Jeremy

Jeremy founded Living the Dream in 2008 to chronicle his long-term trip around Asia. Since then he has been on two long-term trips, visited 69 countries, and is just getting started. He is now on a Lifestyle Design quest to build businesses to pursue a life of travel.

Hilton Cartagena Review – 5 Much Needed Nights

Hilton Cartagena from the beach.In our fourth and final Hilton credit card points redemption for this trip, we decided to splurge in our final city in South America.

Although some of our redemption choices in the past were for more stylish hotels, the Hilton Cartagena in Colombia was calling to us in order to recover after our six month journey around the continent.  With 120,000 points and two weekend certificates remaining in our accounts, we were able to exchange these for five-nights in an Executive room (after our gold status upgrade) worth $279/night.

As in the case of our previous stays, we have to ask one question: was the property worth our points?

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That Time Angie Made Us Stay in a Sex Hotel

Enjoying the surround sound of a half-dozen Colombian men getting it on with their mistresses during our stay in a sex hotel was not something I would have put on my bucket list.  

But it happened anyway.

Welcome to your first night in Colombia!

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The One Reason to Skip Cuenca, Ecuador on Your Next Trip

Overlooking Cuenca from the Inca RuinsWithin moments of arriving in Cuenca, Ecuador, we felt an odd familiarity. 

The city seemed eerily similar to one we had visited a few months prior, down to just about every detail.   The buildings looked identical, the public squares just as pristine, and many of the people wore the same traditional style clothes as we saw during our stay in Sucre, Bolivia.

With our excitement at the highest levels, since Sucre has earned a spot in our Top 10 Favorite Cities anywhere in the world, we were thoroughly prepared to start throwing around the same distinction for Cuenca.

But there was one key difference which brought our whole experience down several notches.

The city is overflowing with expats, and the ones we encountered were all quite rude.

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Galapagos Island Hopping – Stay on Land or Take a Cruise?

We spent quite a bit of time researching Galapagos island travel options before deciding to travel the islands by land on our recent trip.  Ultimately we went for the most budget conscious option as two friends wanted to come visit us on the islands and we did not want to subject them to exorbitant spending during the 7-day trip.

While you could look at a trip to the Galapagos and say “I want to do this as cheaply as possible,” there are many factors to keep in mind that may persuade you to do otherwise.   Depending on what you want to get out of your trip, your travel choice just may surprise you!

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