Hello! I am back with another Remedy+ review! I was lucky enough to receive Remedy+’s newest product, The RUB, in the mail this week. The RUB is a CBD salve that aims to manage discomfort and pain throughout the body. Unlike Remedy+’s other CBD products, The RUB is a topical product. Rather than ingesting CBD, as you would with The DROP or The CAP, you apply The RUB to parts of your body that may be feeling icky after a workout or a strain.

Overall, I love The RUB and I’m glad that it’s a part of the Remedy+ family. If you have been searching for a CBD salve to use after a session at the gym, sports practice, or morning of climbing, you have come to the right place. Let’s get into this review!

CBD Basics

I’ll get these out of the way for people who are already familiar with CBD. Yes, CBD is legal throughout the United States. No, applying The RUB or using any Remedy+ products will not get you high. CBD is a natural cannabinoid found in the cannabis (hemp and marijuana) plant that works with the body’s endocannabinoid system to regulate various bodily functions from sleep to appetite to inflammation. This is where The RUB works its magic.

How Does CBD Help Sore Muscles?

Inflammation can be a good thing – it’s your body’s response to illness or injuries. Inflammation can ensure that foreign bacteria don’t affect the body and that the healing process continues without any problems. But too much of a good thing … you know where I’m going with this. People with chronic pain or inflammatory diseases know that too much inflammation can cause prolonged pain, redness, and other symptoms. CBD keeps inflammation in check, moving the healing process along without unnecessary pain or aches.

Athletes have started turning to CBD for pain and soreness relief surrounding workouts or injuries. This is where The RUB comes in. It was designed to help athletes manage discomfort and enable a faster recovery while training or playing their sport. I would not refer to myself as an “athlete,” but I do have a regular bouldering routine. (My Instagram is @climb_and_flow, after all.) I was excited to receive this product in the mail and try it out for myself!

Review: Remedy+ The RUB

Overall, I’m going to give this guy a 9/10.  The RUB is effective, uses natural ingredients, and provides more value than many CBD salves that I’ve researched while writing this post. If you are interested in the effects of a CBD topical, I would start here. Remedy+ has once again created a great product that centers CBD and its healing effects for people experiencing pain, aches, or the general wear-and-tear of living life during a pandemic.

Let’s get into the details.

Ingredients

The ingredients listed on The RUB include:

• Sunflower Oil
• Beeswax
• Castor Oil
• Broad Spectrum Hemp Extract (1000mg CBD)
• Cocoa Butter
• Shea Butter
• Vitamin E Oil
• Menthol
• Frankincense Essential Oil
• Green Tea Leaf
• White Willow Bark
• Organic Rosemary Oil

Always nice when you can pronounce the ingredients! As a former Lush employee, I know that these are all standard ingredients for a moisturizing, natural salve. When comparing this product to other CBD salves on the market, I noticed that this product has a much higher concentration of CBD. I saw this as a benefit. It’s always disappointing to buy a product for an ingredient featured on the packaging only to see that ingredient at the way bottom of the list. The RUB, along with other Remedy+ products, centers around CBD and provides the benefits that appeal to CBD users.

Smell and Feel

I have seen reviews comparing this product to Icy-Hot, but the smell isn’t as intense. You do get a subtle whiff of menthol when you open the product – one that doesn’t overpower the room. You get the impression that the product uses a lot of natural ingredients.

The morning after I got The RUB in the mail, I went bouldering. If I don’t stretch properly or go too hard at the gym, I tend to notice discomfort around my neck and shoulder. Whether this is tension, a knot, or something else, I’m not too sure. (Does anyone know a cheap chiropractor?) Usually, I try to massage the area and the pain goes away within a day or two. I experienced that same discomfort (unintentionally) after bouldering, so I figured I would apply The RUB and see if it worked its magic.

The product is packaged in a way that you have to scoop some salve with your finger and apply it to the affected areas. I was told that it’s important to be liberal with the application and rub it into the muscle or strained area, so that’s what I did! The RUB is easy to apply, slightly melting on your fingers and gliding onto the skin. It’s not sticky, but you can still feel it on the skin after you apply. I washed my hands after applying, but there was no dramatic residue that remained or an icky feeling that could come from a salve. You don’t have to rush to scrub the salve off after you apply it.

Effects

This is actually my first time using a salve, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Would the pain disappear magically? Would I need to re-apply over and over again? Would nothing happen?

Here’s my experience. I put The RUB on my shoulder and neck where I was feeling tension. The tension didn’t go away immediately, but when I woke up from a nap shortly after applying, I did notice a significant decrease in pain. I was actually shocked. A few hours later, I did notice the pain coming back. I was not at home when this happened and found myself thinking, I wish I had brought The RUB with me. That’s the sign of a good product.

Shop All Remedy+ Products

The RUB is just one of many Remedy+ products that I use to enhance performance and recovery with CBD. I am a big fan of Remedy+. My personal favorite has shifted to The CAP for sleep. I swear I have a better night’s sleep when I have one! You can check out all Remedy+ products through my affiliate link. Let me know which products are your favorites!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Clicking at the link and buying products, at no extra cost to you, helps to support this blog. Thank you! 

I feel like I have to start all of my blog posts off by stating the obvious: I’m not backpacking right now. Potato (my cat) won’t let me. Since March, I’ve left Travis County twice: once to go to Virginia, and once to go to Colorado and Utah. (That was pretty amazing, and I ate a bunch of rehydrated meals.) My most exciting travel adventure this month was going to the other Michael’s that’s not on the way to Trader Joe’s. Live, laugh, love, wanderlust, whatever.

Fortunately, I’m not broke, either. All I do now is work as a ghostwriter and spend money. It’s pretty neat! But I hate online shopping. Never was a mall person, and COVID is not the time to start browsing and touching things in stores. At the risk of sounding totally basic, subscription boxes have been a pretty great way to spend money in 2020.

Continue reading→

Camping seems to be the safest travel plan during COVID, but has its own set of obstacles. Instead of lounging at a cafe in a new city, you might be digging through your backpacking trying to find those snacks you packed. Make things easy with rehydrated backpacking meals.

This blog post will rank four vegan backpacking meals from four different brands. Overall, I enjoyed these meals more than I thought. If you’re heading out on a camping trip soon, consider adding these to your packing list.

Why Rehydrated Backpacking Meals?

First things first. I’m not vegan anymore. (No, wait, don’t go away!) But when I started browsing backpacking meals online, I saw that there wasn’t much of a difference between vegetarian and vegan meals. I was already a bit apprehensive to try these rehydrated beauties, and eliminating dairy might prevent some of the more graphic reviews that I found online. (Reviews on backpacking meals either described a horrific bowel moment, or reassured consumers that if you’re a true fancy knowledgable authentic backpacker, anything will taste good.)

If you love REI, you’ll find about 17 vegan backpacking meals from four different brands. Mind you, I’m just talking about dinner. There is not much to explore in the vegan backpacking breakfast meal aisle, and oats are easy enough that you don’t really need a $12 meal to satisfy you in the first place. So during my three days at Canyonlands National Park, I grabbed one vegan backpacking meal from each brand offered.

I like the rehydrated meal route more than grabbing ingredients myself because clean-up is super easy. No dishes, minus a long spoon. Once you’re done ingesting 600+ calories, you just seal up the bag and throw it in your trash bag. (The meals have two servings, but who’s judging you for eating the whole thing in one go?)

Overall, I recommend these meals. I have no crazy stomach issues to report and each meal was less bland than I expected. Here is my ranking, from “meh” to I-might-actually-eat-this-at-home.

Patagonia Organic Spicy Red Bean Chili – 6/10

$7.00 at REI. Learn more about this meal here.

My favorite thing about this meal is the suggestion on the back to add a dollop of sour cream. I understand packing hot sauce, but unless you’ve got a little fridge in a tricked-out car, you’re probably not going to have sour cream on hand while eating this baby. I didn’t get to this meal while I was backpacking, so I made it from the comfort of my own apartment. I dreaded it.

If I were to eat any of these meals in my apartment, I would choose this one. Not because it tasted delicious, but because I’m glad I didn’t have to eat it and clean up after myself. The directions tell you to put the rehydrated ingredients in a pot of boiling water, instead of doing the opposite. Sure, I wouldn’t die from cleaning up a bowl in the wilderness, but if I don’t have to…

Again, I’m not vegan. The chili tasted good on its own, but I added shredded cheese and I’m not going to apologize. It was fine. I would maybe take this camping if the nights were chilly and I had an RV, because it was pretty delicious and spicy. It’s definitely better than any type of chili that I would have made around a campfire, but the fact that I couldn’t eat it out of the bag makes it a no-go for backcountry camping.

Good To-Go Herbed Mushroom Risotto – 7/10

$12.95 on Backcountry.com. Learn more about this meal here.

I played myself with this choice, because I decided to have it for breakfast instead of dinner. This hefty boy had a whopping 800 calories, and I ate the entire bag myself. (The Backpacker’s Pantry Pad Thai, which I split, has 920 total calories, and the chili meals each had 600 calories.) That’s a lot of calories, so it would have probably been a better meal for the early evening. The risotto tasted okay, but the texture wasn’t my favorite. I would get it again, just to have some variety.

Peak Refuel Three Bean Chili Mac – 8/10 

Decent camping spot, eh?

$12.95 at REI. Learn more about this meal here.

If hot sauce is not on your list of things to bring backpacking, you may not be from Texas. Hot sauce is not included in this meal, but definitely needs a little extra spice to reach 8/10 status. I wouldn’t eat this every day, but I would happily order it again on my next backpacking trip.

Backpacker’s Pantry Pad Thai – 9/10 

$9.95 at REI. Learn more about this meal here.

This was the ultimate favorite, although mind games could have been at play here. Upon my first bite, I said, “It’s okay.” Throughout the rest of the trip, I longed for it. Nothing seemed to live up to it. Maybe I was impressed by the peanuts, peanut butter, and hot sauce included in the bag to mix in before eating. Maybe I just got sick of eating beans, or maybe it was the fact that a few other backpacking friends had already hyped it up in my mind. No matter what it was, I’d buy two of these for my next trip. The only downside is that it takes 20 minutes (after boiling water) to make this meal. I’m impatient, but that’s one of the reasons I schlump myself out into the desert with no cell service or Netflix. One day I won’t be so ancy.

What’s Your Favorite?

Love vegan backpacking meals? Have any tips for staying plant-based while pooping in the woods? Let me know!

One doesn’t have to search very hard for Americans while backpacking. Our voices will find you. You’ll hear what city we’re from before you see it displayed proudly on our Hydroflasks.  

While I spent the better part of my travels whispering and bantering my way through the world, I’m just as guilty of having a natural internal volume that is not only ear-piercing, but also ear-shattering. Every time I would spend a morning in Brisbane’s Black Milk Coffee, I would be scolded, shhh’d, and subjected to a handful of eye rolls from a guy I was dating. “Taugh lew-oud, mate. Shut the fack up!”

After about the fifth visit to the coffee shop, it finally sunk in that I actually was speaking at a loud volume, and not just possibly drawing the attention of the 3+ cute baristas who the guy wanted to comingle with after I set off on the next leg of my journey. 

I digress. 

Since I had already been made aware of my volume in Australia, I needn’t get a lesson from backpackers in South America. When I met fellow Americans, I bit my tongue. 

The first Americans I met in South America were a brother-sister duo who always used each other’s names while talking to each other. 

“Jack, would you like me to call the bus company?”

“Yes, Lucy, I would.”

“Wonderful, Jack. Let me give them a ring and I’ll let you know what they say about tomorrow’s reservations.”

“Thanks, Lucy.”

These two came from the same womb, mind you. The three of us sat alone in the lounge as this conversation carried on, and I wasn’t sure if I was feeling symptoms of jet lag or if I was dizzy from Santiago’s heat.  

I wouldn’t pay to see their two-man show but I enjoyed their company as I planned my three-month trip. Jack assured me that Torres Del Paine, while expensive, was an accessible hike. Having booked eight days of hiking (in a possible state of delusion,) it was nice to hear that I had actually made a sensible decision to come down to South America and lug a backpack through Patagonia for a week by myself. 

Jack and Lucy were not brash and bold, but they did have the one trait shared by all Americans. Their heads had the perfect aerodynamics for jokes to just fly over them. It takes a few months to identify the subtle art to banter that did not make it past Ellis Island. The line between the absurd, the sarcastic, and the mean is more thin than the soles of my hiking Vibrams. Bantering Brits and Aussies, do not worry. There are no ghosts in the wind. Just me whispering to the Californians or the Texans that “they’re just joking.”

Subtlety has never been America’s strong point. (Alongside affordable health care, handling the Coronavirus, and electing someone who is not the Cheetos mascot and Satan’s lovechild.) But you know what? This is not such a bad thing. If Americans were subtle, I would never have met the doctors, and I might not have gotten through my eight-day hike without their unintentional lessons of positivity and perseverance. 

This Does Not Mean the Doctors Were Inspirational By Any Means. 

I was in good spirits the first time I met the doctors. The hike from the entrance of Torres Del Paine National Park to the Serón campsite took less than six hours. By 2 p.m, I had already set up camp and started to mingle with the rest of the hikers.

Torres Del Paine only allows 80 hikers on the 80-mile “O trek,” or circuit trek, at a time. Campers reserve their campsites ahead of time and must present their reservations before the Dickson campsite, which was my second stop. Hikers can enter from one of two locations, so you’ll either meet hikers who have the same schedule as you or are four days ahead or behind. 

The doctors, I learned, were four days ahead. 

I was in my tent, enjoying the quiet of the night and the idea of a shorter hike in the morning. 

That’s when I heard them. 

The stomps came first. Or maybe it was the sighs. All I remember is that very quickly, there was an issue. 

“WHERE DO I PUT MY BACKPACK, KEVIN?” 

None of the campsites had reserved spots and the tents had been spread out throughout the area quite sporadically. The right answer to her question was “anywhere.” 

I fell asleep to the sounds of the sighs, rustles, and complaints, forgetting all about my new pals until I rubbed my eyes and enjoyed my morning shower. The opportunity to eavesdrop was quickly presented to me, and I never turn down an opportunity like that. 

“KEVIN?”

“Yes?”

“Did you pack the Imodium, Kevin?”

“Uh, I don’t think so.” 

“Well, do you remember when I told you to pack the Imodium?” 

“Uh.”

“Well, I had assumed that you packed the Imodium because I told you to pack the Imodium.” 

I didn’t need to make coffee after hearing that conversation. I truly felt alive. 

I saw poor Kevin before I saw the rest of the doctors. He stood with his head down, stirring a pot of something for the group of three women chatting around him. We started chatting and yes, they were also American. Yes, they were from Boston and D.C., all doctors, all pals, all first-time hikers. 

Kevin asked me where my group was. 

“Oh, I’m traveling alone.”

“Wow. Must be nice.” 

“KEVIN!” 

This was my favorite group of people, and I couldn’t wait to talk to them before and after every multi-hour hike. Their exasperated sighs cured my homesickness. The pure frustration over anything brought me back to my homeland. I was filled with a feeling that I would like to call “Schadenfreude-lite.”

Goddamn Adventure Alan 

The second day of hiking would take approximately six hours to complete, according to Backpacker Steve. Backpacker Steve’s blog post on the circuit trek offered three different route options that could be done in 7-9 days. I chose an eight-day route, because I am a relatively fit human but knew I’d face some challenges on my first multi-day hike. I also booked a hostel the day after the hike, and a fancy hotel two days after the hike. I had read that weather could stop me along the way, and I was taking no chances at missing the one hotel that I would enjoy during my three months in South America. 

(Sure, I am the first to admit that I am one of the more neurotic backpackers that you’ll meet in a budget hostel. But in this case, the anxiety of Murphy’s Law on the Patagonian trails did pay off.)

The hike from the first campsite to the second was leisurely. Easy, even. TDP has very easy-to-follow trails and I was blessed with beautiful weather in early March. I arrived to the campsite in the early evening with a beaming smile and a thirst for adventure. Maybe I was a hiking gal. Maybe I could go back and do all the multi-day hikes in New Zealand that I ran away from. Maybe I could accomplish anything I put my mind to! 

I showed the rangers at the Dickson campsite my reservation with a smile. I put my backpack down, stretched my shoulders, and took out some cash to buy a beer. And look! My new friends were already at the campsite. I was ready to poke the Imodium bear. 

“Hey guys! What an amazing hike! Felt so great, right? Who’s up for a beer?”

“This is fucking AWFUL!” 

Uh oh! The doctors weren’t doing well. 

The doctors had planned on surpassing the Dickson campsite and getting in another hike to the Perros campsite, a three-hour hike before the John Gardener pass. They got stopped. It would get dark before they got to their campsite, which was a big no-no on the circuit trek. Rangers would cut people off as early as 2 or 3 to keep everyone hiking in the daylight. 

This delay would pretty much ruin the doctors’ chances of finishing the hike on the day they planned, which was the day before they were flying home. 

At some points during the evening I did feel bad and try to lift the group’s spirits, but any effort was overshadowed by the huffing and puffing and crinkling of papers that took over the area where campers could hang out and eat their meals. The three ladies spent quite a bit of the evening obsessively looking over printed blog posts from a man named Adventure Alan. 

Adventure Alan says, “O Trek can easily be done in 6 to 7 days vs. the 8-13 days recommended.” He said he did it in 4.5. 

The doctors pointed out to me multiple times that Adventure Alan was a guy in his 50s. Basically, if this old fart can bang out an 100km hike in 4.5 days, they could do it in six. So why were they being held back? 

The picture that the doctors painted for me was a middle-aged guy doing his best. No. This guy is legit. He’s been on hundreds more hikes than anyone I know. Adventure Alan makes trail snacks that contain soy protein powder and is a regular “canyoneer.” He’s no huffing-and-puffing beginner that happened to find the secret to conquering the O trek. But the doctors kept clinging onto his 6-day recommendation, utterly bamboozled at why the world was against them. 

I was not the only one entertained by Adventure Alan’s fan club. That night, I dined on a pre-made dinner at the campsite that I had ordered when I booked the hike. The dinnergoers and I were joined by sweet Kevin, who was ordering a pizza for the group to enjoy that night. 

“I just wanted to get away for a minute,” he told us, deflating by the minute.

“It does not seem like your group is having a good time,” noted a tall Swiss man who vaguely resembled our Adventure Alan. 

We all nodded, kept our smirks to ourselves, and wished Kevin luck as he delivered the pizza.

Chaos Was Coming 

Unfortunately, that was the last night I saw the doctors. I’m not sure what they decided to do, although they weighed their options for the whole campground to hear throughout the evening. They could go back. They could try and tackle three one-day hikes in one day, approximately 14 hours of the hardest hikes on the circuit. They could miss their flight.

Sure, I felt a little validated that my humble planning paid off. But more importantly, I was actually quite thankful to have met the doctors so early on in my trip.

During the first two days, I didn’t have any slip-ups or hang-ups. I didn’t run into any tomfoolery or bamboozlery. But I knew that one catastrophe or another was coming. It happened on every trip: an ATM ate my debit card in Bangkok, my day bag got stolen in Germany, I did not like the hostel I worked at in Kuala Lumpur. A catastrophe was coming in the next few days, I could prepare for that. Most importantly, I was given a glimpse into how not to handle the situation. 

No one at the campsite could help the doctors. (Unless someone had Imodium.) Even the doctors couldn’t really help the doctors. It wasn’t their fault that they were stopped by the rangers, and they couldn’t change their plans now. Filling the whole campsite with the sounds of their complaints, however, only made them the butt of the joke and the subject of bants from other hikers who had either planned better or kept their catastrophes to themselves. The doctors weren’t hurt, or sick, or in any real danger. 

They would be fine.

And even if my tent broke or my knees were in immense pain or I faced anxiety on the way up to the Towers (which all happened,) I would remind myself that things weren’t so bad and wailing wouldn’t make me anything other than the subject of some eye rolls. (One brief half-hour of quiet crying to myself and my hiking buddy was my limit.) 

Planning helps, but there’s always a chance that you’ll get thrown off your game. A ranger will hold you back from your next hike or the world will be hit with a global pandemic. But you control how you react to it, which can influence how others react as well. 

And if you think you need Imodium, just get it yourself. 

I have a limit for how many nights I’ll sleep alone in a van right off the side of the road. It’s three. The first two nights I managed to find a crowded BLM campsite right outside of Zion National Park. Multiple cars and parties makes me feel more comfortable than just one lone school bus across the road. That’s what I saw at the BLM campsite outside of Bryce Canyon. 

This road trip was spontaneous. I booked the flights with a significant other, and then rebooked them when I got dumped. It wasn’t until I arrived at my Las Vegas (airport) hotel that I realized that I would be going by myself. And there I was, by myself, in a sleeping bag that could handle 32 degrees, in a campervan called Eucalyptus. It was definitely colder than 32 degrees on that November night, and it was only going to get colder. 

I’ve just recently upgraded to renting cars for travel. Before that, I would drive free cars that needed to be transported to one city or the next. Before that, buses or car shares were my only option for getting around. But now I’m evolving, much to the relief of my parents. I drive rental cars when I don’t want to use my own. And instead of relying on hostels and Couchsurfing, I stay in hotels here and there. 

So, in a fit of anxiety, hormones, or maybe just good sense, I booked hotels for the next two nights of my road trip. They were both free, thanks to my credit card points. 

A little picture of Bryce Canyon, just for fun.

My Favorite Credit Card for Travel Points: American Express Hilton Honors Card 

I had my Hilton Honors American Express Card for almost a year before I booked some extra nights in Las Vegas with it. The card has no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees, so it was kind of a no-brainer to apply before traveling to South America. 

The Hilton Honors American Express credit card comes with a sweet deal – if you spend $1,000 in three months, you can earn 75,000 points. My flights and campsite reservations on the O trek quickly added up, and I had my points! 

Hilton Hotel Points: A Breakdown 

How many free nights have I gotten with my 75,000 Hilton Honors points? At least two. But I’d be able to get more if I was traveling outside of the states. 

Here’s been my experience booking at Hilton brands using their hotel points: 

• Hampton Inn Las Vegas Airport, 1 King Bed Studio Suite: 30,000 points 
• Hilton Embassy Suites Nashville Airport, 1 King Bed Mobility Access W/Tub: 32,000 points 
• DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Kuala Lumpur, 1 King Bed Guest Bedroom: 10,000 points 
• Hilton Santa Fe Historic Plaza, 1 King Bed Deluxe Room: 50,000 points 
• Hilton Warsaw Hotel and Convention Centre, King Guest Room: 33,000 points

Okay, the Kuala Lumpur stay was a gift from the parents. But now I get why it wasn’t such a big deal to let me stay two nights.

(Obviously, these were all for different trips.) 

With the Hilton Honors American Express card, you also get Hilton Honors Silver Status. I’m not going to lie – the benefits of being a silver member don’t tickle me that much. I don’t usually stay in hotels for more than one or two nights at a time, so I never redeem the 5th night free deal. Late check-out and free wifi is nice, but you can also get that as a Hilton Honors member without applying for any cards. 

I’m pretty happy with just getting a free hotel here and there. And it’s not hard to do with the Hilton Honors card, because you get points with every purchase. 

What Else Can You Put Points Toward? 

Not interested in staying in a Hilton? No worries. You can also transfer your points to different airlines and even your Amazon account. 

If you’re traveling, you can also check out various Experiences that Hilton offers. I was actually impressed by some of the deals available, including: 

• Mezcal Tasting in Cancun for 25K points
• Chef Tasting in LA for 50K points (I’m assuming you’re tasting the food, not the chef) 
• Two Halsey tickets for 100K points 

I haven’t redeemed them yet, but if there are any in Santa Fe when I do a road trip this summer/fall, I’ll let you know…

How to Earn Points With the American Express Hilton Honors Card

How do you get these points? I mean, you spend money. Here’s the breakdown: 

• 7x Points on all Hilton Purchases
• 5x Points at all U.S. Restaurants 
• 5x Points at all U.S. Supermarkets 
• 5x Points at all U.S. Gas Stations 

If you spend $20,000 in 12 months, you can get upgraded to Hilton Honors Gold status. Or….

I’ve Upgraded to the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card

I’ve been very satisfied with my Hilton Honors American Express card. I wouldn’t be writing about it if I wasn’t. So I recently bumped myself up the Surpass Card. If I can get a few free nights in a hotel during my next road trip, I’ll be a happy goose. 

There is an annual fee of $95 when you get the Surpass card. But with no foreign transaction fees and more points with every purchase – it’s worth it. 

Remember the whole 75,000 points for $1,000 worth of purchases? The Surpass Card has an upgraded offer: 125,000 points for spending $2,000 in your first three months. (I know that $75,000 x 2 is a little more than 125,000, but spending $2K in three months hasn’t been something I’ve really had to worry about.) 

How to Earn Points With the American Express Hilton Honors Surpass Card

Each purchase also hits harder with the Surpass card: 

• 12x points on all Hilton purchases
• 6x Points at all U.S. Restaurants 
• 6x Points at all U.S. Supermarkets 
• 6x Points at all U.S. Gas Stations
• 3x Points on all other eligible purchases 

With the Surpass card, you automatically get bumped up to Gold Status. Whoop! I haven’t used this card at a Hilton yet, but I’m excited to have the upgraded status and maybe more snacks. (With most Hilton brands, you get the choice between snacks on arrival, complimentary breakfast, or extra points on your card. I’ll take the points, but who doesn’t love snacks?) 

Spend $15,000 on your card during the year and get a Free Weekend Night. I’m hoping that won’t be too hard. 

If you can make it up to $40,000 a year, you can get Diamond status. I don’t travel that much (anymore,) but I’ll keep you updated if having Gold status is the best thing in the world. 

Where to Apply For the Hilton Honors American Express Cards 

Full disclosure: I will be getting points for referring you. Duh, kinda. 

Here’s where you can apply for both cards:

Hilton Honors American Express Card: spend $1,000 in three months for 75,000 points 

Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card: spend $2,000 in three months for 125,000 points 

Other Credit Card Recommendations? 

I’ll write an update once I’ve used my Surpass card to get free hotel stays on my next trip. In the meantime, what are your recommendations? What credit cards give you sweet benefits when you travel? Share them, leave a comment, or follow my Instagram (@climb_and_flow) for more travel content. 

Cheers!

Bonus picture of Las Vegas.

My three-month Chile and Argentina itinerary was built through recommendations from backpackers. We tend to follow similar trails up and down continents. It wasn’t a surprise that my stop after El Calafate was El Chaltén, and it wasn’t a surprise to run into people I met in Bariloche a few days later in Mendoza.  

But for most backpackers, it was a surprise that I carved out a week of my trip just for Valparaíso. Travel agents offer day trips to Valparaíso from Santiago to see the coastal city’s famed street art, take photos from the top of the hill on which the city is built, and visit (the most famous) Pablo Neruda house.  

A day or a weekend is perfectly acceptable for bohemian and quirky Valparaíso. I stayed for 11 days.

If you’re going to be in Santiago for any reason, stay at least four days in Valparaíso. Stay for the street art, stay for the beaches, or stay just to recover from your hangover. Valparaíso is more than just steep hills and street art; it’s a truly beautiful city that provides a great introduction to Chile through music, history, and empanadas three times as big as Argentina’s.

Stay For The Street Art

If a building in Valparaíso doesn’t have a mural on it, it will get tagged, so homeowners might as well commission someone to paint something beautiful. This is one of the biggest draws to Valparaíso, and even on cloudy days, the street art doesn’t disappoint.

Valparaíso’s street art has its own Greatest Hits album, including, “The Piano Stairs,” “We Are Not Hippies We Are Happies” and “That’s An Emu, Right?” Spend an entire day on a scavenger hunt of these Insta-bucket-list-items. You’ll have the chance to take dozens of additional pictures between each stop.

At the 10 a.m. street art tour, our guide showed us landmarks where street art turned a kids-smoke-here-and-cause-trouble alley into beautiful works of art. He pointed out 1UP and other international artists who came to Valparaíso. And he picked the best route for escaping stray dogs that become very attached to tour groups.

(Stay for the love and protection of the stray dogs. Strays in Chile are well-fed, old, and a more pleasant sight than most stray dogs around the world, but they are also stage-five clingers. Pet them once and you’ll have a walking companion and faithful protection for your entire Valparaíso trip.)  

This is the tallest piece of street art in the city. It was done by a couple. The wife was 4 1/2 months pregnant at the time.

Stay For the Rooftop at Planeta Lindo

The street art extends throughout the entire city of Valparaíso, including the doorstep of the Planeta Lindo hostel, where I stayed for the entirety of my trip.

Two white angel wings frame whatever guest or tourist walks by and poses. The wings are right next to the door, where Guti, Sergio, and their friends are usually hanging out and having a chat. I still have a sticker with these angel wings on the bottom of my laptop that Sergio gave me after I checked in. The stickers cost money, but hey, I had a nice laptop, so I could just have one. (Chileans have a generosity that remains unmatched after visiting 20+ countries.)

Excuse the 2. a.m. photoshoot lighting.

Great staff, free laundry, and comfy beds aside, the reason I booked Planeta Lindo was for the view. The kitchen was on the top floor of the hostel – and steps away from the kitchen was a rooftop where you could chill out, have a coffee, or (in my case,) get some work done.

It wasn’t easy to leave that view. One day, a group of guests and I decided to enjoy a rooftop Happy Hour around the neighborhood. Those were our conditions: a rooftop and Happy Hour prices. 

Well, wouldn’t you know, after about a half hour of humming and hawing and flaunting empty pockets, we decided that Planeta Lindo was the best rooftop with Happy Hour prices we could get. The corner store was still selling bottles of wine for two U.S. dollars, and we never had to get up from our chairs until it was time to go to bed.

The views were beautiful morning…

…and night.

Stay for the Beaches

The bus system in Valparaíso is a true test of the backpacker attitude.

Valparaíso was not present at the conference where grids were chosen as the best way to arrange a city. Looking at the bus route from the hostel to downtown gave me flashbacks of the highly-dreaded, Dramamine’s dream of a bus trip between Chiang Mai and Pai. Along the way, the bus driver might pull into an alley and wait 10 minutes for a woman and child (presumably, someone he knows) to get on the bus. Vendors will come on and introduce you to the South American selling cycle: they put a pencil or tissues or a chocolate in your hand, only to take it back five minutes later if you’re not going to buy.

If you can handle all of this without complaints, eye rolls, or panicking, congratulations, you can handle the rest of your confusing, ever-changing backpacking adventure.

Take the bus from Planeta Lindo for about 40 minutes and you’ll end up at Viña Del Mar. Stay on a little longer and you’ll end up in Reñaca. A fair bit longer brings you to Concón. It’s a sandy choose-your-own-adventure – I’ll let you peek through the pages so you can plan ahead.

About The Beaches Around Valparaíso

Viña Del Mar is the most famous beach of the three. If you don’t know that before arriving, you will as soon as you navigate the sea of umbrellas to find your gringos. (Hint: they are the only group without an umbrella, and sorely regretting that error.) It’s the spot where rich families spend their summers – the high-rises facing the ocean are a spectacle.

Reñaca is a little further out, much less crowded, and personally my favorite beach. You might be able to surf if the waves aren’t too aggressive, and you definitely can stroll down the boardwalk and find somewhere to eat for lunch and dinner. (Good news for heavy sleepers: even the sun takes its time in South America. Valpo mornings tend to be foggy, with the summer sun peeking out around 1 p.m.)

What about Concón? Save this for an evening, as per Sergio’s suggestion. Three girls and I from the hostel opted for an Uber out to the dunes. We drank wine, watched sandboarding attempts, and gossiped about Chilean guys and American celebrities and who we left back home. The sand dunes at Concón may not make the “# Reasons to Visit Valparaíso” lists, but it makes the list of places where “Wow, I’m backpacking and meeting people from all over the world and life is pretty cool” really hits you. 

A snapshot from my time at Viña Del Mar…

…Reñaca…

…and Concón.

Stay For Your Hangover

“I spent 11 days in Valparaíso.”
“Opppaaaaa, party time! Much party. Time for detox, aaay?”

Valparaíso has a reputation amongst Chileans as a place where tourists go to tour and locals go to party.

The top spot in Valparaíso is Terraza Bellavista, or simply called “Terraza.” The Chileans in our group were at Terraza to dance, the Germans were there to pull, and the girls were there to hold the cards and giggle amongst themselves. I coined a few dance moves at this rooftop spot: among them were the “Take-Your-Jaw-Off-The-Floor,” the “Try-Your-Best,” and the “Keel-Over-From-Laughing.” 

Terraza is a great night out if you enjoy a mix of reggaeton, pop, and adjusting to South America’s “pay for your drink, get a receipt, hand the receipt to a different person, get your drink” system at the bar. You can get those drinks until 5 a.m., so it’s best to extend your stay now. 

Stay For Whatever Event Comes Up When You Arrive

Clubs are typically not my jam, but the dancing in South America was too good to stay away. Usually, I bombard hostel staff with this question upon check-in:

“Where I can I see some live music?”

“You want music? Oooopaaaa.” At Planeta Lindo, Sergio pulled out a brochure for a free, four-day music festival hosted by the Rock and Popular Music Schools of the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage.

Oooopaaaaa indeed.

On Saturday, I grabbed a gang of backpackers and took them on a bus to the festival grounds. We hopped around each of the four stages, dancing to a “Chilean Post Malone,” traditional Latin music, and Niños Del Cerro. You can take a listen below. Niños Del Cerro was probably my favorite band that I saw in South America, but that might be because I’m used to the indie scene in Austin. I could almost taste the kombucha while they were playing. Is it too late for them to apply for SXSW?

But That’s Not All…

Rocko Dromo was not the only event that pushed its way into my itinerary. Red Bull’s Cerro Abajo was taking over the city three days after my departure. I was/am not hip to the world of competitive biking. But, Red Bull tends to be the flag-bearer in the world of wacky, once-and-a-lifetime extreme sporting events. You won’t see this in your home city.

Three more nights, please.

We spent that Sunday morning following Guti to the top of the track and then back down to the bottom. The tour featured ice cream sales in one-person-wide alleys, whispered stories about local characters, and neighborhood kids giggling and yelling out to Guti from balconies across the racetrack. When crowds got sticky, a Chilean guy would “moo” with such accuracy that everyone had tears of laughter cooling their faces. Laughter, pranks, and the sweet sound of vendors filled the air between each biker’s run. We made it back just in time for a siesta.

At the time, I was hanging around with a group of German, Australian, and Dutch travelers. Friday night we had piscolas and watched a band at Mascara. Saturday was for Terraza. What were the plans tonight? We were all leaving the next day. I was heading to Vicuña on an 8 a.m. bus and everyone else was making their way toward Bolivia. But Guti and Sergio had wristbands for Terraza, which was open for the Cerro Abajo afterparty. Us girls had been eyeing a few of the bikers at the starting line. The boys didn’t need anything to convince them to go out. Terraza (before 1 a.m.) it was.

Before you travel, I advise convincing yourself that two hours is a fine amount of sleep.

It was hard to pull myself away from the night of dancing under confetti, making fun of the boys for their sad attempts to pull, and flirting/signing with Chileans. With an hour of sleep under my belt, I managed to creep out of Valparaíso before the sun came up.

For the rest of my trip, I would shock people with the length of my stay in Valparaíso. But five months after leaving, I still swear that I could enjoy at least a month in the hipster paradise that is Valpariaso.

A month is a long time, but I recommend staying at least an extra day.