Welcome Back to Breakfast with Lisa & Josh!

Hello from Cabo!

We just released the first of our cruise series, that outlines how we got 93% off our 16 night repositioning cruise from Alaska to Hawaii. Spoiler alert: It still wasn’t cheap. But, it sure was awesome.

Booking a cruise felt an act of monetary athleticism - you spend all your time trying to dodge all the additional fees, duck the up-charges, dip past the packages, and dive right around the hilariously overpriced wifi. It was definitely a learning lesson for us, since this was our first cruise. If you want to know how it all went down and check out what cruise life is like, don’t forget to check out the video that came out today (and the next few that are coming up!) Link down below.

For us, the cruise felt downright luxurious and it’s still a realm of travel that we feel like we know very little about (specifically the deals and the hacks.) So if you have any travel hacks for cruising, we’d love to hear them!

This got us thinking about all the awesome places we’ve gotten to stay in these last couple of years. Nothing beats a really, really great hotel. Lisa often tells me stories of how much she hated hotels growing up—gross bathrooms, eye infections from a dirty pillow?!, never sleeping well. She swears she never liked hotels until this last year. But what’s not to like? No absurdly-high cleaning fees (looking at you, Airbnb), no unclear check-in process, comfy temperatures and beds, no back-and-forth about what add-ons you may or may not want during your time there.

Let’s talk about hotels. We could all use a bit of simplicity these days.

Our Top 5 Hotels In The World

We stayed at some absolutely incredible places during our past 2-and-a-half years of travel. Hotels, resorts, hostels, korean hanoks, airbnbs, overnight ferries, capsule-hotel-buses - we’ve tried ‘em all.

These are the best of the best. The ones that really stuck with us, for various reasons. Maybe it was a great location. Maybe it was incredible service. More than likely is was huge value for the price. We’re a sucker for a good deal.

Without further ado -

#5 - AC Hotel Innsbruck

This hotel is BEAUTIFUL, run by wonderful and kind people, and has some of the best views. Has comfy robes.

And, ya know, it’s a really great deal if you’re using points to pay for it.

It’s Marriott, which means you’re getting your 5th night free when you book 4 with points, which is awesome.

The hotel is the tallest building in the area, which means a clear view of the surrounding mountains no matter which room you’re in.

It’s location is also super close to the train station, which is almost certainly how you’re getting there - a perfect end to the incredible 4+ hour train ride you just got done with.

The thing that’s truly unforgettable about this hotel, though, is the view of the sunrise and sunset over the mountains every day. Innsbruck is encapsulated with pristine peaks on all sides, and being to see them lit up every day is just magical.

Great deal, great hotel, views you just can’t get anywhere else in Europe.

Check it out here

#4 - Karaksa Hotels in Japan (Sapporo Specifically)

We fell in love with this brand of hotels in Japan the first time we stayed.

Within 24 hours of checking in, they had helped us book otherwise-impossible-to-book ferry tickets, tickets to a sumo tournament, gave us local restaurant tips that ended up changing our entire understanding of what a egg tart could be, and gave us slippers and PJs for the on-site onsen.

All this, for $52 per night.

What more can you ask for? This one’s incredible not for it’s views, but for its value, and world-class service. If you’re looking to stay in Japan on a budget, this is the chain to go with.

Check it out here

#3 - Merudani Boutique Hotel Ubud, Bali

For us, Bali really started making sense when we made it to Ubud. Seminyak and the surrounding areas were just a bit too much for us at the time - this hotel turned out to be exactly what we imagined Bali to be like.

At a big ole $31 per night, including a spectacularly over-the-top breakfast delivered to your room daily and a gigantic pool, a beautiful cafe next door, you feel like you’re nestled away from the roads and unending parade of motorbikes through the center of Ubud.

The owners were also super helpful with getting us set up on motorbikes and giving us tips on entry to some of the more-off-limit temples in the area. They were so, so friendly. They even gave us heads up about the upcoming events that week—because of them, we got to witness a truly unique cremation celebration through the streets of Ubud.

Lisa’s favorite part was definitely the chonky cute “guard” dogs that were always wandering around the property just waiting to get pet.

We loved this place, and can’t wait to go back.

Check it out here

#2 - Grand Hyatt Jeju

Woah. There’s really no other way to describe this place.

First of all, the hotel room itself was bigger than any apartment Lisa and I had ever lived in. The blinds auto-raised when you woke up, and auto-closed when you went to bed. It had a tiny window on the side that opened for “Fresh Jeju Air”.

The shower had auto-cloaking windows, there was whole-room bluetooth audio, the TV was so big that you couldn’t tell where it ended and the wall began. The gym rivaled most Equinoxes. This place had everything.

The bed was as comfortable as your favorite pair of jeans, and it was bigger than any bed I’ve ever slept in. The sunset-view rooftop pool and pool-sized-hot-tub were just bonkers. The hotel had a full mall right inside of it. You could get room service from a 7-11, at 7-11 prices.

All this for 12,000 Hyatt / Chase points per night. Just a total steal.

This hotel is good enough to validate a trip all the way to Jeju spent entirely within it’s walls. A totally unforgettable experience.

Check it out here

#1 - Sans Souci Koh Samui

I think this might be our favorite hotel in all the world.

Quiet, mostly private beach. Super cute dogs—there’s Kai Kem, a sweet doggo who loves to dig holes in the sand to take naps in. There’s Chang, a gentle giant who might be hard of hearing. And then there’s Tennis—the younger brother who always needs to be heard. (Lisa wrote this part, by the way, if you can’t tell.)

Then there’s the breakfast so good that it will make you jump out of bed every morning—fried rice, noodles, eggs, the perfect amount of savory and spices. Somehow gigabit internet (Josh, here now) A view to die for. People selling coconuts just down the beach. The nicest, most helpful staff in the world. In one of the most desirable destinations on planet earth. Equal parts connected to whatever you needed, and secluded away.

We still dream about this place and it is still, to this day, the hotel that we compare all the others to.

We were in Koh Samui right when Thailand was starting to reopen and got to stay here for only $34 per night (and kept extending our stay, over and over again.) But, times and prices seem to have changed a lot recently.

Looking at this place again feels like happiness, and future nostalgia.

Check it out here

Honorable Mention - Longyearbyen Camping

Not technically a hotel, but I guess they did set up the tent for us before we got there.

This campsite is in the northern most city in the world, Longyearbyen. It’s way, way, way up there, and cold / dark most of the year.

This is an absolutely unforgettable experience in every way. You get to sleep in tents used by arctic explorers from generations past. You get to walk polar-bear-guard-dogs. The whole place is surrounded by an electric fence. The view is just spectacular. Every night you hear the guard dogs bark and are certain doom is just around the corner in the form of a polar bear. In reality, it’s usually just someone else walking their dog.

During the tourist months the sun never sets, so you never really have a good grasp on what time it is while you’re there. It’s like a dangerous Las Vegas. Actually, not really.

An incredible experience that you literally can’t get anywhere else.

And what other place can you stay at that lets you join an elite club called the Arctic Naked Bathing Club?!

Check it out here

Today

We’re wrapping on a couple of relaxing, productive weeks in Baja California Sur where we’ve had some time to do a lot of brainstorming, tons of editing, future planning, and general life things. a Meeting back up with the parents in Mexico City :) The dream team, back together again.

The (Near) Future

Exploring Mexico City with my parents! :)

Our Latest Videos

Cruises do hate him (me).

Big boys, even bigger stakes.

Up until this point, we’d only tried $1 budget sushi. But we had to know whether the expensive stuff was worth it.

See you next Sunday…ish :)

- josh (and lisa)

Oh, and if you want to learn how we afford to take all these trips after quitting our jobs last year, you’ll likely be interested in our Skillshare course on Travel Hacking and Frequent Flier Miles. It’s been really taking off lately, but we still have a few uses of this link left for those of you who want to see the class for free. It comes with a free month of Skillshare, which is more than enough to watch our class and any of the other great courses on there!

Check it out here: https://skl.sh/lisaandjosh02221

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