In this trip planning segment, our next adventure will be traveling across the country for a week:  New York to Chicago, Chicago to Seattle, and Seattle back to New York. These write-ups should act as guidelines, and are not a promise that you can find these exact trips; however, I hope they are close enough to show that you really can do “expensive” trips for much less than you think.

I won’t lie, I’ve always wanted to take a long distance train trip. There is something so romantic about the idea of getting on a train in New York and getting off in Seattle. Nick, on the other hand, would rather walk cross hot coals than take the train cross-country, hence why we’ve never done this.

This trip, however, is something I would really like to do someday, so I created a trip framework about it! It takes 9 days (August 12-August 21, 2016) and is made up by:

• Amtrak Lake Shore Limited (New York-Chicago)
• 2 nights in Chicago
• Amtrak Empire Builder (Chicago-Seattle)
• 3 nights in Seattle
• Alaska Airlines (Seattle to New York)

Sounds expensive, right? What if I told you you could do it for only 120,000 points and $305.60? I’ll be posting this trip framework in a new format, with a little bit of content each day, so buckle up, kids — it’s going to be an interesting ride!