Barcelona, Spain/ Amsterdam, Holland/ London, United Kingdom (2015)

To date, this was the most amazing trip I have ever taken in my life. I woke up to new cultures and countries every 3 days and discovered the other side of the world. Being the first time I have ever crossed the Atlantic Ocean I fell in love with Europe. Everything about it is magical, I had to constantly slap my self to realize where I was. This post will show you the power of travel knowledge, I had the blessing to flying from the United States to Europe roundtrip for free and staying in the best hotels in every country I visited for free. Most people make excuses and limit them selves to travel because of money. You will see that even you can take a trip like this without spending as a consumer. Sit tight because this is going to be a long one.

I am going to start out by showing you how I flew from Miami to Barcelona for free, I also used this technique for my return flight from London to Miami. American Airlines currently has a promotion for their new Citi Credit Card, for signing up you receive 50,000 miles after spending $3,000 in 3 months. On top of that it gives you benefits like 1 free checked bag, priority boarding, 2 Admiral's Club 1 day passes, double miles on AA purchases and the annual fee waived for the 1st year (normally $99). You might say I would never spend $3,000 in 3 months but thats a lie. You can use credit cards to pay your rent and your car bill, maybe make some christmas purchases as long as your are responsible. My round trip flight cost me 40,000 miles per person, you could sign up for the credit card, fly to Europe and still have 10,000 miles left over. Obviously I had these miles because I fly so much but I wanted to share how it is possible for the normal public to access this. Below is a screen shot showing how much a one way ticket costs on American Airlines when you purchase with miles.

The hotels I stayed at also have similar Credit Card offers for free nights but this is not how I slept in hotels for free. I used the magic of Trip Advisor, for those of you who don't know I am the #1 Trip Advisor "reviewer" in the state of Florida. I have over 100,000 international readers and my reviews of hotels, attractions and restaurants greatly impact businesses reputations. When I am not happy with a hotel's service they do whatever they can to make it right. About 3 months ago I stayed at a Hilton in Augusta, Georgia and found a cockroach in my room, I wrote a review and posted a picture. I was contacted my Hilton's fulfillment team and was offered 3 nights at any Hilton worldwide for free. Enough blabbing about point and miles, here goes my trip.

I started planning this trip about 6 months ago with my girlfriend Veronica. I decided to get sneaky and tell a little lie, she thought the whole time that we would be traveling for a week to Vancouver, BC. It was a really emotional experience because for months we had conversations and planned stuff that was never going to happen. Meanwhile I was planning our route through Europe, booking flights, booking hotels and finding attractions. I held this in all the way until we got to the airport, after checking in I handed her the ticket and asked her if they messed up our destination. After she realized that the ticket said Barcelona we both broke out in this weird laugh/cry scenario, the whole airport was staring at us not knowing if we where fighting or cry/laughing of happiness. The joy on her face was something I've never experience before and it is something i'll hold in my heart forever.

Since we had to be at the airport 3 hours prior to our flight we decided to spend some time in the Admirals Club to celebrate. When traveling to Europe and having an Admirals Club membership they give you free premium drink tickets. We where really exited and might have had a little to much champagne before getting on a plane.

Since I bought this flight with miles the ticket is not eligible for upgrades to business or first class, however since I am Executive Platinum we got free access to Main Cabin Extra seats right behind first class. Normally these seats would cost $200-$400 extra on a long haul flight like this, it was an extremely comfortable flight. American Airlines gives 2 meals on these flights and I was pleasantly surprised, for being a flight in coach it was actually edible. They offered chicken or pasta for dinner and a light breakfast 2 hours before arrival.

(Boeing 767-300)

Moving forward in this post I will review every city like I normally do.

BARCELONA

Hotel: H10 Raco Del Pi

Distance from Barcelona El Prat Airport: 9 miles (€45 Taxi) (€5 Bus ride to Plaza Catalunya)

Length of stay: 3 Nights

Average nightly rate: €85 Euro/Night

The current exchange for USD to Euro is $1USD = .93 Euro
 Our Daily budget was 300 Euro = 321 USD 

We arrived in Barcelona at 6am and it was still dark out. Originally I planned to take a taxi to the hotel because I had no idea where I was going. When we passed customs we saw signs for the bus going into the city. We decided to take the bus because it would save us 35 Euros, luckily Veronica and I both have T-Mobile. If you travel internationally I suggest you switch over now! Our data plan worked for free as well as text messaging in every country we visited. We could easily get access to internet and use the GPS to find our way. The ride to Plaza Catalunya was about 25 minutes, once we got off the bus we had no idea where to go. The maps help but Barcelona is filled with these tiny narrow streets that don't show on the map. We walked with our luggage for about 4 blocks and literally ran into the hotel by luck, I couldn't believe it. I chose this hotel specifically because it is one block from Las Ramblas, this is the main street for tourism in Barcelona. If you visit here you MUST stay close to Las Ramblas.

We stayed in an amazing boutique hotel, I have stayed in H10 properties in Mexico and have always been satisfied with their product. Everything inside was modern and clean including the rooms. Rooms in Europe are kind of like rooms in New York, very compact. Luckily the hotels we stayed at had decent sized rooms and we always felt comfortable.

We where so exited that we threw everything in the room and left, the only time we spent in the room was sleeping. It isn't necessary to book a really nice hotel on these trips because no time is spent to the room. I refuse to stay at a hostel though, I suggest finding a balance in between. Researching prior to the trip I found an amazing market that was only 3 blocks from the hotel called "La Boqueria". This market is literally the definition of Tumblr heaven, I could spent 3 days walking around inside and not get bored. It is filled with stands selling juices, fruits, meats, Serrano and Iberico hams, seafood, tapas, wine and beer and so much more. Everything inside was relatively cheap, it was a great place to come have breakfast and snacks during the day.
(Entrance to La Boqueria)

(Meat And Ham Stands)

(Fruits and Juices for €1)

(The seafood was so fresh you could still see the fish breathing)

(The Perfect Snack)

Barcelona is famous for having the best soccer club in the world. It is a combination of players from all around the world. Their stadium "Camp Nou" is also famous because of the size, it holds almost 100,000 people. When we landed at the airport we started seeing signs that there was a soccer match that same night against Rome. I told Veronica that we had to go see a game no matter what, we started looking around town seeing how much tickets where. It is definitely not cheap to go see a game, somehow I have luck on buying cheap seats and somehow getting upgraded to front row (This seems to happen everywhere). The cheapest seats where 65 Euro and ranged up to 200 euro, we bought the cheapest seats that where supposed to be at the top of the stadium and we ended up on the 3rd row behind the goal. This was the coolest most unique experience of my life, we ended up in the middle of Barcelona's soccer club which consists of the biggest fans of the team. The whole game we where on our feet jumping and singing along to the chants even though we had no idea what we where yelling. The fans waved their huge flags side to side as Barcelona beat Rome 6-1, it was an energy like no other.



The next day we decided to wake up early and take a lift up to "Montjuic". The castle is elevated on a hill and gives scenic views of the city and as well as the Balearic Sea. The castle was used during the Catalan Revolt back in 1640 and is now a big tourist destination. Montjuic is accessible by public transportation but the easiest way is taking the lift which will cost you 15 euro per person. Up on the hill we found an amazing restaurant called "Miramar". You can literally sit there all day and stare out at the city and the ocean because it is so breathtaking. We sat down for a couple of hours and had a bottle of wine. It is funny because the restaurant prices are different depending on if your table looks out at the ocean or at the city.
(Montjuic Castle)



(Miramar Restaurant)


I have a weird obsession with Theatre's and Opera Houses so we took a quick tour of the "Grand Teatre Del Liceu". This theatre was built in 1847 and has burned down 3 times, I wont bore you with the history but It was a pretty magnificent tour. A private tour costs 11 Euros.

Barcelona's most famous attraction is "La Sagrada Familia", it is a Roman Catholic Church that has been under construction since 1884. Yes! it is still not finished! The church was designed by famous architect Antoni Gaudi, he died building the church and the legacy continues. Modern day architects speak wonders about his design and can't understand how accurate his plot was considering the technology back then. The Church is a huge tourist destination and is still under construction with a planned finish date in 2026. When you look at the Cathedral you are overwhelmed by the detail that surrounds you. Entrance to La Sagrada Familia is 20 euros and I suggest to buy them online to skip the line. If you buy them on location you will wait in a one hour line.


Spain is famous for its cured hams and I am the number one fan. Hamon Serrano and Iberico with some Manchego cheese is my favorite combination on the planet. Lucky for me there is the "Jamon Experience" on Las Ramblas which is a combination of museum and hands on tasting. For 30 euro's a person you get the museum as well as a tasting of 6 different hams ranging from the regular hams to high end hams and cheeses. This is was one of my favorite museums on the whole trip :)

Barcelona has a really nice beach called "Barceloneta", even though it was cold outside we still saw people outside tanning in the nude. The water is the calmest ocean water I have ever seen, It would be really nice to come here in the summer time to enjoy.


After 3 amazing days it was time to move on to Amsterdam. Even though I flew to Europe for free I did have to pay for the flights in between countries but the prices are meaningless. I flew on Vueling airlines for 50 Euro per person including one checked bag and premium seating. This ended up being a better alternative to a train because it is cheaper and faster.


AMSTERDAM

Hotel: Doubletree By Hilton Amsterdam Centraal 

Distance from Schipol Intl. Airport: 12 Miles (€60 Taxi) (€4 Per Person Train)

Length of stay: 2 Nights

Average nightly rate: €150/Night

As I told you, I had some free nights at any Hilton worldwide so i searched very carefully which one to choose in Amsterdam. The Doubletree Central is one block away from Amsterdam's central train station. This made it extremely easy to get to from the airport. When we arrived in Amsterdam and went through customs we started looking for the train. There was only one problem, everything is in Dutch. Nothing at all is translated to english and Dutch is not easy to read at all. After finding the airport's train station we where stuck in huge lines to buy train tickets. It was a Friday and it seemed like every teenager from the UK flew over to Amsterdam for the weekend to party. Hey why not? I would fly to another country every weekend for 50 euro's if I could too. After figuring out which train to take we hopped on and took a 30 minute train ride to Centraal station. 

After hopping off the train in Centraal station and looked to the left we saw the hotel, it was perfect.

The hotel is right on one of Amsterdam's canals and provides amazing views of the whole city.

As i wrote in my last blog I finally made it to Hhonors Gold so I got a free upgrade and free breakfast on top of the hotel stay being free!!! The breakfast itself was 30 euro per person and it was actually really good, it was Buffett style and had a mimosa and bloody marry bar,

We had no idea on what to do in Amsterdam because we only had 2 days so we bought the red bus tour which also included free hop on and off canal cruises for 25 euro per person that takes you to the major attractions. The architecture of Amsterdam is beautiful, It is amazing how the government conserves the buildings and does not allow any modification of the original structures.

(Notice the lean on the buildings)

(Hop on and Off cruise with audio tour)

On top of the regular canal cruise we paid another 15 euro for an intimate one hour cruise, it was private and allowed the guests to purchase a bottle of wine and hot chocolate through smaller canals.

I am a big fan of Heineken Beer and this is where it was originally made, we decided to go to the Heineken Experience. For 20 euro it was really fun and included 3 free beers at the end. It showed the history of the brand and the evolution into the mega company it is now with over 120 breweries around the world.

(We also got to keep our own custom beer bottle, look at the bottom)

Of course being in Amsterdam we experienced walking through the red light district and seeing all the coffee shops. It is a huge playground for adults and there really aren't any rules, for the sake of being decent i'll spare you the details lol.
(Red Light District)

After exploring for 2 days it was time to visit London, we took the same train back to the airport. We boarded the plane and fell asleep, all of a sudden we woke up 2 hours later and realized we where still sitting in the runway. It turns out there was a problem with the fueling system on the plane. After waiting for 4 hours our flight ended up getting cancelled with no chance to making it to London that night. It turns out that Europe has some very strict laws on airlines to compensate passengers for delayed travel as long as its not due to weather. Before getting officially cancelled we each received 15 euro vouchers to eat in the airport.

Also since British Airways is part of the One World alliance had access to their lounge, I must say it is the nicest lounge I have ever visited. They have an open bar and a good amount of snacks to keep you happy before boarding your flight.

British Airways ended up putting us in a really nice hotel called "The Steigenberger", along with the free night we got free dinner, free breakfast, 250 euros each as well as being accommodated on the first flight the next day. This would NEVER happen in the United States, a flight cancellation for us ended up being a good thing!
(Dinner at The Steigenberger)
 
Finally the next day we hopped on the British Airways plane to London, this flight only cost us 45 euros per person and we ended up with 250 euros each for a 12 hour delay.

(The first class seats on BA where a little odd, the rows had the same amount of seats as coach but had a tray in the middle seat. The seats weren't any bigger and didn't really have any more leg room. Not worth it at all if you are paying for it.)


LONDON
The USD to British Pound Conversion is 1USD = .66 Pound
Our daily budget in London was 250 pounds = 378 Dollars

 Luckily for me I have some family that lives in London and it was really special being able to stay with them. For the past 10 years I have been promising to come visit and the time finally came. In my opinion London is the Manhattan of Europe, it is beautiful and constantly moving but at the same time it is very touristy. It was a shame we only got to spend one day here because of our cancellation in Amsterdam but we still go to see a lot. London is famous for its double decker busses but I didn't realize every bus had 2 decks! It was actually really cool sitting on the top floor, it felt like I was on a theme park ride. I hate Universal Studios so much for making Harry Potter world look so much like London, I literally had to keep opening up my phone and looking at my location to make me realize I was on the other side of the world. One thing to note about traveling to the UK is that it is extremely expensive, especially with the conversion of Dollars to Pounds

(Public Double Decker Bus)

We also decided to buy the hop on and off bus in London so we could try to soak in as much in one day. We woke up early to see the guard change at Buckingham Palace which was really nice.

(Hop on and off bus)

 (Guard Change @ Buckingham Palace)

 (Crossing the London Bridge)

 

 As I walked down the street that afternoon I saw a sign in front of a store that i really like and I feel that we should all use this in our lives. Reason being of us getting comfortable in our day to day lives, we should all do one thing a day that gets us out of our comfort zone.

 As most people know I am a big fan of Theatre and Broadway. London has a district like broadway but its called "West End" and it is known for its very high end productions. I knew I had to see at least one show so we looked at our options and decided to see "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". Tickets where pretty expensive because of the pound to dollar conversion. The cheapest tickets in the theatre where 25 Pounds and ranged up to 150. Like I said earlier I don't know why but I have a luck for getting upgraded, we bought the cheapest seats in the theatre and ended up in the 4th row from the stage. I have been to Broadway shows all around the world and must say that this was the best production/show I have ever seen.

 (Royal Drury Theatre)

 Unfortunately this was the last night of an amazing trip. A lot of people say that a long trip like this can test relationships and in my situation all it did was make mine stronger. Some people say travel the world alone while you can and I don't understand it. There is nothing better than having the person you love next to you laughing, crying and exploring. The laughs I shared with Veronica on this trip will replay like a movie in my head for the rest of my life. Seeing joy in her face every day made this trip so much more enjoyable and made me so grateful that I've been able to find someone that can tolerate me and my lifestyle and love me for the person I am. We both fell in love with Europe and it inspired both of us to keep going and to keep searching for more. Seeing new places just makes you realize how little you have seen. We where able to scratch 3 countries off our map and we have a long way to go. If you are traveling to Europe or have questions about award travel or travel in general feel free to message me through Google Circles.