2025 has been a fantastic travel year for me. This is really the first time I’ve had the flexibility to travel essentially whenever I want, especially in Q3 and Q4 of 2025, when I only had class two days a week and a nearly fully-remote job.
Here it is by the numbers, not counting any trips that were one day or shorter:
- I took 41 flights, totalling 91,471 miles which is 3.7 times around the Earth
- I spent 208 hours 29 minutes or 8.7 days inside a plane
- I visited 21 different destinations in 8 countries across 17 trips
- I spent $12,629.99 on travel
Most of these trips were booked or funded using points or other value from a credit card or bank account bonus. Even though I travel a lot, I’m spending a relatively small proportion of my earned income on this. More details in my 2025 churning post. I’ll also break down the cost of each trip with the following categories. I’m tracking each of these metrics using my budgeting app, Actual Budget.
| Category | Description | Total Spent in 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Long-distance transportation | Plane tickets and long-distance trains | 79,300 Capital One miles 39,900 Delta SkyMiles $368.48 Capital One Venture X travel credit $3,292.10 cash |
| Lodging | Housing, includes hotels, hostels, Airbnbs, etc. | 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points $300.00 Citi Strata Elite hotel credit $3,146.01 cash |
| Local transportation | Short distance transportation, includes subway/metro, local bus, non-intercity rail, rideshare, rental cars, fuel, parking, etc. | $1,640.72 cash |
| Activities | Things to do at my destination, includes entertainment tickets, museums, tours, admission, etc. | $1,273.13 cash |
| Food | Restaurants, groceries, and drinks | $2,779.48 cash |
| Connectivity | Cellular connectivity (SIM cards and Wi-Fi) | $92.03 cash |
| Other | Any other expenses I felt worth mentioning (I won’t always show this category if the expenses aren’t that interesting) | |
| Grand total | Sum of all categories above | 79,300 Capital One miles 39,900 Delta SkyMiles 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points (cash equivalent of points is $3,346.38) $368.48 Capital One Venture X travel credit $300.00 Citi Strata Elite hotel credit $12,629.99 cash ($15,976.37 including cash equivalent of points) |
March: London, Lisbon, Paris
This was my first major trip after earning my first large credit card sign-up bonuses towards the end of 2024. I spent a little more than a week in Western Europe with a friend for spring break. Some highlights:
- This was my first time staying in a Premier Inn! I thought the property I stayed at in Shoreditch, London was excellent value – less than $100/night to be within a 5 minute walk of an Overground station. I wish there were hotel chains of the same breed in the US, offering a consistently good product at a low price, in high cost of living places.
- I became a member of the London Transport Museum Friends and Amis du Louvre (“Friends of the Louvre”). Both of these museum memberships are well worth the money, and both are on par with or cheaper than the price of regular one-day admission assuming you’re under 26. The Amis du Louvre membership in particular is a steal because it’s not only half the price of regular admission, but also removes the need to book a reservation in advance and gives you access to a priority area to enter the Louvre, free of the huge queues that can impact the main entrance.
- I really liked Lisbon, and I think it’s an underrated city. The city itself isn’t large (the population is about the same as Detroit, Michigan), but there’s a vast selection of things to do, even when the weather isn’t good – it was raining the whole week I was there. Standouts for me were the National Tile Museum, which was a rather unique museum experience showcasing Portugal’s unique Azulejos tile art for just 5 Euros; and the MAAT, which was an interesting sustainability, art, and science museum housed in a former coal-fired power plant. Lisbon has beautiful, distinctive architecture that suits its unique topography well, too.
- Lisbon’s food scene is excellent. Prices are very reasonable relative to American cities, and the food quality is fantastic. A number of my personal top-ranked restaurants are in Lisbon, my favorite is Tasca Baldracca. And the pastel de nata… 😅 The biggest challenge is that many of these restaurants are small and don’t take reservations so being at the door before opening can be important.
- Virgin Atlantic’s Economy Saver fares are a great deal for off-peak award travel to Europe. Granted, taxes and carrier-imposed fees are high, especially on flights originating in Europe. But it’s hard to argue with a one-way flight from the US’s West Coast to London for just 9,000 Capital One Miles or less with a transfer bonus.
- Getting around was noticeably more expensive in London and Paris than in Lisbon. In fact, in Lisbon, my average rideshare (Bolt/Uber) fare was under $10, while I could expect to pay much more than that in either of the other cities. I also generally used transport services less in Lisbon given that it’s geographically smaller than London or Paris.
- Long distance transportation: 23,500 Capital one miles + $263.95 + $144.20 Capital One Venture X travel credits
- Lodging: $649.46
- I earned a 20,000 UR point bonus for booking on Chase Travel
- Local transportation: $177.88
- Activities: $226.57
- Food: $433.98
- Connectivity: $9.73
- I used a cheap Lycamobile UK prepaid eSIM + the included EU roaming for the whole trip
- Total: $1,766.77 + 23,500 Capital One miles + $144.20 Capital One Venture X travel credits
May: London, Zurich, Paris
This was my second trip to London in as many months. I took advantage of Virgin Atlantic and Air France award saver fares for another saver roundtrip in economy.
- The London Transport Museum’s Hidden London tours are awesome! I toured the disused parts of Baker Street tube station and learned a lot about the Metropolitan Railway, which was the first real Underground line in London. Plus it’s pretty neat to see all of the non-public parts of a huge station like Baker Street.
- The Victora & Albert Museum in Kensington is fantastic – the Cast Courts are super unique and the scale of the works contained is mind-boggling. I’ve always liked how publicly-owned museums in London are free.
- I went to a few museums in Paris, too. The Musée d’Orsay and Musée de l’Orangerie have a membership program called Carte Blanche (“white card”). The Carte Blanche is cheaper than one-day admission for young people and it allowed me to cut the line (both aspects very similar to the Amis du Louvre membership) which was great. Plus, being a member of the Amis du Louvre gives a small discount on the Carte Blanche price.
- I also got to see the Centre Pompidou just a few months before the 5-year closure lasting until 2030 (!) began.
- Zurich has a wonderful museum called Mühlerama, a self-described “competence center for food culture and food policy”. In practice, this means you can learn how to make bread completely from scratch – the museum staff literally provide a bag of grains that need to be milled, turned into dough, and then baked. I loved the experience!
- I met up with some friends in Zurich, which was a lot of fun.
- In Paris, I stayed in this weird “aparthotel” that I found on Booking.com that also advertises itself as a “Résidence séniors” (senior residence). I thought this was strange but it was actually a pretty neat setup, some of the apartments are for seniors to live in and others are short-term rentals. Basically, I got a whole studio apartment to myself for a much lower price than I would have paid for an Airbnb or similar. I didn’t have time to check them out, but the building management were also organizing activities that the seniors and short-term residents alike could participate in, which seems cool.
- I had to check out Disneyland Paris while in France. Unfortunately, it feels like a forgotten sibling compared to the other Disney parks I’ve been to, even though I could tell that the design improved on a lot of problems that the original Disneyland in Anaheim must contend with. The upside: There were so few visitors that I was able to finish the entire park in less than 6 hours. At least Space Mountain and the drone-based pyro show were really good.
- Long distance transportation: 30,000 Capital One miles + $377.78 + $145.80 Capital One Venture X travel credits
- Lodging: $718.92
- I saved some money by staying with a friend in Zurich where hotels are notoriously expensive
- Local transportation: $182.15
- Activities: $177.60
- Food: $366.23
- Connectivity: $16.79
- Rather than using a local SIM, I bought an international eSIM from a service called GoMoWorld. This ended up backfiring a bit since I ran out of data in Paris and had to buy a local eSIM from Lycamobile France for a few dollars
- Total: $1,856.16 + 30,000 Capital One miles + $145.80 Capital One Venture X travel credits
August: Stockholm
Following my summer internship, I was looking for a quick trip in the free week I had before school started. A great Finnair economy saver deal brought me to Sweden!
- The Arlanda Express high-speed train from ARN airport to Stockholm Central is something else! The fare is reasonable, if not cheap – about US$17.50 one way for youth under 26. But the best part is that the travel time is just 18 minutes, plus the station is very close to the gate area. It only took 20 minutes for me to get from my gate to central Stockholm, which is a record no other city has even come close to, not even the 460 km/h airport maglev at Shanghai PVG.
- I went to this interesting Viking-themed restaurant in Gamla Stan called Aifur. The restaurant is literally inside a cave and seats everyone at long, communal dining tables. Amusingly, whenever someone new entered the restaurant, the restaurant staff would blow a horn and call out the names of everyone entering, to enthusiastic cheering from the other guests. Their housemade mead was also excellent. Certainly one of the most unique restaurant experiences I’ve ever had!
- The archipelago besides Stockholm is a fascinating place. Despite being rural, the transit service around the region is exemplary. I visited Vaxholm, a town of only 6,000 people. There was an express bus with seven minute frequency serving this town! The area around Vaxholm is naturally beautiful, and there’s a tranquil national park that I enjoyed. It’s rare to find a place where I could be alone in nature less than an hour from a major city’s center. To top it off, the public ferry that I took back to central Stockholm was operating on a 114-year old ship, complete with its original engine and an onboard restuarant serving steaks.
- Overall, this trip was surprisingly affordable given that I was in Sweden for about one week. Lodging and local transportation are especially well-priced compared to other western European destinations. Part of the low cost was because I walked and biked a lot thanks to Stockholm’s great density and my hotel’s free bike rental service.
- Long distance transportation: $537.22
- I paid about US$60 to get a seat assignment and an entire row to myself on the US-bound segment
- Lodging: $306.76
- Local transportation: $74.09
- Activities: $99.08
- Food: $269.14
- Connectivity: $5.87
- Sweden has regulations that prohibit the issuance of SIM cards without a national ID, which obviously makes local carriers mostly inaccessible to foreigners. So I decided to get an eSIM from a random provider off eSIMDB, which was still very cheap and worked fine.
- Total: $1,292.16
September: Monterey, Boston
I guess I’m kind of cheating with this trip because it was partially a business trip; I attended a company retreat at the beautiful Asilomar Hotel in Monterey, California. From Monterey, I drove to SFO then flew to Boston to attend the American Public Transportation Association’s (APTA) annual TRANSform conference.
- Lodging is notoriously expensive in Boston, and going there during two major conferences didn’t help the issue. I ended up staying at the HI Hostel in Chinatown, which was fine, but still $90/night 🤯
- I was staying in Chinatown and Boston’s convention center is in the Seaport, so taking public transit would’ve been a pretty circuitous route. I enjoyed using the public BlueBikes instead, following the nearly continuous protected bike lane to the Seaport. Bikeshare pricing in Boston is more reasonable than in some other cities with Lyft operated bikeshare systems – looking at you, Divvy Bikes!
- I think this was my first trip using the JetBlue Friends & Family discount, which is a perk JetBlue Crewmembers can give out. It basically got me a Blue (full economy) fare for a little less than the price of Blue Basic, plus a free alcoholic drink onboard. Big con is that Friends & Family flights don’t count towards JetBlue’s 25 for 25 promo.
- I won a pair of Bose headphones at the APTA conference, which was a bit strange since I had also won a pair of Sony headphones from a different transportation conference just three months earlier. What are the odds?
- Long distance transportation: $371.56
- Lodging: $266.86
- Local transportation: $27.46
- Activities: $96.00
- Food: $80.55
- Other: Costs don’t include a ~$2900 registration for the APTA conference that the organization comped
- Total: $661.24
October: London
This trip marked my third time in London in 2025. I’ve been to London so much that my academic advisor likes to say I have a secret girlfriend in London. He’s right, her name is Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited.
- Lodging was surprisingly expensive for this trip, even though I travelled during (I think) an off-peak time for London. I stayed at the same property as in May and paid about double the price per night. At least, the Premier Inn Business Booker program was a good find and brought the cost of a refundable booking down to that of a non-refundable booking. I’ll be using that again in the future!
- I really liked the tour of the Palace of Westminster I booked through the UK Parliament. Finding an available time can be hard given the limited availability but the tour is well worth the time. The guides are super knowledgeable! I learned the table in the House of Commons was donated by the government of Canada after the Palaces of Westminster were bombed during WWII, which made me feel patriotic. 🍁
- The Indian food is excellent in London. I got a lucky walk-in to The Tamil Prince in Islington, which is one of the few restaurants where I’ve enjoyed absolutely everything I ordered. Dishoom, despite being a chain, was also a solid no-reservation-needed fallback after getting rejected from Kiln, a nice Thai restaurant in SoHo.
The cost breakdown for this trip is a little strange because of how the transactions are split among the people I went with, so activities are overrepresented and food underrepresented. But the total is accurate.
- Long distance transportation: 18,000 Capital One Miles + $407.92
- Lodging: $616.24
- Local transportation: $69.91
- Activities: $374.42
- Food: $86.98
- Connectivity: $42.87
- Mostly driven by Virgin Atlantic wifi costs, I’d like their 787s more if the wifi was actually good and more reasonably priced
- Total: $1,598.34 + 18,000 Capital One Miles
To be continued
This post is getting too long (first world problem) so keep an eye out for Part 2.