This is quite possibly one of our least expensive trips ever!
Since we drove, we only had the cost of gas. I have no idea how much it was, so I’ll just put down $100. We could have used airline miles and flown, but since it was only an 8-hour drive, flying would take just as long, so decided to save the miles and the cost of renting a car.
Hotels:
First night: Hilton Homewood Suites in Medford. Cost me 25k points for a large 2 bedroom.
Get 90K points for signing up for this NO-ANNUAL FEE Hilton Credit card! Good for 3+ nights at a Hilton Hotel!
Second Night: Hyatt Place Oakland – 15k points. I had the points for this. However, my husband just had a work trip and stayed at the Hyatt for the week. He earned enough points to pay for this night (combine regular points from staying and paying with the Hyatt Credit Card getting even more points. His company then reimburses us the cost of the trip/hotel, and we still earn points)
Third night: Embassy Suites San Rafael. 25k Hilton Honors points
Fourth night: Holiday Inn Express near the Redwood. 25k IHG points that we earned from our Grand Canyon Trip.
Hotel cost: FREE – we paid nothing and used points
Activities: All the activities we did were free. We used our National Parks pass in San Francisco for activities. The biggest splurge was $25 at Ghiradelli’s for some giant Sundaes, but it also got us discounted parking to see the San Francisco waterfront. Parking was only $13 for our time there. We paid $7 for parking in Chinatown. So $20 for parking.
Hotels had free breakfast. Half of our rooms had kitchens, so we made our dinners. We had sandwiches & snacks for lunches. We even just had Ghiradelli chocolate and ice cream one day for lunch! ha!
4 night Trip cost: about $150 for gas and parking. 15k Hyatt points. 50k Hilton points. 25k IHG points.
A great trip at very little cost!
