August included some Bulgaria and mostly traveling around Turkey. We were lucky to land some solid hotels, and BRG a few hotels to get them for free or up to $19. Obviously we used a lot of hotel points as well.
Actually, let’s just get right into expenses, and then hotels, and details about flights and buses.
Overview
- Hotels = $431.43
- + 185,000 points, and 5 BRGs
- Flights = $290.10
- Land Transit = $265.29
- Food = $505.22
- Misc = $164.08
Total = $1,656.12
Hotels
Luckily we had already booked the Radisson Blu Pera Istanbul pre-devaluation, and when the credit card BOGO was in affect. Same with Ankara, but I left myself two days unaccounted for.
My assumption was that hotels in Istanbul would be super cheap, and maybe it was the time of year, but the hotels were super expensive. At least the points hotels that I was looking at were.
Best Rate Guarantees
So I decided to focus on BRGs. I had left myself two days before going to Ankara. Also, if you didn’t read August Travels, Carrie’s dad was visiting us in Turkey. We did Cappadocia and Istanbul with him. So we had two more nights unaccounted for in Istanbul, and her father doesn’t have hotel points.
Leaving we flew out of SAW, which is an hour away from the center, and flying back to SAW got us in at 11pm. So I decided to stay out at the SAW airport and look for a Hilton BRG. Each time I could find the DoubleTree out there for $63/$69 a night and then Hilton matched and took off $50… which brought it down to $13 and $19.
For the two nights in Istanbul, we wanted to actually be downtown and I looked at the InterContinental, since IHG’s best rate guarantee is that you get a free night. It limits you to once per 7 days, but we were coming back almost 2 weeks later. So we were fortunate and found the lower rates and got the free nights both times, 2 weeks apart. It was huge if only for the 4pm check out, since I have Ambassador status. We got to stay in the city longer before moving to the DoubleTree the first time, and we had the concierge hold our bags before flying to Egypt.
Prices by hotel:
- 2 IHG BRGs @ InterContinental Istanbul, Turkey – BRG + $0
- 2 Hilton BRGs @ DoubleTree Tuzla Istanbul, Turkey – BRG + $32.15
- 1 Expedia BRG @ Radisson Blu Ankara, Turkey – BRG + $70.80
- 4 nights @ Radisson Blu Pera Istanbul, Turkey – 100,000 CC points
- 5 nights @ Radisson Blu Ankara, Turkey – 45,000 CC points
- 5 nights @ Hilton Sharm Dreams, Egypt – 20,000 HH points
- 5 nights @ Hilton Sharm Waterfalls, Egypt – 20,000 HH points
- 3 nights @ Goreme Kaya Hotel, Turkey – $204.98
- 2 nights @ Hotel Ego Plovdiv, Bulgaria – $78.50
- 2 nights @ Belaneda Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria – $45
Total hotel points:
- $431.43
- 40,000 Hilton points
- 145,000 Club Carlson points
- 2 Hilton BRGs
- 2 IC BRGs
Radisson Blu Pera Istanbul
Nice hotel that gave us a decent view of the old city. The main street it’s near is more crowded than Disney, but I thought the hotel was super central. Quick subway ride to the Blue Mosque, or a few blocks from Taksim. Probably the nicest hotel we stayed at this month, but I liked the “free” price of the IC better.
InterContinental Istanbul
Like too many IC hotels, the rooms are old. The furniture could have come from an antique store in rural Virginia. Yet, I loved the hotel, and the rest of the hotel is pretty modern. The gym is fantastic, with 3 big rooms of equipment, and with big open wood floors. The hotel staff is friendly without sucking up.
Maybe I’m biased because we got upgraded to a Jr. Suite the second time and the room was much nicer. But the standard room of the Radisson Pera was more my style- modern… and the hotel was in the european looking section in a smaller hotel. But the IC just feels like home to me, with no idea why.
Really, I like the hotel better. If you have a late flight, you can leave your bag with concierge and come back and go straight to the airport bus. That’s huge for me.
Radisson Blu Ankara
15,000 points to be downtown in the capital city, sounds like a good deal. Although, I can’t figure out why they don’t remake Istanbul the capital; it’s so much more of a vibrant city. Not an “aspirational” hotel, but they did give us a suite, so I can’t complain when it’s only 15k! And we booked when the credit card gave us two nights for the price of one.
Also, I’m a little bitter that the hotel sent us on this big wild goose chase. Our first night we wanted to eat at 10pm and I made the sin of asking the hotel staff about restaurants. They promised me everything in the city is closed except for one restaurant, and they promised another couple the same. Then they just got a cab for both parties, assuming both wanted to go there and share a cab. So we awkwardly did. And the entire cab ride (which was long) we passed open restaurants, until we got to our super over priced restaurant. Later I found out the street next to us has tons of places open late. What the heck front desk guy?
Any hotel where I feel pressure from the staff… is just awkward.
Goreme Kaya Hotel
$60 a night for a good hotel, it was just a whim booking but it panned out well. I knew I was picking for Carrie’s dad too and there weren’t points options… so TripAdvisor picked. Although I knew I wanted to be in Goreme. The town is tiny. Oh, and google maps has the hotel on the wrong side of town so I was lucky I checked their website.
However, they have a full time guy who pitches people on tours, who is 10 times worse than a timeshare guy. It was so bad that we took the outside stairway from the restaurant down to the street anytime we wanted to leave. Worked like a charm. At check-out he apologized for never seeing us to help us plan. Hmm… crazy he never saw us. Should have moved from the lobby to the outside staircase.
DoubleTree Tuzla
They have a free shuttle at certain times they don’t list on their website, but one is to SAW at 9am. But coming in we got a taxi, and that’s where the story comes in from August Travels. Seriously beware.
But obviously I picked the hotel because I could get it for $13, and got the same deal for Carrie’s father. No complaints. The hotel is modern and has the best internet of the hotels we stayed at in Turkey. But the location is nowhere.
We took the 9am shuttle to SAW, then got the bus to Taksim where the InterContinental is. Worked out perfectly.
Airline
We didn’t fly very far, but we did take 3 Pegasus flights. Pegasus is an airline based in Istanbul – at the SAW airport east of town (and has a direct bus from Taksim).
I’d brag about how cheap Pegasus is, but I did drag my feet in booking and paid double an earlier price for one of the flights.
- Istanbul to Ankara = $17.69 per person
- Nevsehir to Istanbul = $47.83 per person
- Istanbul to Sharm El Sheikh = $79.63 per person
So $18 for a flight was awesome… $48 isn’t as good, but not the end of the world. And I thought $80 for a flight to Egypt was a totally fair price.
Earnings?
Not really.
We earned a few points off the BRGs hotel stays, and a $50 coupon off of the Expedia BRG. But most of the paid hotels were because there weren’t any points hotels in Veliko, Bulgaria or Goreme, Turkey. Not a lot of earning opportunities here.
However, I did earn $18 worth of Pegasus points… enough for my Ankara flight actually.
Land Transit
Buses for 2 passengers:
- Sofia to Veliko Tarnovo =$24.65
- Veliko Tarnovo to Plovdiv =$23.05
- Plovdiv to Istanbul =$44.56
- Istanbul to SAW airport =$10.06
- Ankara Airport to Ankara = $5.75
- Ankara to Goreme =$27.31
- Goreme to Nevsehir Airport =$13.75
- SAW Airport to Istanbul =$9.63
- Istanbul to SAW Airport =$9.59
What was perfect is that the InterContinental Istanbul (which was free) is on Taksim Square, and Taksim is where the direct airport buses start and end. Buses to IST ($3) and SAW ($5) airports leave every 30 minutes from behind the Point Hotel Taksim. The Grand Hyatt is there too, and the bus is direct… so it’s going to take the same time as a taxi, but way less hassle.
As I said in the August Travels post, taxis are super bad in Istanbul, and there is no Uber at the SAW airport, and the cheap Uber isn’t in Istanbul at all.
Conclusion
I’ll talk about Egypt more later, most of our time for August was really in Turkey.
$1,600 is basically what we should be doing, or less to make up for earlier… as I’ve said many times. (Also, note that the stats you’ll see posted on the stats page will have the final three days of food calculated into it and so it’ll be slightly different.) But it felt like a budget month. Nothing huge or surprising, and obviously the food in Turkey isn’t expensive.
I probably would have cut out Ankara, but I always falsely assume capital cities will be interesting.
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Drew, slightly ot question: does an IHG BRG “count” as a purchased room for purposes of bonuses, etc? I presume yes, but you never know. Thanks.
Not normally. Most BRGs are arranged so that you don’t pay anything at check out. So it’s a non-qualifying stay that doesn’t earn points or set off a promotion.
There are rare cases/hotels where it’s too late, or the hotel doesn’t comply and you just have to pay like a normal stay and IHG actually sends you a check reimbursing you for the stay. In these cases you earn points and it shows up like a normal stay. You just gotta wait over a month for the check.
Fortunately that’s what happened to us and we got to earn nearly 10,000 points from the free stay. Too bad I didn’t have any good promotions.
But those cases are pretty rare.
The most amazing stat to me is that you only spent $500 on food for 2 people for the entire month. You can seriously get by on $10 per person, per day?
Very curious how you pull this off. I’m guessing the two of you carry big satchels down to the breakfast buffets?!
Also, how many of your stays in August including breakfast?
Finally, for the stays that you a dinner/hordeurve option, do you always take them up on that? Do you find it cramps your touring style at all, in that you need to get back to the hotel to take advantage of it?? (I often skip those for that very reason)
I actually laughed at the satchels comment.
All hotels except one in Bulgaria had breakfast. I guess I shoulda mentioned that. No lounge access this month.
So in Bulgaria we ate like kings for relatively cheap. Cheap and good.
And Turkey is cheap as well if you find a good spot. In Istanbul there was a place we ate for $2 to $3 a person. In Ankara we went to a really local joint that give 4 courses for $2.50. It was way too much food, so the second time we split it. And this isn’t like rice and bread, it was hardy saucy stuff.
So even if we do a more expensive place for dinner every other night, it doesn’t take but a few $2 meals to off-seat a lot.
The funny thing is that I’m a sucker for good food so I’m constantly choosing something more expensive and going over budget and someone always points out how cheap it is. Like constantly getting the seafood platter.
But I think one part is that we are so used to back alley local restaurants that look too sketchy for tourist.
And also, since we live on the road, “going out to eat” isn’t tied with vacation… it’s just pragmatic. It’s 2pm, we’re still working and haven’t had lunch. Lets quick grab a $1 swarma. No different than making past at home.
But since I love food I try to think about what is the best meal for as little as possible. It rules out ramen every time and means we spend two hours our first day looking for a good $1 swarma guy. 😀
Lounges. Unfortunately I’m not above eating lounge food as dinner. It’s like the exception to my “good” rule. We usually are in the room working 8 to 10 hours a day, so timing it isn’t a big deal.
Wow, great prices on meals!
I guess I could not relate because, although I too like to eat like locals, the *places* I traveled recently included Iceland, Norway, the UK, — well, *expensive* places…
Like, the most expensive places. I think next you need to go to the Maldives, Bora Bora, and Switzerland. 😀
Hey Drew, regarding the BRGs, do you have a bunch of sites you check to find lower rates? Mind sharing? Thx!
I’ve written a fair bit about searching for them using main sites like Kayak, Trivago, HotelsCombined, Wego. The thing I like about Kayak is that you can change it based on country.
Those may all be over fished points, but it’s a great starting point. Oddly enough I found one site googling for booking sites. A lot of wasted hours with one good result. I learned a lot from friends at https://travelmagic.be/forum/ … and one tip I kinda became aware of is that the BRGs come from the same sites for a specific hotel. So I had luck site searching flyertalk for the hotel name and best rate guarantee. Small tip, that some times works, but effective when it does work.
Maybe I missed it but I thought you were going to do a big post with information you couldn’t disclose previously (on the earning side, etc.), and you locked yourself in a hotel for a week to do this… whatever came of that?
I’m locking myself into another hotel for longer to get it done. 😀
I wrote an update post and didn’t post, cuz it basically said all the same things, and still said nothing. Maybe I should though.
My friend has a saying called “Milner’s Law”. “Milner’s law is that all projects take longer than expected, even when taking into account Milener’s law”.
Haha — well I’m looking forward to it, whenever it comes up! I do think yours is the most useful blog out there (just basic stuff — like the chart of hotel elite status — hasn’t been done by anyone else but you). Keep it up!
How did you get 5 nights at the two Hiltons in Egypt for 20,000 points? Isn’t the lowest category hotel 5,000 a night?
I have about 60,000 Hilton points and I’d love to know how to stretch them that much.
5th night free. The Dreams hotel was terrible, and the Waterfalls hotel was awesome if you don’t mind terrible internet.
I’ll write more on Egypt.
Actually I did a post on cheap Egypt hotels:
http://travelisfree.com/2015/07/30/egypt-land-of-the-most-free-hotels-and-cheapest/
I honestly don’t believe you. Close to $500 for food for two for a month. Right! That sounds real .
I was just in Istanbul for 10 days, now I’m in Kiev. If you eat local it’s not hard to find good ‘meals’–swarmas, donners, sandwiches, etc.—in both countries for around a dollar. Since breakfast is included at most hotels and evening hotel lounges usually offer snacks let’s call it 2 meals per day, 30 days per months. In 2 months that’s $120. If you add $150 for miscellaneous it’s about $270. Double that is $540. I think Drew’s numbers are very believable.
I’m not sure how serious to take this… but…
As I said above, our favorite place in Ankara was 4 dishes for 8 TRY, which is $2.74. Soup, two dishes and desert for $3, and we’d split it.
So if we did that everyday twice a day, we coulda spent $180 for the entire month for two. This is probably much more than a local person would spend on groceries and stuff.
Very nice job. I wish we had your discipline. We spend way more but mostly because we are lazy. lol Can you email me the details on IC Istanbul BRG, if it sill exists?
actually, the DT BRG too if you have it. 🙂 Hopefully i can offer some good info in return, sometime.
Actually the IHG BRG was a different site each time, just a bit of digging.
The DoubleTree was super easy, it was like Priceline or something both times, and just like the first thing that showed up on Kayak.
No top secret site to give unfortunately.
Drew, I think you need to do a “darker” post related to the way you try local food. I really would like to know how to avoid stomach related problems. I mean after a while your body gets used to it, but you switch places so often. Don’t get me wrong there are some really good street vendors out there, but Egypt, India etc. some of those places are scary for me from the perspective of street food.
Hey, I just found your site. Very nice! What do you guys do for income?
Drew, Just rode tandems through Europe for 4 months with kids and now we are hooked. I started the applying process (Chase Ink) but they gave me a 1-month wait time. Can I already apply for another card or do I wait? Can I apply for a business card for each rental under an LLC?