Tag Archives: Travel

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Use Uber in Athens, Greece to Request & Pay for Local Taxis

Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  This is my last post from Athens, Greece, before I head to the Radisson Blu Beach Resort in Milatos, Crete.  If you missed my post yesterday, be sure to read Heading to Athens, Greece? Book the Small-Group Culinary Walking Tour.  In today’s post, I will explain how Uber works in Athens (the only part of Greece that has Uber).  If you are not an Uber rider, join for free (thanks for using my referral link).

Technically, Uber doesn’t exist in Greece, but you can request and pay for taxis with the Uber app (the taxi drivers use the Uber app like all other Uber drivers).  The only thing that is strange is that you cannot see the total price of your Uber ride until after the ride is over.  All the taxis have a set price schedule for rides, so your rides will always be priced right.  Unfortunately, I could not use my Uber credits in Athens, so I paid for all my rides with my Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card (my referral link) since I earn 3x Chase Ultimate Rewards Points on Uber and it has no foreign transaction fees.

We used the Uber app to request a ride from the Athens International Airport (ATH) to our hotel, the InterContinental Athenaeum Athens.  The Uber pickup was a bit tricky, since our ride was in a taxi and there were many taxis waiting at the airport.  Our driver told us where to meet him, but it was still very difficult to find him (he ended up finding us).  Our ride to the hotel took 45 minutes and cost 40.70 Euros ($47.43).  As of June 25, the exchange rate is 1 Euro = 1.16 US Dollars and I will use that exchange rate throughout this post.  In comparison, a shuttle van to/from the airport and the hotel would have cost 100 Euros ($116).

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Heading to Athens, Greece? Book the Small-Group Culinary Walking Tour

Good morning from Athens, Greece (or as the Greeks would say “Καλημέρα από Αθήνα, Ελλάδα).  I am writing to you from the InterContinental Athenaeum Athens (35,000 IHG points/night).  If you are heading to Athens, Greece, I highly recommend the Athens Small-Group Culinary Walking Tour, where you walk around the city, lead by a local, English-speaking tour guide and try some of the best, most authentic Greek food in the world.

I am not going to cover everything we saw, ate, smelled or learned on the tour, but here some of my favorite photos.  Our tour guide handed us a piece of paper showing us which foods we would be experiencing on this tour (I will reference names and restaurants throughout the post).  At the beginning of the tour, we stopped by a local street vendor selling Koulouri, the “Greek breakfast” that is a round piece of bread covered in sesame seeds.  You can find Koulouri all around Athens, at any time of day, and the price is only 0.5 Euros.  I ate a few of these around Athens :)

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Common Travel Scams & How to Avoid Them

There are travel scams and then there are travel scams. You don’t need to fall victim to any of them. Here are some scams you’ll face and how to avoid them.

As experienced travelers we think we’re savvy when it comes to travel scams and how to avoid them. However, since the busy travel season is upon us, reviewing the most common scams and how best to avoid them can’t hurt, right? After all, these scams happen to the best of us.

Knowledge is power, so here are some of the most common scams you’re likely to deal with. The more you know about these scams, the less likely you’ll fall for them. Continue reading

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When Does the AMEX Hilton Aspire Free Weekend Night Certificate Post to Your Account?

Good morning everyone.  A few months ago, I was approved for the American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card (referral link).  As part of sign up bonus, you get 100,000 Hilton Honors Points after spending $4,000 in 3 months, you get Hilton Diamond Elite Status as long as you have the credit card, $250 airline fee credit every calendar year, and a Free Weekend Night Certificate every cardmember anniversary (good for a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday night stay at qualifying Hilton properties).

A few days ago, I received the following email from Hilton with the subject line of “Your Rewards has arrived!” with details of my Free Weekend Night Certificate.  In today’s post, I will share how long it takes to get the Free Weekend Night Certificate and where you can see the code.

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PSA: Most US Bank “Travel Cards” Charge FOREX Fees

Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great Father’s Day Weekend. As I mentioned a few days ago, I’m getting ready for my Greece and Malta vacation. As part of my packing process, I call my banks and credit card companies, tell them I’m traveling internationally, and ask them to put travel notifications on my cards. During my recent call to Discover, I “discovered” 3 surprising facts about using Discover credit and debit cards internationally. In today’s post, I discovered some disappointing information about using US Bank credit cards internationally.

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