🌎 How to book this underrated Eurotrip

Estimated read time: 6 minutes and 4 seconds (but it’s worth it)

☀️ Good morning, my friends.

Strap in and get your coffee ready, folks. Today, I have a really fun Eurotrip idea to tell you about (and how to book the whole thing with points).

Here we go:

• 🌍 Where in the World Wednesday: Serbia & Bulgaria

• 🏨 Buy points, save $1,000 on a hotel

• 💪 The travel habit that keeps my body from revolting

🌍 Where in the World Wednesday: Serbia & Bulgaria

I just finished traveling through Serbia and Bulgaria for the second time, and I always enjoy them a lot.

And honestly, I think it’s because they check a bunch of boxes that most classic Eurotrips don’t anymore:

✅ They’re easy to pair together
✅ They’re affordable
✅ They’re not very crowded
✅ They’re very easy to book with points

That last one is the key, as you’ll see. 😏

So rather than fighting a million other people for the one business-class seat to Rome before you spend $1,000 eating terrible pasta, let me tell you how to book this trip instead.

Turn one flight into two

Your journey should start in Belgrade, the largest city in Serbia. Thankfully, Air Serbia flies nonstop between New York City and Belgrade.

And even though they aren’t part of a major alliance, they do partner with Aeroplan… which means you can book that nonstop route in business class for 70,000 Aeroplan points.

But here’s where this gets interesting… 🤔 

Aeroplan lets you add a stopover for just 5,000 extra points. A stopover just means you can stay in a city for a few days before continuing on to your final destination.

In this case, you can tack on an extra flight to Sofia, Bulgaria, for just 5,000 more points.

☝️ This is what the booking looks like.

You get business class on both legs, plus four days in Belgrade before continuing on to Bulgaria.

By signing up for a single credit card with an annual fee under $100 (I recommend this one or this one), you’d already have enough points to transfer to Aeroplan and book these two flights in business class. 🥂

If you don’t live in New York (or don’t want to book a positioning flight), I recommend using Flying Blue miles.

Even if you live out on the West Coast in a city like San Diego, you can transfer points from any U.S. bank and book a flight to Belgrade for as few as 18,750 miles in economy. 👇

Where to stay in Serbia

Once you’re in Belgrade, you’ve got some really good hotel options depending on how you want to play it.

If you’re trying to keep things simple and efficient, you can spend four nights at the Hotel Indigo and take advantage of IHG’s 4th-night free benefit, which comes from holding one of their co-branded credit cards.

That brings the average cost down to under 30,000 points per night.

And again, this is one of those situations where a single signup for an IHG co-branded card would give you enough points to cover the entire stay and unlock that 4th-night free perk.

Or… if you want to get a little more fun with it…

You can stay at the St. Regis Belgrade.

I split my stay between both properties, and I’ll say this: This St. Regis is one of the best ones I’ve stayed at.

It costs under 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night, which makes it a great place to use Free Night Certificates from Marriott co-branded credit cards.

If you do stay there, make sure you dedicate at least three hours to the spa. You can thank me later.

Quick detour to Novi Sad

While you’re in Belgrade, I highly recommend taking a day trip to Novi Sad.

It’s in northern Serbia, and thanks to a newer fast train, you can get there in about 45 minutes from Belgrade. 👇

It’s cute, quiet, super walkable, and just a really enjoyable place to spend a day.

Go eat lunch at Sokace (traditional Serbian food, very good, very cheap), then head up to Petrovaradin Fortress, which overlooks the river and has restaurants, museums, and great views at the top.

If you want to stay overnight, there’s even a Sheraton you can book with Marriott points:

On to Bulgaria

Anyway, you already booked your flight to Sofia with your original ticket (well done, by the way 👏).

And once you get there, things get even better. That’s because, in my humble opinion, Sofia might be the most underrated city in Europe.

It’s easy to get around, rich in history, and surrounded by nature. But it still feels relaxed, modern, and is just gorgeous.

As far as hotels go, I highly recommend staying at the Hyatt Regency Sofia. It’s a Category 2 hotel, which means it costs as few as 6,500 World of Hyatt points per night.

This hotel has a perfect 5-star guest rating with Hyatt (which is extremely rare), and it’s located right near Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and within walking distance of everything you’d want to see.

I can confidently say that it’s the single best Category 2 Hyatt I’ve stayed at. I transferred points from this credit card to book my 3-night stay there.

Let’s go skiing

If you want something a little different, you can head to Bansko for a few days.

It’s about four hours from Sofia by bus. I usually use FlixBus to book bus routes in Europe, and tickets for this route run about $30.

And if you want to make that free, you can use your Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card to cover the charge with about 3,000 miles.

Bansko itself is kind of a fun mix.

It’s a ski town, a hiking destination, and also a pretty popular digital nomad hub.

So you’ve got a mix of traditional Bulgarian culture and people working remotely from cafés and coworking spaces.

And even here, there’s a chain hotel option.

The Four Points by Sheraton runs about 23,000 Marriott Bonvoy points or around $100 per night, depending on the season.

From the hotel, it’s about a 10-minute walk into the old town, and about 5 minutes in the other direction to the chairlift. ⛷️

Or… do something VERY different

If mountains aren’t your thing, Bulgaria’s east coast is another great option.

Between Burgas and Varna, there are dozens of beach resorts – including five Hyatt all-inclusive properties.

Yes. FIVE Hyatt all-inclusives on the Bulgarian coast.

And because they’re often only $100-200 per night, you don’t even really need to use points here. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Don’t forget about Plovdiv

On your way from Sofia to the coast, you can stop in the city of Plovdiv, roughly in the middle of the country.

It’s one of the oldest cities in Europe and has a really beautiful old town that still feels pretty under the radar.

One or two nights is enough, especially if you stay at the Holiday Inn for around $87 per night. 👇

Look… I get that a trip to Europe usually means Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam, or Berlin.

But personally, I find Eastern European countries like Serbia and Bulgaria far more enjoyable.

They’re easier, cheaper, less crowded, and much more flexible when it comes to actually using your points.

And when you can turn one flight into two destinations, stack multiple strong hotel redemptions, and build most of the trip off one or two credit card bonuses…

It’s kind of a no-brainer. 😉

🏨 Buy points, save $1,000 on a hotel

Sometimes, paying cash for a flight or hotel is not a bad idea. Sometimes, transferring points from your credit card works better.

But sometimes, you can combine these two ideas by buying points. Yes, you’re spending money. Yes, you’re sort of using points.

But the value can be insane. And that’s exactly what we’ll show you in this week’s Daily Drop YouTube video. 👇

Well, folks. I know today was a bit longer than usual, but I hope you feel inspired to book a trip to Eastern Europe with your points.

I’ll make sure to keep tomorrow’s newsletter a bit shorter to balance it out. 😉

Cheers,

59.4370° N, 24.7536° E

With contributions by McKay Moffitt and Sam Anthony