normandy
After my biggest travel oops ever! I was able to recover, thanks to points and miles. I realized I had booked our trip to Prague for the wrong week. Even though they both attend the same university, only one of my kids was done with classes the week I scheduled our trip. I had to cancel everything and start from scratch for our family's European Vacation.
Here is how I booked our replacement trip.
Flights - I knew flights would be our largest expense for this trip, especially so late in the game. I started looking on the website point.me (I get this search engine free with my Amex Platinum Card.) I looked at Prague first - this was a no go on points at this late date. Luckily, my family likes to travel, so I started looking at big cities in Europe. I looked at Amsterdam, London, Paris, and more. I knew we could get to and from Paris for 30,000 points a ticket, and the flights didn’t have crazy layovers. From Paris, I knew we could head to Normandy or travel to Brugges, Amsterdam, or many other European cities. We quickly decided on Paris since we could get there for free on points. I knew I could make a fantastic European vacation flying into Paris.
Hotels - Next, I started looking at hotels in Normandy. My husband has always wanted to go to Rouen. I was so excited when I saw a Hyatt Place starting at 5000 points a night. I had hoped to stay 4 free nights and do our tours there. However, all the tours from Rouen were booked, so I had to pivot. We decided to stay 2 nights in Rouen and then travel to Caen. I booked two nights in Caen. We are doing tours in Caen and Bayeux. I checked the train schedules and feel confident we can get to Bayeux from Caen the morning of our tour. After Caen we will take a train back to Paris and stay 2 nights in Paris at the Hilton Opera House. This is our splurge hotel. I debated this hotel because we need two rooms, but thanks to my husband’s diamond status, we will have access to the executive lounge. We get the diamond status free thanks to our Hilton Aspire card. You can learn more about that here.
Tours — Instead of renting a car in France, we decided to take tours to Mont St. Michel and the D-Day beaches. Tours in Normandy fill up well in advance, so I worked as fast as possible to find available tours. I cannot tell you how excited I was when I got confirmation for tours from Viator. I like booking through Viator since you can schedule your tours in advance, and payment isn’t due until closer to the tour date.
After I knew we were settled on Normandy I ordered Rick Steves book on the area. You can find it here on amazon.
Rick Steves Normandy
Our family has used Rick Steves books for as long as we have been traveling to Europe. They are excellent guides of the area.
I left two days into our trip to return to Paris. We plan on heading to Versailles. My husband and I did it 10 years ago, but the boys have never been. We also wanted to spend some time in Paris. When we took the boys 9 years ago they loved the war musuem Les Invalides. They both want to go there again.
I feel lucky that, thanks to points and miles, I booked us a European family vacation this summer. We only had to pay taxes and fees for our flights to Paris. I booked free hotel rooms in Rouen. We are paying for our rooms in Caen and Paris due to convenience.
