A travel vlog transcript of Nate and Kara Buchanan documenting their trip from Nashville to Aruba. The video covers early-morning check-in issues (need for an onward ticket), quick flight-booking with points, a stop at the Centurion Lounge in Miami, the American Airlines flight details, arrival in Aruba, stays at Airbnb(s), attendance at multiple weddings (one in Tennessee prior, one in Aruba), and plans to celebrate Aruba’s carnival parade.
Chapters
Saval day is off to rather interesting start. It is 4:40 in the morning. We are flying to Aruba today. And at the check in desk we learned that you need an onward ticket to check in for your flight to Aruba. We're flying to India in a week, but I hadn't booked that ticket yet.
Everybody knows we don't book two flights.
In advance, so we don't have an onward ticket. So I'm here with my computer booking our like 30 hour travel day to India and about 5 minutes. Thankfully I have looked at flights so I know about what I want to book. But now I'm just gonna have to make a really snap decision.
And our flight leaves in an hour.
Okay, we made it past security. Plenty of time for our flight. I actually did not end up booking the flight that we will be taking to India. I use points and you get 24 hours to cancel a flight if you book it with points. So I just booked like a random flight to India from Arub. And then this afternoon when we get to Aruba, I'll go back and change it to the actual flight that we want. After I have more time to research.
A day in the life of a travel hacker. Now we can do a proper intro to the vlog. We've been home in Tennessee all weekend. We went to Nate's cousin's wedding. It was so much fun. But now it's time to leave for maybe the rest of the year.
Yeah. But before we do, congratulations, Zach and Martha.
And now we're going to Aruba for.
Another wedding on Thursday. Two weddings, four days apart. Two different countries.
One of my best friends, Aaron. We're going to be spending the week in Aruba and we're so excited. Let's go.
Hello, everyone. Thank you for your attention. It's time to get you ready for takeoff. Now you'll just follow along with me. We'll be on our way.
Sam.
Welcome to Miami. Home to one of our favorite lounges, the Centurion Lounge.
Unfortunately, we only have about 30 minutes, but that should be enough time to grab coffee and breakfast.
We always have to hurry in this lounge.
Thank you.
We're boarding our flight to a route. Aruba. Aruba, Jamaica.
We did the thing again where we booked the aisle in the window. And now we'll see. So far, so good.
Nobody sat here yet.
Foreign.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome aboard American Airlines. Our flying time will be 2 hours and 26 minutes at an altitude of 37,000. Weather conditions in the Yoruba area. Partly cloudy. The temperature is 84 degrees Fahrenheit at 29 degrees Celsius.
It's hot.
I love how sunny and warm it is.
We are officially in Aruba. For the record, this is not our 71st country. It is a Dutch territory, but we're still excited to be here. So we're about to go outside where it's hot and sunny and beautiful and get a taxi and share it with some friends who are on our flight, and they're going to take us to Airbnb, where there's more friends.
First time on aruba.
Yes.
Allison.
Hi.
Hi, lily.
Hi, Jonathan.
I have Google Maps here.
Yeah.
There is a pool. It's right here.
It's four days later, we're still in Aruba, but we are at a different Airbnb. Our friends left us that we were splitting the Airbnb with, so we moved to a cheaper place in the center of town.
Sorry we didn't vlog at all this week, but I'll try to fill you in. It's been very windy. We spent tons of time on the beach with our friends. It has been such a great time. We had a beautiful sunset sale one night. We had a beautiful rehearsal dinner one night. And then the wedding day was just perfect.
So one big, huge congratulations to Erin and Cole. I'm so happy we got to be here to celebrate with you. But now everybody's left us, and we're the last ones here for two more days.
So earlier this week when we arrived, we were taking the taxi to our Airbnb, and our taxi driver told us that the big grand carnival parade was this Sunday. Thankfully, we had booked our flights less than 24 hours ago, so we were able to change those for free. So now we're leaving on Monday, so we can stay Sunday and celebrate carnival in the big grand parade.
Yay. So the next video you see will be us celebrating carnival.
