Archives for January 2017

Mike and I recently returned from Guadeloupe. In Part 1, I covered general information about the island, transportation, getting there, and our accommodations. In Part 2, I covered some of the many fun things to do on the island. In Part 3, I’ll go through a breakdown of the cost of our trip. And in Part 4, I’ll talk about the scuba diving, and the dive operator that we used. So without further ado, a breakdown of the cost of our trip to Guadeloupe.

Flights

To get to Guadeloupe, we flew United Airlines from Omaha to Chicago O’Hare to Boston Logan. We then flew Norwegian Airlines from Boston to Pointe-a-Pitre. Our plans to even go to Guadeloupe in the first place started with a discount fare on Norwegian Airlines. You see, Norwegian recently started running direct flights between the US and Guadeloupe, and the US and Martinique. To advertise these new routes, they had a fare sale on the flights.

The cost of Mike’s flight and mine on Norwegian was $576.00 (or $288.00 per person). And this wasn’t the absolute cheapest fare available, as it included 2 checked bags (one for each of us) and seat selections. We initially planned on checking 2 bags, as well as having our carry-on luggage (scuba gear is heavy and takes up lots of space). As the trip approached, we decided that we would in fact need an additional checked bag, because there were weight restrictions on the carry-on luggage, so I added one for an additional $50. If we hadn’t prepaid this fee, it would have been an additional $50 each way, so it was worth prepaying.

Our United flights were paid for with a stash of United miles. I have a United Airlines credit card for my business, so it’s easy to rack up miles. We only had to pay the taxes out-of-pocket, which were $22.40 for both of us (or $11.20 for each of us). And the routes we selected were Saver level awards, ‘costing’ 50,000 miles total (or 25,000 round trip for each of us). And because of having a total of 3 bags (my card got us each a free checked bag), we did have to pay baggage fees for the extra bag of $35 each way.

Accommodations

We had an overnight stay in Boston before our Norwegian flight to Guadeloupe. Because I have an IHG Rewards credit card, we had an annual free night certificate to use. We opted to use it and stay at the Intercontinental in downtown Boston. So the room cost us nothing (or the $49 credit card annual fee if you want to think about it that way), but was running about $400 per night at the time that we booked. So it really was an incredible redemption no matter how you look at it.

Our bungalow in Guadeloupe was booked through Hotels.com. Hotels.com gives you a free night for every 10 that you book. Our trip to Guadeloupe was 7 nights, and we’d had a few previous stays booked through them, so we now have a free night certificate available with them. The total that we paid through Hotels.com was $512.47  for all seven nights (or $73.21 per night). We had to put a deposit down on the room when we arrived, but this was refunded at checkout. And we also had to pay a cleaning fee of 25 euros, unless we wanted to clean the room ourselves (which we didn’t).

Ground Transportation

Our rental car experience was a total disaster! You can read more about it in Part 1. But essentially, the car ended up costing us $278.84. They also tried to charge us a 30 euro cleaning fee, although this had never been authorized in any of our agreements or conversations, and the car was clean when we returned it. I disputed the cleaning fee through my credit card company, so I’m not including it in the total for the rental car. But to avoid dealing with these shysters, I’d recommend that you do not rent a car from Budget in Guadeloupe.

I’m not including gas while on Guadeloupe in the cost of the trip, as I drive a ton for work while at home, so I figured that it would probably be a wash either way.

We did have to take a taxi from Boston Logan to the hotel and back again. I didn’t keep my receipt from it, but my recollection was that it was about $20 each way. And there are other cheaper options, but we wanted something simple and fast (and it was both).

Scuba Diving

We used Les Heures Saines for our dives while on Guadeloupe. The cost of our ten dives with them was $674.46 (which breaks down to $33.723 per dive per person). The cost is the same whether you bring your own gear or if you rent gear from them. We brought our own, but that was mainly because we were doing quite a few dives, and felt more comfortable with our own. The rental gear looked to be in good shape, and most people opted to rent. But be forewarned that the gear is different from what I’ve typically seen, and is metric.

Food

We had quite a bit of cash while on the island, because the deposit on our bungalow was lower than what we’d initially expected. This is great, but it means that we didn’t use our credit card much for food, and I don’t have a great record for the cost of our food. So I’m going off of my recollection here.

We went to a grocery store and bought food for breakfast in our room every day. We had pastries, the most amazing bread with jam, and granola bars. We also bought some snack food items at the grocery store (granola bars, pastries, snack cakes, pudding snacks) to keep our food budget down. We also had pizzas or baguettes with meat and cheese and chips for lunch most days. Since our bungalow had a kitchen, with a refrigerator, microwave, and toaster oven, it was easy to eat in. I don’t recall the grocery store prices being outrageous (except for the cost of pop which was insane). But you can probably expect to spend about $50 for any meal in a restaurant on the low end. So even though we ate out for most of our dinners, we still saved quite a bit of money.

Since we typically shop at the grocery store when at home, I’m just going to factor the cost of the restaurant meals into our budget, as those really were the most expensive part, as well as quite a bit more than what we spend at home. I figured 6 meals in restaurants at $50 each ($25 per person per meal) at a total of $300.

Other

We don’t typically buy a lot of souvenirs on our travels, just a couple of mementos to remember the trip by. My photographs are more precious to me than the junk that you can find at most souvenir shops. But we did each buy a T-shirt while in Guadeloupe. And I bought a sand and resin turtle that Mike turned into a Christmas ornament (I collect Christmas ornaments from all of the different places that I travel to). And Mike bought a little wooden turtle that he’ll display on his desk at work (he’s got wooden/stone items from the different places that he’s dove at). I’d estimate the cost of our souvenirs to be about $50.

Total

Norwegian flights/baggage: $626.00
United flights/baggage: $92.40
Boston hotel: FREE!
Guadeloupe bungalow: $537.47
Rental Car: $278.84
Taxi in Boston: $40
Scuba diving: $674.46
Dining Out: $300
Souvenirs: $50
Total: $2599.17 (or about $1,299 per person)

Overall, I’m incredibly happy with how the trip turned out. It was a pretty economical way to spend a week on a beautiful Caribbean island. It confirmed for me the benefit of traveling using rewards programs and travel credit cards, especially as it’s considerably cheaper than most dive packages or travel packages booked through a travel agent.