Where Are We Going? The UP Team’s Summer 2026 Travel Plans

Summer is close, and if you thought our team was staying home, you were very wrong.

From family trips to conferences and cruises, you’ll find our team spread across the U.S., South America, Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, and definitely at World Cup games. Here’s a look.

Ryan Smith, News Managing Editor

I have a busy summer coming up after recently returning to the digital nomad life. I’ll spend the early May in Mexico bopping around to some areas I haven’t visited previously, including a week in San Luis Potosi, before spending 2 weeks in Colombia in mid-May.

May ends and June starts with me in Brazil, exploring the country’s incredible northern coast. I’ll be attending the Nomad Mania conference in Ouro Preto, Brazil, in mid-June — a meetup for people exploring off-the-beaten-path destinations and/or trying to visit every country.

In late June, I’ll be back in Mexico to catch a FIFA World Cup game. Beyond that, I haven’t nailed down specifics, but I’m thinking about spending my birthday (early July) in Guatemala. After that, who knows? That’s the freedom of living out of a suitcase and working online!

Lori Zaino, Senior Content Contributor

This summer, my family and I will be flying from Madrid (MAD) to Chicago (ORD). We managed to snap up 3 tickets in Iberia’s glorious economy class for just 16,000 Iberia Club Avios per ticket each way, so 32,000 Iberia Avios in total per person. Thanks to Iberia’s family pooling, we are all booked together on a single itinerary, which makes things easier if there are any summer travel disruptions. Although we’ll be staying with family, I used the Category 1-4 free night that comes with The World of Hyatt Credit Card, and we’ll have a quick 1-night summer staycation at the Hyatt Centric Magnificent Mile.

We head back to Spain mid-July, and just 4 days after we arrive in Madrid, we’ll continue east, flying to Thailand. I originally booked the entire trip using points and miles, but due to continued conflict in the Middle East, I decided, after much rumination, to purchase backup cash tickets to Bangkok (BKK) on Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong (HKG) and back via Singapore (SIN) on China Eastern with a stop in Shanghai (PVG). And just a few days ago, Qatar Airways canceled my flights and refunded me, so I’m glad I trusted my gut and booked backup tickets before fuel surcharges skyrocketed. Sometimes, travel isn’t about being an expert or knowing exactly what to do, but about trusting your intuition, taking risks, and hoping you made the right choice.

We’ll spend about a month in Thailand, enjoying Bangkok, some national parks, and a few islands, before we head to spend a few nights in Singapore and head back to Spain. I’m looking forward to staying at (and reviewing) properties such as the Hyatt Regency Koh Samui, the InterContinental Khao Yai (this has been on my hotel wish list for years), and the Holiday Inn Resort Samui Bophut Beach.

Katie Corrigan Seemann, Travel Partnerships Manager

My summer is kicking off with a family trip to the Pacific Northwest. First, we’ll spend a few days in Seattle, where I booked the Hyatt Regency Seattle using Category 1-4 free night certificates. The cash cost would have been $700 per night, so this was a great way to use my certificates. Then, we’ll rent a car and take a little road trip through the Olympic Peninsula in Washington.

After that, my mom, daughter, and I are heading to Hawaii. We’re going to spend 3 nights at the Sheraton Kauai Coconut Beach Resort before hopping over to Oahu, where we’re staying 4 nights at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa. I chose the Hyatt Regency because of its great location, and I could use a Club Access Award for breakfast and snacks throughout the day.

Next, my husband, daughter, and I are going to take a quick weekend trip to Kentucky. We’ll stay 2 nights in Louisville, where I booked the Hotel Distil, Autograph Collection through Amex’s The Hotel Collection. I paid with the Platinum Card^® from American Express to use my semi-annual $300 prepaid hotel credit. We’re also spending a night in Lexington, where I’ll take advantage of a fantastic Amex Offer for Hilton (Save $100 on a $200 stay), along with my quarterly $50 Hilton credit from The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express.

Finally, the highlight of my summer travels is a trip to Europe. I booked American Airlines premium economy through Atmos Rewards both ways. The prices were already great (30,000 points and $5.60 per person), plus my husband and I were each able to use the 25k Global Companion Award from our Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite^® cards. We’ll spend 3 nights in Barcelona before sailing on a solar eclipse cruise.

Next, we’ll explore Rome for a couple of days. I originally booked the Hyatt Regency Rome Central, but it won’t open until September 1, so I guess I have some more planning to do. We’ll head home from Rome just in time for my daughter to start school … with just a bit of jet lag.

Juan Ruiz, Senior Editor and Contributor

As most parents of school-age children know, once the calendar flips to June, it’s basically countdown mode for summer travel (even though, in our house, we travel for more than just weekend getaways).

This summer is shaping up to be a busy one. I’ll be hopping across a few continents, starting with our annual trip to Colombia to visit family. It’s something we prioritize every year, not just for family time, but also to keep exposing our daughters to Spanish so they grow up truly fluent.

For flights, I transferred 50,000 Bilt Points to Emirates Skywards so the 5 of us could fly the Miami (MIA) to Bogotá (BOG) route — a fifth freedom flight I’m quite fond of.

It’s also one of the last programs that still transfers 1:1 to Emirates. Most others — like American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One Miles, and Citi ThankYou Rewards — have devalued their transfer ratios to Emirates.

It’s not the most mind-blowing redemption out there, but we’ve flown Emirates on this route before and loved it so much that we keep coming back.

The stretch between mid-June and mid-July will be a bit more flexible, mostly focused on shorter U.S. trips. With the FIFA World Cup matches happening in cities like Miami, Houston, and Guadalajara, we’re considering hopping around to catch a few games. I haven’t locked anything in yet, mainly because prices are already climbing. The plan is to lean on points and miles to offset what will almost certainly be expensive flights and hotels.

Later in the summer, in late July, we’re heading to Spain — a trip we’ve been really looking forward to. We’ll spend a few nights in Barcelona before heading to Mallorca for about a week, where we rented a great Airbnb.

In Barcelona, I used my Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ to take advantage of the up to $500 annual credit for stays with The Edit by Chase Travel and booked 2 rooms at a Kimpton property, which should work well for the whole family. Getting there was a solid redemption: I used Alaska Atmos Rewards points to book flights for just 27,500 points per person from Miami to Barcelona (BCN).

For the return, I wanted to avoid the hassle of backtracking through mainland Europe, so we booked the only nonstop flight from Mallorca (PMI) back to the U.S. with United Airlines, flying into Newark (EWR). From there, we’ll turn it into a mini stopover and spend a few nights in New York City — most likely at a Hyatt, since that’s usually my go-to for family stays.

All in all, it’s a mix of family traditions, exotic destinations, and a healthy dose of points and miles strategy— which, for me, is exactly what makes summer travel so fun.

James Larounis, Senior Content Contributor

I’m taking a Disney Cruise from Vancouver up through Alaska and back to Vancouver, and paid cash, as I couldn’t use any points or miles to cover the cruise fare.

I’m also flying to Taipei, which I booked for 60,000 Flying Blue miles. I’m flying one-way in Delta One from Los Angeles (LAX) to Seattle (SEA) to Taipei (TPE), then spending 2 weeks at the Grand Hyatt Taipei on points. This is a Category 4 property, so it costs 12,000 to 25,000 points a night, depending on peak dates, with a suite upgrade confirmed. I’m there for the Rotary International convention, so that’s why I’m spending so long in one place. The convention will take about a week, and then I’ll use the other week to actually sightsee and do touristy things.

Later on in the summer, I’ll be doing a whirlwind trip to Greenland and Europe. I’m flying from Washington, D.C. (IAD) to Nuuk (GOH), Greenland, for 50,000 United miles in premium economy (the highest class on that plane), spending 3 nights in Greenland, then flying from there to Copenhagen (CPH) on the daily Air Greenland A330 flight.

I’ll spend a few nights in Copenhagen at the Villa Copenhagen booked with 35,000 Choice Privileges points, then doing an overnight ferry to Oslo (about $300, and I used miles from my Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card to cover the charge), then flying to Helsinki (HEL) and spending 3 nights at the Waldorf Astoria Helsinki using 3 free nights earned on the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card.

McKay Moffitt, News Feature Deputy Editor

I’m headed to Portugal in May for the first time, where I’ll visit both Porto and Lisbon (if you have any recommendations, send them my way). I actually booked through AmexTravel.com, (which I almost never do), but my dates were pretty firm, so I used a mix of points and cash and wanted to earn 5x points on my booking.

Fun Fact: I accidentally booked my departing flight 1 whole week before my intended date (mistakes happen, friends). In this case, it was super nice to utilize AmexTravel.com’s customer service. Thankfully, I caught it early enough that it didn’t cost me anything to make changes.

Then, I’ll be in Mexico City in June for the World Cup (prayers appreciated!). I booked flights for me, my husband, and my parents from New York (JFK) to Mexico City (MEX) for a total of 32,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles, plus about $664 in taxes and fees. No, those fees are not ideal, but between the 4 of us, we were happy to pay them compared to normal flight prices around the World Cup. While we haven’t found reasonable tickets to the actual match that’s happening while we’re in town, some street tacos and a watch party should absolutely scratch the itch.

Hot Tip:

For my fellow foodies, I had the best meal of my life at La Choza last time I was in Mexico City. They don’t take reservations, they’re only open on the weekends, and if there’s a wait … it’s worth it. Use your American Express^® Gold Card and earn 4x points, just as a little cherry on top. I’m hoping to share that experience with my parents in June.

My husband and I found some flights back on Delta via Flying Blue for a total of 25,000 miles, which was lowkey a miracle.

In July, I’ll be traveling to Colorado with my family for our annual trip to Estes Park. While there aren’t any crazy points-and-miles strategies, I did use some SAS EuroBonus miles to book on Delta for my return flight. That flight cost me just 15,000 miles, compared to the cheapest cash option, which was hovering around $300. I’ll take 2 cents per point any day.

Keri Stooksbury, Editor-in-Chief

Why yes, my summer does come with a color-coded spreadsheet to navigate the 12 long weeks between school ending and school starting back up again.

My teen and tweens will be heading to sleepaway camp this summer, which has us driving all over the Southern U.S. to drop them off. My husband and I will use one of those weeks to sneak away to a new all-inclusive Autograph Collection property in Barbados.

Our biggest family adventure this summer has us flying to Buffalo, New York, where we’ll rent a car and drive to Six Flags Darien Lake, Niagara Falls, Toronto, and Canada’s Wonderland. I’ve been tracking flights on Google Flights for months and finally seem to have caught a break using a positioning flight.

Chris Hassan, Social Media & Brand Manager

I love a long, relaxing summer vacation, but since I live in Brazil now (and the seasons are reversed), I have less time to travel in July because of my kids’ school schedule. Fortunately, they get a nice 2- to 3-week winter break, which gives us enough time to fly up to New England to see family. 

Unfortunately, many Brazilians also choose to travel to the U.S. during this time, making it challenging to find 4 affordable tickets. But I had some good luck this year. Going north, I snagged American Airlines economy seats for just 18,000 AAdvantage miles per person each way. Since I have Executive Platinum status, we already have our extra-legroom seats selected for the flight from São Paulo (GRU) to New York (JFK). 

Direct flights to Boston (BOS) were about 25,000 each. Convenient, but I’d rather keep those 28,000 extra miles and rent a car, especially since we’ll need wheels to get around Maine and Vermont. 

For the flight home, I’m considering booking the brand-new New York (JFK) to Rio de Janeiro (GIG) flight that GOL will launch in July, featuring its first-ever business class. Prices are attractive at just 40,000 AAdvantage miles for a lie-flat seat. I just need to see if I can make the dates work with current availability.

Final Thoughts

Wow, we’re doing a lot. From seeking out good deals with cash to using our points and miles wherever possible, we’re crisscrossing the planet this summer.

Other than Antarctica, you’ll find us pretty much everywhere else. It’s shaping up to be a great summer 2026.