5 Ways for Teachers to Travel for Nearly Free!

Ready to learn from a teacher travel expert about how to travel for close to free through travel grants, “travel hacking” by points and miles, language exchanges, and volunteering? Let’s welcome global educator, Christy Weitz!

Teaching Traveling: Christy, tell us about your background.

Christy: Hello! I’m a high school English language teacher in Iowa City, Iowa. I’ve been a teacher since 2003 and have the privilege of teaching students from around the world. Our school’s most represented countries are Sudan, Congo, Guatemala, Honduras, and Angola. I love learning about my students’ cultural backgrounds and life experiences.

Travel has always been a huge priority in my life. I volunteered in Ethiopia for two months after high school, then scrimped and saved tips earned as a server during college for budget trips to Europe. Once I became a teacher, I traveled to France and Costa Rica with EF Tours and to Indonesia as a Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Fellow.

Around six years ago, I got very interested in travel hacking, or “paying” for travel using points and miles earned from credit card sign-up bonuses. Since then, I’ve traveled extensively with my family and started my own blog, The PointSavvy Explorer.

My goal is to help other people significantly reduce their travel expenditures by using points and miles to travel. Traveling with points is not completely free, but it’s enabled our travel dollars to go so much further.

TT: Fascinating! Tell us more about your travels.

C: Last summer, I traveled to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Albania with my family using travel points earned from credit card sign-up bonuses. We found a great plane ticket to Split, Croatia, purchased it with points, then built our trip from there. 

Two big highlights were visiting Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where we learned about the history of the city, the different religious and ethnic identities of the people, and the continued impact of the Bosnian War. In addition to learning about the history, we enjoyed taking in the beautiful Stari Most Bridge and wandering the cobblestone bazaars.

On the same trip, we discovered the incredible city of Kotor, Montenegro — a walled medieval city, situated on a bay and surrounded by striking mountains. I loved exploring these richly historic locations with my family. Each new city was an adventure.

Our first big family trip booked with points was taking the kids to England, Spain, and Morocco when they were ten and twelve. Witnessing the kids uncovering new delights in each destination was gratifying: from developing a taste for fish and chips in England, relishing churros and chocolate in Spain, to sampling an array of olives in Morocco.

They confidently navigated the London Tube, explored a water mine in Ronda, Spain, and met monkeys and camels in Morocco. It felt like a fulfillment of my dreams to witness their growing independence and enthusiasm for travel. We all eagerly started talking about the next major trip.

When the kids were very young, my husband and I had a goal of taking them out of the country at least once before they graduated from high school. My daughter graduates this year having been to 20 countries on three continents and 40 US states.

All of the traveling we’ve done as a family has helped our kids develop an international perspective as well as strong cross-cultural communication skills. It’s also given them an understanding of the importance of speaking and learning additional languages, which makes my language-learning heart happy.

Another fun travel experience was a solo trip to Spain to volunteer as an English conversation partner. There are multiple programs in Spain that provide English speakers with free room and board at a nice hotel in exchange for a full schedule of conversations in English.

I enrolled in the VaughanTown program and used points for my flight to Spain, which made the entire trip close to free. I loved the conversations I had with the Spanish students and have written about my experiences on my blog.

Many of the students worked in business and needed to polish their English skills to work with international partners. They taught me about Spanish culture and asked so many questions about the United States, especially about our politics. By the end of the week, our group of Spanish students and English volunteers felt like old friends and we’ve continued to keep in touch.

TT: Wow! How do you find your travel opportunities?

I typically begin looking for award travel flights for summer travel during the previous fall. I like to travel where the points lead me, meaning wherever I find the best deal. I have a list of many travel destinations I’d be open to, then I plan the trip based on the flights I find.

Since my husband and I are both teachers, I have to restrict my travel to school breaks. These are the most in-demand times to travel, which makes planning well ahead a must.

If I’m looking for a teacher fellowship, I keep my eye on Facebook, including the Teachers on the Move Facebook group and of course, following Teaching Traveling.

TT: Aw, thanks! How did you find the money to fund your travel?

Teacher fellowships are usually completely paid for, so they’re a great way to travel for free. The Teachers for Global Classrooms fellowship even gives each teacher a stipend for spending money. 

The majority of my recent travel has been with my family or alone. Once I discovered how to travel using points and miles, the price of travel went way down for us. Now, I typically try to use points to find a great ticket to a location where the dollar stretches a long way.

For example, we spent time in Budapest, where our Airbnb cost $60/night. We loved the beauty of the city. With flights covered by travel points, the vacation cost less than a road trip to a nearby state in the US.

Two years ago, we used points to travel to Mérida, Mexico during winter break. Mérida is an incredible city with beautiful colonial architecture, delicious food, and welcoming people. We were able to book both our flights and hotel with points and found the city to be very affordable once we were there.

There’s so much to do in the surrounding area too. We explored Maya archeological sites, swam in cenotes (natural sinkholes), and visited a historic hacienda to learn about the history of hennequin farming in the area. With flights and accommodations taken care of with points, the only real expenses were food, tours, and entrance fees.

TT: Tell us one moment from your travels that was particularly powerful.

C: There were so many memorable experiences during my three weeks as a Teachers for Global Classrooms fellow in Indonesia. My teaching partner and I were asked to give a keynote address to a group of teachers at the University of Lampung.

We walked into the room to find an enormous poster with our pictures on it! They gave us such a warm welcome that we felt like honored celebrities. It was a big day for us and one I won’t forget.

Another fun memory from Indonesia was visiting an elephant sanctuary. My cooperating teacher and I were wandering around and watching the elephants, when I was approached by an Indonesian woman.

I was wearing a University of Iowa t-shirt and it turned out she had studied abroad in Iowa and wanted to connect about her experiences! It was fun to compare notes with her and hear about her impressions of my home state.

TT: How have your travels impacted you as a teacher and as a person?

C: Many of my students are from Guatemala, and I traveled there on a solo trip in 2021.  I’ve really enjoyed talking with them about my experiences since returning.

It’s always a great way to get conversations started with my new Guatemalan students to compare notes on which part of the country they’re from and talk to them about where I visited.

While there, I worked with a language teacher to improve my conversational Spanish and also took a 12 hour day tour where our guide spoke completely in Spanish. It challenged my language skills and helped me relate to the exhaustion my students learning English feel at the end of each school day.

Using a different language all day long with no breaks left me feeling like I could hardly put a sentence together by the end of the day. I keep this in mind when my beginner English learners are slowing down in the afternoons.

Traveling to Indonesia with Teachers for Global Classrooms impacted my teaching immensely. The fellowship includes a global education course which teaches ways to facilitate cross-cultural interactions and introduce students to the wider world.

I’ve kept in touch with my cooperating teacher in Indonesia and we even had our students exchange postcards and videos when I returned. One of the best parts of that experience were the other teachers I met and traveled with. They’ve become incredible friends and colleagues and I continue to learn so much from them.

TT: So inspiring. What advice do you have for teachers who are dreaming of travel?

C: There are so many opportunities for teachers to travel for free. I would start by looking into travel fellowships like Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms, The Transatlantic Outreach Program, NEA Global Learning Fellowship, and Grosvenor Teacher Fellows. I would follow all of these programs on social media to keep up with application dates.

My additional advice is to look into travel hacking using points for flights. Travel hacking has completely changed my life and my family’s lives. We have so many incredible memories to look back on together and I’m so grateful for the experiences my children have been able to have.  Feel free to email me at [email protected] for help getting started.

TT: Thanks so much, Christy! Readers, what questions or comments do you have?