Traveling on a dime!

“Travel provides us with the distance required to see what it is we are habitually doing and the anonymity to risk new ways of being in the world.” - Robert Fuller

My husband and I travel a great deal for our company and thus I have become quite the self-appointed expert at finding the most incredible deals while planning.  Today, I am sharing with you my favorite top 10 ways to hit the road and save a wallet full of money.  Even if you only learn 1-2 new things it should help you stay somewhere amazing for a steal.

1. Plan ahead and save a ton
This may seem pretty straightforward and logical but if you can play around with your trip and consider ADDING on an extra overnight stay (at the front or back end) you may end up actually saving yourself more in the long run; this is the best time to use that 'flexible dates' option they give you for flight costs too!  Many hotels offer a discounted 3rd night or even buy-two-nights-get-one-free.  You can also save many times by booking 3 weeks or more in advance- just be sure to double check that you are getting a cancellable/ fully refundable reservation.  Almost all hotels now offer cancellation by 4pm the day before or day of arrival option even when booking from kayak or hotels.com.  I was surprised recently to find The Marriott Beachplace in Ft. Lauderdale had a fantastic option of $125 per night with a water view with balcony.  Compared to staying further inland at comparable hotels at upwards of $200 per night - simply because I booked from the Marriott website and chose the Marriott rewards package price instead of AAA or "best price" option. Did you know that you should also separate out your trip when researching and sometimes a weeknight or weekday is less than the other nights - many times I book a couple of weeknights as needed and book a separate reservation for my weekend part of the trip for a lower cose that won't be offered to you if you book it all as one reservation.   This happens particularly with disney hotels and big chains!

2.  Compare, compare, compare......  (ok and location, location, location too)
Before I ever book something using one of the social media or discounted sale sights, I always go to the hotel or airlines direct page and compare.  Recently I saved significantly by doing this in searching for a hotel in south Florida for a business trip.  I was intrigued by an email from the Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Fl for deluxe kings starting at $125 plus a $50 food/drink credit and free valet.  Not knowing our meeting dates yet and knowing the deal was only good for 3 days - I booked two separate stays a week apart from each other knowing that I could cancel one of them anytime.  A couple weeks later, I cancelled one of the reservations and we are set now with an upcoming stay ultimately only costing my company $75 per night plus tax to stay at a gorgeous hotel with a ton of amenities very centrally located - for a steal!  It is great to note that for this particular hotel -had I chosen two queens/doubles instead of a king the price would have gone up higher so keep that in mind too when playing around with your selections.

3. Utilize groupon, living social, travel zoo, kayak, etc.
In addition to these popular discounted travel sites, consider that there are even more of these sites that you may not know about, such  as cldeals.com (creative loafing/ new times, those free paper magazines that come out every week in many communities).  Amazon local also has some unique deals not found on the other sites.  Crowd savings and half off depot offer an extensive list of deals that change daily.  I found that jetsetter had some fantastic deals and when I referred a family member (even if booking under my husband) I received $25 off my next booking. 

Vista Verde All Inclusive Ski Resort Colorado Springs, CO

4.  Do yourself an extra favor
On sites like crowdsavings.com or halfoffdepot.com if you sign up for the email list and wait a couple days  look for just the right daily discount code and save another 20%-50% off.  Also if you look at some travel options and then go to close the site you will sometimes get a pop up window or an email shortly thereafter saying "Wait! Don't go - we'll give you another $25 off if you come back and book now!")  Great example:  The Sirata Beach Resort in St. Petersburg, Fl was being offered at a very cheap $66 per night on halfoffdepot.com, a few days into the offer they ran a plus 20% off and with tax we stayed on the ocean, with a cabana and welcome drink for $52.  I was very leery of booking any hotel at this kind of rate so, as always I checked reviews out on tripadvisor.com and yelp, etc to see what we were getting into first.  I was very pleasantly surprised and cannot wait to see if this hotel advertises more deals again - they used a company called aniomod.com for the bookings.  Here are some views of the property and I can tell you that the service there was fantastic!  I went back online while we were there and booked 3 more nights at this steal of a rate (The only caveat here was it had to be used before 12/31/13 and they said mostly weeknight stays were bookable).  I didn't have any issue booking any of the dates we needed and it was an excellent way to not worry about driving an hour home after a Rays baseball game, a day of work meetings in the area, and a place to meetup with family and friends by the beach.

Sirata Beach Resort Clearwater, FL

Sirata Beach Resort Clearwater, Fl

5.  A no-brainer- get AAA.  
Seriously - on top of getting roadside service we easily make up for the low cost membership with hotel discounts.  Whenever I login to Marriott's website I select the AAA rate option and always see a significant savings (although sometimes the marriott rewards or package deals are better at times).  Also you can book and peruse many AAA rated hotels and cruises right on their website when comparison shopping.

Trevi Fountain Rome, Italy 

6.  Subscribe to your favorite hotel and airlines rewards clubs and e-newsletters
Trust me, you can always unsubscribe or use unrollme.com to stop being hassled.  They will send out last minute deals to entice you.  One great place we've stayed a few times is the Bayfront Marin House in St. Augustine - and by liking their facebook page and or being on their email list you can get amazing water front rooms (including drinks, appetizers, 3 course breakfast and more) for $159 on a weeknight!

Balcony of our Royal Caribbean Cruise leaving Tampa, FL

7.  Change your groupon home town
When I know ahead of time that I am traveling out of state especially I spend a few minutes on groupon logged into their area and sometimes find a deal for a local attraction that I had wanted to see anyways for half the price.  Just because a restaurant uses these deal sites to market themselves doesn't mean they are low quality -sometimes they are brand new places looking for business and sometimes they want the exposure.

Hell, Cayman Islands

8.  Earn free gift cards and dining checks
Use opentable.com to make reservations even if it is last minute and you can quickly earn a $20 gift card.  They offer 1000 point tables in most cities which means if you reserve a table during certain hours or certain days of the week you are halfway to a $20 dining certificate - book one of these twice and you made $20!   You can also use open table right from the yelp website or app now too which is fantastic!  Whenever I am booking at a bed and breakfast I check www.bedandbreakfast.com for their current gift card or online booking deals.  I almost always book with someone who takes their gift cards, because I save at least $20 for every $100 spent on a b&b gift card.  *Important- you must buy your B&B.com gift cards 8 days before you want to redeem them on a trip so no last minute planning here.

Secrets Maroma Beach Resort, Cancun, Mexico

9.  Call the hotel last minute 
Ask if they can top the lowest rated deal or go to www.lasminutedeals.com.  By the way a package deal may not be the best value so do the math - you don't necessarily need all the frills if you just want to add on a bottle of wine or a spa massage to your trip - but sometimes there is a lot of value in those packages too.  I just booked the Marriott County Hall in London England for a trip for next year and I am keeping my eye on the current exchange rate.  To begin with I can book an upgraded room there on hotels.com for $50 less than on the marriott website (and cancel anytime) but even better I can pre-purchase it at a locked in US Dollar amount whenever the dollar is a little stronger than the pound.  Also they had a package for 40pounds more that included dinner, champagne, chocolates and breakfast...... what a steal!!!!

The Collesium, Rome, Italy

10.  Utilize your connections
Sounds easy enough- but I was surprised to learn during a recent trip to Boca that alumni of my University get a discount by calling and just saying they went to the school.  Imagine if you utilized this tactic every time you had to book a hotel in Gainesville or Tallahassee.... not suggesting that you should be dishonest here, but if you have an alma mater then say so when visiting a college town- it cannot hurt.   Ask the hotel concierge or desk clerk for ideas and always look at the coupon racks in the hotel lobby- if you already know where you want to go for a drink or dinner and if it is nearby I can tell you at least a quarter of the time they have a coupon in one of those magazines for a free glass of wine or dessert, etc.

Vista Verde Resort Colorado Springs, CO

Above all - have fun!  IF you have the time to research you can save a LOT of money.... if you have good credit consider getting a couple of travelers credit cards like American Express Blue Sky (I made a $1200 profit off of them last year).  Delta Amex is sending me to Paris next spring..... 

Sirata Beach Resort, Clearwater, Fl

What are your best travel tips to save money and get to see the world??  

"Wine is bottled poetry." -Robert Louis Stevenson

We found a wonderful place outside of Tampa, FL that allows you to make your own wines.  Luckily, with the Southshore Uncorked wine making shop located in Apollo Beach, FL for a mere $50 you will have the assistance of a professional and all of the sanitized tools necessary to make, ferment, and finally bottle and label your own creation!   Kathy and Steve Lieberman are the owners of this great shop, and with the help of Lora we made it look so easy!  Check out the fun we had and what we made!!!

First, you select your grapes (*juice).  These range from $50 to $200+ per kit depending on varietal, vintage, etc.   We liked a lovely California Trinity Red Blend of Cabernet and Merlot grapes which was around $100.  Keep in mind, this ends up making between 24-30 bottles of wine, so when all is said and done you have a fantastic deal to enjoy or give away as corporate gifts or to friends for under $10 per bottle! They have samples of many of the grapes so you can test drive your taste buds before you decide.

The first step is making sure that anything that comes in contact with the wine is sanitized.  You want to continue to sanitize everything as you move on through the wine making process including the fermenting container,  spoons, etc.  We the combined the ingredients together with our wine making pro and we followed the directions that come in the kit.  The first packet to go in contained bentonite, which is a clarifier.  

We then added  about a 1/2 gallon of warm water to the fermenter.  

Next, we poured in the juice from our kit and topped off our wine with water to the 6 gallon mark.

Then it was Rob's turn to stir everything together really well. This helps blend everything, but also introduces air to our wine. Air is a good thing at this stage because the yeast will need it to ferment the wine.

After everything has been stirred up, we added the yeast.  You do not stir the yeast into the wine because if you stir too hard, you are beating up the yeast. Just simply sprinkle it in, or pour it in and place the lid on top of the fermenter.  This is also a good time to add some natural oak for flavor - it will turn your wine into an oak barreled buttery concoction but will add depth and complexity to your grapes.

Fill an airlock half way with water (or vodka....) and inset it into the rubber grommet on the lid. This helps gases escape.  Place fermenter in an area that maintains a 65 °F to 75 °F consistent temperature.  

That is it, our part is done for about a month.... except for all the bottles we wanted to work on getting empty for our final product!

It was a labor of love getting those 30 bad boys all ready- lots of hot water, vinegar, baking powder - but it worked!  Of course, if you prefer less elbow grease, you can have Uncorked provide you bottles at around $1.69 each.  

Meanwhile, the team at Uncorked will transfer the wine from the primary fermenter into a secondary fermenter to leave as much sediment behind.  As the wine sits and ferments they add the additional kit ingredients such as potassium metabisulphite and potassium sorbate. These work together to kill off the yeast and stabilize the wine to help preserve it once you are ready to bottle.   Speaking of bottling time.... we got the call a month later and went to create our final product!  Time to sanitize the bottles!

This is a wine tree to aid in drying out the bottles after we squished them down onto the sanitizer sponge.

We began filling the wine right from the main fermenter through what looked similar to an iv line... after sampling some of course!  It was fun to move from bottle to bottle watching them fill to perfection!

Next we went on to cork the bottles.  They offer you unused corks (which they sell for a few cents each) imagine that- using the corks from my own private collection was not worthwhile - don't your leftover corks have holes in them too? ;)

Using their corking machine we leveraged ourselves and closed them up!  You can have Uncorked do all or some of these steps completely for you.... but what's the fun in that?

We washed the bottles off with glass cleaner and it was time to apply our custom made labels.  

We chose a photo of us in front of the vineyard from our recent trip to Napa and Sonoma and Robert added a special touch with our family crest right on the top!  This will still make for a great corporate gift to some of our business clients but with a personal touch!  You can use a generic label that comes with the kit, design and bring your own or let them design it for you based on whatever name, photo, idea you want for only $20!  

Applying the labels was very easy.  

And last but not least we used their hot coils to add a pretty top seal for a few cents more.  

We will be enjoying our lovely wine in only one more month and because they do not add any additional sulfites other than what naturally occurs with the grapes, etc it will hold on the shelf for 1-2 years.  Less sulfites means less headaches the day after - f you've ever drank wine in Europe you will know the value in less sulfites = more vino time!  

Our finished product is ready to go on our shelves!  Just in time for the upcoming holidays... 

Who want to go back with us next time and make some more wine?

Do what you love - you'll be better at it! - Coppola

Francis Ford Coppola said it best about his winery, "A wine wonderland, a park of pleasure where people of all ages can enjoy all the best things in life - food, wine, music, dancing, games, swimming and performances of all types.  A place to celebrate the love of life."  He was certainly right!  We had already planned a visit to the Coppola winery and were delighted to also be invited to enjoy a wonderful complimentary seated flight especially of some of their fantastic reserve wines (thanks again to the advice from Carolyn at Cline Winery in Sonoma and her daughter Jeannine)!  We tasted and brought home some of their Director's Cut- which you cannot buy in stores- and it was divine!  

You can also experience an incredible hosted wine tour which can include the Coppola winery by checking out Jenn's Wine Shop in Carrollwood just north of Tampa, FL where they also have a great shop and carry some wonderful brands and offer great advice! 

Coppola's awesome and knowledgeable staff walked us through the different notes and gave us the background stories on the types and names and history of the different wines.

My favorite was the Eleanor which I will patiently wait to open when the perfect evening arrives.

 In addition to the magnificent wines (of which a large variety of tasting and tour options are available) there is a beautiful museum of Coppola's movie memorabilia as well as a gift shop to peruse.  Francis' film making career spans five decades and they have several of his academy awards and endless pieces of his collection.  Much of the memorabilia is placed throughout the grounds so you can enjoy it while tasting or making your way to their restaurant or pool.  Two large boats are on display which were props from Sofia Coppola's 2006 film Marie Antoniette which are replicas of 18th century vessels- a beauty to behold. 

 Don Corleone’s original desk from The Godfather, was there- ripe for our touristy photos!

The original automobile from Tucker: The Man and His Dream was rotating impressively on a turntable in the middle of the gift shop.  

There is even more fun to be had at the winery, as they offer a huge pool and cabanas for daily use.  Here is a photo from their website showing the expansive cabana options.

Then we dined at their beautiful restaurant onsite called Rustic - it was wonderful; their calzone was gigantic and full of flavor!  

The views were breathtaking!  

 I am sharing with you one of their wonderful recipes from their restaurant, Rustic- and then I want to tell you about our beautiful bed and breakfast stay.

Photo from francisfordcoppolawinery.com as shared on pinterest.

Apple Jam & Ham Melt

INGREDIENTS: 

• 4 slices of Pumpernickel bread, toasted
• 16 thin slices of smoked cut ham
• 1 cup grated Havarti cheese
• 1 sweet onion
• 1 ½ TB butter
• 3 green apples, peeled and chopped
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 TB lemon juice
• ¼ tsp grated nutmeg
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/8 tsp cardamom
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon

PREPARATION:

In a microwave safe bowl, combine chopped apples, sugar, and lemon juice. Cover and cook on high for 3 minutes. Let apples cool before putting into blender; pulse until smashed. Return apple smash to bowl, cover and cook 2 more minutes in microwave. Stir in nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon and cayenne pepper. Cool and store until ready.

Thinly slice onion and sauté in butter until soft and browned. Set aside. On a foil lined baking sheet create four ham stacks of sliced ham and top with grated cheese. Place in 375° oven 7-10 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Toast bread slices. Smear with apple jam. Use a spatula and remove melted ham stack from baking sheet and place atop jam. Top with sautéed onions and serve hot.  Find other great recipes on their ‘Chef for Everyday Life’ Pinterest board.   

We went on to enjoy a magnificent yet very comortable bed and breakfast in walking distance of downtown Napa.  Behold the Churchill Manor!

Dimitri was an absolutely gracious host and we were delighted with the home, stunning rooms, gracious grounds and fantastic nightly social hour of wines, cheeses and snacks and then there was the breakfasts...

This was our room for one of the nights - the Stag's Leap room.

Photo from churchillmanor.com

It was setup for relaxation after a rough day at the vineyards.

Photo from churchillmanor.com

Check out the gorgeous mural over our tub! 

  

The grounds were so pretty with wraparound porches and they host many weddings in the courtyard. 

We also stayed one night in the Tulocay room which was beautiful as well.  The fireplace helped us drift off to sleep.

Photo from churchillmanor.com

  Breakfast gave us two entree options as well as fresh fruit and our option to bring some bubbly to toast to 21 years together! 

  

 

The hospitality was A-plus!   We had options of using their complimentary tandem bikes for a short a short ride to the river or downtown and they made great recommendations for us for dining and tastings.  We highly recommend Churchill Manor when you are visiting Napa!  

Wine Country Visitors Tip:  Be sure to check with your B&B about tasting passes and coupons- we were able to score many passes that saved us hundreds in tasting fess for around Napa!  

If you haven't yet read my previous posts about our adventures in Sonoma and the beautiful train rider down from Portland, check them out here.

Until next time California - CHEERS!!  

What has been your favorite place to go out in Wine Country - share the great ideas in the comment section below - and if you haven't been where do you want to go the most?   - cathy@asavoryspoonful.com