African safari for a family of eight on points?

Is it possible to book a 10-day African safari for a family of eight and pay for it with points? The answer is that by using points and miles you can pay for about 90% of your lodging and international flight costs. But when you factor in other costs that don’t...

Leapin’ lemurs!

Madagascar was our final country In Africa (save for another trip back to Kenya to take our kids on Safari). And Madagascar didn’t disappoint.    We had originally planned to come here in December. But due to political unrest (they ousted their president – Hey...

Living Abroad – Eighth month expense report

This month was entirely spent in South Africa except for the first day and flight were from Namibia and the final day was a flight and a night in Madagascar. It was a good month for travel with pretty much all of it being free other than small towns (no point options...

A View to a Kill

The Westin hotel in Capetown is outstanding. The 19th floor houses their executive lounge, gym, indoor pool and sauna. While we’ve been in other lounges, gyms and pools with a view, this was the first time that we’ve been in a sauna with a view. The sauna...

South Africa is the winner

People often ask me what has been my favorite country in Africa. I usually flippantly reply Italy, because during our nine months of living abroad we ended up going to Italy for two weeks since we couldn’t go to Jordan because of the war .   But having spent...