Michelle: Welcome to the Savvy Travel Moms podcast. If you are a mom who wants to travel more with your family without spending a fortune, you're in the right place. I'm Michelle, the bougie one.

Joy Smith: I'm Joy, the practical one. are two moms with different travel styles, but the same savvy mindset. In our show, we will break down family-friendly travel tips, points and miles, and realistic strategies that fit into a busy mom life. From hotel robes and room service to free breakfast and budget wins, we will help you turn everyday life into unforgettable family memories.

Michelle: Real moms, real travel, real strategies. Today we're chatting all about Joy's quick trip to Dallas, a fun long weekend getaway that proves you do not need a huge vacation to make meaningful family memories. We're diving into where she stayed, what she did, what worked well, and why a short trip can sometimes be exactly what your family needs. Today's episode is a fun one because we're talking about a quick and doable getaway to Dallas. Sometimes we think travel has to be big, elaborate, and an expensive production to be worth it. But Joy's trip is such a good reminder that even a long weekend can feel refreshing, memorable, and totally worthwhile. So if you've been wanting to plan something simple, realistic, and still really fun for your family, this episode should give you some great ideas and encouragement. I am so excited for this joy because I have only ever been to Dallas for a flight. I've never actually been out to explore. So I'm super excited to hear about your trip.

Joy Smith: Now, have you ever left the airport in Dallas? Do we count this as like a city you've actually been to or are we still never left the airport mode?

Michelle: No, I do not count it. So we did end up one time our flight was canceled and well, no, we took a we got we took $600 per person to fly out the next day because they overbooked it. And we didn't we hardly had any time. had already been at the airport for like six hours because the flight kept getting delayed and delayed until they told us that it was overbooked. So by the time we got to the hotel, it was like six o'clock at night. And we just decided to like

Joy Smith: Got it. Okay.

Michelle: stay in the hotel, watch TV, and then we had to leave the next morning. So yes, I have never done anything in Dallas, but I really want to.

Joy Smith: I know, I think it's always funny because, you know, my mom and I have this rule. She says if you don't leave the airport, it doesn't count. So it's always the thing that we talk about. Can I really count that I've been to that state or that country or not? ⁓

Michelle: Yeah. Yep. Yeah, I know. So what do you think? Does that count if you if you don't leave the airport or even if you do like we stayed overnight, but we've never done anything in Texas? Would you count that as like you've been to Texas?

Joy Smith: I mean, I would probably count it as been to Texas because you were in the state, you left the airport, but you didn't really do anything. So you can definitely still go back. But in terms of like state count, I would absolutely count it if you left the airport.

Michelle: Yeah. You're counting, okay. Well, that's good to know. I have one more state on my list than I thought I do. Yes. ⁓

Joy Smith: It's like the whole driving through piece, right? If you just drive through, does it count? Well, did you stop at a gas station? Did you see things as you were driving? yes, I think it counts. ⁓ Granted.

Michelle: ⁓ my gosh, you're quick, quick guys, let's go to the rest stop. We gotta cross the state off our list.

Joy Smith: you

Michelle: what did you do in Texas? I went to the bathroom in Texas. Does that count? ⁓

Joy Smith: Outt I stop at exit 41 in Kentucky all the time because that's the halfway point between ⁓ and my parents and that's our meeting spot so ⁓ kids can count Kentucky even though they have not really been anywhere else in Kentucky other than straight up the interstate

Michelle: ⁓ That's awesome. I love that. ⁓ that's super. Yes, I love it.

Joy Smith: Okay, so let's jump in now that I've already digressed and off-rail desk just to start off. So yes, we had a long weekend in Dallas ⁓ ⁓ it worked out is my kids ended up having, they have this four day weekend every February and I didn't have anything planned for the weekend and it was probably the end of November, December. ⁓ And husband and I were talking about it. And I just looked at him and I said, I really want to kind of get away and have this credit on our Sapphire reserve card that we need to at least book something before the end of the year. If we're going to take advantage of this credit. ⁓ So looked at cities and he gave me some parameters, his parameters where it had to be warm. so we needed to go south, but we couldn't leave the country. So he didn't want to go like Caribbean or Mexico anywhere for the short weekend. ⁓ And.

Michelle: Love that. Yep.

Joy Smith: ⁓ It needed to be somewhere that we can get easy flights to because we didn't want to have like huge long travel days since it was only going to be a really short weekend trip for us. And I knew that I had a stash of AA and Alaska miles. So that was my starting point. I looked at what direct flights I can get from Nashville on American or Alaska to get us like super easy.

Michelle: Yep.

Joy Smith: ⁓ affordable, not crazy miles per person that we can get to somewhere that was South and warmer and not Florida. Cause we've been to Florida like a million times. So we didn't want Florida again. ⁓ so those were our parameters. And then I went and started looking at our, on our Sapphire reserve card. It comes with an edit credit. So the edit hotel collection is like, they're super bougie. They're your style, Michelle. They're like super bougie, really fancy hotels with robes and room service.

Michelle: yep. Love it. Yep.

Joy Smith: And I was trying to find something that we didn't have to spend a ton out of pocket on top of that credit. Plus we still had a $500 travel credit on that card because it was part of our signup bonus when we got the card earlier in 2025 and we hadn't used that portion either. So I basically had $750 to work with.

Michelle: Yep. That's awesome. Okay.

Joy Smith: and needed to find a hotel that was within that perimeter or just a little bit over. In Dallas, all of the stars aligned for us. So I found flights, like were an amazing deal, direct flights to and from Nashville to Dallas because it is a hub for American. And then the Fairmont Hotel downtown Dallas was $800 for two nights. and we were able to use that credit and I think I paid $11.86 out of pocket on that reservation. So that's how we settled on Dallas. It just ended up being this perfect little storm of all these parameters that we had to set based on our limitations and it worked out.

Michelle: Yay. I love that. Were there any other cities that came in like close second? Did you remember or was it literally everything else just kept striking out and Dallas was it basically?

Joy Smith: Well, I was actually trying to first get my husband to go to New York or Chicago because I found some rooms that would work with the credit for that weekend, but he didn't want to go cold. So then when I had to go south and you start looking at family friendly cities that aren't Florida, right? Cause we just, we go to Florida a lot. He's from Florida. So we just didn't want to do that. just really popped up as a great option to go to cause

Michelle: Yup. I know. Yep.

Joy Smith: I mean, I can't go too much further south because then you're getting into longer flights and you lose that direct flight ability. ⁓ New Orleans was on there, but I'm I don't know if my kids would really love ⁓ Orleans. And I think it was too close to Mardi Gras for my liking to take my children. nope, ⁓ was just kind of ⁓ it all converged at.

Michelle: It's Yep. Yeah. Yep. Yay. ⁓ that's exciting. So let's start with your first day. you land in Dallas. Did you rent a car or did you Uber everywhere for the trip? Okay. Let's jump right into day one. So you get off the plane. You're going to head to your hotel. Did you guys run a car for this trip or did you Uber everywhere?

Joy Smith: Good question. We actually ended up renting a car, which looking back, I'm torn on if we really needed it or not. The main reason why I rented a car is because I also wanted to spend a day in Fort Worth. And on our original itinerary that I had planned, we were gonna show up on Friday, spend, because we landed at like 11 or 30 or 12 on Friday. So we were just gonna spend kind of that day exploring around downtown close to the hotel.

Michelle: ⁓ nice.

Joy Smith: Saturday was going to be our Fort Worth day. We were going to drive and I had a whole list of activities to do in Fort Worth. And then Sunday was going to be like do a couple more things in Dallas before we head back to the airport. Well, a couple of days before we left, I looked at the weather and it was going to be storming like all day Saturday, like torrential downpour. since Fort Worth is a lot of outside activities at the stockyards and a lot of their parks and things are all outside.

Michelle: No. How fun.

Joy Smith: we had to completely pivot our trip. So once we arrived on Friday, we ended up hopping in the car and driving straight over to Fort Worth to do the stockyards. Which, yeah, it was really cool. It was smaller than I expected and I didn't know how much time to plan for that. I had a whole lot of things in Fort Worth I wanted to do, but I ended up having to scratch a lot of them off because of the weather and just time commitments.

Michelle: Mm-hmm.

Joy Smith: But we ended up spending about three to four hours at the stockyards. We got there, we had lunch at this restaurant called H3 Ranch, which really fun backstory. ⁓ don't know if you guys listened to the Harry Potter episode, you learned that I had a family castle, like my ancestors are from Scotland. So the H3 Ranch ⁓ ⁓ Worth are actually from the same clan in Scotland that my family is from.

Michelle: Hmm. ⁓ fun.

Joy Smith: So I had researched, my mom had been there and told me I had to eat there. So we ate lunch at the H3 Ranch and you walk in and they have this whole wall of like the ancestors of the restaurant. And it goes back to the three Hunter brothers who are from Scotland that moved over here and started the stockyards. So it's a really cool story. So of we had to go have lunch at the ⁓ H3 Ranch and ⁓ know, some of our Scotland heritage there.

Michelle: Wow. ⁓ Yeah. Bye.

Joy Smith: then after that, we just explored, like we did a little bit of browsing in some of the stores. We went and saw the Longhorns. They have them fenced up in an area where you can go stand over there. And it's really cool. They have like trading cards for the Longhorns. So we were talking, yeah, we were talking to some of the cowboys, the ranchers. I don't know what they go by exactly, but ⁓ they this board that has ⁓ all the cows listed on it. And you have to

Michelle: Really?

Joy Smith: find the cows based on their pictures and start to pick them out. ⁓ And we were looking at him, he walks up to us and he goes, which one is your favorite? And then he starts handing us their trading cards for the cows. So it was really fun just to get interactive with the cows. Yeah. And then they had a petting zoo where we got chased by a goat ⁓ who also bit my finger.

Michelle: okay. ⁓

Joy Smith: It didn't hurt or anything. It was just like while I was feeding him, he decided to nibble on my whole hand. then it had a mini Scottish Highland and some sheep and some other animals in there. So we went to the petting zoo and spent some time in there. They had a maze, a cattle pen maze. And so they had some fun little family friendly activities that you could do around the stockyards. And there's a museum that gives like the history of the stockyards.

Michelle: my goodness. cute.

Joy Smith: There's a rodeo there. We didn't stay for the rodeo, but if you stay and you plan your day appropriately, you could go to the rodeo at night, which I debated on it. And then every day, twice a day, they do a cattle drive. So we had to stay for the cattle drive and they do this. they, they like, like they used to back in the day, they take the Longhorns and they drive them down the street. And it's just really cool to watch them. And those things are massive.

Michelle: Wow. Yeah.

Joy Smith: When you see them in person and you just see the width of their horns, like they're, mean, you're talking six feet, eight feet wide is how much space they're taking up as they walk down the street. Cause horns are ⁓ so

Michelle: That's amazing. That's crazy. So any of the stuff that you've mentioned, seeing the Longhorns, the petting zoo, ⁓ all of that free? Or do each of these things have admission costs to get into them?

Joy Smith: Great question. So we had to pay for parking at the stockyards and I think that was like $25 for the day. To see the horns, to like browse the shops, to just walk the whole area, to see the longhorns, there is a lot of free stuff around that. Now you had to pay for the petting zoo. I think it was $5 a person. The Cattle Pin Maze, I want to say, was like around $5 a person. There was one more activity there and I can't remember what the price on it was. We didn't do it.

Michelle: Yep.

Joy Smith: But it's not hugely expensive to visit the stockyards. There is a lot of free stuff. Now it's something I wouldn't plan more than two to three hours on. And I would plan actually probably to go either ⁓ morning ⁓ hit the cattle drive, like go right before the cattle drive ⁓ ⁓ in the afternoon right before the cattle drive and then kind of spend the time afterwards. Cause we had this, this dull moment of going at lunch and then.

Michelle: No. Yep. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Joy Smith: waiting for the cattle drive because I didn't want to leave and everybody was ready to go at 330 and I'm like, but the cattle drive is at four, we can't leave now. So it was kind of just like we had to hang out for a little bit because we were already done with the stockyards. So it was just a timing piece for us.

Michelle: Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah, well, love that. Yeah, I love that it wasn't that much money, because I mean, really, not only so far is this a quick trip, but it's also a cheaper trip. So it's fun to see, vacations don't always have to be thousands and thousands of dollars, right? To be really fun. So I love that. I love that.

Joy Smith: Correct. Yeah. Yeah, the Stockers. And that's why I really wanted to make sure we included Fort Worth as one day for our trip, because when I was researching family things to do, it felt like there was so much more free stuff to do in Fort Worth. Ideally, I probably would have stayed in Fort Worth, but there weren't any edit hotels in Fort Worth to be able to use that credit. So that's why we stayed in Dallas.

Michelle: Mm. Yep. Yeah.

Joy Smith: And it's about like you're looking at 45 minutes to an hour apart from each other too and there's no public transportation which is why we got the rental car to get back and forth because by the time you pay for an uber back and forth or just have a rental car I don't know what would have been better

Michelle: ⁓ okay. Okay. ⁓ yeah. For sure. And I think you're right. I didn't realize because I've never, I been, but I didn't realize that Dallas and Fort Worth, we always, it's called DFW airport, like Dallas, Fort Worth. So you assume, at least maybe I am the only one that assumes that they're right next to each other, but 45 minutes is a long drive. So maybe if you just did Dallas, you could try to do public transportation, but

Joy Smith: Mm-hmm.

Michelle: That's good to know that like if you're actually going to go outside of like the city center, like you really need to rent a car to do this trip.

Joy Smith: And I didn't really find in my research public transportation options in Dallas anyway. ⁓ And there's a lot of stuff to do in Dallas that isn't right in the heart of downtown. So had it not rained, our agenda would have been very different. Yes.

Michelle: Yep. Yeah. Very different. Yeah. So did you eat dinner in Fort Worth or did you after you watched the cattle drive, you headed back to did you go to eat at the hotel then or what did you do next?

Joy Smith: Yes. So after we did the cattle drive, we ended up just going back to the hotel because we had, we left really early in the morning. So we needed to just kind of have a little bit of downtime and an early night to bed. ⁓ so we left Dallas or we left Fort Worth. Unfortunately it was rush hour because this was a Friday and so it took us a little bit longer to get over to the hotel in Dallas.

Michelle: ⁓ my God, yes.

Joy Smith: and we just drove over there and checked in and then we ended up ordering a pizza that night and just staying in. We were gonna go swimming but the hotel only had an outdoor pool and it wasn't heated. Yeah, and since it was February, I was hoping the kids could be able to swim but we didn't swim. ⁓ But the Fairmont was really, really nice. I mean, it was probably one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed in. And because of the edit credit with the Chase Sapphire Reserve,

Michelle: ⁓ yeah.

Joy Smith: you get upgraded to a suite it's available. So we had a suite ⁓ we had a hundred dollar credit a day for food and beverage plus breakfast was included. And so, and we got a welcome amenity. So my daughter, ⁓ we checked in the hotel and walked up to the room and the welcome amenity was there, it was like these really yummy, pretty little chocolates. She said, she goes, that was so nice of them to leave us treats. I can't believe they did that.

Michelle: That's awesome. Yep. I love that.

Joy Smith: And I'm like, yeah, baby girl, you eat up. So I didn't tell her it was part of our package, but it was just fun to see them be so excited about it.

Michelle: I love that. ⁓ you got to stay in more luxury hotels because that happens a lot when you stay at luxury hotels. So looks like Janelle Janelle is on my team. She likes a little fancy. She likes it fancy.

Joy Smith: You know, it ended up being really good and the breakfast worked out really great because, the way they did it, it's supposed to be breakfast for two, but the way they set it up is it has actually a dollar limit. So my husband's not a huge breakfast eater. So the kids and I went to breakfast and we ended up staying under that dollar limit because of their kids. ⁓ so our breakfast ended up being free.

Michelle: Nice, yeah.

Joy Smith: Each morning we were there and then we still had that hundred dollar credit that we got to use on top of it. So one night we ordered ice cream to the room ⁓ I don't remember what else we did with it. But yeah.

Michelle: ⁓ fun. That's awesome. So then you did you do anything else that first night or that was kind of it? You just went back to the hotel relaxed and then kind of got up the next day and went going again.

Joy Smith: Yeah, and we ordered pizza. had did a cheaper night that night because lunch was kind of a big splurge that ate the H3 ranch restaurant is a little bit more of a nicer steakhouse type Texas, Texas restaurants. So it was a little more expensive. So we tried to keep it really cheap for dinner.

Michelle: Yep. I love that. So then you got up the next day, you did your breakfast. Did you stay in Dallas the rest of that second or that second day then was kind of all Dallas activities.

Joy Smith: It was, and because the weather was so awful, ⁓ I had to completely pivot because I had initially planned to do more like parks and playgrounds and some outdoor spaces. Cause one thing I really researched was there's a lot of really cool outdoor spaces and trails to take kids on in the Dallas area for free things to do. But the weather ended up being awful.

Michelle: Mmm. Yeah.

Joy Smith: So we got a little bit late start that morning and then I found the Dallas Museum of Art is actually free to visit. We are not art museum people, but we decided, you know what, we can still go and figure it out. And if we hate it, it's free. We can leave. ⁓ And I did, had already paid for and reserved a time slot to visit the Perot Museum.

Michelle: Hmm. Ooh. Yay! Yeah. Yep.

Joy Smith: which is donated from Ross Perot and his wife, their family. And it's this huge nature and science museum that was our big one paid activity that we did. So we already had that reserved for the afternoon. So our morning, we just walked over to the Dallas Museum of Art. It was probably a block from the hotel. I had already packed our rain jackets, which I was really glad I did, because we got soaked.

Michelle: Yeah. Awesome. Yay! ⁓ my goodness!

Joy Smith: And then got there. I know they had a fun little like kids art room in there. So we went and found the kids space and did some other kids activities as a whole family and then just walked around and explored a little bit. We weren't there very long, maybe like an hour, hour and a half at the Museum of Art because art museums just are not really our cup of tea.

Michelle: Yeah. ⁓ I love that. I like a good art museum. love, ⁓ I do like stuff like that. But I agree, it is a lot harder for kids. They need to be entertained a little bit more than like, look at the painting.

Joy Smith: They need to be loud. And that was the hard thing. Like, we just wanted to be loud and we wanted to touch stuff. And there was even one point we walked in and I went to go take my jacket off, because they had a little coat check. So I was checking all our coats and I took my purse off and I set it down and I didn't even know it was like a ⁓ sculpture. I just thought it was this railing and I set it down on a sculpture and the people walk over and they're like, you can't touch this.

Michelle: Yep. Really? ⁓ no. ⁓ my gosh. We were not meant to be here. This is a bad idea. ⁓ my goodness. Does Dallas have a children's museum? Did you look? You think they're so big, they'd have something like, know, like St. Louis has one, you know, like you'd think they'd have like kind of a cool big thing like that.

Joy Smith: My husband's like, this is why this is a bad idea. We're not cut out for this world. Yeah. If they did, it wasn't free because my intention was to try to find free things to do in Dallas as much as we could. we were kind of splurging on the Perot museum. So, and it was a really short trip. Like this trip was just to get out to do something different. It wasn't really going to be like a go-bigger, you know,

Michelle: Yes. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yum.

Joy Smith: go-bigger-go-home kind of trip because we had one of those coming up for spring break in March. So this was as cheap as possible was our goal for this trip.

Michelle: Yeah, I feel bad for Justin. He wanted to go south and he just got horrible weather. That's kind of funny. He did. Yes, I know. Maybe I know. You never know. So I'm like, ⁓ poor guy. So was there anywhere you ate on that Saturday that you really liked that you can remember or would want to recommend to any of our listeners?

Joy Smith: he said, you know, we could have went to Chicago might have been worse. I don't know. So after we left the Dallas Museum of Art, we ended up taking an Uber over to the Pearl Museum. We could have walked it, but it was raining so hard that we just Ubered. had ended up just eating lunch ⁓ the cafe in the Pearl Museum, which was ⁓ overpriced and not great because that kind of stuff isn't really great. ⁓ ⁓ it was pouring down rain, we didn't really want to go exploring anywhere. ⁓

Michelle: Yeah.

Joy Smith: because you don't want to go out and walk around, you know? So we just had lunch there and then we spent the rest of the afternoon at the Poro Museum. And I want to take a minute and talk about that. was huge. It was like four stories, completely interactive on every level. It was a mix of like natural history. So they had some dinosaur bones that you could see with modern science.

Michelle: Mm-hmm.

Joy Smith: where everything was super interactive and they had like a space section where you can look at the stars and interact and learn all this stuff about space and the stars. And then they had a body section where you could go and learn about how the brain works and how the human body works and like all these different body like things, right? They had an actual brain and a spinal cord that you could see. Yeah, so.

Michelle: ⁓ cool. Yep. Yeah. wow.

Joy Smith: and then they had a section on, Oh gosh, how drills work. And they had this huge, it was blown up probably like 20 to 30 times the actual size, but like drill that they use when they're drilling into the ground. Um, they had, I don't know, we, we spent like probably five hours at the museum and closed it down. I think we could have stayed there longer. Um, they had a really cool play area.

Michelle: ⁓ fine. Yeah.

Joy Smith: So they had in the lowest level, there was a kid's play area that had probably like five or six different interactive sections of jungle gym type stuff, like rock wall climbing, like water tables, but they're really cool, like sciencey water tables ⁓ climbing structures. So we spent a lot of time in the play area.

Michelle: ⁓ fun.

Joy Smith: And then they had a bigger kids play area that was all sports related where you could go through and they turned, like there was this little space that you went through and it turned whatever you did into slow motion. So you could see it piece by piece. So my daughter did cartwheels through the slow motion room. And then you'd go and you'd watch the video of her doing a cartwheel slow motion. And my son like threw a basketball or. ⁓

Michelle: fun. Mm-hmm. ⁓ fun.

Joy Smith: I don't know. They went through that room probably 20 times ⁓ different stuff. and then there was an interactive racing section where you could race professional athletes on a screen to see if you're faster than them. they had like, it was like a bigger kids sports activity area. So it was really just a fun place to go and spend a rainy day and exploring and.

Michelle: Yeah. ⁓ Mm-hmm.

Joy Smith: so much they had remote control cars and like a whole engineering section and the kids just really loved the museum. I think science museums are really cool because they're so different and unique in each city that you go to ⁓ and one was so big and so different and then just the architecture of the building itself was just really cool to look at too. ⁓

Michelle: Yep. It honestly sounds like a children's museum. You know what I mean? So I think maybe that is their version of a children's museum. Because that sounds so much fun. And it reminds me so much of the children's museum that we have here. All of the different interactive areas. That's really cool. what did you tell us? I can't remember what the cost was per person for that museum. Do you remember?

Joy Smith: So the price of it was $25 for adult and $15 for kids.

Michelle: Not bad, that's pretty normal I think. Especially for how long you were there.

Joy Smith: Yeah. then, and then they have add-ons you can do too. So we added on one of their 3D movies, which was $8 a person. So total we spent a little over a hundred and then you add in lunch. I don't know what we spent on lunch there, but it was way overpriced. So we probably spent like 200 to 250 total in the museum that day. Cause we were there so long. We got some snacks too.

Michelle: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yep. Awesome. Yep. Yeah, that's awesome. So then after the museum, did you just go back to the hotel again and relax?

Joy Smith: We walked across the street to a restaurant. We went to like a Tex-Mex restaurant because we're in Texas. So we wanted to just grab something that was going to be quick and easy that we could get into. fancy. It was really good. It actually ended up being one of our cheaper meals of the trip. And it was right across the street from the museum and really easy to go to. At that point, the rain had kind of subsided a little bit too, so it was easier to walk.

Michelle: Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah.

Joy Smith: And then from there, we did end up taking a lift back to the hotel because it was already dark at that point. And it was probably like four-ish blocks. So we probably could have walked, but just being dark and not knowing the city and having the kids just decided to take a lift. Yeah. And at that time it was probably like eight o'clock when we were done with everything. So we just ended up, you know, calling it a night and going to bed because it had been a pretty full day.

Michelle: Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Well, didn't you say that with the credit you had a hundred dollars a day in a food and beverage credit? So did you use that at breakfast or was that for like a different meal during the day?

Joy Smith: Okay, so the edit credit, the way that it works is you get breakfast included plus $100 to use for your entire stay. So yes, yes, yes. So we ended up going back to the hotel and we just ordered dessert through room service. And then we got some drinks from the bar is what we did and just took them back up to the room to use up that $100 credit.

Michelle: ⁓ the entire stay, okay. fun. ⁓ nice. I like that. That's kind of a fun little extra treat, you know, where you wouldn't normally spend money on any of those things because you're trying to go cheap. So that's a fun little add on that makes a trip feel a little more fancy than you originally planned it to be, you know.

Joy Smith: Room service always makes it feels more fancy, so.

Michelle: It does. ⁓ I love room service. That's my favorite. ⁓ I love it. You can put on your robe. Yeah, no. Well, yes. But if you, you know, are savvy like us, you know ways to get it for free. So that makes it we can get fancy, you know, $100 a person breakfast and stuff when we know the right way to do it. I love it.

Joy Smith: Room service is so overpriced. Yes, we can.

Michelle: Now you have me missing it. I'm like, oh, I want room service breakfast. So bad. That sounds so good right now. Okay. So what do we have left? Is it just your last day? is Sunday your last day or did you fly home Monday?

Joy Smith: No, so it's Sunday. We just did a two night, three day trip. we left really early Friday morning, Sunday we flew home, but we didn't fly home until later in the day on Sunday. So that morning, the rain had pretty much subsided. It was still pretty cloudy, but they have this park in downtown Dallas called the Clyde Warren park. ⁓ it is one of the most unique parks I've ever seen. ⁓

Michelle: ⁓ it's Sunday. Yeah, it is a

Joy Smith: they had a really cool playground that had all these climbing structures and it had very unique, ⁓ merry-go-rounds, they weren't traditional merry-go-rounds. They were one of them was one that was like a table that turned really wobbly and at an angle and you could just lay on it and be spun around. ⁓ And the one was like this climbing structure, structure type piece that you needed to climb and hold on. And it spun around at an angle.

Michelle: ⁓

Joy Smith: And I swear my daughter spent an hour on that thing. So we spent a lot of time in that fun little playground that they had. ⁓ And as you walked down throughout the rest of the park, one of the streets was lined in food trucks. And then they had this other section. had a big green space. ⁓ And they had this other section that had like, there was like a little library with books. There was ⁓ like size connect four and you could play beanbag.

Michelle: Bye! Come on.

Joy Smith: and you could do, ⁓ they had like this life-sized Tetris game and building blocks and stuff. So we spent some time down there just like playing those games, hanging out, doing the building blocks and then just walked the rest of the park and then they have a free trolley that goes through downtown Dallas. So we hopped on the trolley and took a little trolley ride through downtown which I think they said takes about an hour. ⁓

Michelle: Mm-hmm.

Joy Smith: If you do the whole route, went back to the park and then grabbed lunch, walked back to the hotel, checked out and left. So that morning was pretty low key, but it was fun because we just got to like really do what the kids want to do, which is all they want to do is play for the most part. Right. So we just let them play in the park and then did the little trolley ride to see the city a little bit more, but not really have to walk it or pay or drive or do any of that.

Michelle: Yeah. Yep. Yep. So true. Yep. So is there anything that you would do differently if you could do this trip again? I know the weather kind of took things up for you, but now that you've been, would you kind of go to the same places and do the same things if you, ⁓ if you recommending it to somebody or how would you kind of change the trip if you could?

Joy Smith: So I would still go to all the same places that we went to, but I would add on, like my ideal itinerary was we go there on Friday, we do some of the parks on Friday, like I wanted to do the trolley ride and the Clyde Warren Park on Friday and keep it a little bit more low key. Saturday was going to be our Fort Worth day, and I had a whole lot more scheduled for Fort Worth, like I'm gonna pull up my list here really fast. Sorry, let me find it. Where did I put it? If I can find them, where did it go? Dallas, okay. I know, right? ⁓ So there is, in Fort Worth, there's this place called the Water Gardens, which is like you're supposed to go to at dusk and see it a little bit more at sunset. And it's free to go to, and it's these really cool like, there are different levels and tiers of gardens, of like fountains.

Michelle: You've lost it. Ooh. Yep.

Joy Smith: and they light them up different colors at night. So that was one thing we didn't get to do that I really wish we would have done. But it was just a long travel day and we were tired. In Fort Worth, there's also the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which you can go and learn about how money is made. And it's a little bit more interactive, which is one thing I also wanted to do that we didn't get to do. And in Dallas,

Michelle: It's fun.

Joy Smith: There is a couple more like big parks and places to go see. So there's the reunion tower geo deck, which is a viewpoint. You can go all the way to the top of it and look out and see all of the city. that was on my list that we ended up not doing. And then the, ⁓ there's a giant eyeball, which is just like a sculpture. ⁓ of a massive eyeball in Dallas, which is supposed to be your thing to go see, which would have been kind of fun to go see the giant eyeball. And of course, like there's a couple of different like plazas and parks throughout downtown Dallas that I wanted to go to. I had a little bit more on my list that we just didn't make it to, but that's okay. That's what travel is, right? Sometimes we have to adapt and just go with it. ⁓

Michelle: Yeah. Yeah. Yup. Yeah. And next time. mean, that's what's so nice too about points and miles is we can go back again another time and then you can do all the stuff that you didn't get to see and hopefully have better weather the next time. I love it.

Joy Smith: I will say Dallas was a really great just weekend getaway. ⁓ I don't know if it's somewhere I would go for like an entire week unless I wanted to spend more money and do some of the bigger activities. Like there are more different museums and places to go that you can go in Dallas are very family friendly But they all, I mean, just.

Michelle: Mm-hmm. Yep.

Joy Smith: up so fast and so for us trying to keep an affordable family weekend plus food in Dallas was very expensive. Typically I budget about a hundred to a hundred and fifty dollars a day for food when we travel and I felt like we went over our food budget almost every day we were there and we even had breakfast included. So meals were just really expensive in Dallas and we didn't go to fancy restaurants.

Michelle: it does. Yep. ⁓ Yeah, expensive. Hmm. Yeah, that's crazy. So before we wrap everything up, do you want to give us a little breakdown of the points that you use and how much cash you spent out of pocket on everything?

Joy Smith: Yeah, I absolutely can. Okay, so when I went to use my points for this trip, because I had a stash of both American and Atmos miles, ⁓ I ended up booking through Atmos on American metal. Now, what that means is the partner airlines. So the price for American Airlines for me to get my family from Nashville to Dallas was going to be 9000 points per person each way. I was able to find that exact same flight on Atmos for 9,000 points round trip per person. Yes, so that was the power of Partner Airlines on this one. So I booked this total for 36,000 miles for my family of four, and it ended up being $144 out of pocket for our flights. And that's only because when you book on Partner Airlines, there's a little bit more fees involved.

Michelle: Mm-hmm. ⁓ nice. Yep.

Joy Smith: So that's where the extra expense came. Whereas normally if I would have booked on American, it would have only been the $5.60. And then my credits I stacked for our hotels were, our hotel was the $250 edit credit through my Chase Sapphire Reserve. $500 travel credit that we earned as part of our welcome offer on that Chase Sapphire Reserve. I did.

Michelle: Yep.

Joy Smith: Fill in with 2000 Chase Ultimate Rewards just to kind of bring that out of pocket price down to $11.86.

Michelle: That's amazing. Angel only used 2000 chase points. mean, it wasn't you used, you know, 20,000 or anything. mean, literally, that's what is it? Isn't 2000 points 20 bucks? I mean, that's amazing. that's crazy that your out of pocket was so low because you strategically stacked those credits together to get it as low as possible. That's amazing.

Joy Smith: It was, and let me give the cache value of. all right, all in for this weekend, out of pocket. Now this includes the 144 on flights, our hotel at the end of the day, it did end up being $217.95 and that's because we had parking. Parking overnight was kind of expensive. I think it was $60 a night.

Michelle: Yep. Yeah.

Joy Smith: And then we had, with the one downfall of the edit credit and the food and beverage pieces is your taxes and gratuity are not included. So when we ordered room service at the bar and at the restaurant each morning for breakfast, we of course have to pay taxes and tip the staff. ⁓ So wasn't included. So our total at the hotel ended up being $217.

Michelle: ⁓ no. ⁓

Joy Smith: Our rental car, what we spent on transportation for this is rental car lifts and parking at the stockyards was $2.71 and 64 cents. Food and attractions were around $500. So our grand total out of pocket for this trip was $1,100, which comes out to about $300 per person for two nights and three days.

Michelle: Mm-hmm. Awesome.

Joy Smith: Had we paid full price for our hotel and our flights, it would have been, our hotel and flights value of that would have been $2,269.86, not counting any food, or any extras. So we've already saved a ton of money just by being able to use points and miles.

Michelle: Awesome. Yes. 100%. And really, if you didn't have points and miles, wouldn't have, well, I'm just assuming you wouldn't have taken the trip. Because that's a lot of money. mean, another $2,000 for only a three-day trip? That's a lot of money. So that's why I feel like the points and miles aspect of it is so important because it just goes to show you that those trips are kind of spur of the moment, a little more quick, fun getaway. They are really expensive if you don't have points and miles. And that gives you the ability to be able to, out of the blue, like you said, December, let's go somewhere fun. Normally, If you didn't have points in mileage, you'd like, oh, maybe we'll go an hour away from home and go do an activity and then come home because there's no way you're going to spend $3,000 to go somewhere for two nights. You know?

Joy Smith: And we, I mean, you know, I have my strict rule, if I pay, I don't go. So at the end of the day, we really only paid 144 for flights and $11 and 86 cents for the hotel. Everything else you're going to pay no matter what, right? Like granted the car was an added expense, but those things are so much easier to take on for food and car and attractions.

Michelle: Yeah. the hot. Yup. 100%. Yep.

Joy Smith: when you're getting your flights in your hotels for so cheap. And that's why I have my strict rule. If I pay, I don't go. If I'm gonna be paying for flights or paying for a hotel full price, I will absolutely not take the trip because I wanna spend my money on the things that matter. And I still try to be as frugal as possible and find as much free stuff because I don't like to spend a bunch of money.

Michelle: Yep. Me either. Yep. So do you have anything else you want to share with us, Joy, before we wrap it up today?

Joy Smith: The one other thing that we did that made our trip a little extra special too is we right before we left in Dallas Dallas is a great airport for lounges and Since I don't have the venture X. I didn't get a go to the Capital One lounge But we did use my city strata elite which comes with four passes a year to the Admiral's Club the AA lounge Since we were flying AA we got to take advantage of that

Michelle: Yes, I love it. Ooh.

Joy Smith: And it was huge. Like we walked in that lounge. First off, kids, if you have that credit card, kids don't count as a pass. so they're included. So it only took two of my four passes for my husband and I to both go. ⁓ the kids were free. They have a kids room, which I'm really learning to love the kids room and lounges because you can go in there. There's nobody in there. It's usually a big space. It has a TV.

Michelle: Really? ⁓ fun. Yes.

Joy Smith: ⁓ And you can be as loud as you want in the kids room and you're not going to interrupt anybody. So we really have enjoyed being able to take advantage of kids rooms and lounges and not all of them have it. this lounge in DFW was ⁓ ⁓ the food was, I mean, it was fine. They had some options, whatever, but they had a like what we've noticed. We've been in AA lounges a couple of times now. ⁓

Michelle: It's true. Hmm.

Joy Smith: is they will sometimes bring out like a little chef station. So that day we were there, they had a guacamole station where you could like make your own guacamole and he would make it for you. So my son loved that. So there's always just fun little things in the AA lounge ⁓ on of the kids room that just make it a really great experience to go hang out before your flight takes off.

Michelle: Yes! Fun! I love that. haven't been in an Admiral's Club lounge yet. I didn't realize that the kids didn't count. So then you can literally go to the lounge twice a year. Right. So that's amazing. I like that perk that I didn't realize. So you've been you and I have been together to the Capital One Lounge in Denver. So how did you think the food compared at the Capital One Lounge compared to the Admiral's Club? Do you remember?

Joy Smith: It's very different. yes, the Capital One Lounge A has a full bar. Admiral's Club doesn't. It's more of like a limited bar that you can choose from and then if you want something more, you can pay for it. They also have a full menu that you can order from if you want to pay for other items outside of what's included. Now, what they did have, the biggest difference is the Capital One Lounge has like the cute little individual size containers.

Michelle: It's different, okay. Yup. Yeah.

Joy Smith: They have more options. This one was really only like a soup. I'm trying to remember what they had when we went. Like a couple different salad options. They had some fruit that you could grab and they had like one hot item with a side. So it wasn't a ton of food that you could choose from. Now there was enough that we can make work for us. Like my daughter, if it's the right kind of salad, she will eat the crap out of a salad. we had, we had, she definitely filled up on salads. And then I think that night we were there. actually was a pasta dish of some sort. So it worked out fine. Cause my kids would eat the pasta and then the guacamole stations a hit. Like we love guacamole. So we had that, you know, the guacamole. so it worked out really well that time for us to go to the lounge before we hopped on our plane to fly home.

Michelle: Yep. Yep, I love Yes, me too. That's awesome. ⁓ I love it. I'm so glad you guys got to go. The lounge is like one of my favorite parts of travel is the lounges. So like that's what I get most excited for is a good lounge.

Joy Smith: It makes such a difference, especially when you, A, you can save so much money on a lounge because if you can find food there, at least like if your kids won't eat something there, you can still find something there to eat as an adult. So that's less that you're spending money on. But then it gives you a place, especially when they have a kids room, it gives you a place to go hang out with your kids and not be in the way of people or be in the way of like,

Michelle: It does. Yep. Mm-hmm.

Joy Smith: dealing with people at the gate or running around bumping into people at the gate or annoying people at the gate. It just gives you that extra space and then you can wait right until boarding and then go just walk pretty much right on the plane.

Michelle: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yup. Yes, yes, I know. You guys haven't gotten to use the Sapphire lounges yet as a family, have you? No.

Joy Smith: No, we have not. ⁓ I plan on later this year because we're going to be at both JFK and Philly when we do Denmark in the fall. So I'm hoping we can hit the South River Lounge for that time.

Michelle: Yep. Yes, you have to, because they have at least the Sapphire Lounge at LGA has a kids room. So and they have they like an actual like little kids room. And then they have another room that has ⁓ what was it a record player and they had records and it had I don't know if it was a pinball machine or what. I can't remember what it was, but they had a few different like games that you could play.

Joy Smith: ⁓ really? Ooh!

Michelle: So I'm guessing JFK is going to be very similar to Sapphire Lounge to LGA. So that would be really fun because you have the Sapphire Reserve. So it would be fun for all of you to get to go together into that lounge because that's one of my favorites. love the Sapphire Lounge definitely rivals the Capital One Lounge. I like Capital One better still.

Joy Smith: Yes. Ooh, I would like that. Yeah.

Michelle: because of the grab and go aspect of the food. They even give you the bag. They want you to take it. They want you to take the food. I love that. And Sapphire's not like that. They want you to sit and relax. And you've got to wrap stuff up in ⁓ napkins if you want to take it in your bag or whatever. But I do like it. I do really like the Sapphire Lounge too.

Joy Smith: You know what we did talk about, which is something I'm not really opposed to, is we, because we have the venture, not the venture X. Long story, but Capital One will not approve us for the venture X. That's why you need to get the Capital One venture or venture X very early on in your points and miles journey, because if you get too many credit cards or have too much accessible credits, your name, they will no longer approve you, which is where we're at. So. One thing that we did talk about though is because with our venture, you can pay to get in the Capital One Lounge. It's $45 a person. So we were thinking, you know, like if we paid for one of us to go into it with our card, then they could just grab a whole bunch of grab and go items and make it worth it for the rest of us. Cause I remember they had like the sandwiches and they had everything. Yes.

Michelle: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yup. Yes, and the cookies and they had like the bottled water and everything, everything.

Joy Smith: Yeah. And that's one thing they didn't have at the Admiral's lounge. They did not have a grab and go option. They had like ⁓ a little refrigerator with drinks and it had like water and sodas and stuff in it, but you had to pay for it if you wanted to take it and grab and go. So I didn't even look at the price of it. Yeah.

Michelle: really? ⁓ yeah. I think totally that like forty five dollars could easily be worth it. And honestly, that's why I'm not closing my venture X, you know, even though it is a three hundred and ninety five dollar annual fee. I can go into ⁓ the lounge grab stuff for everybody. And you're 100 percent right. mean, literally you go get like a crappy hot dog and a drink, and that's 15 bucks a person. So I mean, or more. So you're at like 60 bucks right there. You know what mean? Like you might as well get like Joy was saying, they have sandwiches, they have cookies, you literally can get a full meal from grab and go. of course, the food, the sit down food is really, really good. And like in a perfect world, it would be amazing if everybody if all

Joy Smith: Or more.

Michelle: the whole family could go in, but you know, that's just not the case anymore. But like it's still is worth it to either like Joy said, the 45, the four, did you say 45, right? 45 for 45. Yeah. One person goes in or if you can get approved for the venture X to have someone have the venture X because it's still is totally worth it. Especially if you're, if you live like,

Joy Smith: It's 45 a person, yeah.

Michelle: in Dallas or Denver or like one of these airport hubs that has a Capital One lounge. And every time you fly, you can use it 100 percent. It's worth the money. I love it. ⁓ wish we lived closer to it. But I do like for me, part of the lounge is a part of the journey. I pick my airports a lot of times, for my layovers for airports where I know I'm going to have a really good lounge experience because it makes the trip 100 times better to get to go to a fun lounge than to just sit in the airport for three hours doing nothing. Yeah.

Joy Smith: That's true. I will say, love, one of my favorite layover airports is Miami, because A, there's a plenty of lounges to choose from, like under priority pass and every airline and everything, but they're playgrounds. Like that's another piece that we've started looking at too, as playgrounds when you travel, because I mean, my daughter's seven, right? Like, so she's on that cusp of we still gotta make her move between flights because she can't sit still very long.

Michelle: Yeah. ⁓ I love that. Yep.

Joy Smith: So we go and find the playgrounds. And there's a lot of really cool airport playgrounds. But one of my favorites so far has been Miami. It's just such a great airport playground.

Michelle: I have to add that to my list. I haven't been there yet. I haven't been there yet. Ah, yes, yay.

Joy Smith: Hahaha! I'll take a layover in Miami any day, especially if I'm flying American because there's so many lounges in the American wing of Miami.

Michelle: Ooh, I love that. Ooh. Well, thank you, Joy, for telling us all about Dallas. I hope that some of our listeners will recreate your trip. So fun. Yay.

Joy Smith: Yes. And let us know if you guys have any questions and in the show notes, what we can do as well. I know we kind of went down a little rabbit hole of lounges in the venture. There is an elevated offer on the venture right now. So we can go ahead and tag that in the show notes for you all if you're interested in grabbing that card. And then I can tag the chase Sapphire reserve, which is the main card that I use to plan this trip with. because that really allowed us to get that bougie hotel room that, ⁓ we don't normally book because I'm not a bougie person. ⁓

Michelle: That's okay. That's totally okay. Well, I loved our conversation today because it's such a good reminder that travel doesn't always have to be big to be meaningful. A quick long weekend can still give you quality time, new experiences, and those fun family memories we all want more of. So if you've been putting off travel because you think you need more time, more money, or a bigger plan, maybe this is your sign to start smaller. Thanks so much for listening and we will see you in the next episode.