139: We're Skipping Summer Camp and Spending a Month in Europe Instead

The Summer Camp Tradeoff

0:00

We're going to Europe. In today's episode, we are talking about the four-week European vacation we are taking this summer instead of sending our kids to summer camp. Tune in if you want to find out how we're doing it, how we're funding it, and what is on the itinerary. Sugar Daddy Podcast, yo. Learn how to make the pockets grow. Five minutes for freedoms by a week, bro. Smart investments, money flow. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Sugar Daddy Podcast, where we help you build a clear financial plan so you can feel confident and in control of your money. We are heading to Europe. And we wanted to tell you all about it because this is a big trip that we've been planning for like the last eight or nine months. And I jokingly I love what you said we. I know. I was giving you credit and then I like rolled my eyes in my head. And I was like, I'm just gonna stick with we because we're a team. But like it was me. It was 99.9% me. But it's fine because Brandon's gonna carry all the luggage. So we we both have our roles in this. We both have our roles. But I jokingly put up a reel um months ago, and I was like, you know what? Because you know you have to start looking at summer camp like a year in advance to sign up for the camps that you want. And I was like, gosh, for two kids in summer camp for let's call it five weeks. I mean, easily, let's on the low, low end, which I don't even know how you're gonna get away with this, but let's let's call it $2,500 on the low end, up to easily, I've seen up to $6,000, depending on what kind of camp you might be sending your kid to. For us, our highest camp that we've sent the kids to in the past, because our kids um are in year-round school, so they are in school for nine weeks, they track out for three, and then they have like a five and a half week summer. The most expensive camp we've sent them to is about $360 a week. So you multiply that by two, you're already at over $700. It adds up quickly. So I kind of was like, do we take the $3,500 and leave the country for a month? And yeah, that was basically the conversation. I mean, that's basically what happened. Um, and so it was kind of like a funny reel of like, man, these summer camps are crazy expensive. What if we just spent the summer in Europe? And

Funding Europe With Points And Miles

2:30

then I did it. So shout out to Point.me, which I absolutely love. I've been booking all of our flights only after looking at point.me. And it's a flight aggregator to help you find the best flight deals using points and miles. Um, and if you've been here with us for a while, you know I love the travel hacking game. Um, we went to Aruba for Christmas last year on a credit card that we opened last summer that gave us 80,000 bonus miles. And that is exactly what we ended up paying 80,000 bonus miles to get our family of four to Aruba. Um, and that was amazing. It was a $95 credit card with the first year waived, so a zero dollar credit card. And that one was like crazy cool because it literally was like make a purchase. It did not have a minimum spend, which was like unheard of. So it was essentially a free credit card. I think I bought like, I don't know, some coffee on it, paid that card off, never used it again, got our 80,000 miles, and then literally went to Aruba and paid like, I mean, I don't know, under $200, I think, for taxes. So we love that game. We ended up doing that for Europe. She does all that as well. Yeah. And then she keeps track of all the different cars we're gonna use for different purposes to get these different perks for different trips. She has a whole matrix and she handles all that. I in my brain is always I'm just like, which cards are we using for the next few months? Yep. And she lets me know. I tell them, I'm like, use this one for this, use that one for that, don't use any of the others. Um, and so, anyways, we ended up finding really great flights to Barcelona. I basically was like, okay, we got to get into Europe the cheapest. And then once you're in Europe, it's really quite easy to country hop. And so we ended up booking flights um through Air France, but it's a Delta operated flight from North Carolina straight into Barcelona for 30,000 points a person. So for 120, what is that? Three, yeah, 120,000 points plus taxes and fees. Uh, we are we're flying into Barcelona. Uh, we're gonna spend a week there, then we'll head over to Paris. We're also doing Paris Disney, which is a surprise for the kids. They still don't know that. Um, we're give we're actually staying on property at Disneyland Paris, which I'm really excited about. Oh my gosh, because they have no idea. It's gonna be so great. And whenever we've priced out Disney in the United States, I'm always like, no, we'll just leave the country instead. That's a big thing. Disney over there, Disney is way less expensive. And it is Disneyland, it is not Disney World, so it is different, but our kids are six and eight. You know, they complain about walking around the block. So I'm just not at that place where I'm like gonna spend all the money on Disney World to hear them complain about walking around the block. So you've done a Disney cruise now. They've done that. They loved that. And then now we'll do Disney Paris. And it's much more affordable. We're doing um four days, three nights on property. What's really nice, and I don't know if this is for all Disney, um, if you're staying on property, but at Disneyland Paris, you actually get to enter the property the day that you arrive and the day that you depart. So you have those like bookends, which I think is really nice. And then we'll have the two full days, I guess two full days on property. Um, they just opened like frozen land and all these things, and we're just really, really excited about that. So that'll be a huge surprise. Uh, we're going up to the second floor in the Eiffel Tower, we're going to the Louvre, we're doing the Christian Dior Museum. And I do want to call out, because of course, in my head, I was like, we're gonna break even with what camp would have cost in the US. Okay, I was a little delusional there. That's obviously not the case. We are spending significantly more, but we're also getting so much more. Like this is gonna be really, really incredible. But one thing that I've been telling Brandon as I'm booking all these tickets is in Europe, it really feels like the countries want you. They want you to be out on these streets. Yeah. Like they want you at the things, they want you at the museums, they want you at the at the you know, monuments, they want you in the gardens, they want you at the tourist attractions because the tickets are so affordable. I've always said, like, from a sporting event standpoint, like the United States does it all backwards. So wrong. Like, why isn't it this exclusive? I've got to have thousands of dollars to go see the sporting event. Like it should be an event that brings the community together that is affordable. Like, I mean, I took Roman to Monster Jam, you know, a few months ago. Parking alone was $40. I mean, that's and that was prepaid parking. I think it was like $56 or $57 like day of. That's insane. So as I'm booking these tickets to go to the Louvre and the kids' tickets are drastically reduced, senior citizen tickets drastically reduced, student tickets drastically reduced. And then even they have disability um tickets where you can go in for free if you have a card that states that you're somehow disabled. And if you have a caretaker or, you know, somebody that maybe is helping you around in the wheelchair, et cetera, those people also can get in either at a very reduced cost, like I'm talking two or three euro or completely free. So I mean, I was booking tickets to get in the Eiffel Tower and go to the Louvre, and it was half the price of what it would cost us to go to a museum in Durham, North Carolina as a family of four. Yeah. I mean, it's just wild. I've always, like I said, I mean, I'm a big soccer fan. I've, you know, grew up playing soccer. And the cost of going to like an MLS game in comparison to what you could pay to go to like an English Premier League game is ridiculous. And the English Premier League significantly higher quality in comparison to MLS, but like it just that to me is what's really getting out of hand here in the US and it's so frustrating. But as I'm booking all these tickets in in multiple countries, because we're actually doing four countries, so Spain, France, the Netherlands, and Germany. And as I'm booking all of these excursions and activities for us, they are so significantly lower priced than anything that I I've been used to here. I mean, we went to the movies a few weeks ago and it was $40. It was $40. It was like $39.96. That was just to watch the movie. That was that was not popcorn. That was not drink. That was that was to sit your behind in a chair and watch the movie. Yeah. And the risk, the seats didn't even recline. Sure did not. So, I mean, it's just crazy. So I'm really excited. We have so many things. I've got a whole spreadsheet, five tabs. You know, I mean, I'm it you have to stay really organized when booking a trip like this and doing a trip

The Four Country Itinerary And Costs

9:35

like this. Um, but I think it's gonna be be really great. In the Netherlands, um, we're going to take the kids to the Anne Frank Museum, which again, suit I think it, I think the total was like 22 euro for us to go to see this like beautiful, amazing like part of history. Um, we just got our daughter the book. We're gonna read it together as a family so that they know what they're getting into. We're doing the um, the more like children's version of the Anne Frank diary. And then we're also doing an 18-mile countryside bike tour in Amsterdam. Uh, really excited. I get to see one of my dear friends from college. He's gonna come with us on that. And then we're going to finish out our adventure. I'm calling it our summer of frolicking. Um, I've been using the word frolic a lot, so it's our summer of frolicking. And we are going to finish out in Germany, where I was born and raised. And some of our friends from Poland are coming with their kids. Some of my friends that are still living there, that have their families there now, we're going to get together and literally do the things that I did while there growing up. When I say I like, I'm I'm so just geeking out about it. I'm so excited. Like to get our friends and their kids together with our kids on this like epic adventure. I'm just like, I could not be happier right now. Yeah. And the reason we have friends that live in Poland is because right after we got engaged, Jess had an opportunity through her job at the time to open an office in Poland. So she was there for five or six months. Yeah. Like two weeks after we got engaged. I was like, oh, by the way, I'm gonna move to Poland. Yeah. So we have really good friends um from Poland that are that are coming. They now have two daughters, and I'm just so excited. I really feel like our kids are old enough to remember this. Yeah. And I feel like it's just gonna be so epic and so amazing. And you know, I think also obviously this is still an expensive trip. Um however, I think the experiences and what they're going to be able to see from that part of the world and what they're going to be able to take with them is going to be so magical and memorable. And then also, we've been able to shape a lot of our conversations about money with them around what we're doing. So when our daughter comes home and says, well, so-and-so gets their nails done, which first of all, I'm like, you're eight. We're not getting your nails done. But, you know, I'm like, okay, but does so-and-so go to Aruba for Christmas? Does so-and-so go on the Disney cruise? Does so-and-so get to spend, you know, their summer in Europe? The answer is no. So we prioritize making memories together as a family, traveling, seeing the world together. Those are our values. Our values are not in the kinds of cars we drive and the kinds of, you know, things that we wear, et cetera. So I think it's a really good opportunity too to help them understand where we spend our money and why. And as they're they've gotten older, they really do understand that going on the trip, doing the thing, making the memory is so much more impactful than unpacking some other plastic thing that they're going to play with for 20 minutes and then it goes back into, you know, the rest of the pile. I think also you can tell people who have had, you know, been fortunate enough to travel from a young age or travel throughout their life because I think it provides you a different perspective on the world. You know, you know, I think here in the United States, you know, whether you know you maybe don't have enough money to travel or you choose not to travel, there's a very narrow perspective in regards to when it comes to the rest of the world. Yeah. And, you know, traveling and being able to do that at a young age, I know for myself and for Jess, you know, completely helped to shape our perspective as adults. And we want to make sure that we have we give our kids the same, you know, opportunity to do that as well, because it provides you a lot more empathy for other people that are different from you when you're able to travel more and experience different cultures and different um you know countries and everything. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Because then you start to realize the United States has pros, you know, benefits, but like it's it's not the best place in the world. Like if I'm just being honest. If you say like the United States is amazing, it's the best place in the world, it tells me you really have not been anywhere else. Yeah, because the people that are well traveled, I I don't none of the people in our circle who are very well traveled are like, go America. Like, it's just not there's so much more. There's so much more. Let's just leave it at that. That's

Why Europe Feels More Affordable

14:10

okay. I do want to get into a couple of like, I don't know if they're tips or tricks, but these are kind of fundamental things that we do when we travel. Now, we have not traveled together as a family for four weeks. So this is going to be an adventure in and of itself. And I think by the end of the four weeks, like, you know, if we all still love each other, it might be a miracle, but I also think it's gonna be fine. Yeah, also my mom's coming, so yeah, I wasn't even gonna mention that. So we booked the tickets way in advance. Now I know that there's a ton of material online that, you know, they'll tell you like, book your tickets 47 days in advance and book your tickets 68 days in advance for international. And like, yeah, like they're sweet spots, right? Like, I'm not gonna ever book a ticket at noon on a Tuesday, right? Like, I get that. I book tickets on a VPN, like I do all those kinds of things to give myself the best shot. Um, I even saw something recently about going to the public library. Since since now, people um a lot of these companies are actually because they have so much data on who we are before we even sign in. Um, and they're basically pricing things based on what they know about you. So if you're a high earner, if you have lots of assets, if your credit score is super high, you have lots of credit cards, things like that, that they can basically scrub their your data on, which they're doing whether we want them to or not, your flight might be less than the person booking the same flight from a public domain at the library. So I'm gonna play around with that, honestly, because I want to see, you know, they what they showed was like several hundred dollars in price difference. That's crazy. The bad part about that is is I think they block uh you being able to use points and miles. Like they you can't actually get on your portals in in that form. So I need to do some research. I'll report back. Maybe I won't. I don't know. Um we use points and miles for all of our flights. So our flight there, our flight back, and we have two in-country flights. Those were also booked with points and miles. Like our flight from Barcelona to Paris was like 4,000 points a person. You could also fly for like a hundred bucks a person, but when you multiply it times four, that's another $400, you know, dollars plus taxes and fees. Then you're at five, six hundred dollars. I just wanted to use points. I think we paid like $9 in taxes. So book early. I mean, I spend a lot of time looking up flight information to find the best deal. So, like if you see me on my phone, I'm probably looking at my next flight. Um, so book early and then use point.me. Um, I have a paid subscription. It has paid for itself 10 times over. I highly recommend it. Um, we'll link them in the show notes and I'll see if I can get a discount code for you. I think also because this is such a long trip and we're going to different countries, being able to wash and dry clothes quickly was really important. So instead of hotels, we're mostly doing Airbnbs. Um, we wanted to have at least two bathrooms. Again, because we're going to be three adults, two children. We wanted washer, we wanted dryer, and we wanted AC. So Paris actually just had like this huge heat wave. I'm like, I didn't want to walk through Paris in 96 degrees. Hopefully it'll come back down. But the point is we're basically going to try to pack a week's worth of clothes and mix and match and just wash clothes every few days and before heading to our next destination. Yeah. And Paris is the only place that we're not staying in um an Airbnb. That's not accurate. Oh. We have a gorgeous Airbnb booked for Paris. Because we're going to Paris and then we're going to Disney. See, I don't plan. Uh passenger princess much. We have a gorgeous, gorgeous uh accommodation in Paris. I gotta look at the uh spreadsheet again. Once we have stayed and have left that country, you can DM me and I will send you the link. Um obviously we're not going to post that right now, but Brandon apparently is staying somewhere else. Um okay, so the other thing that I'll say is we for the most part, we're we're doing a lot of the touristy things. Uh most days I'm trying not to do more than one touristy thing at a time. In the event that we needed to do,

Memory Spending And Kids Money Lessons

18:35

because like in Paris proper, we're we're not there for very long. So there are, there is a day where like we go to the Louvre in the morning and then in the evening we're doing like the river cruise to see all the sites lit up and the Eiffel Tower, etc., from uh from the river. So in most cases, we're doing one thing a day, not two. And it's because you also there's so much, you can just walk, you can explore, you can just sit down in parks, you can sit at the cafe and people watch. Like I really want the kids, especially to just kind of absorb the European life, which is so much slower pace. Because also, too, this is in part also kind of a trial run to see if we might move abroad. Yeah. Yeah, it really is like our our little European adventure of could we do this long term? Yeah. Yeah. Um I always, when we go, especially with the kids, maybe less so when it's just Brandon and I, but especially when we're traveling with the kids, I enroll us in the smart traveler enrollment program step. If you Google that, it'll come up, but it's a free US government service that allows citizens traveling or living abroad to receive real-time safety and security and health alerts from the nearest US embassy and consulate. It also lets them know where you're going to be. So if we needed to show up at the consulate in Barcelona, for example, they would now have record that we were supposed to be in the country. For example, I got an alert this morning saying that the Pope is now going to be in Barcelona while we are there. So of course they're talking about, you know, increased traffic, road closures, um, you know, all those things that we just need to be aware of. It's also, you know, a lot of these big sit cities have big pickpocket. Um, you know, that's like a it's a whole business for some of these families. So when you have these major events or concerts or prominent people coming, there that's that's their gold rush, right? So you're gonna have to be on extra alert. People brings more tourists in. Exactly. So, you know, you wanna be safe about things like that. Um, so I really like enrolling in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program. It's totally free. You'll get text messages and emails and updates on like what's happening. It'll also keep you up to date on any kind of civil unrest, um, health concerns, etc. So I always recommend that, especially when traveling with kids. Uh, the other thing I just did is I order our currency from our home bank. Um, the euro and the dollar, it's it's not a great time to go to Europe right now. Um, but I know that doing my currency exchange at the airport or at one of those kiosks is going to cost me much more. So you can actually go to your bank, request the currency ahead of time. I did it yesterday. They called this morning already and said it's in. I was gonna give it three to five days. Always better to be early than than late. Um, but I always recommend getting currency ahead of time so that you're not paying those extra fees. Always use a credit card. Do please do not travel with a debit card. No. I mean, we have a whole episode on why you should be using a credit card over a debit card, but especially when you're traveling, you need the protections of the credit card and you want to use a credit card that has a zero dollar like international or foreign transaction fee. So that means you're not getting charged every single time. you swipe your card to use the card abroad. So sorry, go ahead. No, go ahead. I was saying also is letting your credit card, whatever credit card you're actually going to bring with you and use, letting your credit card company know that you are going to be traveling in the in, you know, said countries so that they don't, you know, flag it as uh fraud and cut your card off. Yeah. I I stopped doing that as much. I do plan on doing that next week for the cards that we plan on using, just because we are going to be traveling, you know, to four different countries. I do think on the back end now, these banks, you know, they can see that we booked the flights, we booked the train tickets, you know, we've been making these transactions in these different cities leading up to it. So I do think we'd be fine. But, you know, I like to travel with my Amex for these kinds of major expenses. Amex is not widely accepted in Europe. So that's something to call out. But I'm still going to let them know. And then also any of the other credit cards, I'll just call the 1-800 number on the back. Let them know so that they can notate the account because the last thing you want is to have your account frozen, you know, your internet's not the same, all of those things. Just whatever you can plan for, get ahead of. Do it while you're in the comfort of your home. You have your Wi-Fi. Do it before you arrive. The other thing that I do and you can call me old school is I will have a paper copy of everything. I will have a paper copy

Booking Strategy Flights Lodging And Pace

23:25

of the front or like the main pages of our passports. I will have a paper copy of the front and back of our credit cards. I have a printed out copy of all of our tickets with confirmation numbers. I will be printing out um our uh you know Google Doc spreadsheet with all of our addresses, confirmation numbers, everything anything that we need for this trip, I will have a paper copy of. And I think this the sad part is is that it's actually more needed now, especially coming back into the United States. Yeah. I'm I'm just not going to risk anything. So as far as having all that you know additional documentation and even you know especially possibly even leaving coming back in the United States, you know, turning off um facial recognition on your phone. Yeah. Or or having your phone completely off. Like it might even be beneficial to just have the paper ticket that you get at the gate while we're checking luggage and stuff anyways and just for security purposes with what's going on with our government just turning everything off turning off facial recognition because we've all seen the things online and it's getting crazy out there. So I don't need anybody going through my phone. Yeah. Yeah. Um if you're booking things um out of the country double triple check the sites. I remember specifically telling Brandon like oh the tickets to the Louvre are only like $22. And then when I thought that I was on the Louvre official website, they had like jumped up and it was like $68. And I was like am I losing my mind? Like what happened? So something told me to just do another Google search and I ended up on the a Reddit thread and the Reddit thread had basically been talking about all these scam sites that were popping up that basically look identical to the official sites for the big things like the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower and um La Grata Familia in Barcelona and just the, you know, the big tourist attractions. And so just double and triple check. And then yeah if you want to go down the Reddit feed people will post like this is actually the official, you know, the official site um just make sure that you're not getting scammed in the process of like booking your dream vacation. Yeah. And once again one extra layer of out of protection there is using a credit card instead of your debit card to pay for something. Absolutely not. Main attractions that require tickets, right? If you're thinking of like hey I want to go up to the Eiffel Tower or I want to go to La Grotta Familia, those types of things you want to book ahead of time. I was stalking the websites I had like alarms set and even then I still missed the ideal date for us to go to see La Grata Familia. So now we're actually going to see it on the day that we arrive, which is not ideal, but it is what it is and at least we have a ticket for it. But some of these, you know, they open up a window and again if you're on VPN versus not like sometimes it makes a difference but just stay on it because you don't want to miss out on like do this is not a movie theater. Like you can't just roll up the day of and expect to get a ticket. Depending on what movie it is you can't do the same thing other days I mean that's true. They will turn you away. Download any of your favorite travel apps before you leave your home country we already have international phone plans so we are opting not to get an eSIM but I did price it out and most people if they don't have an international plan will spend about $10 a day on data services. Which can add up which yeah if you're staying somewhere for a month that's easily $300 right there. You can get an eSIM for 30 days for under $80. So do that in your home country you can activate it once you land download all of your apps download your Google Translate Uber is not super widely used in Europe. They prefer what's called bolt um so like things like that just be prepared have it on your phone the last thing you want to do is to be like standing at the airport after a long flight you're ready for a shower you know you're looking for your luggage and now you can't order your car, right? So just be mindful. When it comes to taxis and car services, if you're checking into a hotel usually they will have a price list to tell you hey to get from here to here or to get from here to this main attraction should only cost you this this much money. Ask for that information. You can at this point you can Google it. I will say also too like with Google Maps it'll often show you what you should be paying for a fare from one destination to the next yeah and in Paris they have very specific they're basically like boroughs um and when you get into the taxi cab you can you should be verifying right because there are people that will take advantage of tourists that are not educated. They didn't do their research in Prague back in the day. We did get got in Prague. I mean luckily it was it ended up being like an additional like 20 bucks or something. 10 like $10 something like yeah but it was twice what it should have cost. It should have been yeah and that was we had like the worst flight of our lives this is back in 2015. Oh my gosh it was the worst we learned we don't do it anymore you know and and one thing too use public transit like that's what we plan to do as much as possible. Plus it's part of the experience I think our kids are going to love it. It's pretty reliable in Europe. Like it's it's pretty on time. I'm not going to say it's perfect obviously but a lot of the countries now I know Barcelona um Germany and Paris, they actually allow you to buy cards for like 24 to up to 72 hours and in that bulk price. So instead of paying you know two euros each way or six euros to go here and here which will add up especially as a family of four you can buy a bulk price ticket for you know a set price for 24 to 72

Safety Prep Cards Cash Scams And Phones

29:10

hours and then you can hop on any public transit. So that's the trams, the subways, the buses sometimes it's like the um you know above ground trains. So do your research use public transit it's part of the experience I I love exploring public transit. You're not sitting in traffic and again it's especially if you're traveling with kids it's part of the experience. I love it. I'll also say you know research tip culture, cultural and social norms, key phrases and pleasantries like I can tell you in Germany for example, you know when you go out to lunch or dinner if if your bill comes to 15 euros and 37 30 cents, you can round up to 16 euros because the people that are serving you are making a living wage they have health insurance they have benefits. They are not living off of your tips like they are here in the United States yeah tipping culture in the United States is very different in comparison to uh most uh European countries yeah so just look those things up um you know for example in in France like you cannot walk into a building without saying bonjour like you will have to acknowledge the people that are there like I can't say hi no you need to say bonjour you're not going to be an American well I mean I am an American so do your research you know be polite do the things that are publicly acceptable with within those cultures and within those countries and you know be respectful of the country that you're in. Yeah don't be that annoying uh American traveling abroad don't be that person don't don't be that person we all know that person don't be that person yeah if you're listening to our podcast you're probably not that person but you probably know someone who's been that person. Of course we all know somebody make sure of course that you have the right electrical outlets or adapters or converters for your electronics um and then a spare battery like you're gonna be taking pictures and videos and you know using your apps trying to get around figuring out you know which train color in line to get on yeah all of that's gonna drain your battery so just be prepared the last thing you want to do is be standing on you know the corner of some Paris street and you have no idea where you're supposed to be going. So have your adapters have your chargers make sure everything's loaded up and bring a spare battery you're gonna need it. Yeah. And then you know we put air tags in all of our luggage. I think that's really important. Um even if the airline cannot locate it I want to be able to tell them where it is. And in all honesty in certain aspects I might put an air tag on our kids. Yeah I no totally like I I don't hate that idea. I mean we have extra air tags. So you know track your luggage especially if you're checking it. Speaking of luggage do not overpack Europe is not the place for you to be schlepping around huge luggage especially if you're gonna be using public transit. I know for example our Airbnb in in Germany there's no elevator and I think we're going up to the fourth floor. So we're all gonna be great a great workout in Brandon's going to be carrying everything. I plan the trip he carries um but you know things to think about and then also um on the trains there is not a ton of storage. So again if you're bringing huge luggage and a backpack and you're traveling you know as multiple people like you might be sitting on that suitcase right under your feet because the trains are just not made for that like you might be going from country to country but people will be on that train just getting to work on a Tuesday. Like they are commuter trains. This is this is how they operate. So you do need to be mindful of you know not overpacking. The other thing I'll say is before you leave for any trip, you want to make sure that your legal documents are in order, that people know where to locate them. Hopefully your will is up to date. I mean nobody wants to think about the worst case scenario but these are things that you know we're adults we have to talk about them get your stuff right make sure that it's organized um and yeah I think those are my biggest tips for successful travel. Did I miss anything? No I mean we talked about all those things also being you know aware of your surroundings because you know especially for example like within in Paris and within uh Barcelona uh pickpocketing is a huge thing like you I think you mentioned that earlier you know don't carry all of your money in the same pocket in the same wallet also if you bring multiple credit cards don't necessarily carry all of them with you. Yeah you know keep things safe you know if you have a piece of luggage like hopefully your Airbnb or your hotel has a safe always we always utilize our safe so definitely do that. If you have luggage that has a lock or you can put a lock on it you can keep some of your valuables there while you're out and about but you want to spread out your valuables. So whether you're you know carrying cash, you're bringing multiple cards, don't have them all in one place because if something does happen, then you're totally SOL. So you don't want to do that. And just be aware. And and be aware yes there's also you know the pickpockets when for those people who maybe haven't traveled as extensively as we have the pickpockets are not just like coming up and sticking their hand in your back pocket. Like this is this is their job. Like they work in teams they work in groups

Transit Tipping Pickpockets And Wrap Up

34:35

they have distractions. Watch out somebody bumps you I remember I remember when we went um a friend of mine when we were teaching we took a group to Europe a group of students and we told the boys and the tour guides told the boys like if a pretty woman in Italy comes up and starts flirting with you, she is not interested. She is a distraction and you will be leaving with not your phone not your wallet not your watch like sorry hate to tell you this but that's how it works. So they will create diversions and distractions and you know just just be mindful just be mindful in this I mean the the subways in in Paris especially around the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower they're notorious for pickpockets. You know one of the parents got his wallet stolen another parent that was traveling with us got um got their passport stolen and one person actually had a like breast bag or like a chest bag underneath a sweatshirt. But these people, I'm telling you, they will take little scissors while you're standing all cramped and you're trying not to make awkward eye contact on the subway and they will straight up cut your your book bag strap. They will cut your purse strap like I'll be making awkward awkward eye contact with everyone. I see you. I see you know put things in your bra put things in in whatever crevices you need to to keep it safe okay so anyways we are super excited about this adventure I was trying to keep track of like what it's all going to cost. I mean I can tally up the Airbnbs and you know somehow our Amazon cart uh of like pre-travel preparation our preparation uh expenses I'm like is this about to be the same amount as the whole trip I'm confused at what's happening but you know we want to be prepared especially when traveling with our kids and um you know we can try to figure out how much this whole thing is going to cost in the end but I'm not going to you know spend a million hours tallying it all up but it all started with let's just go to Europe for summer camp instead. So that's where we are. So uh we are going to be you know living in the moment you can follow along in stories we're gonna be posting less on our social media while we're gone. We want to be fully like present and tuned in and locked in with our kids um and really just ex enjoying and exploring Europe together. I'll shout out one other like blessing is that I'm actually not going to be working which is the stars totally aligned. Again, if you've been here for a minute you know that I I haven't worked since early March and um I I signed a contract with a new company and I'm really excited. And when I told them about our trip to Europe they said well why don't you just go to Europe and then start in July when you get back and I was like oh my gosh I literally get to frolic through Europe for a month. So yeah I'm gonna be frolicking Brandon will still be you know working kind of part-time but this is really gonna be an epic adventure I think so follow along um ask us any questions if we missed anything that you're interested in definitely let us know but we wanted to let you know that um episodes are still gonna be releasing throughout the summer um every Wednesday some of them might be repeats but we have some new content coming for you as well so if you're feeling behind and you haven't been keeping up on all of the episodes that we drop every single Wednesday this is the perfect time to catch up. Enjoy the summer with your kids I know school is out for everybody. So enjoy, be safe and we are happy to answer any questions about our European adventure and we'll probably come back and do like a recap episode on like what we thought, what went wrong, what went right, you know, how our recommendations yeah how have our recommendations changed is Disney Paris worth it all the things. So if you have questions about that too let us know we'll start kind of aggregating them and then we can do a we're back from Europe follow-up episode. So thank you for tuning in. We hope you guys have an amazing summer um and we will talk to you soon. Don't forget Benjamin Franklin said an investment in knowledge pays the best interest you just got paid. Until next time Sugar Daddy podcast go learn how to make the pockets growing into freedom where we grow our investments money flow. Thanks for listening to today's episode we are so glad to have you as part of our SugarDaddy community. If you learned something today please remember to subscribe rate review and share this episode with your friends, family and extended network. Don't forget to connect with us on social media at the SugarDaddy Podcast. You can also email us your questions you want us to answer for our Past the Sugar segment at the sugardaddypodcast at gmail.com or leave us a voicemail to our Instagram. Our content is meant to be used and must be used by commission for the public it's very important to do your own analysis before making any investment based upon your own personal photos independent financial advice reliance professional and next to it for independent research and verify any information you find in our podcast and we rely upon it for the purpose of making the investment decision or otherwise