The time has finally come for me to make my first attempt at what an actual travel hack looks like since I’ve now teased the monetary benefits a few times now. Admittedly, the details are a little fuzzy since I didn’t know at the time that this would ever make it to print, but I think I’ve recollected enough information to make it worthwhile. So without further ado, here’s our first Travel Hack Recap: Colorado!
Where We Went
If you read my September 2020 and October 2020 financial updates, you may remember that Mrs. FIby35 and I took a trip to Colorado last fall. We spent 4 days/3 nights in 3 different cities: Glenwood Springs, Colorado Springs, and Denver.
Day 1: Travel Day!
Travel Day is one of the most exciting and eagerly anticipated days in our household, full of promise and positive attitudes (after Mrs. has had her coffee). We took a 7am Southwest flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Denver, arriving around 8:10am local time, immediately picked up a rental car and hit the road. Denver International Airport is about 15 minutes northeast of downtown, so we hit a little bit of morning rush hour traffic westbound on I-70 heading towards Glenwood Springs. Once we made it through the main metro area, the traffic thinned out and so did the air as we rose in elevation through the Rocky Mountains.
I had never been to Colorado before this, but late September seemed to be a pretty perfect time to visit – no threat of snowy roads and the fall foliage was spectacular. The interstate passes through endless steep mountainsides covered in evergreen trees with pockets of golden aspens mixed in. I’m not usually one to gawk at the beauty of nature, but this is not something we have in Minnesota. It’s a little over 3 hour drive from the Denver airport to Glenwood Springs, and the last hour or so between Vail and Glenwood Springs is especially scenic: high mountain cliffs surround you as the interstate winds through a narrow valley following the Colorado River.
We arrived in Glenwood Springs around noon and found a local Nepalese place for lunch based on Yelp reviews. Not too shabby, but nothing to write home (or on this blog) about. From there, we had purchased a Groupon for a brewery just a few minutes south of the downtown area. As you’ll soon realize, I’m a sucker for craft beer and discounts – mix the two together and I’m in heaven.
After the brewery, we checked in to the hotel (Residence Inn Glenwood Springs, which we paid for using a free award night certificate), and got ready for the night’s main attraction: hot springs! Iron Mountain Hot Springs was just across the river from our hotel and cost $25 per person for 2 hours of soaking in natural hot springs of various temperatures. We got there around 6pm and relaxed while watching the sun set over the surrounding mountains – a very serene setting that I can imagine would have been even better after a long day of hiking. Highly recommend.
Day 2: Colorado Springs
After grabbing our breakfast-to-go from the hotel, we hit the road again, this time back east to Frisco and then south-southeast to Colorado Springs. After passing through the quaint ski towns of Vail and Breckenridge and crossing the Continental Divide, the topography changes drastically. Steep mountain passes give way to vast, open ranchland as far as the eye can see. I’ll admit, this was a pretty boring part of the drive, but still interesting in a “see-the-world” kind of way. At long last, we made it back into the mountains, past Pikes Peak, and into Colorado Springs.
First stop: brewery! Another discounted round of libations ensued, followed by the main attraction of Garden of the Gods. I probably won’t do the park justice here, since I’m usually not into hiking or nature. But it was a decent way to spend time and get some exercise after several hours in the car (and free!). We followed it up by hitting two more breweries before calling it a night at the Hyatt Place Colorado Springs. Did I need that much beer? Probably not. But I had heard the craft beer scene in Colorado was top notch, so I figured I should probably verify for myself. Visit Colorado Springs also offers the Crafts & Drafts pass, a free mobile app with lots of discounts on local food, drinks, and attractions.
Day 3: Denver
Another quick breakfast at the hotel, followed by more driving. This stretch of the trip was on a Friday morning so we did hit a bit of traffic as we neared Denver, though it was still only a little over an hour from Colorado Springs. We checked in to the hotel (Magnolia Hotel Denver, another Marriott property), left our bags, and ventured out on foot. After a brief stop at another brewery (hey, we had time to kill), we met up for our food tour hosted by Delicious Denver Food Tours.
You’ll notice that food and drink typically makes up the largest portion of our vacation spending. One of our favorite ways to satiate our desire for the local fare is through food tours, which usually come with a bit of history of the city as well. We’ve participated in several cities so far (New Orleans, Las Vegas, Seattle, Nashville, St. Augustine, FL) so it’s fun to compare and contrast. While still a good way to fill our bellies and get to know the city, this particular tour was pretty average by our standards. By this point, we were also a little Colorado’d out, so we played a quick round of mini golf and ordered Ubereats from our hotel room to finish the night.
Day 4: Travel Home
Nothing of note here. Just returned the rental car and flew home.
How Much We Spent (and Saved)
This is a money blog, so let’s talk about money. After all, I’ve teased the life-altering benefits of travel hacking for some time now. How did this trip measure up?
| Category | Budget | Actual | Notes |
| Flights | $22.40 | $22.40 | $5.60 per person per flight + 5,680 Southwest Rapid Rewards miles |
| Hotels | $0.00 | $0.00 | 2 Marriott free award nights + 10,196 Citi Thank-You points |
| Food/Drink | $360.00 | $374.81 | $137.80 + tip for the food tour alone; the rest was mostly beer |
| Entertainment | $118.00 | $72.00 | $50.00 for hot springs, $22.00 for mini golf |
| Transportation | $105.00 | $114.27 | $45 of this was the Lyft from MSP airport home; also cost 13,950 Citi Thank-You points for the rental car |
| TOTAL | $605.40 | $583.48 |
We certainly could have cut out a good chunk of the spending by forgoing the food tour, but as I mentioned above, it’s a favorite activity of ours. You can’t go wrong with spending only $22 total for flights and hotels. Here’s where I fail you a bit…I didn’t make a note of the cash value of those flights or hotel nights at the time, so the value of the points we redeemed is hard to quantify. Quickly looking it up as I write this post, comparable flights are about $200 per person round trip, hotel rooms total about $400, and a rental car is about $250. While not exact since this post is nearly 6 months after the trip, it’s pretty safe to assume we saved around $1,000 by travel hacking our trip to Colorado.
Conclusion
Nothing against Colorado, but I’m more excited about the money we saved by travel hacking than by the events of the trip itself. It certainly wasn’t bad, and there were some enjoyable experiences – incredible views, hot springs, beer… I can see the draw for the outdoorsy types, with all kinds of nature to be explored. All in all, it was a trip we desperately needed after several months of COVID lockdown, and Colorado presented a reasonably-priced getaway given the travel restrictions in place at the time. It’s probably not high on my list, but I would probably return again someday. Still so many more breweries to visit…
