Our European Summer

3 weeks from today, I'll be on my way to Spain for a 2.5 week adventure through Western Europe!

We are going on a 12-day cruise, and are spending a little extra time before and afterwards to make the most of our budget.

The Cruise

We booked this cruise almost a full year in advance on a crazy Carnival deal. We got the deal through Eli's Carnival account, since he gets slightly better deals than me as he's been on more cruises with them. For $2400 we have a balcony room on a 12-night cruise that starts in Barcelona, with stops in Gibraltar, Lisbon, Porto, Vigo, La Coruna, Bilbao, Bordeaux, Le Havre, and Bruges before ending in Dover, England. The $2400 includes our room, dining, taxes, tips for the crew, and entertainment on board.

The Flights

We leveraged our credit card points to make the most of this trip! Our flights came in at just under $300 TOTAL, spending 126,000 United Points for the following flights:

• Denver to Madrid on Lufthansa
• London to Copenhagen on Scandinavian Air
• Copenhagen to Reykjavik on Scandinavian Air
• Reykjavik to Denver on United Airlines

If you're wondering how we got 4 flights for 2 people under $300 it was with the help of 2 credit card opening bonuses. Read more about how we take advantage of credit card points HERE. I will add; credit card welcome bonuses are awesome, but we DID NOT go into debt to reach their bonus thresholds! 

Still, you might be wondering, 4 flights for 2 people was only 126k miles? Aren't flights typically 30-60k one-way for one-person? Typically, yes! However, if you're booking a round-trip flight with United that goes through another region, you can add a 3rd flight for free in the middle of your itinerary with their Excursionist Perk! Learn more about the United Excursionist Perk HERE.

We chose this itinerary to save money and do more sight-seeing. By flying into Madrid we saved 10k miles each, and get to explore a little longer. We then chose to have an overnight layover in Copenhagen to spend a night in the town and walk around for a few hours, before heading to Iceland and back home.

The Itinerary

The following is how many places we're going to, and how long we're there for. A lot of people say you need multiple days in each city to get to know it, and they're probably right, but when you're on limited PTO and have a limited budget, make the most of your time and go to as many places as you want!

• One Night in Madrid
• One Night in Andorra
• One Night in Barcelona
• Two At-Sea Cruise Days
• One day in Gibraltar
• One Day in Lisbon
• One Day in Porto
• One Day in Vigo
• One Day in La Coruna
• One Day in Bilbao
• One Day in Bordeaux
• One Day in Le Havre
• One Day in Bruges
• One Day in London
• One Night in Copenhagen
• Two Nights in Iceland

We cannot wait to explore all of these towns, enjoy delicious food, and immerse ourselves in European cultures for a few weeks. Stay tuned to hear how it all went, and what our daily budget ended up looking like!