pandoraone

Hi,

I am a current student who will be taking the BAR exam May 1st. As a little 'vacation' for myself afterwards, I want to go do something awesome* for 1-3 weeks. I start work at a law firm on May 24th in NYC so my only requirement is to be back by then.

As I am still a broke (and slightly indebted student), I want to do something that will set me back the least amount of money. I have 30,000 AA miles available and am willing to spend up to 2-2.5K out of pocket for something.

Things that I would consider awesome would be going to the Galapagos islands, doing the Inca Trail, maybe climbing Kilimanjaro. Things that you do once in your life, that aren't a vacation per se but more of an adventure trip.

My question to you all: Do you have any suggestions on where I can go during that time and any idea for adventure vacations? Any way to use my miles and make it work?

I have no illusions of grandeur - I am willing to rough it but want to have a really cool experience at the end of this.

Thank you for all your help - I have never used miles before but have read up extensively on this forum so any help is appreciated!

With regards,
John

contecsa

John for ECU or PER, do you speak spanish?

FrequentFlyer9000

You are looking at Central America or northern South America as your only options for 30K. You should go there and hike around and slum it for 3 weeks. You would spend much less than $2K if you were frugal.

sparkchaser

Hike part of the Appalachian Trail and fly back.

If you're in good shape, three weeks should get you from the NY-NJ border to the MD-WV border (342 miles) then you can fly back home. Of course, the biggest wildcard here would be rain.

Depending on how frugal you are, you'd spend less than $2k.

Romelle

There are some surprisingly cheap 7 day cruises out of NYC. Click here.

Of course, traveling solo you will have to pay for two, but some of the rates are low enough that can make sense. Or you can see if the cruise line will negotiate. Some will.

The cruise ships have great gym equipment. You never need go near the fancy sit-down meals if you'd rather eat more casually.

Romelle

sparkchaser

I was going to point out that a cruise is not really adventure travel but then I reconsidered because there are ways to turn an ordinary budget cruise into adventure travel:


1. Find a travel partner on Craigslist and take them along. Live with said random person for a week in a small room with no windows.

2. Eat shrimp cocktail that has been lying out all day and narrowly avoid getting food poisoning. Do this daily until you learn whether the chance of contracting food poisoning from eating old shrimp is a flat percentage or cumulative.

3. See how often you can be the "man overboard" before they confine you to quarters. (Can they even confine you to quarters? Do they have a brig?)

4. Find the delicate balance between eating all you can eat at the buffet, working out, and not gaining or losing weight.

5. Don't pay. Stowaway!

aroundtheworld76

Loads of Central American trips can be done within that budget. Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua all have plenty of adventure. Volcanoes, rainforests, beaches, etc, etc

ETA: AA has plenty of NYC-LIR availability for 30k miles in may.

WillTravel

Even if you don't take these tours, you can get some ideas for Costa Rica here:
http://www.gadventures.com/trips/cen...kking%2FHiking

There are a zillion adventurous things you can do in Mexico nature-wise as well. Sit down with a couple Rough Guides or Lonely Planet books from the region and get some ideas.

Look here:
http://mundojoven.com/Xperience/Xperience-aventura.aspx

fti

Though it is a little early in the season, you could get to Alaska with 25K miles and do some nice adventures there. Great hiking opportunities, even in early May. You could end your trip at Denali NP. The shuttle buses start operating on May 20th so you could do a day or two of shuttle buses (and drive 29 miles of the park road before then) before flying back to NY to arrive by May 23.

Baldpacker

Peru is a good option for 3 weeks and you could do it within budget. You can organize a cheap "Inca Trail" hike (not THE Inca Trail hike) once in Cusco. The real trail is ridiculously expensive for what it is.

pandoraone

Thank you everyone for all the responses!

I do, albeit not fluently. I can understand 98% and can talk back about 70%. I spent a short trip in Nicaragua and was able to communicate just fine there.

Both of those places seem incredible - any suggestion on destinations?

Going through those now - they look awesome. Have you done any?


Peru and doing the Inca Trail would be my dream; how much would the 'real trail' cost me?


Thank you everyone!

EmailKid

Then you speak and understand way better than I, and I do OK in Latin America.

WillTravel

Not the adventure ones, but I have taken other Mundo Joven day tours.

Baldpacker

You need to book well in advance as there are only so many permits. I believe the permits are 500 US$ or maybe even quid and I hear the trail is just a littered road these days. The only real benefit of doing "The" Inca Trail is that you enter through the Sun Gate or whatever it's called early in the morning so you're in Macchu Picchu before the crowds arrive.

I paid ~$200 (can't recall exactly how much), spent half a day mountain biking down some epic roads, a couple days hiking another Inca Trail (i.e. a trail built by the Incas but not the famous one), and woke up at 4am to climb up to the main entrance gates and get into Macchu Picchu before the crowds and buses arrived.

I have many friends who did "The" Inca Trail and without even considering the added cost of "The" Inca Trail, I am much happier with the Inca Trail journey I did.

callum9999

That's what I thought, until I did one of the "other" trails in the area! I guess it depends why you want to do the trek. On the "real" trek you encounter more Inca ruins etc. but the trek I did (Salkantay) featured breathtaking scenery instead. You still end the trek at Machu Picchu which was more than enough ruins for me and someone I met out there who did the "real" trek said they wish they hadn't seen the small ruins along the way as it would have made Machu Picchu itself seem more impressive (not that it really needs to be!).

For the 5 day Salkantay trek from Cusco I only paid about $300 - which included absolutely everything you needed, including entry to Machu Picchu and the train back to Cusco. They set up and carried your tent for you and also provided 3 meals a day + snacks. You don't need to book it in advance and you'll probably get the best deal by looking around in Cusco when you arrive. I only booked 2 days before.

Peru sounds like the perfect destination for your trip. There are direct flights on United from Newark to Lima on your dates for $588. It can be very tricky due to dodgy computer systems, but I'd then try and redeem your AA miles for domestic flights on LAN from Lima to Cuzco, which can be quite expensive with cash (but still doable if you can't get the reward tickets), and maybe some other places that take your fancy - Arequipa is quite popular.

I'm not sure exactly what you classify as "roughing it", but while I was in Peru I managed to keep my basic living expenses (i.e. hostel + food/water) down to around $15 a day reasonably easily. Alcohol/excursions etc. obviously cost more but $2k should be more than enough.