:59.640 | A good example of this is there's a local tour guide company called Show Around, and

00:38:04.120 | this is less about actually professional tour guides and more about like enthusiastic

00:38:08.160 | locals, people who will happily show you their neighborhood or their barrio or

00:38:12.840 | whatever it is. So I highly recommend that.

00:38:14.880 | I also love Eat With.

00:38:16.640 | They are just like it sounds like a website where you can, it's a marketplace to find

00:38:21.600 | people you could eat with.

00:38:22.680 | They're either chefs who are going to cook a meal for you or they're actually people

00:38:27.240 | who will show you around on a food tour of a certain area, a destination.

00:38:31.160 | I want the best pork sugo meatballs in Bologna.

00:38:34.040 | OK, whatever it is.

00:38:35.040 | So good. So I definitely recommend finding those kinds of people.

00:38:38.320 | Another thing we do a lot for clients on their first time in a market is we book a

00:38:43.120 | photography session with them.

00:38:44.320 | And that's because they can really get an experience for a place, but also get some

00:38:49.640 | cool like photos to take home for their Christmas cards through the eyes of a local.

00:38:53.360 | And so there are a number of companies that do this.

00:38:55.280 | Flytographer is one, Blink is another, but they'll basically set up photo shoots for

00:38:59.920 | you and your family or loved ones or whomever in front of the Eiffel Tower or at the

00:39:04.120 | Coliseum. And it's a pretty cool way of bringing a memento home, but also getting to

00:39:08.000 | see a particular spot in a particular light.

00:39:10.880 | And I think something that's interesting is the value isn't just someone shows you

00:39:14.800 | around town. It's someone who's tapped into what's happening.

00:39:18.240 | So I think we went on a free tour in Buenos Aires and the tour was great.

00:39:24.600 | We walked around. And by the way, if anyone's considering these free tours at the end of

00:39:28.480 | every free tour, there's tips.

00:39:30.280 | So I wouldn't consider it completely free.

00:39:32.080 | If you're on a bootstrap budget and you have no money and you say, thank you, I'm so

00:39:35.840 | broke, but I just I had to want to take a tour.

00:39:37.800 | I really appreciate it.

00:39:38.840 | You're not going to get looked at inappropriately.

00:39:41.160 | People are going to understand.

00:39:42.480 | But I think it's such a great way to get to see the city.

00:39:45.480 | And someone said, oh, yeah, there's a soccer game, football game going on tonight.

00:39:50.640 | You should check it out. And we went to this very untouristic event where the away fans

00:39:56.520 | are caged off sides, front and top, have to enter the stadium separately because people

00:40:02.760 | get into their soccer.

00:40:03.960 | But that was an experience that doesn't show up on the DMC itinerary or Lonely Planet

00:40:09.040 | anywhere because it's so time dependent outside of local just happening to tell you or

00:40:13.920 | maybe the concierge. Any other tricks for finding these kind of like cool events or

00:40:18.280 | festivals when you're in a city?

00:40:19.720 | Number one, leave time in your itinerary for spontaneity because it's going to happen.

00:40:23.960 | You're going to be at an Irish bar and all of a sudden the crack session happens where

00:40:27.440 | the local musicians pull out their gear and you're like, I'm not leaving.

00:40:31.600 | My day is here. So definitely leave time for spontaneity.

00:40:34.480 | But also take a look at some of the international media around what events are

00:40:38.400 | happening in that city or in that market.

00:40:40.200 | I actually love Time Out, the international media brand.

00:40:43.480 | They often have a lot of really good events happening.

00:40:46.080 | You can check in advance, check it a couple of times.

00:40:48.520 | You should also reach out to your credit card companies.

00:40:50.760 | Their concierge departments often have static sort of like city guides as well as like

00:40:57.120 | a what's happening city guide.

00:40:58.480 | And if you reach out to them and say, hey, I'm a platinum card holder.

00:41:01.760 | I have a Chase Sapphire Reserve.

00:41:03.200 | They'll actually provide you with a bunch of information on a city that you can then use

00:41:08.200 | to plan your trip.

00:41:09.080 | And they can also book things for you.

00:41:11.520 | So one of the things that I think is always difficult when you're trying to make

00:41:15.000 | restaurant reservations in a country when you don't speak the language is that you

00:41:19.040 | don't speak the language.

00:41:20.040 | You know, do I call them?

00:41:21.040 | What do I say?

00:41:22.040 | And these people for free, right, these concierges linked to your credit cards are

00:41:26.880 | completely free.

00:41:27.880 | They'll not only give you the list, but I'm pretty sure they'll call and make the

00:41:30.880 | reservations, too.

00:41:31.840 | Oh, yeah. And so American Express is a great example of this.

00:41:34.360 | When I have clients going to Tokyo, the best thing to do is honestly work with the Amex

00:41:38.600 | concierge to get restaurant reservations because it's a little hard in Japanese when you

00:41:44.000 | don't speak Japanese and or the reservations folks at the restaurant aren't so keen to

00:41:48.920 | deal with the gringos.

00:41:50.440 | So what ends up happening is we work with Amex Platinum concierge to book a restaurant

00:41:56.480 | reservation for someone. And even if they don't take American Express, which is the

00:42:00.320 | best part, American Express can make that reservation for you.

00:42:02.880 | And that's really valuable for us.

00:42:04.840 | So definitely leverage your credit card companies as much as possible.

00:42:07.960 | Again, be wary of whose incentives you're working with.

00:42:11.960 | If you're talking to the local hotel concierge or Amex for that matter, just make sure

00:42:17.000 | you're getting the biggest picture before you say yes to one answer.

00:42:19.880 | What does that mean exactly?

00:42:21.280 | Who's on the take? Who's getting their favorite kickback from someone?

00:42:26.320 | That's all. And that can happen even with Amex or Chase's concierge.

00:42:30.640 | Here's a great example, right?

00:42:32.000 | Deep down a rabbit hole of points, American Express, when you call them and say, I want

00:42:36.520 | to book a flight, they really want you to use their points to pay for whatever flight

00:42:41.360 | that you find that you think is good.

00:42:43.200 | The reality is you can often get that same flight by using American Express points, but

00:42:48.040 | transferring them to a partner.

00:42:49.480 | And I'm sure you'll go into this on your points and miles chat, but you can transfer

00:42:53.320 | those points away from American Express to a partner and book at that partner's

00:42:57.800 | website for a lot less than if you actually book through American Express using their

00:43:02.160 | points on their website.

00:43:03.200 | But Amex will tell you that this is the best deal and they won't be looking really out

00:43:07.320 | for you. They'll be looking out for them.

00:43:08.680 | So again, just be careful and be wary.

00:43:11.880 | Talk to people, talk to a travel advisor, look online for reviews before you pull the

00:43:17.720 | trigger on any of these credit card company recommended options.

00:43:21.080 | Cool. Last local recommendation, food.

00:43:23.880 | Yeah. How?

00:43:25.160 | There's nothing better than an amazing meal in another country, I think.

00:43:29.600 | And if you're coming to San Francisco, I could rattle off a handful of

00:43:33.440 | recommendations. And one of the things I like to do sometimes is if I'm looking at a

00:43:37.760 | guidebook, I'm like, what do they say to do in San Francisco?

00:43:40.440 | And the sad thing is a lot of times the restaurants that aren't the ones you would

00:43:44.160 | recommend. Are there any ways to find that equivalent list of those great local spots

00:43:50.000 | in other countries when things like Yelp and TripAdvisor are just filled with the

00:43:55.080 | tourist traps in those countries?

00:43:56.560 | Yeah, that's a great question.

00:43:57.920 | My God. Then it all depends on how daring and adventurous you're willing to be, right?

00:44:01.840 | Because if you're going to Iceland and you want to eat whale, like you can do that and

00:44:05.520 | there's a way to do that. Do you really want to do it?

00:44:07.840 | Like you have to check in with yourself before you go to some of these countries.

00:44:10.480 | And it can be feel very uncomfortable for North Americans who don't speak a certain

00:44:13.880 | language to be in a food hotspot and not know what you're eating or what's put.

00:44:17.640 | But I'm like, I don't even know what this is, but I'll eat it.

00:44:19.800 | So I thrive on that, too.

00:44:21.400 | And I think the best ways of doing that are, number one, just like you said, go on a

00:44:24.400 | food tour, right? Get acquainted with the market.

00:44:26.560 | And then when I say the market, I literally mean the market, where the food comes from

00:44:30.160 | and understand how food is bought and sold in a country, what foods are delicious in

00:44:34.120 | that country, who eats them.

00:44:35.720 | Number two is try to find a local with whom you can go out.

00:44:39.720 | Now, that's not easy, right?

00:44:41.320 | A company like Eat With, that'll help you.

00:44:43.200 | The concierge actually could be very helpful in that.

00:44:45.640 | And there are certain cities that have hotel concierges that will walk you to the

00:44:49.880 | restaurant, help you understand the menu and order for you, and then they'll leave and

00:44:53.000 | go back to the hotel. That's an incredible value add when you're clueless in Seoul or

00:44:57.240 | you have no idea what you're eating in Shanghai or Chengdu.

00:44:59.960 | So definitely do that.

00:45:01.880 | But I think that the best thing to do is to research ahead of time on dishes,

00:45:06.640 | experiences and types of restaurants, not necessarily like the name of the place you

00:45:11.320 | need to go, but types of restaurants.

00:45:13.160 | So that when you show up in a city, you can say, hey, listen, I really want to try

00:45:16.280 | these things. And you're sitting down with the concierge or you're sitting down with a

00:45:19.040 | friendly local you just met.

00:45:20.240 | How do I do this? And asking vulnerably for some guidance, you'd be amazed by what

00:45:25.600 | happens and what you can find.

00:45:26.640 | Yeah, I've never really thought about it from that perspective.

00:45:29.560 | But if you go to someone and say, what's the best restaurant, their first answer might

00:45:32.800 | be, oh, my buddy's place.

00:45:33.960 | But if you go and say, where do I get the most authentic?

00:45:37.080 | Yeah, give me these dumplings or give me this roasted animal part or whatever it is.

00:45:41.520 | And like, look, let's face it, that's why we're traveling.

00:45:43.680 | We want to come back with these memories of, oh, my God, this meal I had.

00:45:46.640 | And so, yes, use social media ahead of time, find those things, but also give a chance

00:45:51.680 | for some spontaneity. Don't think that you have to go to the top place.

00:45:55.720 | Look, I went to a three Michelin star restaurant in Lyon, in France, by a titan of

00:46:01.240 | French cuisine, and I thought it was one of the worst meals I've ever had in my entire

00:46:04.120 | life.

00:46:04.200 | But it has to live up to the hype of the hundreds or maybe thousands of dollars you

00:46:08.560 | spend for it. Most of the best meals I've had are at food stalls, at markets.

00:46:14.520 | At the Renaud distro in the corner, right?

00:46:16.680 | It's yes. Yeah.

00:46:17.680 | In Bangkok, there's a market.

00:46:19.160 | It's the Or Tor Kor Market, and it's across the highway from the main market.

00:46:24.880 | But it's just like a giant open community food place.

00:46:28.240 | Yeah. The stalls in there are better than every single expensive restaurant we had.

00:46:32.440 | And those are the kind of experiences I love.

00:46:35.640 | And I have no idea if I picked the five star stall.

00:46:38.760 | I sometimes I'm like, where are all the people that look like they're from here

00:46:42.240 | lining up? Yeah.

00:46:43.240 | And let's just line up behind them.

00:46:44.520 | Yeah, exactly.

00:46:45.320 | And let's point if we don't speak Thai and we like want that thing, maybe it's spicy

00:46:49.240 | frog legs. Who cares?

00:46:50.320 | You're trying it. It's going to be great.

00:46:51.880 | And again, in the end, you're going to remember that much more than you're going

00:46:54.440 | to remember the fancy three star meal.

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00:49:51.240 | Your support is what keeps this show going.

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00:49:59.480 | allthehacks.com/deals.

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00:50:05.480 | So that's a great thing.

00:50:06.720 | You're going to this food stall in the middle of a Thai market, and I'm pretty sure

00:50:10.240 | they're not going to take a credit card.

00:50:11.480 | In fact, I'm certain they're not going to take a credit card.

00:50:13.920 | How do you get cash when you're going to one of these countries?

00:50:16.840 | So the traveler's check is dead.

00:50:18.720 | OK, exchanging money ahead of time is a terrible idea because you're just going to

00:50:22.040 | end up paying through the nose for the exchange rate that you don't want.

00:50:24.840 | It's not favorable in your direction.

00:50:26.000 | So what I really recommend to people when they're traveling abroad is bring a couple

00:50:29.920 | hundred U.S. dollars in smaller bills in your carry on or somewhere safe with you and

00:50:34.960 | then bring an ATM card and make sure you've checked ahead of time with the ATM card

00:50:38.400 | that you're going to be able to use it internationally, that they won't hose you on

00:50:41.520 | fees and that they know you're traveling right now.

00:50:43.440 | When you get to the airport in your first destination, go to the first big sort of box

00:50:49.840 | brand ATM you can find, the HSBC or the Scotiabank or the Citibank or whatever in

00:50:55.640 | that airport arrivals hall and get cash out there.

00:50:57.960 | I usually like to get the max out, right?

00:51:00.000 | So if I'm spending three days in a market and I know that I'm going to be spending a

00:51:04.000 | lot of cash, Bangkok is a great example.

00:51:05.960 | I'll get whatever my ATM max is, 500 bucks, 750, whatever, just to have that cash on

00:51:11.360 | hand. And that's the cash that I'm going to use.

00:51:14.240 | I'm never going to want to exchange at a hotel.

00:51:16.640 | The rates are always terrible.

00:51:17.920 | Never going to want to go to one of those exchange rates with like neon signs in the

00:51:21.040 | corner because who knows what they're doing with my passport data.

00:51:23.520 | And also the rates are terrible.

00:51:24.960 | And then I don't really want to use some random ATM that the restaurant is walking

00:51:29.520 | me to because they say, oh, you have to use this ATM to pay us because we don't take

00:51:33.280 | credit. And I ran out of cash.

00:51:34.680 | So I'm always trying to plan ahead when I'm getting down like the last hundred bucks

00:51:38.520 | or so, go take out a couple more hundred, keep it in my pocket, spread it around.

00:51:42.280 | But I think the key thing is your ATM card is your lifeline for cash.

00:51:46.760 | Don't use any other type of cash unless it's an emergency and you need to.

00:51:50.440 | Yeah. And so I think if you want to make sure you never run out of local currency,

00:51:55.400 | you're probably going to end your trip with more.

00:51:57.760 | Obviously, we've all had our fair share of buying ridiculous stuff at the airport

00:52:01.880 | before you come home and you're like, I guess I'll burn fifty dollars.

00:52:05.240 | I need more shot glasses.

00:52:06.560 | Yeah, right. Yeah. But let's say I've got two or three hundred bucks.

00:52:09.600 | Any hacks for how to get rid of it without getting hosed on the exchange rate?

00:52:12.720 | Yeah. So I always keep about 40 or 50 bucks for the airport just in case, in case

00:52:17.280 | there's like a departure tax I didn't know about or there's some airport security fee

00:52:21.480 | you got to pay in cash or whatever.

00:52:22.840 | But let's say I've got two hundred bucks in my pocket when I'm checking out of the

00:52:25.760 | last hotel, even if it's been on my credit card and even if I want the credit card

00:52:29.200 | points, I'll go to the hotel front desk and say, hey, listen, I'd like to buy down

00:52:33.240 | one hundred and fifty dollars worth of my hotel bill using this cash.

00:52:36.520 | They're always going to take the cash.

00:52:37.880 | They're always going to buy you down or reduce your rate so that you're not putting

00:52:41.600 | everything on your credit card and you're not also walking out with a giant wad of

00:52:44.600 | cash. So I definitely do that or I'll pay for the airport transfer that should have

00:52:49.160 | been included in my hotel bill.

00:52:50.320 | I'll pay for that in cash or whatever it is to basically help burn that last little

00:52:53.600 | bit off. Worst case scenario, you bring home a few bucks and you exchange it at the

00:52:58.240 | airport in that country before you leave.

00:53:00.840 | I never like to bring it home to the States because you're just going to get

00:53:04.120 | screwed. They're just going to once you land and step foot in the States, they know

00:53:08.040 | your money that you have in your pocket is worthless to you.

00:53:10.400 | So they're just going to turn the screws on you.

00:53:11.840 | And that's we never want that.

00:53:13.360 | Yeah. And when you're checking out at the hotel and you're finally putting the rest

00:53:17.200 | of that hotel on your credit card, please do not choose to be billed in U.S.

00:53:21.840 | dollars. Oh, God, no.

00:53:22.920 | This whole dynamic currency conversion scam is the worst.

00:53:26.640 | Basically, what it is, is this banks have gotten really intelligent about how to

00:53:29.720 | extract every dollar possible from people.

00:53:31.840 | And so now you need a hack back.

00:53:33.360 | That's the purpose of this show is like banks and credit card companies and airlines

00:53:38.720 | and hotels like I love them.

00:53:40.400 | I want great experiences, but I also want to find every chance to get the best

00:53:44.560 | experience at the best price.

00:53:45.760 | Yeah. And you don't want to feel like you've been taken for a ride.

00:53:48.080 | And so what what hotels or what credit card companies, banks are doing is they're

00:53:53.200 | actually asking you to pay in a Thai hotel in U.S.

00:53:57.640 | dollars. And that doesn't make any sense.

00:53:59.200 | When you're in Thailand, you should be using Thai bot.

00:54:01.600 | So when you're actually presented with the credit card terminal, it's going to say

00:54:05.320 | press one for Thai bot or press two for U.S.

00:54:07.520 | dollars. And you might think, jeez, U.S.

00:54:09.640 | dollars, how easy is that?

00:54:10.720 | There's two things wrong here. One, it's called dynamic currency conversion.

00:54:14.400 | It's a scheme the banks use to basically charge you an inflated interest rate that

00:54:19.280 | you're getting screwed on.

00:54:20.560 | OK, and number two, your bank may still charge you a foreign transaction fee if they

00:54:25.640 | do so on the U.S.

00:54:27.400 | dollar transaction because it's coming from Thailand.

00:54:30.080 | So you could be paying twice once on an overly inflated rate that might be something

00:54:34.120 | like 10 or 12 percent more than you need to be paying and two on a foreign exchange

00:54:37.880 | rate, which is a foreign exchange fee, which is the worst.

00:54:40.200 | So take a credit card, pay in Thai bot and make sure it's a card that has no foreign

00:54:44.920 | transaction fees. Exactly.

00:54:46.160 | There's so many cards these days that have no foreign transaction fees.

00:54:49.560 | So make sure that's the case.

00:54:51.120 | And while you're at it, make sure to tell the credit card company you're traveling

00:54:55.200 | because there is nothing worse than showing up in a country and trying to use your

00:54:59.120 | credit card or your ATM card, having it not work, having to figure out how you can

00:55:03.720 | make that twenty five dollar phone call back to the U.S.

00:55:06.760 | to get your card enabled.

00:55:07.880 | So make sure you give them a heads up so you don't have any problems.

00:55:10.240 | Speaking of phone calls, one of the hacks I love is trying to get a local SIM card.

00:55:15.040 | In some countries, this is really hard and you've basically got to go give an I.D.

00:55:19.760 | and you've got to put a lot of money down.

00:55:21.160 | And in some countries, a lot of African countries, it's give a dollar and you get a

00:55:25.000 | SIM card and you can sell them in the arrivals hall.

00:55:26.800 | Yeah. And it's super easy.

00:55:28.160 | But the hack here is if you have a phone that supports it, and I think starting with

00:55:33.040 | maybe the iPhone 11, it's always supported, you can actually have unlimited number of

00:55:37.800 | virtual SIM cards in addition to your one SIM card you put in the phone.

00:55:41.840 | And so call Verizon, go on Verizon's website.

00:55:45.000 | Google Fi does this.

00:55:46.160 | A lot of carriers do now convert your Verizon SIM card to an eSIM.

00:55:50.840 | Now you have your SIM card free.

00:55:53.960 | So when you're overseas, you can still have your phone on your home carrier, but you can

00:55:58.200 | get a local SIM card, put it in and say, use my data on this new SIM card.

00:56:03.760 | And then you don't have to worry about pulling out your Verizon card, losing it, not

00:56:07.800 | being able to take an emergency phone call, but you can actually get local, cheaper data

00:56:12.080 | in that country. If you don't have that, a lot of countries now rent out those little

00:56:16.640 | like portable hotspots.

00:56:18.280 | Yeah, little MiFis.

00:56:19.120 | Yeah. That one's great because then you can use it with the whole family.

00:56:21.960 | You just have to charge it every day and carry a second device.

00:56:24.720 | Any other kind of data phone call hacks when you're traveling?

00:56:29.840 | So I always like to download the Google Maps offline version of the city that I'm going

00:56:35.000 | to make sure that I have all of the maps ahead of time, because, look, Google Maps, it

00:56:38.920 | can just eat your data up when you're traveling abroad and you need it when you're

00:56:42.800 | traveling abroad. So because of that, I always download ahead of time.

00:56:46.600 | I also will use Google Translate as often as possible.

00:56:49.680 | And I'll actually screenshot, especially when it's some of the Asian languages that are

00:56:53.360 | not written in traditional Roman letters.

00:56:56.280 | I'll screenshot some of this traditional phrases and like flashcards, study them on the

00:57:00.080 | plane so that I don't have to be using Google Translate consistently when I'm

00:57:03.680 | overseas. But you can download Google Translate offline also, which is pretty good for

00:57:08.520 | me. If I'm looking at a Chinese menu in China, I don't understand it, but you can go

00:57:12.680 | with Google Translate and you can take a photo and they will in real time translate a

00:57:17.040 | photo of a sign in the subway of a menu.

00:57:20.640 | It's so cool.

00:57:21.800 | It is so cool. So those two tools I can't live without ahead of time.

00:57:24.840 | But I think that the biggest thing that you can do on the data side is check with your

00:57:29.960 | carrier here in the States and say, does it make sense for me to be spending 10 bucks a

00:57:33.280 | day in Europe or can I buy like a European plan for a month where it's ninety nine

00:57:38.000 | bucks or one hundred and twenty five dollars or whatever it is?

00:57:40.000 | Check to see if your carrier will offer that.

00:57:41.960 | If you're on the road for a long time, those ten dollar a day charges, especially for a

00:57:46.160 | family of four, can really add up.

00:57:47.800 | Yeah, it's worth considering if you're starting to travel a lot.

00:57:50.880 | Google Fi, T-Mobile, some carriers have international coverage all around the world

00:57:56.640 | with data. Yeah, totally free.

00:57:58.600 | So I had a Google Fi SIM for a while.

00:58:01.320 | It's one of the rare cases where I'd say it's so much better experience with Android

00:58:05.320 | than it is with iOS, which is a bummer as an iPhone user.

00:58:07.960 | But it's great for international data.

00:58:09.920 | And if you travel a lot, it could be worth having that as just a separate backup.

00:58:14.400 | Yeah, I know you could probably get a couple gigs of data on T-Mobile or Google Fi for

00:58:19.440 | 20, 30 bucks a month, which if you're making a trip every two or three months, it

00:58:23.400 | makes total sense. It could make total sense.

00:58:25.240 | Let me also switch gears for a quick sec and just talk about where you don't want to

00:58:28.640 | bring your phone. And that is to places where this might not be safe to have your own

00:58:33.440 | iPhone or smartphone.

00:58:34.640 | So maybe you do have a backup burner phone that you can use that you can wipe clean

00:58:39.000 | quickly if you need to when you're traveling to sensitive countries.

00:58:42.200 | Definitely have advised clients who travel overseas to do that, and they've definitely

00:58:45.600 | had instances where they've needed to do that.

00:58:47.080 | So just bring a backup phone or have a backup phone just in case.

00:58:49.840 | And if you're traveling to a country where privacy laws and human rights are

00:58:55.000 | challenging, like be careful, like maybe don't bring the computer that has your entire

00:58:59.280 | life stored on it. Maybe don't bring the computer that has a Word doc on your desktop

00:59:03.640 | with every password to every site and definitely don't carry that around town.

00:59:07.040 | So we got to the country, we stayed, we figured out the way to hack everything local.

00:59:11.560 | This was amazing. Now I'm a little disappointed because I just want to go on more

00:59:15.480 | trips. I feel like hopefully 2021 can shape up to be a year where we can go places.

00:59:20.680 | Do you have any trips planned?

00:59:22.400 | So I just got back recently from Turks and Caicos, which was just bananas.

00:59:27.240 | It was just so beautiful.

00:59:28.320 | And the beaches are incredible.

00:59:29.600 | And I can't recommend that destination enough.

00:59:32.240 | So beautiful. My next trip was supposed to be to Italy this summer.

00:59:35.240 | Unfortunately, due to some unforeseen work challenges, I think I'll probably have to

00:59:39.320 | reschedule that one for later in the year.

00:59:41.320 | But we do have New York on the docket, a lot of other domestic travel coming up.

00:59:44.760 | Traveling with little kids during the pandemic has been tricky.

00:59:47.800 | And as you know, vaccinated travelers can now travel overseas fairly easily.

00:59:52.080 | But if you're under 16 and not vaccinated, there's a big gray area.

00:59:55.480 | So it should be interesting the next couple of months to see how that unfolds and how

00:59:59.880 | we take care of our little ones on the road.

01:00:01.640 | Yeah. Wow. I didn't even think about that as someone traveling with a nine month old.

01:00:06.000 | But she'll be fine. But you mentioned your slam with work.

01:00:08.560 | Can you tell us a little bit more about Savanti?

01:00:10.200 | Yeah. So we're full service travel management for busy executives.

01:00:13.760 | What that means is we handle people's travel just like an accountant would handle their

01:00:17.600 | money or a lawyer would handle their legal affairs.

01:00:19.720 | So we're really on somebody's team.

01:00:21.720 | So we're not right for everybody in the sense that we don't do any one off trips or

01:00:24.960 | plan a single vacation or a honeymoon.

01:00:27.160 | Instead, we get to really know our clients and really operate as an extension of their

01:00:32.080 | team so that we help them with everything from Southwest tickets to private jets or

01:00:36.720 | holiday and express stay or a private yacht or a villa, everything in between.

01:00:41.520 | But what we've done over the past few years is built up an extensive collection of

01:00:46.720 | really good relationships in the travel business that allow us to hack our way for

01:00:51.400 | our clients into experiences that they themselves couldn't get on their own.

01:00:55.360 | So it's been really wonderful and incredibly gratifying to see this business blossom

01:00:59.920 | over the past five years to learn so much.

01:01:02.880 | Oh, my God, there's so much more to learn.

01:01:04.360 | But every day is a new adventure and is really fun.

01:01:07.440 | And it's been great to see our clients come out of the sort of pandemic with a renewed

01:01:11.680 | sense of excitement around all the destinations that they can't wait to get to.

01:01:15.160 | We can't wait to help them get there.

01:01:16.280 | That's awesome. Yeah. If you're listening and you have other questions, hacks, ideas,

01:01:20.840 | send them in to our email on all the hacks dot com.

01:01:24.240 | Maybe we'll bring Lee back again and handle a bunch of questions from the listeners.

01:01:28.280 | Where can people find you online?

01:01:30.080 | So on Twitter at Lee Rowan or at Savanti Travel dot com.

01:01:34.200 | Chris, thank you so much for having me.

01:01:36.120 | This is great to chat, travel.

01:01:37.240 | It's great to see you. It's great to be doing this in person again and actually seeing

01:01:40.520 | another human for the first time in so long.

01:01:42.480 | But thank you for making this happen.

01:01:44.000 | I really appreciate it. This is amazing.

01:01:45.600 | I can't wait to get out there and travel.

01:01:47.520 | And I hope this helps a lot of people do the same.

01:01:49.440 | Likewise. All right.

01:01:51.280 | That's it for this episode of all the hacks.

01:01:54.040 | Thank you so much for listening.

01:01:55.920 | I'm just getting started with this show.

01:01:57.960 | So if you like what you heard, I'd really appreciate a rating in your podcast app or

01:02:02.600 | if you'll simply tell a friend about the show, that would be amazing.

01:02:05.520 | And finally, if you want to find links to anything we discussed today or if you want

01:02:10.520 | to share a suggestion for what we can talk about in the future, you can do both at all

01:02:14.800 | the hacks dot com.

01:02:16.120 | I want to tell you about another podcast I love that goes deep on all things money.

01:02:29.280 | That means everything from money hacks to wealth building to early retirement.

01:02:33.040 | It's called the Personal Finance Podcast, and it's much more about building

01:02:37.160 | generational wealth and spending your money on the things you value than it is about

01:02:41.280 | clipping coupons to save a dollar.

01:02:43.480 | It's hosted by my good friend Andrew, who truly believes that everyone in this world

01:02:47.680 | can build wealth and his passion and excitement are what make this show so

01:02:51.720 | entertaining. I know because I was a guest on the show in December 2022.

01:02:56.320 | But recently I listened to an episode where Andrew shared 16 money stats that will blow

01:03:01.480 | your mind. And it was so crazy to learn things like 35 percent of millennials are not

01:03:06.240 | participating in their employer's retirement plan.

01:03:08.680 | And that's just one of the many fascinating stats he shared.

01:03:12.600 | The Personal Finance Podcast has something for everyone.

01:03:15.280 | It's filled with so many tips and tactics and hacks to help you get better with your

01:03:19.160 | money and grow your wealth.

01:03:20.480 | So I highly recommend you check it out.

01:03:22.640 | Just search for the Personal Finance Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you

01:03:27.560 | listen to podcasts and enjoy.