『Saving with Steve, September 8, 2026』のカバーアート

Saving with Steve, September 8, 2026

Saving with Steve, September 8, 2026

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Saving With Steve with Steve Sexton Shoulder-Season Travel Secrets and Back-to-School Gift Card Savings with Tara Busch Steve Sexton opens the show with travel expert Tara Busch, who shares strategies for booking shoulder-season and off-season trips at a discount, then talks with CardCookie's Antonia Bensoussan-Milli about stretching back-to-school budgets with discounted gift cards, before closing with a warning about Japan's Treasury holdings and bond risk. Two Guests And A Market Warning Ahead Steve Sexton opens the show by previewing a packed hour: travel expert Tara Busch on shoulder-season savings, CardCookie's Antonia Bensoussan-Milli on back-to-school deals, and a later segment on the US Treasury's recent move to prop up the Japanese yen. He introduces Busch as founder and CEO of Conscious Travel Collective, a Brooklyn-based boutique agency that builds direct relationships with family-run hotels and guides in Europe and Latin America. Sexton notes her work has appeared in Forbes, New York Magazine and Travel + Leisure, and that she speaks at NYU and volunteers with the RISE Travel Institute. Busch explains she left a career as a history and geography teacher after a cross-state move complicated her teaching license, choosing instead to try the travel industry. She says she never looked back, and jokes with Sexton about how often great tour guides turn out to be former history teachers, recalling his own guides in Rome and England. Defining Shoulder Season Around The World Busch explains that shoulder season has no fixed calendar date and shifts by destination. In the Italian Dolomites and other Alpine ski regions, it begins around early May, when snow has melted but summer crowds have not yet arrived. In Greece, the slower season can start as early as Easter, six to eight weeks earlier. She points to Florence, Italy, which peaks in spring and fall because of heat, humidity and an influx of visiting families of international students, then quiets in July and August. Busch warns that some destinations are not simply slow during their off months but effectively closed; she cites the Amalfi Coast, which shuts down from late October until nearly Christmas, and Blackpool in England, which Sexton recalls finding shuttered after October during his own overseas work. She stresses that travelers should research a specific destination rather than assume a season based on climate alone. Booking Direct For Better Rates And Perks Busch tells Sexton that travelers who find a good rate on Booking.com or Expedia should email the property directly and ask the owner to match it, since big platforms take a sizable commission from hotels. Writing ahead, she says, often brings a better rate, a free upgrade, or personal help with dinner reservations and transportation, because guests are then dealing with a real person rather than an automated system. She recommends asking hotels for a longer-stay discount, a non-refundable rate reduction, or airport transfer help, none of which are always advertised. Busch also compares flexible versus non-refundable room rates, noting flexible rooms typically cost 10 to 15 percent more, and suggests pairing a non-refundable booking with a separate travel-insurance policy that covers the whole trip, including flights, rather than paying extra per night. Sexton agrees the math favors insurance over the flexible-rate premium, especially on longer stays. Setting A Budget And Protecting Your Time Busch tells travelers that the biggest planning mistake is outsourcing decisions to top-ten lists instead of asking what they personally want from a trip, using Florence's Statue of David as an example of a popular sight that is not right for every visitor. She advises setting a firm budget with a cushion for surprises such as transit strikes, and warns against overspending in ways that create regret after returning home. Busch calls time and energy a traveler's most valuable resource, urging people to weigh a slightly smaller or plainer hotel against one further from where they plan to spend their days. She recommends checking regulated taxi rates before arrival and hiring a local guide on the first day partly to learn the public transit system. Sexton shares his own experience choosing centrally located rentals in Paris and Dublin, and Busch closes by advising travelers to start researching about a year ahead and book flights roughly eleven months out, before dynamic pricing raises hotel rates. Stacking Gift Card Discounts For Back To School After the break, Sexton welcomes Antonia Bensoussan-Milli, marketing manager for CardCookie, a discount gift-card marketplace operating since 2016. She cites National Retail Federation figures showing families spend roughly 800 dollars per child on back-to-school shopping and explains that CardCookie currently offers discounts such as 10 percent off Target and Best Buy gift cards, letting a family save around 80 dollars on that spending simply by paying ...
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