I’m leaving again tomorrow, after a whole 6 days at home following my special trip for the JetBlue challenge. That’s still 6 more than what I’m going to have after this trip! This one is a much more normal trip and I’m really looking forward to it, even though it’s short (11 days). I’m going to Europe, specifically to a yet-to-be-determined city, to Dublin, to Zagreb, and to İstanbul (after a day in Toronto to be a speaker at an event).
You can follow my daily stories on my personal Instagram account, like for all my many trips. But I’m trying hard to create more content about my travels here on the site, too.
Here’s the introduction to my fall trip to Europe, specifically the context and itinerary. The tips and logistics, the reviews, and the experiences will follow soon.
Context of my fall trip to Europe
I am going on this trip because I need to fly from Türkiye to North America to finalize the Turkish Airlines challenge and get my million points. It’s my only one of the 6 flights missing. But that’s the only part of this trip that has anything to do with a mileage run (a trip just to take flights) or anything abnormal, thankfully.
I didn’t travel that much in 2025, I must say (for my high standards, at least). So I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to also spend time in Europe, which I haven’t done much in recent years (very surprisingly).
Especially after 2 intense trips in mileage run mode, with 6 continents in 3 weeks in August and 13 flights in 13 days in September… it’s going to feel good to do a real, normal trip. Even if it’s short.
It’s also going to be to destinations that are a bit more interesting than those in the United States for the JetBlue challenge from my trip that just ended last Tuesday, let’s say!
Plus, I took advantage of Marriott’s doubled elite nights promo in Asia in the winter (plan your winter 2026 trips accordingly so you don’t miss it if you want a higher elite status). So for once, I’m really a free agent and don’t need to take Marriott hotel prices into account to reach my status at the end of the year. It’s a very liberating feeling, even if I love the VIP treatment with my status.
So, as often happens to me since I travel a lot, I planned the trip through reverse engineering because the end of the trip was already planned. I just had to plan my time before my already booked trip to Zagreb (Croatia) and İstanbul (Türkiye).
The part of my trip in İstanbul and Zagreb
I already had my flight from İstanbul to Montreal. I couldn’t move it because of the logistics of the Turkish Airlines promotion. I’ll spend a bit of time there, because I absolutely can NOT miss that flight.
This summer, there was a Turkish Airlines promotion where you had to take a flight from Türkiye to each continent. So I planned my trip to the 6 continents in August (the only time I could leave for long enough to do almost everything at the same time).
I quickly saw that taking the last of the 6 flights (from Türkiye to North America) was incredibly expensive during the peak summer season, like all last-minute transatlantic flights.
That’s because there are the classic hordes of North American tourists who travel only once a year and who all go to Europe in the summer. That drives up flight prices quite incredibly, obviously.
Returning to Europe in October cost me the same price in terms of flights (zero dollars more), and it allowed me to spend more time in Europe.
It costs me the same price because my flight to come back directly from South America (the 5th continent) this summer costs me much less than what it would have cost me to return to İstanbul (transatlantic summer prices again). And because the one-way transatlantic flight to go back to Europe in October was really inexpensive.
I paid 220 CAD for my one-way from Canada to Europe on Tuesday! When we tell you that it’s not true that it costs a lot to travel, that’s what we mean. The roundtrip would’ve been less than 500 CAD! You just have to check the deals every day on the Flytrippers site and take advantage of them! Deals to Europe are quite frequent.
I had also used a variation of the nested tickets tip this summer to add a Zagreb–İstanbul flight almost free when booking my flight to continent #4, Europe. I knew this would allow me to get to İstanbul for less in October.
I visited Croatia for the 1st time on my 3-week trip to Europe with my girlfriend in June. By the way, our transatlantic flights were in luxurious business class lie-flat pod seats, and Flytrippers actually has a new exciting section to help you if you want to do that easily too.
(Beware: if you’re like my girlfriend, you won’t want to go back to economy class. Very dangerous!)
Anyway, I really liked Croatia on that trip, but we could only go to Dubrovnik and Cavtat because we mainly wanted to spend time in beautiful neighboring Montenegro. So I told myself it would be good to also experience the real, more authentic, and less touristy Croatia, in the capital and largest city.
The rest of my trip
The beginning of the trip is in Toronto, because I’m moderating a panel at the Financial Affiliate Marketing Forum on Tuesday. It’s for those in the industry, it’s not for travelers. But I strongly invite you to join me at the other event where I’m a speaker if you want to become a pro on free travel and travel rewards!!!
So I had the middle part to figure out, between Toronto and Zagreb (I’ll take the train from Montreal to Toronto this time).
Before that trip with my girlfriend in June, it had been an extremely long time since I’d actually spent time in Europe (I’m excluding the 1-2 days on the way elsewhere; I did that a few times in past years).
For 5 years (!!!) actually, since my summer and fall trips to Europe in 2020. That’s pretty crazy considering how often I travel. I didn’t even think it had been that long.
It’s no secret that, like the vast majority of frequent travelers, I prefer Asia and other continents with a better culture shock (and that are more affordable too, since in my case I want to travel more).
But Europe is very cool too, of course! I really enjoyed my trip in June, so I felt like taking advantage of this opportunity, even though it’s just about 10 days. Especially after so much time without going to Europe before that!
So I didn’t want to go directly to Zagreb anyway.
Departing from Toronto, the cheapest transatlantic flight was 220 CAD to Dublin. That’s the self-transfer tip, the most important one to stop overpaying for your flights! Especially for Europe.
My destination wasn’t Ireland, but it very often costs less this way! Flights aren’t expensive in Europe. And it allows me to discover Dublin for the 1st time! Cheaper flights and one more city. That’s a win-win when you love to travel!
(I will also share another very little-known tip about my transatlantic flight soon!)
Flights from Dublin to Zagreb were just 71 CAD (plus the fee for a full-size carry-on on Ryanair).
That’s less than 350 CAD total to get from Canada to Zagreb, instead of 750 CAD if I had done like all those who sadly don’t know about the self-transfer tip and who buy their flights to Europe on one same ticket!!!
About half the price, as it often is with this simple tip.
But that said, I also didn’t want to go from Dublin directly to Zagreb. I want to add in another city in between, as I love variety. I was thinking of a city that I could take a train from to get to Zagreb. I still haven’t decided, even if this is for Friday. I’m hesitating, because there are so many fascinating places in Europe.
I’ve been traveling a lot more last-minute in recent years, which is obviously not ideal to save money. But I still make it work, since I’m super flexible at least. For example, I’m tempted by Kraków (Poland) and Bratislava (Slovakia), and both are still under 150 CAD from Dublin less than a week before the flight.
They were probably half that price if I had booked earlier, so my indecision this time is costing me money… but it’s not really costing me a lot either.
Itinerary of my fall trip to Europe
Obviously, I could have gone directly to İstanbul, and the itinerary would have been much simpler, but I’ve already been 5 times. And although I love it and it’s one of my favorite cities in the world, the way the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles miles work means I’m going to go back very often with my 1M miles!
Here’s my overall itinerary.
This assumes the 4th city on my trip is Bratislava, which is probably the most likely. Slovakia is a rare European country I haven’t been to yet.
I’ll decide soon. But the rest is all booked.
In total, this itinerary is only about 10,000 miles in the air and only 4 flights, on 3 different airlines (including no new ones, unfortunately). And trains between Montreal and Toronto, and probably between Bratislava and Zagreb.
Here are the cities on this itinerary:
- Toronto, Ontario 🇨🇦
- 1 night
- To be a speaker at FAMF
- Dublin, Ireland 🇮🇪
- 2 nights
- To save on getting to Zagreb
- City to be determined
- 2 nights
- To visit another new city
- Zagreb, Croatia 🇭🇷
- 2 nights
- To save on getting to İstanbul
- İstanbul, Türkiye 🇹🇷
- 2 nights
- To have a buffer before my can’t-miss flight
Since this is once again a trip where I’m not quite in slow travel mode, I’m definitely going to stay in the cities themselves and not venture into the surrounding attractions, unfortunately.
You’ve probably understood by now, if you follow us a bit, that I really love cities. So I for sure like this itinerary.
I’m really looking forward to exploring these cities that look very interesting.
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Summary
Tomorrow, I’m leaving on another trip, this time to beautiful Europe. This fall trip is going to allow me to do my 1st visit to Dublin, Zagreb, and a yet-to-be-determined city. And İstanbul too, but that’s not the 1st time. It’s just that I have to take the İstanbul-Montreal flight to complete the Turkish Airlines promotion, but I’m taking advantage of it to have 1 week and a half in 3 other cool European cities too.
What would you like to know about my fall trip to Europe? Tell us in the comments below.
See the flight deals we spot: Cheap flights
Discover free travel with rewards: Travel rewards
Explore awesome destinations: Travel inspiration
Learn pro tricks: Travel tips
Featured image: Zagreb, Croatia, and Dublin, Ireland (photo credit: Unsplash+, and Diogo Palhais)
