I probably should finish writing about our Thanksgiving trip to Central Europe, because it’s now six months later, and we’re about to embark on another adventure. What can I say? I get lazy sometimes.
This trip is motivated by an occasion — namely, my sister-in-law’s wedding in Israel. The original plan was to fly from D.C. to Athens, spend a couple of days in Athens, hop over to Israel for a couple of days, and then fly home. Then, we were invited on a trip to Krakow to tour the city and visit a new art exhibit. How does one say no to that?
What’s the plan and how did we do it?
D.C. – Athens
There are no direct flights from Washington D.C. to Athens, and I desperately wanted to fly business class. The pickings were slim but after obsessively checking United several times a day, I finally found two seats on Lufthansa from D.C. – Munich – Athens for 70,000 miles each. I scraped together every last Chase point and we were off!
In Athens, we will be staying five nights at the only Hilton in the city for 200,000 points. Thanks to my work travel and credit card sign-ups, this was an easy decision. Hopefully, my diamond status will come in handy.
While I would love to visit Greek islands one day, I’m too old for hopping to a new place each day. I enjoy settling into a hotel and having a base. Hopefully, we’ll take a day trip or two to some of the closer islands, like Hydra.
Athens – Tel Aviv
Since this is a short two-hour flight, we purchased these tickets with cash on El Al for $119 each.
Tel Aviv – Krakow – D.C.
I had originally booked us premium economy on Air France from Tel Aviv – Paris – D.C., but redeposited those miles for a mere 40 euros when the Poland trip came up. We will be in Krakow for three to four days (I leave a day earlier than M), following a packed itinerary of Jewish history, tours of concentration camps, and other important sites.
Nam Writes. 