2025 travel

You might recall that we planned to visit M's mom & other family members in Turkey this year, over spring break. Unfortunately, there was a medical issue in the family, and that didn't work out & we had to cancel. Add additional travel restrictions due to the tension in the region, & travel is much more complex. We most definitely would have preferred to use our travel vouchers for a trip to visit M's family, but given Nick & Sam's varying schedules this year (one has spring break in March, & the other in April) & the expiration of the travel vouchers, we were unable to find a date when we could all make the trip happen. 

Instead, M & I will use the travel vouchers on a trip for the two of us, and then plan to use mileage in the future to cover a trip to see family. Luckily, I have 500k+ United miles from many, many work trips, so that should work. And, we'll avoid having all of these travel vouchers expire, which has been a concern given the difficulty planning a trip.

So, where are we going? As background, I've done a lot of international work travel, but largely to the same destinations. And, even in those places, I've done zero exploring due to time restrictions. I've been to France personally, but no other personal travel to Europe. M did more traveling in his 30s, but neither of us have ever been to Spain! 

We bought two business class tickets to Madrid in April, using up all of our vouchers, and adding another $787 (M was very set on flying business on this trip) ;-). We are planning to spend just a couple of nights in Madrid, and then head to Seville & Granada. I'm working on all kinds of fun activities & sites to see, but we will also plan to relax, eat tapas & drink Spanish wine. 

My goal for the trip is to spend $4,000 or less, which would include our flights (above) & flights for my parents to come & stay with Nick while we're gone. We will likely use gift cards to cover my parents flights. We're hoping to use mostly Hyatt points for the hotels, and the majority of our spending would be food (alllllll of the delicious Spanish food) & activities.  

We are super jazzed & will take any & all recommendations! I'll share more about our budget & planning as we go along, although I'm no travel blogger. ;-)