With our most recent trip being planned last-minute (and during the trip), I didn’t have the time to write a trip-planning post. However, I still wanted to share all of the details now that the trip has come to an end.

Earlier in the year, Kim, Lucas and I set out on A Quick Euro-Roadtrip where we got a taste of 3 Countries In 4.5 Days. I can’t say that I love driving but I did enjoy this trip since it was quite different than the norm for us. While thinking about where to go during our end of school year break I kept focusing on Missouri. I’ve been wanting to visit St Louis and Kansas City for a while and this seemed to be the perfect time.

After reading into a variety of options (and figuring out how many days we wanted to be away for the trip), I decided to change course. I put our visit to St Louis on hold and decided to focus on Kansas City and the idea of visiting a few other states close by. When I mentioned my grand plans to Kim, she wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea but was open-minded about it.

Why focus around the Kansas City area? There were a few good reasons:

1. Finally get to sample some of the famous KC BBQ
2. Vist another baseball stadium, the KC Royals
3. Visit some other states which are relatively close-by

States Visited: 4

• Missouri
• Kansas
• Iowa
• Nebraska

Trip Planning: Our Mid-West Mini Roadtrip

The Flights: All with Southwest

• New York (LGA) to Chicago (MDW), MDW to Kansas City (MCI)
• Kansas City (MCI) to Chicago (MDW), Chicago (MDW) to New York (LGA)

We used the remainder of Kim’s Southwest points to book the flights for Kim and me thanks to the Companion Pass. For Lucas, we used some of Kim’s points as well as transferred some Ultimate Rewards points. The 20% off code that Kim received a while back came in very handy here.

The total cost of the flights for all three of us came to 49,906 Southwest Points + $30 tax.

Lodging/ Hotels: We stayed at 3 different places during our stay.

Nights 1 & 2: Kansas City- La Quinta Inn & Suites Kansas City Airport- I spent 8,000 points per night (+ a little over $3 tax) which were earned for free thank to the LQ Stay and Play game a few months back. This seemed like a good time to use these points. If we were to pay for this room, it would’ve cost $79 per night/ $187.14 + tax for the stay. Our total cost was 16,000 LQ points + $3.

Night 3: Omaha- We left this until the day before we arrived and decided to use airbnb once again. We spent $50 for the room + $6 fee for a total of $56.00.

Night 4: Kansas City-We were originally supposed to head to Des Moines, Iowa but changed plans to get some more time in KC. We decided to use Priceline and got a room on my first bid. Hotel Phillips (a 4 star boutique hotel near the Convention Center) cost me $57 (bid price). With tax the total price came to $74.91.

Night 5: Kansas City- La Quinta Inn & Suites Kansas City Airport. For our last night, I used Lucas’s points (which I won for him though Stay & Play). I didn’t win him a lot of points so I was able to do a cash & points stay, 6,000 points + $15. Taxes should also be around $4 making the total cost 6,000 points + $19. If we’d payed for the room with cash only, it would’ve cost us $79 + tax= $93.57 so the points provided a nice savings.

Car Rental: I couldn’t find any great rental deals so I decided to try out Autoslash. My original rental cost was $169.54 for a week. Autoslash alerted me of a better rate so I switced to Dollar and accepted the lower rate of  $165.74.

The total costs for this trip (spending $ not included) came to:

• $348.65
• 49,906 Southwest Points
• 22,000 La Quinta points.

While I would’ve liked to have made the upfront trip costs even cheaper, using a combination of points and cash worked well to keep the costs down for a 5 night trip for 3 people!

(Disclaimer: If you sign up for airbnb with my link above, you will earn a $25 credit and so will I once your stay is completed.)