2024 Travel Plan Update – Time For Something a Little Different!

January 25, 2024 Mark

It’s time for another Two Travel Turtles 2024 travel plan update!

After researching the different regions of the world we are interested in visiting, as well as the best transportation deals, we finally know where we will be going from August – December 2024 (and probably beyond).

And our choice might surprise you!

Wait, Isn’t Planning 8 Months in Advance Overkill?

Good question.

Now that we’ve been slow-traveling the world for 17 months, I’ve noticed that Rhonda and I follow a predictable pattern.

Every three months, like clockwork, psychological pressure builds for us to figure out where we will be 6 – 8 months in the future.

Some might think this amount of planning is a little overkill, and we get it.

More spontaneous travel has its perks. Based on information from locals and other travelers we meet, we could find cool, off-the-radar, or cheap travel opportunities that no amount of internet research would otherwise reveal.

But for us, knowing our destination six months in advance provides too many advantages to ignore.

Airfare deals are (usually) better the further out you plan. This is doubly true when using credit card award points for flights, as there are only a small number of seats on each flight reserved for award travel.

Also, the best long-stay Airbnb deals get gobbled up quickly, so the further out you book the better the chance you’ll find a great deal. And since you can cancel your booking at any point up to 1 month before your stay, there is no disadvantage in locking in a good find.

And last, there is the psychological benefit of knowing where we will be and how we will get there! Anxiety builds as uncertainty draws closer. So every time we get our future international travel planned out, it is a major pressure release.

So for us, this seems the best way to plan. At least for now.

OK, So What’s The Plan?

Recall from our last travel plan update that we will continue to explore Mexico until the end of April 2024, and then we will be jetting off to Spain for three months.

Unfortunately, we have to leave Spain at the end of July 2024. More accurately, we have to get out of Western Europe.

Our USA passports only allow us to stay in the Schengen Area group of countries (of which Spain is a part) for 90 days every 180 days. So we need to escape the Schengen Area by the end of July, lest we run into visa violation problems.

Kind of a bummer since there are so many cool European countries to visit within the Schengen Area.

So we did a Google Flights search to see what cheap outgoing flights were available. On a whim, I declared “Anywhere” as our destination and Madrid, Spain as our origin point to see what was out there, as we were not married to the idea of going to any particular place. So long as it was out of the Schengen Area, we were open to all sorts of destinations.

And much to our delight, one-way direct flights to Belgrade, Serbia on Air Serbia were cheap!

The Balkans region of Europe was high on our list of places to visit during pre-COVID times, and now that the travel restrictions have disappeared, this is the perfect time to go. And the Balkans is still off the radar for the majority of travelers, so we are excited to see the region before the tourism industry fully develops.

Needless to say, we pulled the trigger and booked our flights.

If we paid out of pocket, the flights would have been $132.53 USD each after taxes and fees.

However, we paid for the flights with Chase Sapphire Ultimate Rewards credit card points, using 21,205 points total for both tickets.

Meaning, we didn’t pay a dime.

Considering we probably earned that number of points over the last 8 months just by living our lives and using our credit cards strategically, it seems like cheating.

But we’ll take it!

And we’ve already booked our first 28 nights in Belgrade, but beyond that things are up in the air.

The list of non-Schengen area Balkan countries we might explore includes Serbia (obviously), Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Albania. They are all small in size and are easy to travel between by bus or train.

Click the provided links to learn more about these countries!

Honestly, this country list is too big to explore in 5 months, so we are going to have to choose our locations carefully based on the weather. We do know that we want to be in Albania by the holiday season, but September through mid-December 2024 is totally up in the air.

Thankfully we have a friend in San Cristobal de las Casas who has traveled the Balkans extensively, and she has given us a lot of tips.

Thanks Ashley!

So aside from some minor details, it looks like our big-picture travel plans are set for 2024.

It should be fun!

До идућег пута…

Thanks for reading!

Leave a comment below and subscribe to get email notifications whenever we post!

Follow Two Travel Turtles on Facebook and Twitter!