🌱 Green stay = extra points

Estimated read time: 3 minutes and 48 seconds

Gooooood morning and welcome back to Daily Drop, the travel newsletter that you read when your boss thinks you’re reading her morning briefing.

Stay rebellious, everyone.

Here’s what I got for you today:

• 🌱 Quick hacks: Earn 500 points per night for a “green stay”

• 🚂 Should you go flight-free on your summer vacay?

• 🍒 Last call: Win a $2,000 travel voucher from Cherry

🌱 Quick hacks: Earn 500 points per night for a “green stay”

A wise man once said, “I’m blue. Da ba di da ba die.”

Well, I disagree completely. I think a more accurate statement would be “I’m green. And because I’m green, I earn a bunch of free points at hotels.”

That’s because of IHG’s new “green stay” initiative. 👇

I recently discovered this cool new hack during my stay at a Holiday Inn in Helsinki a couple of nights ago.

Here’s how it works:

When you check into participating IHG hotels, they’ll give you the neat little card you see in the photo above.

Every night that you leave that sign on your door, you’ll get 500 points per night.

The catch?

Housekeeping will not clean your room the next day…

I don’t know about you, but I’ve felt pretty capable of cleaning my own room for the last 25 years or so.

Honestly, 500 extra points per night is pretty awesome. In a few months, I have an eight-night stay at an IHG hotel.

Using this hack, I could earn an additional 4,000 points on my stay.

Every few days just call down and ask for some extra towels, leave your trash outside the room, etc. and this is an easy way to rack up some extra points.

Overall, this won’t move the needle quickly, but it’s quite generous and well worth the sacrifice in my opinion.

🚂 Should you go flight-free on your summer vacay?

It’s pretty obvious that many of us here at Daily Drop are true airline aficionados. I mean, you won’t find me on a boat to get across the Atlantic…

But it’s mid-July, y’all. It’s freaking summer… peak summer (especially in Europe). And sometimes, airlines turn into toddlers and have straight-up meltdowns.

We’re talking flight delays, cancellations, lost luggage, crowded lounges, and scarce customer service 👎

BUT do you know who doesn’t require you to show up three hours early, take off your shoes, and pull out your mini shampoo bottles? A good ol’ train. And Europe is full of ‘em.

To be clear, train travel isn’t unanimously better than flying, but it can be an excellent alternative to the current chaos that is the airline industry this summer.

France even became the first country to ban domestic flights if a train route alternative was available in lieu of environmental concerns 😮

Plus, you might just find yourself a cheaper ticket if you take to the tracks rather than the sky.

And if you’re bummed because you think you can’t use miles and points on train travel… don’t be. Remember, you can pay for literally any type of travel with miles and points if you’re a cardholder of the [[ capital-one-venture-x-rewards-credit-card.name ]].

So I wanted to give you all some ideas and an example train route that could save you a chunk of cash, especially if you’re looking for transportation alternatives to Europe’s short-haul flights.

Enter: sleeper trains

Some people love them, and some people don’t… But what no one can deny is that sleeper trains provide you with both your transportation and accommodation needs all bundled into one price.

There are so many options to move between great cities such as Prague, Paris, Budapest, and Rome, etc. I was looking at this route from Vienna to Venice for next month 👇

Note that the price of 159.20 euros (175.24 USD) is for two people which includes a private sleeper cabin, bathroom, and breakfast in the morning. So for your transport and accommodations to a new city and country, you’re only paying 79.60 euros (87.62 USD) per person.

Not a bad deal 🤗 

Alternatively, these were the prices of flights between these two cities on the same days I went to book this particular sleeper train.

The prices you see here are per person, but if you’d rather get to your destination in a matter of a couple of hours and book separate accommodations for the night, then it may be worth it to you to face a busy airport.

That’s the beauty of travel, my friends. You can do whatever your little hearts desire 🥰 

But trains are becoming an increasingly popular way to get around Europe, and it may just be the answer to your peak travel season woes.

And if you want to learn more about some specific European budget trains that are competing with budget airlines, you can read about them here.

🍒 Last call: Win a $2,000 travel voucher from Cherry

That’s right, my super sweet traveling friends…

You could have a chance to win $2,000 just for downloading the COMPLETELY FREE Cherry browser extension that does all the background work to score you deals on accommodations around the world 👇

If you want more deets on this sweet deal, check out this past newsletter.

But hurry! Your final hours to enter start NOW. Winners will be announced on July 18th.

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…or you can just buy these prizes from our website if you want to keep us all to yourself. 😉

That’s all for today folks! One quick thing…

Take care, and I’ll see you tomorrow morning.

Love,

46.8131° N, 71.2075° W