Loyalty programs naturally want to reward their most loyal and valuable travelers, and many do so by offering elite status to travelers who spend the most money or time with them. If you hold mid- to top-tier elite status with a loyalty program — and travel with the program frequently — you’ll likely get thousands…
If you’re dreaming of sophisticated beach clubs offering lavish oceanfront vacations under the European sun — places that are frequented by celebrities, with marinas where billionaires moor superyachts — Turkey might not be the first place that comes to mind. BEN SMITHSON/THE POINTS GUY However, while the well-heeled in Europe traditionally flock to the French…
Icon of the Seas is about to get some serious competition. Fast-growing MSC Cruises on Friday gave TPG a sneak peek at the giant ship it’s building to take on the much-ballyhooed Royal Caribbean vessel in the Caribbean, and it was a sight to behold. Enormous water slides, giant pool zones and an impressive indoor…
Whether you’re talking about a mass-market cruise on a megaship or a full-on luxury experience with attentive crew members doting on you day and night, if your goal is to squeeze every bit of value out of those hard-earned vacation dollars, you need to know a few things. A little precruise planning, coupled with onboard…
You pay hundreds of dollars annually for a card that offers you lounge access — and then you get to the airport only to face a long line at the lounge entrance. Many TPG readers and staffers have experienced this as the number of those receiving access to issuer-branded lounges has swelled over the past…
A royal treatment on rails is coming to England and Wales. This week Belmond announced plans for the Britannic Explorer, a Belmond Train — set to be the first luxury sleeper train in England in Wales when it debuts in July of next year. The Britannic Explorer will depart from London Victoria Station on three-night…
We all want to cherish the Christmas magic, but it’s not always easy to do when faced with a whirlwind of planning, shopping, cooking and end-of-year logistics. Sometimes the magic is easier to capture when you step out of your normal life for a minute and into somewhere different — like a theme park that…
It’s been four years since Disney announced Splash Mountain would close at Disneyland and Walt Disney World to remove the culturally insensitive theming and make way for a new, more modern, more inclusive story. The ride opened at Disneyland in 1989 (and then a few years later at Disney World in 1992), with music and…
Those big welcome bonuses that can come with new credit cards after you hit a spending threshold can really accelerate you to a great vacation courtesy of your points and miles. But, after you get past that glitzy reason to add a new credit card to your wallet, there’s more that rewards cards can do…
It’s always a good time to visit Yosemite National Park, but the last half of February is an especially popular time to travel to California’s most-visited national park. The reason? Yosemite’s annual “firefall” — an eye-catching optical illusion that makes Horsetail Fall appear on fire when a few conditions sync up perfectly. The National Park…