This is a continuation of my 2025 Year in Travel series. Check out Part 1 here before you read this.
To recap from earlier, in 2025:
- 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.
October: New York City
While I was in Boston, I met someone who introduced me to Transportation Camp, a grassroots organized mini transportation conference. The NYC Transportation Camp was only one day at NYU Tandon, so I figured it would be fun to attend the conference and have a few days to screw around in New York on top.
- Transportation Camp was a lot of fun! I saw a number of people I previously met in Boston, as well as a friend I had originally met my freshman year through a transportation club at USC. Some sessions were excellent, I learned a lot about the very complicated history of the Northeast’s intercity bus companies at a session on Megabus. Others were less so, a session about PATH’s problems turned into 20 train nerds yelling at each other in a classroom, which was about as pleasant as you’d expect. In any case, I’m excited to go to another Transportation Camp event in the future.
- I found a great Hyatt redemption for a Hyatt Regency at Exchange Place in Jersey City. Hotels in New York are notoriously expensive; this redemption saved me almost $1,200 cash in lodging expenses for this trip. The hotel had a breathtaking view of Lower Manhattan across the Hudson, and it’s right on top of Exchange Place PATH station. I think I got from my hotel room door to the World Trade Center in less than 20 minutes, which is awesome – and faster than my friends who live in New York City proper!
- The Tenement Museum was a great hidden gem. My tour guide (the museum is guided tours only) shared the oral history of three immigrant families in the Lower East Side with brilliant detail and sensitivity. I learned one of the families’ kids became president of his HOA while in high school. I wish I was that accomplished during high school 🙂
- Governor’s Island was a surprisingly good visit despite being on the fringes of winter. It was peaceful and I enjoyed taking a few laps around the island with a Citi Bike. Cell service is good on the part facing the Brooklyn Bridge, so it was also a nice place to join class from.
- Long distance transportation: $312.16
- Lodging: 51,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points
- Local transportation: $90.18
- Activities: $166.37
- Food: $282.79
- Total: $861.50 + 51,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points
November: Rural New England & White Mountains
I booked this trip on a whim after hearing about JetBlue’s Halloween fare promotion, which offered flights for $31 per segment almost anywhere in the JetBlue network. I was actually originally planning to go to Presque Isle, Maine, having booked a flight while severely sleep deprived in a London hotel room. I balked after seeing the ridiculous cost of lodging and rental cars in Presque Isle and decided to just fly to Boston and road-trip New England instead.
- A pro of flying on Halloween is getting goodies everywhere! I had a layover at DEN, where a bunch of United employees were dressed up handing out candy in the terminals. I got a bunch of Reese’s pieces from a Luigi. The DEN Capital One lounge was also giving away goodie bags complete with cookies, beignets, and other sweets.
- New Hampshire’s White Mountains and Vermont’s Green Mountains were much quieter than I expected, probably because I visited past peak foliage season but before peak ski season. I’ve heard crazy horror stories on Reddit about sitting in traffic on some of the major roads in the mountains, but all of my drives were peaceful and quiet. A much needed respite from Los Angeles traffic.
- Franconia Notch State Park is truly stunning, even without peak foliage. I’m surprised it’s not talked about more. The trails were all well-maintained and quiet, I believe I hiked around 10 miles on the day I dedicated to the state park. There’s a place called Artist’s Bluff that has to be seen to be believed. Look up pictures and you’ll know what I mean.
- Although renting a car was pricey thanks to the Boston airport fees and underage surcharges, I felt the overall price of this trip was very manageable. A big part of this was thanks to the extremely cheap off-peak lodging in rural Vermont and New Hampshire. I stayed a night in a motel near Franconia Notch for less than $60, probably because I was the only guest there…
- Long distance transportation: $238.36 + $78.48 Capital One Venture X travel credits
- Lodging: $142.97
- Part of my hotel stays were free thanks to Chase Travel promos
- Local transportation: $353.82
- Most of the cost is rental car and fuel
- Activities: $61.00
- Food: $109.93
- Total: $906.08 + $78.48 Capital One Venture X travel credits
November: New York City
What’s well known is that Qatar Airways can be a sweet spot for US domestic flight points redemptions thanks to their partnership with JetBlue and their fixed rate award chart. What I didn’t know until I booked this trip is that a transcontinental itinerary can be had for very few Capital One Miles by combining a transfer bonus and British Airways’ Avios Boost feature. This strategy saved me a ton of money on a last-minute flight to New York around Thanksgiving time.
- Mercer Labs was a highlight of the trip. It’s an “immersive art” type museum, very heavy on technology and “immersive” projections. I’ve been to a number of similar places like the Van Gogh immersive experience which were generally bad/overrated. But Mercer Labs was well-designed and had a wide variety of interesting exhibitions. It was a little small for the price, I got through it in about an hour, but this belongs squarely in the “good museums” bucket.
- This trip was much more food-centric than usual. A few places I really liked were Mari Vanna (Russian), Via Carota (Italian, definitely reserve well in advance or try to get a lunch walk-in), and Bangkok Supper Club (Thai, 1 Michelin star). Katana Kitten, frequent appearance in the world’s 100 Best bars list, has an amazing house-made matcha liqueur. I’d seen a lot about Misi in Williamsburg on food blogs and Instagram but the food quality was genuinely disappointing, I wouldn’t recommend.
- Despite spending a lot of money on food, the total cost of this trip was still very low thanks to free lodging and cheap flights.
- Long distance transportation: 7,800 Capital One Miles + $121.50
- Lodging: $0, I stayed in a friend’s apartment
- Local transportation: $64.39
- Activities: $50.09
- Food: $384.49
- Total: $640.47
December: Aruba
I didn’t have any final exams this semester so I decided to find somewhere warm and interesting to visit during finals week. Aruba fit the bill, and I took advantage of some JetBlue Buddy Passes from a friend to fly there relatively cheaply.
- I was very lucky and managed to get JetBlue Mint, which is their domestic transcontinental lie-flat business class product, on standby in both directions. This was my first time flying Mint (but not business class in general), and I think it’s a fantastic product – certainly leagues above any other US domestic business class. Being able to enjoy a full, plated meal, personalized service, and a real bed on cross-country flights is a game changer. (I even got a full row of Mint seats to myself on my flight back home which was an even better experience)
- I stayed at the Renaissance Wind Creek resort in Oranjestad. This resort is normally $600+ per night, but stacking an airline crewmember room rate and a Chase Offer brought the price down to less than $200/night, an amazing deal!
- The Renaissance resort is the only one in Aruba with a completely private island and beaches, complete with flamingoes and iguanas. I loved the island – it’s far quieter than any other beach in Aruba (even those in front of other resorts), and the beachside drink/food service is a nice luxury. The hotel wifi covers the entire island too. The daily resort fee also includes access to kayaks and paddleboards but I didn’t have time to try these.
- A standout part of my time in Aruba was the prevalence of chef’s table culinary experiences, where a very small group of diners (<20) can eat and chat with the restaurant’s chef directly as they prepare multiple courses from scratch. Besides having amazing food, the chef’s tables are a great way to meet other people. I did one as a solo diner and ended up chatting with the restaurant owner along with a guest who was an Indycar driver for several hours.
- The duty free store at Aruba’s international airport is surprisingly good. I managed to pick up a couple of local beers and liquors which normally can’t be exported from the island.
- One thing I wish I had time to do is a tour of the Aruban water company’s desalination plant! Aruba doesn’t have any natural sources of fresh water, so all of its water is produced using desalination. A docent I chatted with at the Museum of Industry tipped me off about this one. Where else in the world can you get a free tour of a mission-critical desalination plant?!
- Local transportation in Aruba is ridiculously expensive. A lot of travel bloggers recommend using the taxis, but those are around the same price as the US. The fares are supposed to be regulated by the government but every driver I had tried to charge more than the government rate, which made taking taxis unpleasant at best. I also rented a 4×4 truck to explore the national park; this, too, was expensive because few companies on the island a) have 4×4 vehicles and b) will rent them to someone under 23 years old.
- Overall, despite being beautiful and having wonderful people, Aruba was not one of my favorite places I’ve visited this year. I felt the daytime activities in particular are limited, true to the common assessment that the best things to do are just sit at the beach, eat a nice dinner, and maybe party/drink every day. This isn’t usually what I’m trying to do while travelling.
- Long distance transportation: $491.78
- Lodging: $164.15 + $300 Citi Strata Elite annual hotel credit
- Local transportation: $515.87
- Activities: $22.00
- Food: $475.33
- Connectivity: $0
- Local cellular connectivity is very expensive in Aruba due to the telecom duopoly so I ended up using the Visa Infinite free GigSky eSIM benefit and free roaming on my T-Mobile for Business plan
- Other: $20.00
- Aruba charges a small “Sustainability Fee” to enter the country
- Total: $1689.13 + $300 Citi Strata Elite annual hotel credit
December: Cancun & Tulum
What more American way to celebrate New Year’s than going to an American-dominated tourist town in Mexico? I wanted to go somewhere during the winter, so when a friend floated the idea of going to Mexico I figured it’d be interesting. Plus, I’ve never actually been to Cancun before despite living in prime snowbird territory most of my life.
- Having a Fidelity Cash Management debit card was a genuine lifesaver in Mexico. For some reason, despite ATMs being ubiquitous, approximately every ATM charges ridiculous fees to use it (to the tune of 10+ USD with a 15%+ markup on the exchange rate!). At the same time, many, many activities from dining to transportation are cash-only in Mexico. So having a card that doesn’t charge a foreign currency conversion fee and reimburses ATM fees probably saved me over $100 this trip. Fidelity doesn’t charge any fees for having this debit card, to boot!
- Getting around Cancun and the east coast of Quintana Roo state can be challenging given the strong grip the local taxi unions have. I found the long distance bus company (ADO, which also operates Mayab, Oriente, and AU branded buses) to be very good for intercity transportation; their buses and service are of excellent quality and frequency, and fares are reasonable. In some parts of Quintana Roo, Uber and other rideshare apps aren’t allowed to operate. In these places, InDrive is a great local app to find a taxi driver and negotiate the fare before even getting in the car (though the app doesn’t handle payment, you need to pay the driver in cash). Otherwise, Uber and DiDi (the Chinese rideshare app) both work well.
- Be careful with Airbnbs in Mexico! My experience with the two Airbnbs I stayed in on this trip is that Airbnb quality is much more variable than in the US. My first Airbnb, despite being rated quite high, had many problems with a non-functioning toilet, bad shower, cleanliness, etc. My second was a “boutique hotel” that didn’t seem to pay much attention to cleaning rooms between guests. Neither place had working hot water.
- There are a lot of ads everywhere for the Xcaret Group parks, including Xcaret, Xel-Ha, Xenses, and Xplor (which I visited). I think these parks are frankly overpriced and overrated – the full day and $140 I spent at Xplor could have been better spent on other activities that would have been much more thrilling and interesting. As with many amusement parks, crowds are large and the activities are designed for quantity, not quality; don’t let the advertising fool you otherwise. These places are probably more fun for families with kids.
- Access to nature in Mexico is commercialized to a degree that would be foreign to Americans. You should expect to pay much more to access a protected natural area, a cenote, etc., than you would for a meal or even a hotel room.
- I didn’t like Cancun very much. The nightlife is great, but as with Aruba, there isn’t much do during the daytime; it’s very obvious that Cancun is completely synthetic, built from the ground up for tourists. Tulum is a bit better on this front. However, the volume of tourists in general is much, much greater in Quintana Roo than Aruba. Also, Mexican Caribbean beaches are not nearly as nice as Aruba – despite being naturally beautiful, they’re often littered with trash and sargassum. The water is much rougher, too.
- Even though lodging costs on this trip were among the lowest of my trips in 2025, the total cost is still on the higher end, mostly driven by the cost of activities. This makes sense, I spent a lot more on things like organized tours, amusement parks, and cover charges than I normally would. I guess this shows that Mexico, despite having much lower purchasing power than the US, is not necessarily cheap for tourists!
- Long distance transportation: 39,900 Delta SkyMiles + $169.87
- Lodging: $280.65 + 9,000 Chase URs
- Local transportation: $84.97
- Activities: $491.40
- Food: $290.06
- Connectivity: $16.77
- I purchased a local SIM from Virgin Mobile Mexico that I can reuse for my next trip to Mexico in January 2026. Interestingly, this MVNO offers free, unlimited social media and mapping app usage which I think is pretty neat and useful.
- Total: $1358.14 + 39,900 Delta SkyMiles + 9,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points
Bottom line
I’m hoping my year in travel posts show that it is possible to travel quite a lot as a student, and certainly without a trust fund 😉 More important than money are a flexible schedule, the ability to plan in advance, and willingness to learn. Pair that with some churning and perhaps friends who work in the aviation and/or hospitality industries, and it’s a golden ticket to amazing experiences. I’m hoping to capitalize on my remaining few months of time freedom before I start working full-time, so expect a jam-packed 2026 travel in review!