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Hello Reader,

🛫 Got Any Questions about our Scandinavia Tour?

What’s so special about Scandinavia? Join us for a fun live session to discuss Travel Past 50’s tour to Sweden and Norway with optional extension to Copenhagen.

• Get to know Kris and Tom
• Find out why we keep returning to Scandinavia
• Learn more about tour logistics
• Meet your fellow tour guests, invite your friends
• Brainstorm your pre- and post-tour flights and travel options
• Other travel-related questions? Ask us!

We’ve partnered with EF Go Ahead Tours to build this small-group custom tour, and they'll join our live event, too, to help describe the itinerary and options. Our next tour to Scandinavia sets off September 18-29. Check out all the details here. We hope you can join us!

Live Scandinavia Travel Talk

📅 Date: March 4

🕕 Time: 12 Noon CST*

📍 Location: Zoom

Whether you’re a seasoned traveler or first-timer, traveling solo or with others, this is your chance to learn more. Don’t miss out—register today!

*If you can’t attend live, a recording will be available to registered guests.

✈️ Points and Miles News

• Here's a credit card introductory offer that's really too good to pass up. The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is offering 75,000 bonus miles and, for a limited time, an additional $250 travel credit. That’s worth at least $1,000 in free travel for a low annual fee of $95. Plus this card earns you 2x miles on all of your daily spending, making it a great every day card for your wallet. We don’t know how long this offer will last, so click to learn more about this card now. You can read our review of this card here.

• If you're a Delta flyer, like we are, you need a Delta branded card to get the best deals and accumulate Delta miles. All three Delta credit cards have elevated introductory offers right now, varying from 80,000 to 100,000 miles. There are lots of other benefits, including companion passes (which pay for the card's annual fee right there,) free checked bags, priority boarding, statement credits for stays booked through Delta, and more. Check them out for more details.

🗞️ Travel News From Around the Web

• One of the most visited pages on Travel Past 50 is our comprehensive list of US National Parks and Park Service sites. To us, that means that lots of our readers are interested in traveling to the sites that have been called "America's Best Idea." As you may know, the US National Parks are in a rather tenuous state right now as thousands of Park Service and Forest Service employees have been fired. Already we're seeing some parks closing on one or more days per week, and scheduled maintenance not happening. Be sure before you plan your National Park visit this year that the more limited services won't wreck your vacation.
• Spain's Prado Museum in Madrid is holding a live conversation with Jerry Saltz, 2018 Pulitzer Prize winner for Criticism, who has described Museo del Prado as the "greatest painting museum." The event is Thursday, February 27 at 7 p.m. Europe Central Time. That means those of us on this side of the Pond can watch live on YouTube midday on the 27th. Read more about Meet the Prado. You can read our story about why we love The Prado before the show.

💸 This Week's Best Deals in Travel

• These Jabra Elite 85 earbuds, the ones Tom's been using for a while, are on sale for an amazing $94, if you're willing to take the gold/beige color instead of the more "stylish" black at about $150. That's a great deal, and a lot less than we paid last year.
• Pair those earbuds with this 1Mii Bluetooth 5.3 Transmitter Receiver for your best deal for watching the plane's entertainment system. A whole lot better than wired earbuds, especially if we're talking the cruddy ones the airline offers you.
• One of the consistent best deals in travel is AARP membership. Lots of discounts on hotels, car rentals, and sometimes even flights (you have to ask!) For the sale price on only $11 per year, you'll make that up on your first booking.
• And, if you're looking for good flight deals, it doesn't get any better than the free email from Daily Drop. Yes, it's free, and you'll get frequent suggestions of domestic cheap flights. You'll also get a limited number of searches for the best cash and points deals.
• Finally, if you walk a lot like we do, don't skimp on good socks. Our faves, Point6, are still running their 40 percent off sale on the best merino wool socks out there.

📖 What We're Reading

Tom has just started The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by his favorite historian, Erik Larson. So far, a pretty chilling tale of how extremists destroyed the United States.

Kris is about a 100 pages into Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner, the story of an American agent, 'Sadie Smith,' infiltrating a subversive group in present-day France.

For our previous book recommendations, check out this list.

❝Travel Quote of the Week❞

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move. ― Robert Louis Stevenson

Happy travels,

Kris and Tom

Tom Bartel and Kristin Henning ​Travel Past 50​ Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram. Join our Facebook community.

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