Boston, Paris & Amsterdam
About the Trip & How We Did It
My husband, Steve and I went to Boston, Paris and Amsterdam in November of 2023. We decided to reposition to Boston to get a deal on a business class flight. It’s tough to get reasonably priced business class flights from Kansas City so more often than not, you need to reposition. When repositioning for flights, we like to fly in the night before as a safety measure since when booking individual flights, the airline is not responsible if you are delayed on your first flight. Since Steve had not been to Boston, we decided to spend a couple nights there exploring before heading on to Paris. Boston is such a fun city, very walkable and tons to see and do. The food is also fabulous!
In Boston we stayed at the Intercontinental using points earned from Chase’s IHG card welcome bonus and walked almost everywhere we went. Highlights were a Freedom Tour, walking around Beacon Hill, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, eating amazing Italian food and Mike’s Pastry (trust me, you must try their cannoli’s).
Paris was magical, even during November! We like going to places off-season as the crowds are smaller and sometimes accommodations can be cheaper and easier to find points deals. Paris is so beautiful on foot! We walked everywhere, logging 25K plus steps a day. Highlights were a food tour in Marais, a walking tour in Montmartre, Sainte-Chappelle, Museum D’Orsay, the Eiffel Tower, sipping coffee and people watching at outdoor cafes and a dinner cruise on the Siene with gorgeous views of the city. We split our stay between the Hotel Du Louvre, a boutique hotel owned by Hyatt and the Park Hyatt Vendome. Both hotels were outstanding with central locations and very posh. As a Globalist (top tier Hyatt status), we received amazing free breakfasts and upgrades to suites.
A 3 hour 20 minute high speed train took us to Amsterdam. We booked first class so we could have lunch and Steve would have a place to get caught up on work. The lunch was absolutely terrible, but the train was comfortable and we enjoyed riding through the countryside. Amsterdam is a walking/biking city with few cars around. Watch out for the bikes or you may get taken out! We booked a bike tour on a very rainy day. Whena we arrived, they gave us the option of canceling as we were the only two people who showed up. We decided to go ahead and had our own private tour guide, Gabe. Not surprisingly, we didn’t run into any other bikes as we rode past windmills and through charming tiny towns. Gabe was a young American archeologist and was so engaging and interesting. We spent the whole day with him, and despite being absolutely soaked, it is up there as one of my favorite days ever! Gabe gave us all kinds of recommendations of things to do and places to eat, my favorite being to tour Our Lord in Attic Museum. This tiny church was hidden in the attic of a home due to the persecution of Catholicism in Holland during the 17th Century. Catholics were not allowed to worship publicly but could worship behind closed doors which resulted in many people creating churches in their homes. Catholics worshipped in these hidden churches until late in the 18th century when they were allowed to worship publicly again. Other highlights were visiting the Anne Frank House, the Van Gogh Museum and a canal cruise. We didn’t make it to the Red Light District (next time – ha!).
Amsterdam was decorated for Christmas and was so charming with all the lights and canals woven through the city. We stayed at the Andaz Amsterdam, very well located with a good breakfast. The hotel wasn’t as posh as our Paris accomodations but we enjoyed it. The Andaz is currently undergoing a renovation which it needed. The staff were so helpful. On the last day I asked a woman at the front desk where I could get stroopwaffles to bring home. She asked me how many I needed and said “Hang on.” A couple minutes later she came out with 4 darling tins filled with them. And yes, they were delicious!
This trip was pure luxury and made possible by points!
How we booked the trip:
MCI-BOS: Economy - 11K points + $11.20 for both of us, direct on Delta. Cash price was $228 or 2 cents/point.
Intercontinental Boston: 130K for 2 nights – cash price $980 or .75 cents/point
Hotel Du Louvre: 85K for 3 nights – cash price $2060 or 2.4 cents/point
Park Hyatt Vendome: 80K for 2 nights – cash price $3169 or 4.0 cents/point
Andaz Amsterdam: 67K for 3 nights - cash price $1687 or 2.5 cents/point
BOS-CDG and AMS-ORD: Business Class - 150K points + $1200 for both of us. We used Amex Membership Reward points transferred to Virgin Atlantic and flew on Air France and KLM “metal”. Flights were incredible. Taxes and fees were high but 75K each round trip business was amazing. Cash price $8600 or 4.9 cents/point.
ORD-MCI: Paid cash - $260 for both of us.
Grand Total: Cash Price $16,004. Paid with 393K transferrable points and $1527 cash for a 3.75 cents/point redemption. Also used 130K IHG points for a .75 cents/point redemption.
-Mary
