Lucas and I recently got back from a fun and quick trip to Cancun, Mexico.

With Kim not flying until after Baby W Travels arrives, I planned three weeks of travel for Lucas and I. We’re not traveling for three straight weeks, just three straight weekdays, so we’re home on the weekends.

For the second summer trip, I planned a quick visit to Boise Idaho! I know most of you are probably thinking wow, how glamorous! Well, I picked Idaho for a couple of reasons.

1. I’ve never visited Idaho before and it isn’t a place that Kim minded we visit without her.
2. I have lots of Southwest points and a Companion Pass expiring on December 31, 2016. Flying to Boise from NYC seems to be a bit of a pain and also pricey. I thought it was a good idea to use some of my Southwest points to get a small taste of the state.

Here is a quick rundown of the costs of our trip to Boise, Idaho.

The Flights: Like I mentioned above, we flew with Southwest Airlines:

To get from NYC to Boise, we flew:

• New York LaGuardia Airport (LGA) to Chicago Midway Airport (MDW)
• Chicago Midway Airport (MDW) to Boise Airport (BOI)

On the way home we flew:

• Boise Airport (BOI) to Denver International Airport (DEN)
• Denver International Airport (DEN) to New York LaGuardia Airport (LGA)

The cost for the flights for me came to 47,280 Southwest points + $11.20 tax. For Lucas all I had to pay was the tax of $11.20 since he flew with my Companion Pass.

This brought the total costs for our fights to 47,280 Southwest points + $22.40.

Hotel/ Accommodations:

We needed 4 nights of accommodations during the trip and I wasn’t finding anything interesting by using points. Budget options weren’t really standing out either, so I decided to gamble with Priceline.

I haven’t used Priceline in a while and thought I could’ve done better than the place I won my bid for. However, the place got the job done and was actually in a pretty decent location.

We stayed at the budget motel Inn America. The stay also included breakfast- nothing fancy but sufficient. My winning Priceline bid was $70 per night and the high taxes & fees brought the total price to $330.52.

(If I had to do it again, I would’ve just picked an even more budget place and saved some more money.)

Car Rental:

Having a car for a visit to Boise is pretty much a necessity unless you’re staying in the downtown area and don’t plan on leaving it. I searched and searched, used sites like Autoslash and CarRentals.com and couldn’t find any bargain rental deals.

In the end I booked a car for 4 days with Dollar Rent A Car. The cost was $27 per day and with taxes and other fees the total came to $132.47.

Total Trip Costs: 47,280 Southwest points + $485.39.

This definitely wasn’t the cheapest trip that I’ve put together. I could’ve saved close to $100 on our hotel stay by just going with a more budget place or saved even more by booking our stay with points. However, I decided to take a chance with Priceline and still ended up with a budget place.

Regardless of this, Lucas and I had a fun time during our trip and it was definitely nice to visit a new state! I’d actually like to go back one of these days to see other parts of Idaho which I was told are quite beautiful.

Have you visited Idaho?

Other Trip Planning Posts:

• Progress in Planning: Singapore, Bali & KL
• Progress in Planning: Russia
• Trip Planning: A Quick Euro Roadtrip
• Trip Planning: Atlanta
• Trip Planning: Dominican Republic
• Trip Planning: Back to the Balkans
• $895.80 + 72,580 Points= Trip for 3 to Jamaica
• $140.18 + 65,000 Points= Trip for 3 to Orlando
• $511.59 + 15,000 Points= Trip for 3 to Charleston, SC
• Pardon the Interruption, We’re Heading to Myanmar (Burma)
• $540.42 + 137,250 + 2 IHG Free Nights= Trip for 3 to Nicaragua
• $249.30 + 158,250 Miles & Points= Trip for 3 to Grenada
• 233,500 + $1,742.38 + 2 IHG Free Nights= Trip for 3 to Mid-East Gulf States
• Trip Planning: We’re Going to Cuba!
• 200,000 AA Miles + $563.45 + Club Carlson E-Cert= Trip for 2 to Poland