Holly Johnson is a freelance contributor to Newsweek’s private finance team, focusing on credit cards and rewards, monetary products, and Array Johnson has spent more than a decade covering news and money and lives in Indiana with her spouse and two children.
Robert is a senior editor at Newsweek and specializes in a number of personal finance topics, including credit cards, loans, and banking. Prior to Newsweek, he worked at Bankrate as a small business loan editor and as a credit card editor and publisher. He has also written and edited for CreditCards. com, The Points Guy, and The Motley Fool Ascent.
My circle of family members and I love it and we have been lucky enough to make a stopover in more than 30 countries in the last decade. We have traveled to Italy almost 10 times, basically because we love the ancient sites discovered all over the country, the feeling of being there, and of course, the food.
That’s why we’re making plans for another two-week vacation in Italy during the upcoming fall break. Our adventure will take us to 3 main destinations: Rome, the Lake Garda region and the village of Sorrento on the Amalfi Coast.
This vacation may not cost us a fortune because we strategically use our reservations or 3-credit card miles to cover airfare, hotels, and tours. That’s how we go to Italy and come back for less than $4,000 and the 3 most productive credits. cards to help us do so.
Here is a review of the credit cards we used for our vacations in Italy.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card earns issuances that can be transferred to your account with a Chase airline or spouse hotel or to electronically book 25% more travel through the Chase Travel℠ portal. On a personal level, I use this card to pay for groceries online (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), select streaming and in-restaurant services, as those purchases generate 3x more points.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers the same redemption features as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, except users get 50% more value for their issues when they redeem them for travel through Chase. This card also comes with Priority Pass Select Airport Lounge membership. that we use when we travel.
I tend to use this car for hotels and car rentals booked through Chase Travel due to the higher earning rate, as well as for restaurants and other travel purchases. The $300 annual travel credits on this car, which precede earnings on travel purchases, are also convenient, especially since credits as reimbursement for travel purchases charged to the car are automatically applied to each account anniversary year.
We like the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card for a number of reasons, adding its base rewards rate of 2X miles on all normal spending. I use this card in categories that don’t allow you to get bonuses with other cards, especially for application fees and miscellaneous purchases.
Miles earned with this card are also incredibly flexible with the ability to redeem them for travel credits, transfers to Capital One airline and hotel partners, and much more. This card also comes with $300 annual travel credits for bookings made through Capital One Travel, which helps offset its $395 annual fee.
We pay for most of our holiday abroad with rewards and cash, and our next getaway to Italy is no different. I often focus on using miles to cover flights, as airline tickets are very expensive. Then I use the miles I have to cover hotels, vacation rentals, excursions, and tours.
Here’s a look at the rewards used so far for this trip.
We have covered the airfare with miles from the Air France Flying Blue program, which happens to be a moving partner of Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards. I moved rewards from my Chase and Capital One accounts to pay for 4 rounds. travel on cheap and stylish flights from Chicago to Rome and back home. The total charge for our 4 flights is 186,000 miles plus $1,018. 40.
While it’s never fun to pay more than $1,000 in taxes and airfare on an award booking, it’s absolutely common for foreign airline tickets. And since the value of money for the same itinerary was $1,025 compared to others, our overall savings on flights was $3,081. 60 for 4 people.
We have also booked holiday rentals in Rome, Peschiera del Garda (near Lake Garda in northern Italy) and Sorrento using a hodgepodge of accolades and credits. We redeemed 60,000 Capital One miles to cover more than part of our three-night vacation. Rent in Rome, which I booked because it is very close to the Pantheon.
Our Airbnb in Rome charges us a total of $1,019. 22, including cleaning fees and taxes, and Capital One makes it easy to use miles to cover purchases in the last 90 days. The 60,000 miles we used gave us a $600 reduction in our time in Rome, allowing us to cover the additional $400 out of pocket.
I also used the $300 annual credits from my spouse’s Chase Sapphire Reserve® to pay for almost part of our five-night vacation rental near Lake Garda, Italy. Using this credit is very simple as it is automatically implemented in any purchase charged to your card.
This is a reasonable destination to visit, especially by Italian standards, so our five-night stay here only charges us $736. 81 in total, adding cleaning fees and taxes. It’s pretty crazy that we’ve booked a two-bedroom apartment with parking included, just steps from Lake Garda and a short drive from must-see destinations like Sirmione and Verona, Italy.
Anyway, we paid the extra $436. 81 for this vacation rental in money from our budget.
We also paid for a vacation rental in Sorrento on budget from our budget, and the charge for this rental amounted to $1,438. 32.
I pretty much use flexible rewards items to book tours and excursions on our trips abroad, and my favorite reward currency for this is Chase Ultimate Rewards. There are many excursion features available through the Chase Portal, and the Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers 50% more. price for travel booked electronically through Chase Travel.
The activities I’ve booked through Chase for our so far include:
This culinary elegance in Rome charges us 5,847 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per user with the Chase Sapphire Reserve® discount included, and I can’t wait.
I booked this food and wine walking tour for 6,594 Chase Ultimate Rewards points according to my son. We’ve been to Verona a few times and the city is home to some of my favorite squares (including Piazza delle Erbe) and hiking traps (the Casa di Giulietta, the balcony house said to have encouraged Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet).
We booked this tour with transportation from Sorrento included for a total of 11,040 Chase issues according to Chase Sapphire Reserve® users. We’ve been to the ancient city of Pompeii before, but we’d never been to Herculaneum (another ancient Italian town buried in volcanic ash) before.
So far on this trip, he has spent $1,018. 40 out of pocket on taxes and airfare and $2,294. 35 on vacation rentals.
To save money, we use 186,000 miles with the Air France Flying Blue program, 60,000 Capital One miles, $300 in annual credits, and 93,324 Chase Ultimate Rewards issuances to book tours and e-tours.
I tend to earn a lot of rewards over time, as I use rewards credit cards for all of our non-public expenses and bills. With that in mind, here are some tips for opting for the most productive credit cards for foreign travel.
Choose a card that doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees. Finally, be sure to choose a credit card that doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees when you use it abroad. None of the cards I used for this vacation in Italy charge this fee.
The most productive credit card for traveling to Italy will not be the same for everyone. But make sure you get a credit card that doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees, such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card, Chase Sapphire Reserve®, or Capital One. Venture X Rewards Credit Card. Also, look for a card that offers flexible redemption options and adds point transfers to airlines and hotels.
The number of miles you’ll want to travel to Italy depends on the common flyer program, the dates you’re planning, your departure and arrival destinations, and other main points of your trip. In the example we used for this guide, a round-trip flight from Chicago, Illinois to Rome, Italy, charges the author 46,500 miles with Air France per week, plus taxes and airfares.
There are a limited number of credit cards with no annual fee, but some exist. Verification card features come with the Wells Fargo Autograph℠ card and Discover it® miles.
The most productive credit card for traveling to Italy won’t be the same for everyone, but be sure to get a credit card that doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, the Chase Sapphire Reserve, or the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. Also, look for a card that offers flexible redemption options and adds issue transfers to airlines and hotels. u00a0
The number of miles you want to travel to Italy depends on the common flyer program, planned travel dates, departure and arrival destinations, and other main points of your trip. In the example we used for this guide, a round-trip flight from Chicago, Illinois to Rome, Italy, charges the writer 46,500 miles on Air France per year, plus taxes and air charges.
There are a limited number of credit cards with no annual fee, although some do exist. The card features you can check out come with the Wells Fargo Autographu2120 and Discover itu00a Miles card.
Holly Johnson is a freelance contributor to Newsweek’s private finance team, which focuses on credit cards and rewards, monetary products and travel. Johnson has spent more than a decade covering money and tourism news and lives in Indiana with her spouse and two children. children.