New Braunfels – Your Mileage May Vary

I Want The Buc-ee’s TDECU Credit Union MasterCard. Here’s Why.

I have many travel credit cards to my name (even more if you count the ones that Sharon has). I keep some of them, like the American Express Everyday Preferred, because they earn a lot of points. I have other cards, such as the Citi Prestige and the Chase Sapphire Reserve, because of the travel benefits they offer. I keep even others because of the very specific perks I get – the Chase Disney Visa is a good example of that.

It’s rare that I come across a credit card that I’ve never heard about and even rarer that I find a card I want to have for no rational reason at all. But leave it to me…I found one.

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Flash Sale! Buy IHG Points For 0.5 Cents Each

IHG, the parent company of Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and the Intercontinental hotels, is having a flash sale to buy points for the IHG Rewards Club program. They’re offering a 100% bonus on purchased miles for now until March 22, 2018. I’m not a big fan of purchasing miles without a use in mind but it’s really easy to get at least 0.5 cents per point value out of IHG points. For a while, I found IHG points to be the best value of any hotel program.

I maxed out my IHG point purchase last year when I bought 60,000 points during one of these 100% bonus promotions, ending up with 120,000 IHG points in my account. Unfortunately, those points are still sitting there. I don’t feel that was a bad purchase; I haven’t found a good time to redeem them. I did lose out by holding on to them because the value of my points decreased when IHG increased the points needed to redeem a free night at several hotels we like to stay at.

I’m still going to buy points again during this flash sale. Why?

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Our Disneyland Backup Plan, The Best Travel Jacket, Funny Airplane Employee Announcements + More…

Happy Saturday, friends. Sharon’s busy baking the first batch of Christmas cookies for the season, so I’m here writing the weekly recap. I’m not gonna complain because her cookies are really yummy.

This week Sharon wrote about:

The policies of each rental car company in regards to paying for tolls during your rental.
What might be the world’s best travel jacket.
A report about our visit to the Moonlight Magic DVC exclusive event at Epcot.
The 75 funniest announcements made by airplane employees.
You can now buy tickets to the Museum of Ice Cream in Miami.

Joe wrote about:

An example of how having miles and points can save you a bunch of money on your hotel stay.
Fortunately, our back up plan for Disneyland worked out well.
Our favorite places to eat when visiting Schitterbahn, just outside Austin, TX.
The credit card I keep for the long term because of its killer benefit.
The Hyatt hotels near Walt Disney World that you stay in with the free night you get from the Hyatt Credit card.

Like this post? We have plenty more just like it and would love if you decided to hang around and clicked the button on the top of this page to follow our blog and get emailed notifications of when we post (it’s usually just once or twice a day). Whether you’ve read our posts before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!

Our Favorite Places to Eat When Visiting Schlitterbahn (Austin, New Braunfels and Driftwood, TX)

We love to visit Schlitterbahn Water Park in New Braunfels, TX. We’ve been going for over a decade and in that time we’ve managed to find some restaurants that keep us going back to them time after time after time. They are our local comfort foods and we enjoy eating at these places so much that it’s difficult for us to break away and try anywhere else. Just like when we go to New York and have to eat pizza, bagels and corned beef sandwiches, when we go to Texas we need to eat barbecue, grilled meats and down home Texas comfort food.

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Why You Should Visit Cities After Natural Disasters

You watch the news and see stories about natural disasters all the time. Right now I’m watching people I know post from Key West, talking about the destruction caused there by Hurricane Irma. Natural events happen. Hurricanes, Floods, Tornadoes. Earthquakes. Wildfires. We can’t avoid them.

One thing you need to know is the people who live in these areas often make their living by providing for the numerous tourists who flock to visit. After cleaning up and getting basic services on line, the next priority is to get the guest areas ready as quickly as possible, often even before cleaning up their own personal properties.

That’s why you need to support these places instead of putting off trips because the area might still be “recovering.”

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Hotel Review: Candlewood Suites, New Braunfels, Texas

Every time you choose what hotel to stay at, there’s usually a list of things you want from that hotel. It could be specific amenities, or a particular location or you may be looking for a certain level of service. These things will ultimately lead you to your perfect choice (or the closest thing to perfect you can get).

I’ll admit the list of requirements we had that lead to our first stay at the Candlewood Suites last year, and had us return there this year, were very specific and very, well, “us.” The list included:

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