Join host Justin Vacula and co-host Darren Remsberg on the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast as they dive into Justin’s recent trip to Krakow, Poland.
Learn how to travel the world at low cost using credit card points, miles, and loyalty programs.
This episode covers the highlights of Justin’s journey, including booking business class flights through Air Canada’s partnership with LOT Polish Airlines, exploring historic and cultural sites in Krakow, a guided tour of the Wieliczka Salt Mine, and leveraging hotel and food deals through credit card rewards.
The episode also emphasizes practical travel tips, such as booking hotel stays the night before flights for added convenience. Don’t miss out on this in-depth travel report packed with helpful tips for maximizing your travel experiences on a budget!
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction to Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast
00:44 Krakow Poland Trip Report Begins
02:35 Booking and Travel Logistics
08:16 Navigating Airports and Lounges
13:18 Exploring Kraków and Surroundings
25:14 Salt Mine Experience and Lord of the Rings Cosplay
26:07 Travel Tips and Recommendations for Poland
29:24 Exploring Japanese Culture in Poland
30:15 Using Credit Card Points for Dining
32:29 Safe Solo Travel in Poland
32:54 Navigating Flights and Airports
44:31 Upcoming Travel Plans and Events
48:14 Supporting the Podcast and Final Thoughts
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Rough Transcript:
Theme Song: [00:00:00] Travel at low cost with points and miles. Credit card rewards bring the smiles. Many adventures tales to be told, make and save money, the world will unfold.
Fight the war on happiness. Pick up the gold. Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast breaks the mold.
Justin Vacula: You’re listening to the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast. I’m your host, Justin Vacula. Here to help you travel the world at next to no cost with credit card points, miles, benefits, and loyalty programs. Thanks for joining me for today’s episode, Krakow Poland Trip Report Co-host Darren Remsberg joins me to discuss my recent trip.
Visit meetup.com/philly miles and points to RSVP for monthly Greater Philadelphia Travel [00:01:00] credit Miles and points meetups I host in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. The next meetups are June 22nd and July 13th, 2025. Find a link in the show notes. For more content between podcast episodes follow Hurdy Gurdy Travel podcast on Facebook and x.
Follow Justin Vacula on Instagram. Subscribe to Hurdy Gurdy Travel podcast on YouTube for daily content, including travel videos, podcast clips, community and posts. On with today’s episode recorded May 29th, 2025. Welcome back to the show, Darren Remsberg. Thank
Darren Remsburg: you, Justin. I’m looking forward to what you’re gonna put in my hands for the cover of this episode.
We’ve had a number of credit cards. We’ve had a fish. Is it gonna be a lot? Airplane? Is it? Ooh, yes. Maybe the business class. Airplane. There you go. We’ll have to have spoilers. We’ll have to have our listeners check it out and they can, [00:02:00] it’ll be a, it’ll be a surprise. I’m
Justin Vacula: not sure the fish was there. I think I’ve always covered the fish and maybe gold something else.
But there was definitely fish for breakfast in Poland, which I found intriguing. Yeah.
Darren Remsburg: Yeah. This is great. I feel like I’m traveling vicariously through you these days and my travel schedule’s been a little bit slow here in the spring and beginning of the summer as we get ready for high school graduation at my house.
And then we have some summer travel plan. Looking forward to that. Always enjoy joining you and going through what you’ve been up to. And, uh, this one’s I think a little bit different. Some folks may ask you, Justin, why Poland and why Crackow? There was
Justin Vacula: an Air Canada transfer bonus some time ago. I had transferred Chase Ultimate rewards points.
It cost about 65,000 UR for one way in lot Polish Airlines business class. So booking through Air Canada, they have a partnership with Lot Polish Airlines, and I was able to book with them and there was a 25% transfer [00:03:00] bonus. So because America loves math, it was about 52,000 chase points. There was also a connecting flight from Newark to Toronto and then a connecting flight on the way back.
We’ll get into. A little bit later, so 50 2K points. One way this would’ve cashed out for about $520 at 1 cent per point, or $650 with 1.25 cents. Pay yourself back with the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card. So quite a good deal there for a business class flight that could easily cost thousands. Of dollars to get to Poland,
Darren Remsburg: and I love the lifestyle that you’ve been able to create here where you can just say, Hey, I, there’s a good deal.
I have plenty of points. I think I will go check out Poland. That sounds like a good time. I think many of us that have the nine to fives we’re a little more, I. Restricted, maybe in the time off we can have or family schedules and so forth, but the combination of hopefully [00:04:00] enough miles and points to fly you and whoever you’re traveling with, perhaps to a location at the last minute when the right deal comes along, and in your combination of having.
The freedom to do so is outstanding, and of course allows me to join you and, uh, talk about all the great trips you’ve been going on.
Justin Vacula: Yes, a solo trip this time, I had a great time with it. I met a friend in Poland as well, we’ll talk about a little bit later. I booked this about a year ago. This had me flying out of Newark, and in the last few weeks it wasn’t good news about Newark.
It’s May 29th. We’re recording. If there happened to be an NJ transit strike, I was planning on taking trains and buses to get to Newark from Philadelphia, but that fell through. That got derailed, so I ended up doing something creative as I was talking with past podcast guest Mark Krinski saying that he had booked park and stay rates at different hotels in the past.
And I [00:05:00] was wondering if Hilton had something like this. So I called my Hilton Honors Diamond Line and spoke with a concierge at Hilton and explained the situation. I said I wanted to book a park and stay, and it was necessary for me to split the transaction between multiple cards because I have all these Hilton credits, these $50 Hilton quarterly credits on Hilton surpass credit cards and business platinums.
So they found a hotel. This was Hilton Hampton Inn, Elizabeth New Jersey that had a park and stay rate that I did not have to pay the full amount in advance. I was able to pay at property, so they just needed a credit card to hold the reservation. I pulled out my trustee pocketbook of cards and split tender $50 and paid for that using the Hilton credits, which I thought was really nice, rather than going to a restaurant and using it for food or once again, wailing out at a spa.
Darren Remsburg: I think that is a fantastic [00:06:00] tip one that you were able to call the concierge line, or what was it? The Hilton diamond line, and that they were able to locate a stay and fly or stay in park rate for you at a hotel that worked and I. I guess you didn’t ask him if I could use gift cards there, but it sounds like it turned out that you could Yes.
That was acceptable as well, because they took credit cards. Yeah. And so you were able to split that up. Fantastic. That’s the big, what a way to start the trip with all those wins.
Justin Vacula: Yes, and I had the little lifestyle enhancement I think, of getting to the hotel the night before, which I’m increasingly been a fan of, rather than having to get up early, drive out in the morning, potentially be rushing.
Then have issues with traffic. Now, Philly to Newark, not the biggest drive, maybe about an hour and a half, but it was nice to leave the night before, have breakfast in the hotel, use the hotel shuttle to get to the airport. So that was nice too. I didn’t need to Uber, they had that. It wasn’t a fantastic property by any means.
It was [00:07:00] a Hampton Inn. That was pretty standard. But I got there late. I slept, had breakfast and left my car there. So it was about. $240 for a week of parking and one night. So that was quite nice. If I were to have been able to change the reservation, which Air Canada wouldn’t let me do that, they said, oh, you can’t have the flight to Toronto the night before because it was Newark to Toronto and then Toronto to horse saw.
I would’ve flown to Toronto, stayed a night in Toronto and. Had that peace of mind to not have to deal with issues of delays or cancellations, given all the drama going on in Newark. But they were able to move the connecting flight a few hours earlier. So they did give me that, so I had more peace of mind.
And then I ended up with a better layover in Toronto and thankfully no significant delays at Newark.
Darren Remsburg: That is also a big win these days with all the air traffic controller challenges they’re having in Newark and. A number [00:08:00] of the flights being moved. Sounds like you really did do, I know you weren’t able to to move your Canada flight, but I think in the end this worked out really well and sounds like it went, went uneventfully.
Justin Vacula: Yeah, so it worked out well. Thankfully, no significant delays, no problems with Newark. I was able to use a lounge in Newark. It was a United Lounge. It was. Awkward in that I showed them the boarding pass for business class and said, look, this is on the same itinerary. I’m flying with Air Canada. And then they start asking me if I have a club membership and they wanted me to pull up the United App.
And thankfully I do have the club membership. So I don’t know what would’ve happened if I didn’t have the club membership. Would I have to negotiate with them about getting in because the first flight was economy, the second was business class. Who knows, but the lounge was all right. It was spacious.
There was a lunch set up there. It was a breakfast at the hotel, launched the United Lounge, used my laptop, hung out there using the United Lounge, and then flying to Toronto. [00:09:00] I went to a Maple Leaf lounge that was even better than the United Lounge. Hot Veggies, hummus Station, pita Bread, self-serve alcohol, which is different because usually in the US.
They make it for you so you could just get whatever you want and just pour how much you want. And it was even more spacious. So that was interesting. The Maple Leaf lounge, I had to walk quite a way to get there and go through another security checkpoint in Toronto, but it all worked out. The signage wasn’t great.
I ended up just asking where to go and they directed me there.
Darren Remsburg: We had a long labor in Montreal, coming back from Scotland this summer and stayed in a maple leaf lounge and really enjoyed it. I agree. Not the very best lounge, of course, but for a sort of business class domestic ish type lounge. I think it was certainly met all our needs for a layover
Justin Vacula: and I had access there because the next flight was business class, so there wasn’t any negotiation or backing off or pull up this other app and show your membership.
So it worked. It worked out. [00:10:00] Hanging out there for a few hours, a lot Polish flight boarding. The flight turning left into the business class area. It was three or four different rows, and this was a 2, 2 2 configuration. So it was different than Jet Blue mint where I had my own row on the left side with the door and the cubby.
This one was just open. There were no privacy shutters, anything like that. I booked in the middle. So this way I didn’t have to step over someone or be stepped over. If someone had to go to the restroom, you could just walk right out into the aisle and the other person can walk out into the aisle. So I think the middle is king in this configuration, and it wasn’t full.
I had asked, can I move back? Can I get my own row? And I had my own row on the approaching flight and the departing flight. So once the boarding was concluded. I was able to relocate and have even more room and [00:11:00] more peace and quiet. Is that like even more space? That’s No, that’s a different airline.
Darren Remsburg: Yeah.
Justin Vacula: Ooh.
Darren Remsburg: It’s a business plus maybe Apple
Justin Vacula: plus
Darren Remsburg: for
Justin Vacula: those in the
Darren Remsburg: mail. There you go. Yeah. I imagine, yes. Things were a lot different than your JetBlue mint flight compared to the Polish lot flight, but still a business class, right? Still lay flat.
Justin Vacula: Yes. Lay flat. Indeed. The seat did completely. Go back and I’m a little bit over six foot, so my feet were hitting the Footwell area and I was trying to find a comfortable position.
Sleeping on my side I think was best in this one. And having my own row. It was interesting because I can put the tray table up on the other seat and my food can sit over there and drinks can sit over there as I had it. So I didn’t need to completely sit up while I had the food and drinks. So there was even more space Yes, for that.
No wifi on this. So having. Netflix. I was watching Breaking Bad, the end of Breaking Bad Better Call [00:12:00] Saul on the return. So I had downloaded to the phone and I was able to do that. I had the video poker app to practice video poker and other options on my phone, so no wifi. It was old in-Flight Entertainment.
It looked like some of the phones that were in Breaking Bad. But I don’t care about in-Flight Entertainment. I have my phone, I have things to do there. And lots of food and drinks it. It was humorous because I thought that the entree had come out and then they brought another plate of food and I asked, what was this?
Oh, this is what you ordered a lot of food on, a lot polish and many different drinks including Polish style drinks. What are Polish style drinks? Justin, that’s a tease right there, buddy. Oh, they had a wine and different alcohol list and a lot of it was from France, but there were some from Poland, so I said I’d like to try.
The Polish drinks. So they had different alcoholic drinks that were there. As for the sweeter taste of drinks, they also had a lot of Polish [00:13:00] snacks throughout some chocolates, some maybe crackers or different cakes. So it was a different experience for sure, but it worked that well. I wouldn’t put it at the same level as Jet Blue Min or Delta one that I had gone on in the past.
It was nice to fly business and it was a great
Darren Remsburg: deal. Fantastic. So once you got into Poland, I understand that airplanes were not the only way in which you traveled. Tell us more about that.
Justin Vacula: Yes. I landed in Warsaw and got my bag and then checked Bay Area and followed signs on the floor to the train area.
And I was initially confused because there wasn’t a ticket counter. There was just a kiosk and there were many signs about where the trains were going, so signs, boards and more. I used chat GPT to try to understand more about the signs and the boards, but I couldn’t find out which train to go on. It didn’t show the Warsaw Central Station on the board, or even on the [00:14:00] trains.
So I was asking people and they said, oh, it’s not the final destination, but this is the one you can get on and you can just get off when it approaches Warsaw Central. So a little bit of confusion there. Just being a little bit social with people who spoke English. I got to Warsaw Central Station and there was another train to Krakow or crack off.
I went to a ticket counter. This time there was one, and they told me exactly where to go when the departing time was, and make sure to go into the correct cars. There were multiple cars that had the same seat number. So that was a, I think, a bit of a weak, a weakness to have multiple seat 50 twos if they could have just gone high in numbers.
Okay. Car one is one through 60, car two is 61 through one 20, so there was some confusion there about where to go, but it all worked out a new experience with these kind of trains and pull into my first time in Poland. But it was nice. It was about a two hour ride to [00:15:00] Krakow. The ticket was about 40 USD.
The seat was simple. No problem, and Krakow was the final destination this time, so it was even easier.
Darren Remsburg: Fantastic. How did you find, how was it to communicate with folks in Poland? Did a lot of folks speak English or did you do some Duolingo to brush up on your bullish or Russian or whatever they’re speaking over there?
These days,
Justin Vacula: I didn’t do any language prep. Sometimes I had to state things in different ways, like I was at the ticket counter and ask, are there different fair classes? Are there different types of seats? Are there price differences between the seats? And eventually I had options where I could have paid maybe $20 more US to have a better seat, but for a short train trip I’ll save the money and just ride and coach basically.
I was okay with that. So just asking some questions. I used GPT as I said, Chachi PT to understand some of the signage and trains, and I was even able to take a picture of the train ticket and get more information through chat GBT about. What all the things meant because there were some [00:16:00] abbreviations on the ticket, there was some highlighting like people love with Clear, clear loves the highlighting, America loves highlights.
The last time I used Clear, there wasn’t highlighting and I even said, oh, no highlights this time. So there definitely was a lot of highlighting on the train ticket, which ended up being the car, the seat number, and the departure time. So can look at the board and see, oh, 1552. And that was the train to go on.
So it wasn’t 3:52 PM it was 1552. It was a 24 hour timing. So I was able to change my phone settings to the 24 hour timing and make it even easier, rather than doing conversions.
Darren Remsburg: Yeah, I wouldn’t have thought of using chat TPT to take pictures and translate, but that’s an excellent idea. How were you able to access the internet over there, Justin?
Justin Vacula: Ooh, I had Google Fi. I have the unlimited plan. With Google Phi Unlimited premium, so I didn’t need to swap out a SIM card, activate an eim, anything like that. I have the international coverage with Google [00:17:00] Phi. Really nice. So I brought that. I was prepared. I brought my passport, my global entry card. I found a later facial recognition, got me through global entry, so maybe the card isn’t needed, but I brought it anyway.
I brought a raincoat. I should have brought an umbrella, but I ended up buying one locally for about four USD as it, it did end up. Raining. So a few things to bring with me a converter to plug into the plugs in Europe. It was this multi converter I got on Amazon for about 15 bucks, was really good. That has the EU plug and different options on there as well, including us.
So I, I came prepared with that and I brought some snacks with me as well. Sounds like you were packed and ready
Darren Remsburg: to
Justin Vacula: go. Yes, and I had my big luggage. I had the free check bag and my drawstring bag I carry with me. A quick listener question early in the show from past guest Perry Kim, who appeared on the Netflix show, love on the Spectrum.
She asked, were there train horns? [00:18:00] Yes, I did remember hearing the horns approaching and departing. I don’t think there were any horn shows, like many beeping in succession, but it was just like a loud siren, just a one, two time thing, and that was about it. But the trains. The trains were pretty nice. There were these inner city trains, regional trains.
It was similar to Rome with the different types of trains, but there weren’t too many. On the platform that you could just walk by and see all of them. There were different platforms. You had to go up an elevator downstairs where the platforms were located in different spaces, so it got a little bit confusing on the departure because there were five platforms and the ticket didn’t list the platform.
So it was a little bit of a walk to get and see the boards, but we’ll get into that a bit later. Yeah. So where did you stay while you were in Krakow? Justin? This was Hyatt Place, Krakow, which got a lot of really positive comments when I posted the pictures. Many said that the Hyatt place was a better quality [00:19:00] than the US Hyatt places, and I agree this was only 5,000 Hyatt points per night.
So I used 20,000 Hyatt points from Chase Hyatt cards, and surely some ultimate rewards transfers. My Hyatt globalist status got me a room upgrade, free wine. This wine was from France, which I found amusing rather than a Polish drink and breakfast. And they checked the room number and had a list for breakfast.
Breakfast was very large. There were even lunch options, salads, fish. As I mentioned earlier, lots of hummus. There is a made to order egg station, multiple dessert stations, yogurts. A waffle maker and they changed it. So day by day there were some different options, including different veggies. They had sauteed mushrooms one of the days, so that was nice to see.
The room was very big. I thought a great value for 5K points a night. They had a shaving kit, a dental kit, slippers, a [00:20:00] robe, lots and lots of space. The laptop desk was huge. Some places you just get like this little corner desk. But here it was much bigger, so I was very happy with the room quality, lots of plugs.
I think it was more updated. You didn’t have to do acrobatics to get to some of the plugs and unplug alarm clocks. It was very modern, so it was nice. The Hyatt Place, crack hour or crack off. That’s
Darren Remsburg: good to know.
Justin Vacula: So that would be like what category one? I’m not sure what category, but maybe some listeners can comment.
But at 5K points probably. And that was the only one. There wasn’t a Hyatt Regency or any higher points booking. That was the Hyatts. And apart from that, I think there were some marriot, maybe IHG properties or Warsaw had Hilton. I figured I’d get some qualifying knight in towards my globalist status. So generally when I see a Hyatt that’s only 5,000 points a night, it’s hard to turn that down, especially when my globalist status is giving various.
Benefits including room upgrades and breakfast?
Darren Remsburg: Yeah, the, we know Justin, the answer to everything [00:21:00] is more credit cards and more high at nights, so that certainly makes sense. So I have the Hyatt
Justin Vacula: Personal Hyatt business card, and I could transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards from Sapphire Reserve and Inc. Cash cards for more Hyatt stays.
Excellent. And we are recording at the end of May, 2025 and I’m already about 50 nights out of 60 towards Hyatt Globalist status. So it’s lots of card spending and. Some stays, especially Rio, in Las Vegas. I stayed there a lot earlier in the year. I have some upcoming Hyatt stays for Chicago seminars as we’ll.
Talk about that in the outro. So are you
Darren Remsburg: gonna, globalist is inevitable globalist? Yeah. Seems ni. Are you considering a hundred nights for the extra benefits or are you gonna stick at 60?
Justin Vacula: Ooh, we’ll see. I may be very powerful in a certain
Darren Remsburg: portal and continue to spend. We’ll see how that goes. We wish you luck.
So once you were in crack out, got the train, plus or minus horns, were the horns in English Justin, or would you say they were in Polish? Was it clear, not clear?
Justin Vacula: I think the
Darren Remsburg: horns were just [00:22:00] horn Sounds fair enough. I didn’t think the horns had a language. Okay. Alright. Universal language. There you go. What did you find to do in crack out and how did you figure out what that looked like?
Did you use, I know I’ve been using a lot of chat GPT lately for tentative itineraries.
Justin Vacula: Yes. I asked chat, GPT Plan, A walking tour. It suggested parks, it suggested Old Town area. There was w Wall Castle, if I’m pronouncing that correctly. That was a very spacious area with older architecture, and that was the Krakow motif.
The architecture was definitely older, even outside of the old town area. It was a lot different than Warsaw, which is taller buildings, skyscrapers, and more modern. Whereas Krakau or Krakoff had an older feel to it, which I liked. Lots to see and you didn’t feel so overwhelmed by the taller buildings and it wasn’t as busy.
So I really liked it compared to Warsaw, which we’ll mention later. And the hotel was a little bit, maybe 15 minute walk to some parks. And then from there [00:23:00] it was like a 20 minute walk to National Museum. And then from there, maybe about a half an hour to Old Town and you could hop on trams or trolleys or even buses to get around and shorten the distance or take Uber.
So that was an option, but I. Came with the intention of getting a lot of steps in and taking some video and taking the scenic routes. It was quite impressive. I thought the castle area was nice. You got to see all kinds of different buildings, get great views of the, I believe it was the ULA River boat tours.
There was a Ferris wheel, a hot air balloon that you got to see from high above. I’m gonna be uploading these as YouTube videos. I have the short travel videos in between podcast episodes. Usually three to five minute videos, but I’m still getting through other content. First, the old town had some cathedrals, a lot of different types of buildings, lots of vendors, lots of restaurants, different market areas, lots and lots to see.
Even some birds, [00:24:00] fake birds on a street sign. And there was a big giant head, not to be confused with the big giant head from the show. Third Rock from the Sun. It was a head that was just observing the square, I suppose that was on its side. So lots of interesting things and a hard rock cafe, which we’ll get into later.
There was also a salt mine that’s a UNESCO protected site that was about a 30 minute drive I mentioned. I met with a friend Tomas, and went with him inside of the mine there was a guided tour. It was about two hours and it cost about 35 us, so not bad. Many Lakes, statues, chapels. And history as told by the tour guide.
You couldn’t just go in and explore by yourself. And they were very particular about that. There were even times exiting an area, oh, you have to wait for us to go with us. So they didn’t want people just wandering into the mines and perhaps safety concerns there. Learned [00:25:00] about Saint Kinga. Patron Saint of Poland, formerly Princess Kinga, 13th century.
Princess. So there was some lore there and they said some myths that you could take with a grain of salt. I think that was the only salt pun. I think they could have done better with the salt puns, but it was still a good experience. I uploaded about 60 photos to the DY Gerdy Travel podcast Facebook page.
Lots and lots to see in the minds, and there were even Lord of the Rings signs at the end. It seems like they had an event where people were cosplaying or dressing up as. Many of the characters from Lord of the Rings. No dwarves though in the minds, but there were a lot of gnomes.
Darren Remsburg: Seems like they really missed out.
No dwarves and only one salt pond. I think they could have done better. They’ll build it better for next year maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Make sure you leave those Abaya Tour. I. Reviews so that they know how, how they can improve and attract more.
Justin Vacula: It is a really good experience and it was a group of maybe 20 people, so you had to stay [00:26:00] with the group and keep walking, but there was enough time to take a lot of photos, even some quick videos if you wanted to it.
It was a really cool experience. I haven’t been in salt mine before. I’ve only been in a coal mine, and that was quite some time ago in the Scranton, Pennsylvania area. I looked up, are there other salt mines and there were about 10 in Europe and not all of them are even open to the public. You would just see the outside area.
So definitely a cool experience and I highly recommend that people go if they happen to be in Poland.
Darren Remsburg: I know that there’s a couple salt mines in the Midwest where companies use those for warehouses essentially There. Obviously pretty well climate controlled and very dry, so makes for a great place to store product before you ship it out.
Sounds like this was a multifaceted type deal where that maybe initially was a mine and then maybe it lasted for so long that they built, like you said, statues and other I. Decoration within a mine, which I guess I don’t think about as part of a, as part of a mining
Justin Vacula: tour. Yes, they said that the miners were quite religious and that there was a [00:27:00] high chance of injury or death, and that they would pray in the morning and they would come out at the end, and then they would pray at the end that they came out.
So many religious miners and a lot of religious themes throughout Poland as well, including Pope John Paul ii, I believe there were a lot of signs with him and lots of churches and. Building. So that’s a cultural thing there. And today there are weddings underground. People reserve the halls during times that aren’t completely open to the public.
And they have weddings. They had a big banquet area there, a restaurant in there. So there’s a lot going on. Not so active like it used to be. They still keep it open as a touring area and a heritage site.
Darren Remsburg: Yeah, that sounds like a, yeah. Something that maybe you wouldn’t be able to see much any place else is that’s, yeah.
Like I said, a great place to stop and see
Justin Vacula: even getting out was a little bit complicated. There was a line to get out that they only took so many people at a time, and it was a very rickety elevator. It was shaking back and forth as we [00:28:00] went up, so there were a lot of stairs to go down. Someone was maybe joking and saying, oh, it would’ve been fun if they had a slide to go down, and there was no mine cart to go down either.
I was hesitant for a mine cart, but it was lots of stairs. I was hoping for some mine cart madness as the old Don Donkey hunt games. But this was not Super Nintendo world, so we did not have that. Not in that
Darren Remsburg: situation, no. You didn’t see like a pipe that you could jump down or anything that could
Justin Vacula: Oh, no.
Mario Pipes either. No. No archeological digs. It was just walking
Darren Remsburg: downstairs. It sounds like you were able to meet up with another word, travel enthusiast in Poland. That’s always amazing to me how we can travel the world and either meet up with folks that live there, or we see people that. Maybe live close by, but we see them in far FLNG places.
Justin Vacula: Unfortunately, TOMA is not an award travel enthusiast because the structure doesn’t exist as far as I know, and as far as he knows in Poland, we looked it up and the interchange fees aren’t so much, so you don’t get as much back in cash or points or. Really [00:29:00] anything from the Polish credit cards is very marginal.
And as far as I know, there’s not much going on with creative spending, let’s say. Unfortunately, it’s, it’s a lot of zla or PLN, and they’re just paying for travel
Darren Remsburg: there. Sounds like a true world and happiness situation.
Justin Vacula: Yes. War and happiness in Poland, unfortunately. But a nice place to live, it seemed, and it was nice to be there for a few days in Krakow or Krakoff.
And I mentioned the museums. There was a lot of. Japanese culture as well. This was the exhibit in the national museum. Got to see many kimonos, lots of animal art, girls, calligraphy, and multiple exhibits too in multiple museums between Japan and Poland. So it was cool to see that something different, something I didn’t expect, but some nice displays and there was another.
I think it was east and east or east meets East was one of the exhibits. Talk of South [00:30:00] Korea as well. So there was an influx from other countries into Poland with the Polish military and ambassador from Japan, Polish politicians that had an affinity towards Japan. So that was interesting. I didn’t expect that either.
And I also didn’t expect a hard rock cafe, but there was one in the old town, so I was so excited. Because I’m always looking for outs to not spend money on food when I’m traveling. And I was able to use my hard rock unity points that I earned from the Hard Rock MasterCard issued by Bread Financial slash Community Bank, two x grocery, but it’s also payable in interesting ways to get more cash back when making those payments.
So it ends up being. Somewhere around a 3.5 to 4% card. So since I purchased a lot of gift cards and do a lot of creative grocery spending, I want more credit cards. The answer to everything is more credit cards. So I ended up in a spot of getting the Hard Rock [00:31:00] MasterCard, so a lot of my earnings ended up going towards food and Poland as this was a great option for dinner.
I even took Tomaz to dinner. We both got veggie fajitas and it came to. What would otherwise be 30 US dollars. There were some, America loves math moments because they had to come out with a tablet and convert the polish to the points, and they couldn’t just type it in. They had to like configure what it was.
So that was interesting. But what would’ve cost $30 in the States got me two veggie fajita entrees, which probably would’ve been about 40 in the States. So for whatever reason. The conversion rates or the PLN prices were more favorable than buying that in the states, so that was really cool to use Hard rock comps internationally.
And I’ve run into a lot of hard rock cafes on my recent travels, especially in Barcelona and Rome and other places. So there weren’t Polish options on the menu, but there were a lot [00:32:00] of guitars that were themed. There was a dragon guitar as the dragon was near that wall. Wall Castle. Area and a symbol of crack hour crack off many rock memorabilia items from concerts in Poland.
Darren Remsburg: I was trying to think of a Polish band, Justin, but I’m not coming up with anything here.
Justin Vacula: The metal band behemoth, but they were not on display at the Hard Rock Cafe,
Darren Remsburg: so it sounds like a pretty good trip. How did
Justin Vacula: you then get home? First to mention? I felt very safe in Poland. Some might ask a solo traveler, how are you getting around?
Is that okay? I didn’t feel in danger. I didn’t find myself in shady areas. I think it was very easy to walk around and again, the buses or trams were an option. I think the people were mostly social happy to chat. I asked questions in the hotel. I asked questions in the trains, and people were very helpful.
So it was a good experience there. Getting back, it was an early flight and it was the only option. For an early flight. So [00:33:00] instead of taking the train super early and going to Warsaw and then going to the airport, I stayed in Warsaw the night before. I had one night in Warsaw, and then the next morning I went to the airport and had to leave early.
So instead of waking up at say, three in the morning or just pulling all night, or I woke up around five in the morning, had the hotel breakfast, and then headed to the airport from there. So I think this is a good tip for people to not be rushing into. Break it up a little bit to have that night before, and I did that on the approach too, although for some other reasons, Warsaw, there was another hard rock cafe, so I was excited about that.
That was about a 10 minute walk from the hotel. I got to see some sites there. I stayed at Hilton Hampton Inn. This was a smaller room compared to Hyatt, but it was okay. I was just solo and I wasn’t there too long. There was a welcome, amenity free drink as they thanked me for my Hilton Diamond status. I had a free drink at the bar ticket and they [00:34:00] gave me some Polish chocolate candy.
There was still a massive breakfast. I was able to take an Uber from the hotel to the airport, and this was a little bit of a complicated flight. I think it was a flight to, which I thought was rero, but the pronunciations. Again, RZ is as a J, and the OROW was off. So when I was talking to locals, oh, flight to Rero, and they’re looking at me, I said, RZE.
Oh, OVV. Ovv. Oh yeah, I, I could have figured that out.
Darren Remsburg: That’s funny. Yeah,
Justin Vacula: and I suppose there could have been a situation where I just went from crack off to Avv, but it was crack off to Warsaw and then Warsaw flying to Avv. So this was. Similar to an experience I had in the States where I fly from Philly to Boston and then Boston to Vegas, and I’m basically flying back over to Philly or back over Philly.
So this was a weird routing. It was okay. It worked. I went to [00:35:00] a small priority pass lounge in J jv and then it was a 10 hour flight from GE JV to Newark.
Darren Remsburg: How did that, you said you left earliest. That was mostly a daytime flight then? Yes.
Justin Vacula: So it was a lot of traveling as it was the Uber. Then it was the time in the first airport, the connecting airport, the flight back, and then driving home.
But I was able to sleep on the flight. On the way back, I had my own row once again. I asked to move back, so I had lots and lots of space. It was another 2, 2 2 configuration. And I was overall happy with the experience.
Darren Remsburg: Very good.
Justin Vacula: Newark, a little bit complex using the hotel shuttle. To get to the hotel, I had to take an air train or air tram to get to the parking area.
It couldn’t just walk there. It’s a very big airport. Then at the hotel I asked, do I need to validate something? What do I need to do? Oh, you just go, the gate is up. I ended up hanging [00:36:00] out in the lobby a little bit and then driving from Newark back to Philadelphia. So at the time changes. I think by the time I was at my car, it was around five o’clock, six o’clock, as Poland was six hours ahead.
So I was back through time. In some way, but then back on the usual time. So it was not too bad. It wasn’t a really late drive. If I got back around midnight, I probably would’ve stayed at the hotel rather than driving back so late after a long travel day.
Darren Remsburg: Yeah. Another opportunity for points in miles to make vacation a little easier, right?
Whether it’s gone there or getting back able to take your time and enjoy it, instead of feeling like you have to rush around and. Get back at certain times.
Justin Vacula: Yes. And I also had opportunity for online gambling while in New Jersey, so that’s nice to be able to use the Jersey sites. So before the trip I was able to play some online blackjack in Pennsylvania and then go across state lines and then play in New Jersey.
And then on the way back there was another [00:37:00] opportunity to play in New Jersey, so it was more liquidation of gift cards and prepaid cards, some bonuses and some opportunity. So that was a nice thing about traveling. Out of New Jersey, but in the future I’ll try to fly out of Philadelphia. I suppose I could have booked this a little bit differently by flying from Philly to Toronto and then just going from Toronto to Warsaw with the lot Polish air.
Yeah,
Darren Remsburg: positioning flights and probably all depends on what you can find and what the prices are. Air Canada, I would think, to your point, would much easier to find a flight leaving from Newark to. Toronto on United than it would be to find a similar flight from Philadelphia, given Philadelphia’s affinity for American speaking of world on happiness.
But whereas United’s much more likely to have flights available.
Justin Vacula: We’re trying to get back in with Americans.
Darren Remsburg: I’m not trying to get back in with American. They’ve told me they, they’ve pretty firmly told me no. So I’m pivoting. You can always use other [00:38:00] currencies to fly American when needed. Alaska has been a great option and with, uh, recent.
Ability to transfer Amex to Hawaiian and then to Alaska, and it certainly makes that a lot easier.
Justin Vacula: Come on, American, you sent me all these invitations in the mail to apply for all these credit cards.
Darren Remsburg: Yeah.
Justin Vacula: Well, I’m a great customer. That situation. Come on a lifetime. Lifetime Achievement Awards, sir. They gave us
Darren Remsburg: some business decisions made about who they wanted as lifetime customers or who they did not.
You didn’t buy enough from Sky Mall? I guess not. It was a over price. Electronics,
Justin Vacula: no problem. Yeah, so a good trip. Overall, I thought the salt mine was one of the more interesting things. The old town was quite nice. It was different to be outside of the city of Warsaw, although Warsaw had its sights too with the buildings, some of the parks and the train system was interesting.
The Warsaw Central Station, of course, and I’d recommend this to others. I think it’s a great opportunity to see a different destination variance, the salt mines. So a pretty [00:39:00] good trip. Overall, all the flights worked out. No significant delays, no problems. It was quite nice to have a low pain experience. I didn’t get stranded anywhere.
The trains worked out, even though there was some confusion, I was able to figure it out with some
Darren Remsburg: help. Yeah. Sounds like a great trip then. Yeah. Something you, again, something a little off the beaten path. We hear a lot of folks flying to the classic cities in Europe, the Parises, the Londons, the Romes, and I know you’ve been.
To those places as well. But it’s nice to explore something a little different and, and be able to see some things there. So sounds like a great trip, Justin. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Justin Vacula: Yes, maybe next time, two nights in Warsaw because once I left Krakoff, took the train, I was really tired, I checked in at the hotel, went to dinner, and by the time I was back it was about 6:00 PM so there wasn’t as much time to walk around and explore.
So maybe two nights and Warsaw. For the future, if I were to [00:40:00] book it again, do it again, or perhaps I’d change that, avoid Newark and get to Toronto the night before. But thankfully, it all worked out. I still have a little bit of discomfort after my past trip to South Korea ended up being canceled because a connecting flight got canceled.
So I think this night before plan. Is the way to go forward. I’ve been doing it with cruises, but not with flights all the time.
Darren Remsburg: So did you book the Newark to Toronto leg on the same ticket as same p and r as the same ticket? Yep. Yeah. Yeah. That makes it a little easier versus a positioning flight, right?
Where if you’re positioning flight gets canceled or delayed and it’s not on the c, p and R, you’re outta luck, which is, I think what you ran into. Is that what happened with your positioning flight to South Korea?
Justin Vacula: Yes. There was a flight from Philly to Detroit and then Detroit to South Korea, but the Philly to Detroit flight got canceled, so I couldn’t get to Detroit in time and then I had to cancel the rest of that.
And the replacement options were pretty bad. It was, [00:41:00] oh, we can fly you out to Seattle or you can come back tomorrow at six in the morning. And oh, by the way, we can’t guarantee you business class. I’m like, okay, I’ve gotta cancel the hotel now. Yeah. And called the hotel, canceled that. So if I were to have flown to Detroit the night before and only had booked the Detroit to South Korea with Delta, when they had that Delta one deal, then I would’ve been able to go.
But since the connecting flight crapped out and there were no replacements. Then I was outta luck with that.
Darren Remsburg: Yeah. I know a few folks that will book multiple connecting flights or multiple positioning flights at different times and different airlines for a variety of reasons. In some instances, it’s to ensure they get there.
In some instances it’s to, I really want this flight or this time a flight. This flight’s cheaper, and maybe if I can get a same. Day upgrade or something like that. Same day change classically with Southwest, right? We could do that before changes were made. But yeah, I think having some options there and like you say, booking yourself, the room, the wiggle room so that you don’t miss your big flight.
[00:42:00] That’s the key thing.
Justin Vacula: Yes. And it’s an advantage of not having the traditional job that I can spare that extra night or two and just make it a better experience rather than rushing.
Darren Remsburg: Absolutely.
Justin Vacula: And hopefully listeners will be able to hashtag quit their job in 2026. Or maybe it move toward more of a virtual option rather than having to be in an office.
It’s sad to hear people. Oh, I couldn’t go on this trip because I had work. Oh, I had other commitments. Oh, I couldn’t get the days off. So it’s a nice luxury to be more independent, do the podcasting, YouTube, the gambling, and much more.
Darren Remsburg: Yeah. You’re lighting a path, Justin, for all of us.
Justin Vacula: All right. Wrapping up.
Any travel plans for you coming up?
Darren Remsburg: We have a couple small things happening. We’ll be at Local Beach here in Delaware in a couple weeks. It’s an annual trip that we take with my daughters, my wife and daughters, and then friends of ours and have daughters the same age. So we go down there for a long weekend and I think I probably use some combination of discounted Airbnb cards and [00:43:00] whatnot to book that house.
I’d have to go back and look, but always trying to find the angle in the deal situation.
Justin Vacula: Maybe you acquired those Airbnb from the 10 x zillions deal from Giant this week, or a different zillions promotion.
Darren Remsburg: Yeah, I think it was a different zillions promotion that I used. Yep. Spot on there.
Justin Vacula: Unfortunately we can’t get the 5,000 point Hyatts everywhere, huh?
Darren Remsburg: Yeah, there, there are a couple Hyatts down there, but for the number of people that are there and the, the suite rooms that they have at those Hyatts are a little challenging to have to do some. Hey, up for a higher room and then try to get an upgrade and that sort of game. And with the eight people going, it’s not the gamble I want to take for a long week.
In some instances, yes, but in this instance, it’s just easier to book the Airbnb type and move on. I know you have, you have a plethora of wyn points and folks who can use those to book. VA Casa a location. So I need to visit with you about that, maybe down the road and we can do [00:44:00] something like that.
Justin Vacula: Yes, we’d be happy to help with that as I’m still in Barclay’s favor.
Darren Remsburg: That is a good thing and not so much for me. So
Justin Vacula: we just need those ESPN be gift cards to pop up at more Wawa and Speedway locations and we’ll be earning even more Windham points. That’s right. But unfortunately, I’ve only seen the ESPN BET gift cards at certain ACME grocery stores. So earning the grocery rewards with the grocery bonusing cards, but we still would like some more options for the Wyndham Business credit card.
And coming up for me, June 22nd is the next meetup for Greater Philadelphia Travel Credit. Miles and Points. Hopefully you’ll be there, Darren. And then June 29th flying to Amsterdam. I’ll be staying a few nights in Amsterdam. Then cruising out of Amsterdam on a Fjord cruise. So lots of difficult to pronounce places similar to Poland, but a much different experience going out of Rotterdam in Amsterdam.
And [00:45:00] that’s another cruise offer. Holland America. This was the win Offer the windier match. Stay two nights, get a comp cruise offer. From months and months ago. So the cruise will be July 5th through the 12th, and I’m going to Amsterdam at the end of June, staying a few nights and then flying back to Boston and then Boston to Philadelphia.
Darren Remsburg: Good luck with those pronunciations, buddy. We on a couple years ago, and there’s a lot of Ks and Js and they’re in orders. That is not familiar to me, but I think it’ll be beautiful. I know you’ll have a great time and clearly you’ve, you’ve figured out the secret sauce too. To get these status matches and cruise matches and another well done opportunity here.
Justin Vacula: Yes, at least eight cruises this year and I’ve been passing on some of them. My Vegas is offering an Alaska cruise for 1.5 million lp, very small number outta my 30 million points. I have another Alaska cruise coming up this year, so I’m gonna pass on the My Vegas, Alaska interior room and go with the Princess [00:46:00] Alaska cruise from another.
Match there. I’ll be cruising with past podcast guest, Mandy, who has a princess offer as well, so double dipping on the
Darren Remsburg: cruise offers there. Very nice. Appreciate the opportunity to come and talk with you about your trip. Justin, again, appreciate you sharing that with listeners and with me, and I always enjoy the opportunity to learn about what you’re up to and how you’ve been able to leverage points and miles to to travel the world.
At free or no cost? Low cost,
Justin Vacula: yes. Travel at low cost with points and miles. Oh, now it actually is me singing. People thought that I was singing in the intro, but it’s just the AI singing full circle from the website. U-D-O-U-D-I o.com.
Darren Remsburg: Yep. Good deal. Where else can, can folks find you this year? Justin? Where are you gonna speaking and what else are you up to?
Oh
Justin Vacula: yes. Ticket sales for Zork Fest 2025 A Miles Points and Gambling event are live@zorkfest.travel zork.com. That’s in Las Vegas, December [00:47:00] 5th through the seventh at M Resort Casino Hotel. There’s also Chicago Seminars Hyatt Reg O’Hare, November 7th through the ninth, 2025. Listeners can use the promo code Hurdy Gurdy as one word when buying a ticket to support me.
October 24th through the 26th, 2025 Chicago Seminars, holiday Inn, Chicago, Oak Brook. You can use promo code. I must have a promo code. 20 for $20 off tickets. So various speaking engagements. Three. Upcoming in 2025.
Darren Remsburg: I’m doing my best to make it to Zork Fest. I think I just listened to you. The beginning of your episode with Michael Traeger, and sounds like a fantastic event, something that I’m, as you well know, get more involved with in the gambling space and finding ways to apply some of the things that we’ve learned in points and miles to that space, and we’d love to get some [00:48:00] more insight into that.
So see if I can swing that on the family calendar. And of course, yeah, Chicago Seminars is always the classic event. Trying to get to at least one of those this year.
Justin Vacula: Good. Two chances at Chicago and one at Vegas. So hopefully something will work out.
Darren Remsburg: Absolutely.
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