Less than three weeks to go... can I get a HAYYL YEAH!?

Jordan and I are already counting down the days until we can reunite with the amazing Steemians from SteemFest last year. We're also excited to meet new friends and enjoy all the inevitable Steemy shenanigans in another country.

It was hardly if we'd go this year.
It was more like... how?

Early in the planning stages, we plotted how we could make the most of this overseas adventure. We ultimately decided that meant spending part of the journey in Madrid, Spain and then venturing over to Lisbon, Portugal for SteemFest.

In what seemed to be a neon sign egging us to do it, the plane tickets were significantly cheaper from Arizona to Madrid. But there's another reason why we wanted to incorporate this stop into the trip. For over a year now, we've been learning Spanish through 30-minute daily lessons. What a perfect opportunity to flex our new language muscles! (Gulp...a little nervous, but mostly looking forward to putting our practice to work in real-life conversations.)

But like most travelers, the only way we could really make this happen is if we snagged all the deals, points, and savings we could manage. Hope this helps others in their future travel plans. Plus, we're hoping to align with others possibly doing the same thing? Leave a comment if you'll be in Madrid as well!

How To Pinch Pennies on an International Trip

Step 1: Monitor Flights

This is important. You won't know when a good deal comes up unless you have some points of reference. We even thought we hit the airplane ticket jackpot at $650, only to have the prices drop another $100 the next day. (Thankfully, Delta adjusted the price!) @shenanigator goes into more detail about flights in his post. This is also how we decided to travel to Madrid first instead of going directly to Lisbon.

Step 2: Save Money on Lodging

You can get pretty sweet discounts on gift cards from sites like Card Cash or RetailMeNot. Search the hotels in the area or Airbnb (what we did for Madrid) to save an extra percentage on the amount you would already be paying.

Don't forget to check your credit card companies to see if they are offering promotions as well. Jordan's Priceline credit card got us a good chunk of change in cash back from booking the Fenix Lisboa through the site (in addition to the cash back bonus below).

BONUS: Sign up with the free cash-back company, Ebates* to get extra money back from a ton of websites. The browser extension shows you a site's discount in search results before you even click on it. It appears that hotel booking sites like Travelocity and Expedia currently range from 4-10% cash back. If you're already going to be spending the money, might as well get some of it back!

*Full disclosure, I get a little bonus if you sign up with my link and you'll get $10 after your first purchase as well.

Step 3: All Aboard to STEEM FEST 2!!!

(source)

The least expensive option we found, thanks to a recommendation from @anyx, is to take the Rail Europe night train from Madrid to Lisbon. Both Jordan's and my tickets (there and back for our returning flight out of Madrid) cost just over $100 USD. We did get the regular ("peasant" lol) seats instead of a private cabin to help save a little bit extra for more important/fun things like meals at restaurants... ahem, cocktails

And, That's a Wrap!

There are a ton of details we didn't fully plan to leave time for exploring and all those great shenanigans we got into last year. ;)

Do you have any money-saving travel tips you've found? Will you be in Madrid before Steem Fest as well?

(follow me @sharingeverybite)