Heartland Scuba Archives - Page 2 of 3

How We Afford Frequent Travel

07.18.2016 by Tana Henry //

IMG_20141112_084952190 (2) — At Universal Studios in Florida.

Mike and I travel much more frequently than our friends and family do, but certainly not as much as we’d like to do. Of course, jobs and other commitments sometimes keep us at home when we’d rather be globetrotting, but such is life. And neither of us has any interest in quitting our jobs and travelling full-time, which seems to be what many travel bloggers do. I’m not knocking it, it’s just not realistic for us or what we want to do.

In any event, I’ve been asked the same question a few times lately (How do you afford travel, and to travel frequently?), and thought I’d put together a post that answers that question. Hopefully this will help point you in the direction of more frequent travel, if that’s where your heart’s desire is, or just saving a bit of money when you do travel.

Mike and Me scuba diving in Bonaire. Photo courtesy of Paige Purdy, Heartland Scuba Center. — Mike and Me scuba diving in Bonaire.
Photo courtesy of Paige Purdy, Heartland Scuba Center.

Travel for work.

Mike and I both have the opportunity to go to a few conferences each year for our work. This usually means that the airfare, ground transfers, hotels, meals, and conference fees are reimbursed. As such, there is very little of these trips that are paid for out-of-pocket. Or in the case of my law practice, the costs can at least be deducted for tax purposes. I’ve visited Coronado Island, Chicago, Louisville, Atlanta, Miami, and Las Vegas for conferences. Mike has visited Dallas and Austin for conferences. And we both plan to continue this in the future.

Riding the streetcars. — Riding the streetcars in New Orleans.

Travel on points and miles.

I’ve gotten into the points and miles game (travel hacking) since I started blogging as a way to stretch our travel dollars. There are a ton of websites that you can visit to learn about points and miles in greater detail, as I’m no expert and won’t be spending the time to post about all of the deals out there. A few that I read regularly are: Million Mile Secrets, The Points Guy, and Frugal Travel Guy.

What I can tell you is that credit card sign-up bonuses are the easiest way to get a ton of points/miles, and really don’t hurt your credit score (so long as you spread out your credit card sign-ups, pay balances in full each month, and keep your oldest accounts open). I have the United Mileage Plus Explorer Business Visa card by Chase. I also have the IHG Rewards Club Mastercard by Chase. These are two that I’ll be keeping, as the low annual fees are outweighed by the benefits that I receive each year (2 United Club passes each year, early boarding, free checked bags on United, keeping my United miles from expiring, 1 free hotel night each year). From the sign-up bonuses on the United card plus switching my normal spending over from my debit card to a credit card, we’ve also gotten 2 round-trip tickets to Jacksonville, FL, as well as 2 one-way tickets to Boston (and I almost have enough miles for 2 one-way return tickets from Boston from my monthly spending). From the sign-up bonus on the IHG card, we’ve gotten 1 night in Sioux Falls, SD (Holiday Inn), 1 night in Brandon, SD (Holiday Inn Express), 2 nights in Omaha, NE (Candlewood Suites), 1 night in Lincoln, NE (Candlewood Suites), and 1 night in Jacksonville, FL (Holiday Inn Express)–so 6 free nights of hotel…not too shabby. And because my IHG card anniversary just passed, I now have another free night to book, which I’ll probably use in Boston.

I also have a Delta Gold Skymiles card by American Express. I picked this one up for free checked bags on our trip to Cayman Brac (which saved us probably $300 or so, plus saved a bunch of others traveling in our group a bit in baggage fees as well). I also booked a free roundtrip ticket to northern Michigan for this summer as well with it. I don’t plan to keep this card after the trip to Michigan, as it doesn’t seem to have benefits worth paying an annual fee for. Plus Skymiles don’t expire, so I don’t need to keep the card open to avoid that. But if we later have another Delta trip planned where we’ll need to check bags, we may open one for Mike at some point.

I’m interested in the Southwest cards, and will probably pick them up at some point. But I’m waiting for a time when I know that we’ll be traveling Southwest frequently, to make the most use out of the Companion pass (which you can get with two credit card sign-up bonuses, plus a bit more in spending). And I’ll probably need to pick up a new hotel branded card soon, since I’ve pretty nearly used up all of my IHG points.

Many of the travel bloggers also recommend cards like Chase Sapphire, or Chase Ink. I’ve toyed with the idea of them, because of the points being transferable with other partners, but haven’t really looked into them much. So I’m undecided at present. The bloggers that I linked to above can give you more details about these types of cards if you’re interested.

Swings in Mexico — Enjoying the swings in Mexico

Book hotels using Hotels.com.

Sometimes I can’t find hotels available for a reasonable cost using points or cash, or there aren’t hotels even available in any of the major rewards programs (Marriott, Hyatt, IHG, Starwood) meaning that I can’t even earn rewards on the room. I personally really like using Hotels.com for these types of situations, as they have a ton of hotel options, have extensive reviews (including TripAdvisor reviews), have photos, and usually great prices. Plus, after you book 10 nights with them, you get a free night. I know that it’s not as lucrative as the major rewards programs, but it works well when they’re not available, or are priced outrageously.

But one cautionary note, make sure that you’re checking the cancellation policy for the hotel that you’re booking, as they differ depending on the hotel, and sometimes even on the particular rate that you get. I ran into this when hoping to cancel a couple of rooms in Iowa City recently, in that I just can’t cancel the booking. But I also have had some rooms where there were not prohibitions on cancellation, so just be aware of the policy before you book.

Mike and Tana in Bonaire — 1000 Steps in Bonaire.

Book travel on a discount airline, a fare sale, or a mistake fare.

There are quite a few discount carriers out there now, where you can find cheap airfare so long as you don’t care about first class seating or perks. Examples include Allegiant, Frontier, WOW, and Norwegian. With these carriers, you typically have to pay extra for things like seat selection and checked bags. And they tend to be no-frills, so don’t expect much in the way of service during the flight, extra leg room, or first/business class. But you can get cheap airfare, which often is more important to me anyway. Mike and I have a trip planned to Guadeloupe this fall because Norwegian started running routes between the US and Guadeloupe, and the US and Martinique. We couldn’t pass up the inexpensive opportunity to go dive and visit a new island. But we did have to pay extra for our checked bags, and we’ll have to be extra careful when packing because of the weight restrictions. But considering the price, it will be worth it.

Sometimes the legacy carriers (American Airlines, United, Delta) and even Southwest will run fare sales where you can score cheap tickets too. You can find out about fare sales if you’re on their e-mail mailing lists sometimes. But following a blog like the three that I linked to above is the easiest way to find out about really excellent fare sales, or even mistake fares. Things have changed rather dramatically in the past year or so when it comes to mistake fares, and when/whether they will be honored. But if you are lucky enough to score a mistake fare, and the airline does honor it, you can really score an excellent deal.

Stay with friends or family.

Sometimes we opt to visit or stay with friends or family while travelling, rather than booking hotels or travelling to other locations. The Black Hills, SD is a prime example (although I’ve also stayed with family/friends in Washington DC and in Chicago). We go there frequently because we have a lot of family in the area. And when we visit, we stay with family, rather than booking hotels. This saves us money, and also means that we get to have more time with the folks that we love. And it also means that we get to explore the area with someone else that we already know.

With friends in Chicago — In Chicago with friends

Save for travel.

I couldn’t leave this off the list, because it’s reality. We save money and pay for travel with cash out-of-pocket. I think it’s impossible, or at least extremely unlikely that a trip will be completely free. So saving money in advance is what we do because it’s the responsible way to travel. And we really like that when we come home from a trip, we aren’t paying for it in the months following.

Plus the trips that we go on with Heartland Scuba are paid for this way. Their trips (probably like any type of group travel) are reasonable, but not the smoking cheap trips that you can get by watching deals and booking on your own. But we really like the group of divers that typically goes on their trips, and that airfare, hotels, dive packages, and sometimes even food, are already booked for us. So on these trips especially, we get to pack our bags and show up at the airport, which makes it worth paying a bit more.

Mike and Tana going to Bonaire — On our way to Bonaire.

Do you use any of these methods to pay for travel? Have you found any other ways to save money while travelling?

Bonne Terre Mine, Missouri

03.28.2016 by Tana Henry //

Heartland Scuba books a trip to Bonne Terre Mine in Missouri for scuba diving about once per year. This year it worked for our schedules for Mike and I to go along. Mike had been on some of the Heartland Scuba road trips previously, but this was my first. We set out from Kearney in the morning in a giant van, and had plenty of space to spread out for the trip…all 9 1/2 hours of it.

We stopped in the Heartland Scuba shop in Lincoln and met up with the rest of the divers, then had lunch at Dickey’s BBQ. So yummy! And how can you go wrong with free ice cream cones?! After lunch, we hit the road again and stopped again once we were in Missouri, at Bandana’s BBQ. Barbecue twice in one day, you might wonder? But that’s how it goes when you’re the only girl traveling with a bunch of guys. 😉 But Bandana’s was really good. I had a baked potato covered in barbecued meat, cheese, sour cream, and butter. It was delicious. Then we hopped back on the road for another couple of hours to the town of Bonne Terre. We settled in for an early night, as we had early check-in times at the mine.

Bonne Terre Mine is located right in the center of the town, and is mostly flooded. This makes it a prime location for scuba diving. But they also offer walking tours and boat tours as well. We did three dives on Saturday, and one on Sunday. Mike and I were on trails 1-4, as we’d never been there before. Some of the other divers were on the higher numbered trails, as they’d been there previous years. The higher number the trail, the more advanced the dive (meaning more overhead environments, tighter restrictions, etc.). I don’t have any pictures from during our dives, as the light was low in certain places, and they asked that we not carry dive lights or cameras with flashes or lights, so as to avoid blinding other divers or wandering off alone. But I did take a few pictures inside the mine just to give some idea of what it looks like down there.

The enormous pillars are essentially stacked on top of each other in the different levels of the mine, so as to provide strength to the underground structure. These pillars are absolutely immense, and it’s hard to get a sense of their scale. They do provide a bit of navigational guidance when you’re underwater, as they extend down into the underwater section of the “Billion Gallon Lake.”

Inside Bonne Terre Mine — View from the dock, looking at the boat and the pillars inside the Mine.

On our dives, we were able to see all kinds of mining related items, including mine carts, shovels, pick axes, and hooks stuck into the walls. We also saw the stairs that the miners would take down into the mine, stairs that are submerged in probably 30 feet of water, and were able to swim through an elevator shaft. We watched air bubbles run along the ceiling, looking like mercury, and checked out an air pocket under the water. But probably my favorite thing that we saw was an area called the Cathedral Room. The Cathedral Room was among the last areas being worked on before the mine closed. There are crosses marked on the walls, where holes were to be drilled for dynamite to be added. It’s an incredible sight to behold, even more so when floating through the water to it while diving.

The air temperature inside the mine is in the 60s (Fahrenheit), while the water temperature is cool, in the 50s. I dove in a 5mm full body wetsuit, boots, hood, and gloves. I also wore a layer of Lycra underneath, not so much because it added any warmth, but because it made the wetsuit easier to put on (and put back on after it was wet). I was warm enough on the first dive, a bit chilled on the second dive, and downright cold on the third dive. On our fourth dive, on Sunday morning, I was chilled again. Diving Bonne Terre in a wetsuit isn’t bad, especially if you’re like me, without any plans for diving anything any colder than Bonne Terre. Mike took this (blurry) photo of me, so that everyone can see how incredibly flattering a wetsuit is. 😉

Mike dove in a drysuit with a medium-weight undergarment, which is polar fleece. He has a heavier undergarment that looks like a snow suit, but chose not to wear it. He said that his medium-weight undergarment was plenty warm enough for the dives. This is a picture of him mostly suited up in his dry suit.

Overall, diving Bonne Terre was a great, albeit stretching experience, for me as a diver. I’ll definitely go back and at least do the next set of trails. If you’re a diver, I recommend diving Bonne Terre at least once.

Bonaire (Part One)

03.26.2015 by Tana Henry //

Mike and I visited Bonaire with a group from Heartland Scuba. This was our second international trip with them, and it definitely did not disappoint. Heartland Scuba books all of the flights, accommodations, and makes all of the arrangements for scuba diving; so essentially all you have to do is pack your bags and show up at the airport. They really take much of the hassle out of planning a trip. It’s wonderful!

General Information

Bonaire is an island in the southern Caribbean. In fact, the island is technically on the shelf of South America. The island is an old coral reef, from when sea levels were much higher and the entire island was submerged in water. This means that the island is very rocky and dry, and not at all a ‘tropical’ island. The north part of the island is a bit mountainous with enormous cacti. The south part of the island is not hilly at all, and contains commercial salt flats.

The island is part of the so-called ‘ABC’ islands, which includes Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. The island is controlled by the Netherlands, but loosely. And there have been efforts to break away from the Netherlands entirely. It is very safe, and very Westernized, so getting around is easy. English is widely spoken on the island, even though not the dominant language. And the official currency is the US dollar, so no currency exchange was necessary.

Climate

The climate is hot and dry, and the island sits almost right on the equator, so sunblock is a must, and hats aren’t a bad idea. We didn’t get sunburns, but we were pretty diligent about reapplying the sunscreen. But even though it’s hot and dry, the trade winds provide a nice breeze. And there were occasional rain showers while we were there, but they were extremely short-lived (like less than 5 minutes).

Bugs…oh Lord, the Bugs!

Prior to going, I hadn’t read much about the bugs, but we packed an assortment of bug repellents anyway. I was once bitten by a brown recluse spider, and have intense reactions to bug bites since then, so I don’t take chances. Most of the bug repellents that we brought didn’t work for me at all. The only one that did was Ultrathon 12-hour lotion. The spray and the pump/spritz varieties of Ultrathon didn’t work on me at all in Bonaire, despite the spray working just fine against the sand fleas in Roatan.

Others that I travelled with (including Mike) had no trouble with bug bites, but my lower legs were completely covered with them by the end of our week there. And the crazy thing was that I don’t know that I ever noticed actually being bitten. So the bugs must be those darned no-see-ums. In any case, my advice is to take bug repellant options in case, like me, you are apparently very sweet! 😉

Accommodations

We stayed at Captain Don’s Habitat, which is a resort geared toward scuba divers. It is not an all-inclusive resort, but does include breakfast in the room rate. There are two different sizes of rooms. We apparently were in the larger, newer rooms, which include a king sized bed and a couch. The older rooms (although they have been renovated and are very nice) have two double beds and no couch. The older rooms are also slightly smaller.

All of the rooms that our group were in had balconies or patios facing the ocean. This was a fantastic perk that we really enjoyed. The resort also has rooms that are tucked back into the trees, making them feel private as well.

Dining

Captain Don’s Habitat does have a single restaurant and bar, Rum Runners, and also serves pizza either to stay or go. The food is alright, but nothing spectacular. The best food offered was on the evening of the Manager’s Party, and included a Buffett. However the restaurant fills up with reservations (most were from people not staying at the resort), and we were not informed of this in advance. So we ended up taking out buffet dinner and setting up tables that we moved off of our patios. We had a nice time, in spite of the lack of communication on this point.

One night a group of us went to El Mundo Restaurant. The food was delicious, and the mojitos were also tasty. I tried a pineapple chicken curry pasta dish, and it did not disappoint. I don’t recall anyone being disappointed with their dinners. And cruising to and from dinner in the back of a little tiny pickup was a hoot!

We also tried a place called Eddy’s one evening. The others thought their food was alright, but I didn’t care for mine at all. It was a salmon pasta dish, which was my second choice because they were out of the catch of the day. The pasta dish tasted like something had turned sour, and I didn’t eat much of it.

Another night we ate at Cuba Compagnie. The food there was also delicious, and the wait staff was very attentive and kept us in plenty of beer. I had a salmon pasta dish that was also wonderful. However, the food was not really Cuban food that I could tell…good food, but not Cuban. The atmosphere was Cuban, though.

Our final evening we ate at Ingridients. This restaurant was a little higher end (i.e. you pay for a bottle of water, either flat or sparkling, for the table) than some of the other places we had dined. The food was good, but not outstanding.

For lunch a couple of days we ate at Between2Buns. It was a yummy little sandwich shop. They also had smoothies (flavors included watermelon and pineapple) and desserts. Tasty treats, indeed!

But perhaps our favorite meal of the trip was in Rincon at a little roadside place called Allen Snack. We had the best Chinese food here! I had chicken fried rice, and Mike had sweet and sour chicken. As tasty as mine was, his was even better. So yummy! And absolutely enormous portions. I felt like my friend rice was a never-ending container. So, so good. And worth the drive to the north side of the island.

For more information on Bonaire, check out Part Two, where I discuss the sights above the water on Bonaire, and Part Three, where I discuss the diving sites we visited.

Travel for work.

Travel on points and miles.

Book hotels using Hotels.com.

Book travel on a discount airline, a fare sale, or a mistake fare.

Stay with friends or family.

Save for travel.

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General Information

Climate

Bugs…oh Lord, the Bugs!

Accommodations

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