Category Archives: Trip Reports

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Last Call for FTU Virtual Seminar on Saturday, May 14 ($25) or Free with Online Annual Membership

Good afternoon everyone, happy Friday!  If you are not busy tomorrow, Saturday May 14, I highly recommend attending the FTU Virtual Seminar (tickets available for $25) or free if you have the FTU Online Annual Membership.  The seminar starts on Saturday, May 14 at 8am PT / 11am ET.  I have attended all of the FTU Virtual Seminars over the last 2 years and they are always well done, educational, and entertaining – and I am sure this seminar will be no exception!  Here is the full schedule and lineup of speakers:

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Register for FTU Virtual Seminar on Saturday, May 14 ($25) or Free with Online Annual Membership

Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great Mother’s Day Weekend.  If you are not busy this Saturday, May 14, I highly recommend attending the FTU Virtual Seminar (tickets available for $25) or free if you have the FTU Online Annual Membership.  The seminar starts on Saturday, May 14 at 8am PT / 11am ET.  I have attended all of the FTU Virtual Seminars over the last 2 years and they are always well done, educational, and entertaining – and I am sure this seminar will be no exception!  Here is the full schedule and lineup of speakers:

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Travel with Grant Turns 9 Years Old & My 9 Favorite Posts from the Last Year

Good afternoon everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend.  9 years ago today (back on May 1, 2013), Travel with Grant was born!  Even though I am not a full time blogger and writing this post from a tropical beach, I’m still very happy and grateful to still be writing and sharing my thoughts with my readers.  Every year (when I remember), I like to write a birthday / blogiversary post about TWG.  If you want to reminisce through the years, check out these old posts: Year 1Year 2Year 3Year 4Year 5Year 6, no Year 7 (I forgot about it during the pandemic), and Year 8.

I cover a wide variety of travel topics and don’t tend to follow the travel blogging crowd (I think of myself as Dory from Finding Nemo, just swimming around doing my own thing).  Some of these posts were very popular and got lots of pageviews, but others didn’t get as much love as I thought they would.  But without further ado, here are my 9 favorite posts from the last year (May 2021 – April 2022) in chronological order. Continue reading

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Travel with Grant has Moved… into a New Home & Quick Trip Report of our Maui Vacation

Good morning everyone, happy Friday! Laura and I just finished selling our old home, buying a new home, doing a few small home improvement projects around the new home (painting rooms, changing lights, etc.) and unpacking boxes. I haven’t had much free time to write blog posts over the last few weeks, but now that the dust has settled, I have more free time now.

A few weeks ago (in the middle of packing and moving), Laura and I went to Maui for her Spring Break (she is a teacher). We flew Alaska Airlines roundtrip from San Francisco (SFO) to Maui (OGG) using my Alaska Airlines Companion Fare. Since we both have Alaska Airlines MVP Elite Status, we were upgraded to first class on our return flight. In my experience, I have had good luck getting upgraded when flying on less popular routes and on less popular days (like weekdays).

We used AutoSlash to help get us a good deal on a Hertz rental car. The new Maui airport rental car facility is very nice – I wish all airports had a rental car facility and tram system like the one at the Maui airport. We stayed on the South Shore in Kihei in a Vacasa Vacation Rental. The rental cost 13,500 Wyndham Rewards Points per night and I used a combination of points from my Barclays Wyndham Rewards Business Earner Credit Card and transferred Capital One Points to Wyndham Rewards to top off for an award.  Here is the view from our Vacasa Vacation Rental:

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Register for FTU Virtual Seminar on Saturday, April 9 ($25) or Free with Online Annual Membership

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  If you have no plans this Saturday, April 9, I highly recommend attending the FTU Virtual Seminar (tickets available for $25) or free if you have the FTU Online Annual Membership.  The seminar starts on Saturday, April 9 at 8am PT / 11am ET.  I have attended all of the FTU Virtual Seminars over the last year and they are always well done, educational, and entertaining – and I am sure this seminar will be no exception!  Here is the schedule and lineup of speakers:

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