The year was 2021. My sisters and I were hatching fledgling plans about going to France with our mom. As we discussed the scope of the trip, one of my sisters suggested we make it more involved and bring our spouses and kids. I said, and I quote, “We will NOT be bringing our kids to Europe. If they grow up and want to go, great, but we just will not be doing that.” Or some emphatic never statement along those lines. 

Fast forward to three years later, and here I am just back from a family trip to France and Italy. I’m even starting to strategize about another European trip for next year. Back in 2021, I think in my heart of hearts, I would have loved to take my kids to Europe. However, as a family of five, it just felt so financially overwhelming. Could we save and do it? Probably. It just didn’t seem like a wise thing to prioritize, especially since I have been known to wake up in the night sweating, thinking about impending college tuition bills. 

And here’s where I tell you that the points and miles hobby has opened up a completely different reality to us. We can keep hitting our savings and financial goals AND plan trips to places that I thought would be off limits until retirement, whenever that might be. It sounds cheesy. It sounds like I’m trying to sell you something. I’m not – I just love what we’ve been able to do so much that I want you to be able to do it too. 

This trip started as a big “what if?” We agreed to let Laurel go on a school trip to Paris and Nice, and as our points stash kept growing, Tom accidentally wondered aloud if it would be possible for us to meet her at the end of her trip and go somewhere else in Europe. I said, “say less, Tom,” and got the downhill boulder rolling swiftly on making this happen. There were definitely headaches along the way, working with the educational tour company, but in the end it worked out and was worth it. 

I started looking for reward flights for the four of us to get to Nice right at about 360 days ahead and found four Premium economy seats from Newark for 30,000 points plus $150 in taxes each. This flight had a layover in Paris, which we decided could be a fine trade-off for the upgraded seats. There is a direct flight from JFK to Nice in the summer that I originally thought we’d go for, but I was swayed by the premium economy. Unfortunately, our flight ended up being on an older plane with an older PE product. It wasn’t unpleasant, per se, but for the layover and extra taxes and fees, I came away feeling like we should have just booked the regular economy seats on the direct flight. I hoped we’d be able to sleep more, but it wasn’t that different from trying to sleep in a regular airplane seat. You live, you learn. Moving forward, I think I will prioritize direct flights if I can’t get a lay-flat business class seat, and I won’t mess around with premium economy. I’ve become bougie. I did drink the welcome aboard champagne, though.

The next thing to figure out was where to stay in Nice. Fortunately, there was the Hyatt Regency Nice, right on the Promenade des Anglais, a miles-long walk along the beach. This was a beautiful hotel that had a suite that fit four. Laurel would be joining us at the end of our time in Nice, so this was perfect. It ended up costing us 44k Hyatt points per night for the suite, but it did not disappoint. The dates we were booked would have cost us $2800 for two nights, so this ended up being 3.18 cents/per point. We had some of these points already in our Hyatt account and transferred the rest of what we needed from our Chase Ultimate Rewards. The views from the terrace more than made up for the higher points redemption. It’s also really hard to find accommodations for more than 2-3 people in Europe, so I was pleased with this. If we had Globalist status with Hyatt, or suite suite upgrade awards that you can earn at 40 elite nights, this would have been a great hotel to book a standard room and then upgrade to a suite, especially if we were staying longer. 

The view from the terrace

The hotel was beautiful, the service was excellent, the location couldn’t be beat. We were greeted with free drink coupons because the room was ready at 3:15 instead of 3PM, and additionally, we were given a bottle of wine and chocolates. I have some club access certificates and was really hoping this hotel had a club so I could use them – but it did not. We ended up doing all of our meals at restaurants about town and bought some snacks from the grocery store. We didn’t check out the restaurant on site, but based on my experience at the Hyatt Regency in Paris I could guess that things there were overpriced. 

We loved our few days in Nice. A highlight of the trip was a long walk along the coast that started at our hotel. We walked west along the Promenade towards the old port. We enjoyed some jambon beurre sandwiches there ($5 each from a little stand!), and then continued walking along the coast until it turned into a trail that we could have walked along all the way to the next town. We stopped at one of the rocky beaches on the way back and swam in the sea. I could not get over how much I enjoyed swimming in the Mediterranean. So salty. So clear. So floaty. 

Scenes from our walk

Before we knew it, it was time to move on to our stay in Cinque Terre, on the northern Italian coast. The good news about Nice is that there is a local train line along the coast that is super affordable and within 20 minutes you can be in other French Riviera towns: Eze, Menton, Cannes, etc. The bad news is that this is a popular thing to do and the trains can be packed. We learned this at 9:30am on a Friday morning while we were waiting for our train to Ventimiglia, Italy. The first one that came was so packed with people pushing on and off that we weren’t able to physically get on. The train attendant had to pull people off so the doors could close. Fortunately, we got the next train which wasn’t quite as crowded. It seems if you wanted to explore the other towns, waiting until after the morning rush would be the way to go. Of course only after this experience did I start seeing Instagram reels in my feed about the crowded trains.

Our train trip to Corniglia began with people almost being crushed in doors and went on to include four different transfers. The whole trip took seven hours with all of our layovers. We then climbed about 120 steps in the boiling heat. I was beginning to think this whole idea was complete folly. But then, we entered the gate to the rental property and began walking down the narrow path of lemon trees and flowers. We saw our lovely hosts waving from the porch, and then we arrived to that porch and the most spectacular view that I had been waiting to see in real life. It was absolutely worth it. 

The path to the house

Our good friends have traveled a lot with their four kids, and when I was visiting them last year, they started reminiscing about their time in Cinque Terre, and about their terrace in particular. I remembered seeing pictures of it and swooning. When I told them about this idea to meet our daughter in Europe, we looked at train routes and saw that Nice and Genoa were really only 3-4 hours away by train. Thus, the trip was born. So, maybe I didn’t continue my research to find out how long it would take from Genoa to Corniglia, but that’s ok. It may have deterred me, and I’m so glad we remained undeterred.

Our beautiful view

This was not a strictly points trip – but we used our credit card points to significantly defray the cost. We booked the exact VRBO property our friends had stayed in, and it ended up costing us $1415 for four nights. The place had ample space for the five of us and was clean and well maintained. The terrace was the star of the show, and we also loved the privacy of staying in the less-busy Corniglia. 

Cinque Terre was a dream. Corniglia is the sleepiest of the five towns, as it’s up on the hill and is harder to get to. The “marina” is even more difficult to get to because you have to go up the hill and then back down the other side of the hill to get there. We found the beauty and lack of crowds at that swimming hole to far outweigh the soreness we were all experiencing in our quads and calves as the days wore on. We continued with many swims in the sea, frequent cappuccinos, daily pistachio cream croissants, and gelato to our hearts’ contentment. The five towns are connected by both hiking trails and a local train. We bought the pass that gets you unlimited rides on the train and access to the hikes, which saved us a little bit of money compared to buying rides and access as we went. These passes are sold at all of the train stations and along the trail.

Swimming at the Marina in Corniglia

View of Vernazza on our hike

One highlight for some of us was a boat tour we booked with Ultimate Rewards through the chase portal. For 46,000 points we booked a three hour tour that included swim stops. This would have been $700 for the five of us, ie something I probably wouldn’t have sprung for. It was really quite lovely, until Sam and I began to feel pretty sea-sick. We were able to get off in Vernazza and take the train home while Tom and the girls continued on the trip. I have to say, I felt better about bailing on this than I would have if we had paid cash for it. I will remember in the future to check out the “Activities” section in the Chase travel portal – it essentially works like Viator. I will also remember that now in my mid-forties, I cannot go on small boats. 

View of Riomaggiore from the dreadful boat

After our four days of enjoying this unique area, we journeyed by train back to Nice and stayed a night near the airport. We enjoyed one more dinner in France, one more aperol spritz, and one more cappuccino the next morning. 

Saying “au revoir” to Nice with one more hike up Colline du Chateau

Our flights home were a little bit more complicated because I hoped to book myself on Laurel’s flights… but we were told we wouldn’t know those flights until 110 days out. Tom and our younger kids booked on a British Airways flight with American Airlines points that was an ok redemption. They flew through London-Heathrow, which is notorious for higher taxes and fuel surcharges.​​ Their flights were each 28,000 AA points plus $260 in fees. We went back and forth on this one, but felt like it was very possible that this would be the flight they’d stick Laurel on and went with it. Turns out they used Delta for her flight. I was able to book myself on her flight (after begging the tour company to route her through JFK) for 27,500 points plus around $100 in taxes and fees. I booked via Air France, which is in the SkyTeam airline alliance. If I had booked directly with Delta, this flight would have been something like 110,000 points. This is a clear illustration of trying to unlock the power of airline alliances. 

We went our separate ways, but all made it back in one piece to Pittsburgh within 45 minutes of one another. Laurel and I shared the infamous honor of eating Delta food on the very day the Delta moldy food plane was diverted. Phew. 

This trip really felt like it could be categorized under the “trip of a lifetime” designation. But what feels both insane and exciting is that as we’ve learned more about earning a lot of points and redeeming them for decent value, there very likely will be far more “trip of a lifetime” trips in our future. 

Flights there: 120,000 points plus $600
Flights home: 111,500 points plus $880
Positioning flights to/from NY: 62,000 points plus $33.60 in fees
Hyatt in Nice: 88,000 points
VRBO property: $1415
Novotel Nice Airport: 14,000 points in US Bank Travel Portal in plus $120 for a second room

Total cash cost for hotels and flights: $3048.60
***For reference, this cost less for the five of us than Laurel’s whole school trip for just her***