By Lakshmi and Siddhi:

Travel a lot, but travel smart.  That’s been our adage forever.  On this trip across the UK and Ireland, a “deal” that we snagged was a four-day, three night stay at the Radisson Blu St. Helen’s for ZERO dollars!  How did we manage to get a property that currently retails for 300 Euros per night for free?  Not for just one night, but for  three nights – saving us 900 Euros or 1200 dollars.

Here’s how we did it.  Last year, my husband applied for the Club Carlson Premier Rewards Visa credit card.  The primary reason for applying for this card was to get  85,000 Bonus Gold Points – 50,000 Gold Points after our first purchase plus 35,000 points once we spent $2,500 on our card within the first 90 days (we simply put our routine expenses for 3 months on the card and for every dollar we spent outside of the Carlson branded properties, we gained 5 points).  We now had 97,500 points to spend on our hotel in Dublin.

The Radisson Blu St. Helen’s is a spectacular property located a short 15 minute bus ride from the city center.  The massive property is showcased with beautifully manicured gardens.  A room at the hotel for a party of three would cost us 300 Euros a night. We could also get the room for 44,000 points a night.

With our accumulated points, we got two nights for free.  An added benefit of the Club Carlson Visa Card is that each time you book a reward stay, your last night is free.  Since we were card holders booking three nights, the third night was free.

Ok, this is not all we got.  With our card, we were upgraded to a better room, got a beautiful basket of fruits upon arrival, and realized that our room service breakfast cost us nothing as well!

This gets better.  We got a lovely room overlooking the gardens where there were celebrations happening each night.  From a Brazilian Samba themed party to a family themed reception, we got people watching opportunities galore.

Last, but not the least, the staff was friendly and efficient, providing us just the right amount of support to make our stay memorable.

Take a look at these pictures and you’ll see why this was just an amazing part of our journey.

To learn more about the beautiful Radisson Blu St. Helen’s, click here: http://www.radissonblu.ie/sthelenshotel-dublin

If you’d like to learn more about the Club Carlson Visa Card, click here:  http://www.clubcarlsonvisa.com/credit/visaPremierCard.do