Making Points & Miles Work For Your Next Road Trip

In the world of points and miles, we often default to thinking of using our points toward our next flight. This is totally fair; even our site is named “Frugal Flyer.” However, I recently adopted the mindset of the “Frugal Driver” when my partner and I took our two dogs on a road trip to the Canadian Maritimes! While not the most orthodox use of points, we were still able to travel in style and comfort while also minimizing our costs with our points. 

Road trips are a great way of seeing multiple destinations during one trip and afford a certain degree of flexibility that you may not get with flying. Let’s walk through a step-by-step blueprint of how you can make our points and miles work for you on your next road trip! 

Step 1: How Are We Going To Get There? 

Before we get into which 4-wheeled vessel (or 2-wheeled if you like motorcycles!) will take you on your journey, let’s talk about tips that will apply regardless. First, you will want to be prepared for any roadside troubles. Consider adding the Canadian Tire Triangle World Elite Mastercard to your wallet, as it is a no-annual-fee card that comes with free Canadian Tire Gold Roadside Assistance. 

You will also be using A LOT of gas. Check out our guide on the best credit cards for gas to make sure you are getting the most for every dollar spent!

Your Own Vehicle 

The easiest, and likely cheapest, option for a road trip is using your own vehicle. You also have the most flexibility in terms of dates and distance driven because you won’t be subjected to limited availability from rentals or extra cost with more miles driven.

There are a few downsides to keep in mind. First, you are putting wear and tear on your vehicle. It’s difficult to quantify the dollar amount, but it’s still a factor (albeit smaller). Additionally, you start to limit the locations that you can plan your road trip. Ontario to the Maritimes: no problem! Maritimes to Banff: starting to push it. Ontario to Utah: this is going to be a long trek. 

Rental Car

The next logical option is a rental car! This solves the wear-and-tear dilemma on your personal vehicle and also unlocks a new fly-and-drive strategy. Instead of driving for multiple days to get to Utah or Arizona, you can fly to the nearest airport and unlock destinations quicker!

When renting a vehicle, insurance is probably the most important consideration to avoid any unexpected costs. While you can buy the insurance with the rental car company, this is often quite pricey. Instead, use a credit card that offers Rental Collision Damage Waiver (CDW). The Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite + Card and National Bank World Elite Mastercard are two Canadian credit cards that offer strong rental car insurance.

If you have access to US credit cards, most premium Chase, Capital One, and American Express cards come with standard primary CDW. As always, make sure you read the credit card’s insurance policy. 

If you want to use your points to cover the cost of the rental car, a great way to do this is using a fixed point redemption program, such as Scene+, to apply a statement credit for a travel purchase at a rate of 1 cent per point. Furthermore, cards with rental status perks, like Avis Preferred Plus or Hertz President’s Circle via the American Express Platinum Card, can help you bypass counter lines and score complimentary vehicle upgrades.

Camper Van

A camper van is probably the most fun option! You have ultimate flexibility in where you want to go and where to stay because you are driving your accommodation!

The same principles apply as a rental car: use a credit card with strong car rental insurance (ensuring that camper vans are covered in the terms and conditions) and consider using a fixed points program to apply a statement credit for the travel purchase. You’ll be able to find camper van rentals online or at a local RV store. 

Step 2: Where Are We Going To Stay? 

Hotels

A road trip doesn’t mean that you can’t still live in luxury. Hotels are a great option to stay at during stops of your road trip as they give you the comfort of a nice bed, shower and a place to have a homebase. 

It is also a great opportunity to use hard-earned hotel points that you have accrued over the years using hotel co-branded credit cards. The Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card is a great example because you can not only use your Marriott Bonvoy points, but also the yearly free night certificate towards a stay during your road trip!

If you have access to US credit cards, hotel stays during your road trip are even better. With the American Express Hilton Honors Aspire Card or the American Express Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card, you get strong free night certificates to use a high-end properties as well as high-level elite status that will get you free breakfast (YMMV, I’m looking at you and your silly rules Marriott) that helps with lowering costs on your road trip.

Campsites

If you are more inclined to stay in nature, campsites are a great option that are both low-cost and easily accessible. To use your points, pay with a card such as the Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite + Card. The campsite purchase will code as travel, and you can then apply your Scene+ points at 1 cent per point. You can do this with other bank rewards programs as well; however, there may be better uses for points in other programs, such as utilizing transfer partners. 

Check out this guide on Scene+ to learn why it is the best program for general travel redemptions such as campsites! 

Camper Van

This is the most straightforward of them all. If you chose to take a camper van in Step 1, you are driving the home you will be living in! Make sure you look up where you can park your van overnight (as some parks and lots do not allow overnight parking), where to refill your water supply, and where to plug in your van if needed. Some people choose to take their van to campsites as this solves all of the above problems in one go. 

How Did You Do It, Quentin?

While planning a road trip may seem daunting, once you get started, I promise your itinerary will put itself together! We first decided that we would head to the East Coast with both of our dogs. Since moving to Hamilton, they haven’t had much opportunity to swim because the water isn’t the cleanest here, so we wanted to capitalize on the amazing oceans in the Maritimes.

Following the guide above, Step 1 took us to the conclusion that we would take our own vehicle. While we teetered with the idea of a camper van for a while, we decided that it would be nice to keep our driving and sleeping quarters separate, especially with two dogs and a lot of fur. Since we are based in Ontario, it is also very reasonable for us to start our journey from home!

So now that we know how we’re travelling, now onto Step 2: where are we going to stay? This might be a “hot take,” but I don’t think I like camping. There, I said it. I much prefer being able to shower every day and a nice bed to sleep in. This led us to booking hotels for our stops.

My strategy for looking for hotels was to first look to see if there were any Hilton properties available at our destinations because I was sitting on a pile of Hilton Honors. Additionally, I also have Hilton Diamond status because of the American Express Hilton Aspire card. This gets us free breakfast (or food and beverage credit) at each Hilton property we stayed at on our road trip, allowing us to save on a meal each morning of our trip! 

I was also sitting on a Hilton Honors Free Night Certificate thanks to the Hilton Aspire card, which I used to book a Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) property in Quebec City to end our trip in luxury. This room was going for $500+ per night at a cash rate, so a great use of the FNC.

However, when going to more remote or less populated areas, you will inevitably run into the problem where there is no large hotel program available to you. This happened 3 times on our trip: a small town in Quebec (Rivière-du-Loup), the Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia, and Saint John, New Brunswick. 

To book hotels for these smaller locations, I started searching using a public third-party hotel booking portal. Rakuten was running an elevated 6% cashback on Expedia bookings at the time, so I booked the remainder of our hotels with Expedia. Always remember to check different shopping portals to see if you can get some cashback from your cash bookings. To cover these stays, I paid with the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card and applied my Scene+ points as a statement credit at a fixed rate of 1 cent per point.

If you’re curious, here was our final itinerary and where we stayed:

Day	Start	End	Varies	Hotel
Day 1	Hamilton, ON	Rivière-du-Loup, QC	7 hours / 740 km	Le Fraser Hotel ($177)
Day 2	Rivière-du-Loup, QC	Fredericton, NB	4.5 hours / 430 km	Hilton Garden Inn (45,000 points + $70 for dogs)
Day 3	Fredericton, NB	Moncton, NB	2 hours / 180 km	Canvas Moncton, Tapestry Collection by Hilton (45,000 points + $50 for dogs)
Day 4	Moncton, NB	Charlottetown, PEI	2 hours / 170 km	Hampton Inn (45,000 points/night + $70 for dogs)
Day 5	Charlottetown, PEI	No travel	Varies	Same as above
Day 6	Charlottetown, PEI	Cheticamp	5 hours (incl. ferry) / 340 km	Airbnb in Cheticamp
Day 7	Cabot Trail (Start in Cheticamp	Ingonish and Back to Cheticamp	N/A	Airbnb in Cheticamp
Day 8	Chéticamp, NS	Halifax, NS	4.5 hours / 400 km	The Hollis Halifax (50,000  points/night + $50 for dogs)
Day 9	Halifax, NS	No travel	Varies	Same as above
Day 10	Halifax to Digby Ferry (2.5 hour drive)	Digby Ferry to Saint John, NB	2.5 hour drive & 2.5 hour ferry	Saint John Harbourfront Hotel ($178 + 35 for dogs)
Day 11	Saint John, NB	Quebec City, QC	7 hours / 690 km	Monsieur Jean Hotel Particulaire (Hilton FNC + $70 for dogs)
Day 12	Quebec City, QC	Kingston, ON	5.5 hours	With family
Day 13	Kingston, ON	Hamilton, ON	3.3 hours	Home!

Canadian Road Trip Routes To Consider 

The Maritimes 

Discover hidden gems on a road trip to New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia, from tidal exploration at the Bay of Fundy and red sandstone beaches in PEI to the dramatic coastal cliffs of the Cabot Trail. You can find Hilton and Marriott hotels in cities such as Fredericton, Moncton, Charlottetown, and Halifax.

Alberta Rockies

The scenic drive between Banff and Jasper offers glacier views, turquoise alpine lakes, and wildlife sightings. Destinations such as Calgary, Banff, or Jasper are full of hotels to elevate your stay. Consider using your uncapped Hilton Aspire free night certificate on a costly hotel here. If you are planning a winter road trip, why not add some skiing? Check out our in depth guide on how to book a ski trip with points and miles to learn more! 

The Sea-to-Sky Highway (British Columbia) 

BC-99, otherwise known as the Sea-to-Sky Highway, takes you from Vancouver to Squamish, Whistler, and Pemberton. You will get some amazing ocean and mountain views along the way. If you’re starting on the West Coast, this is a great low-mileage option! 

Conclusion

Just because our points and miles are marketed for flights doesn’t mean that you have to restrict their use to 35,000 feet up in the air. I hope this article inspires you to consider being a Frugal Driver sometime in the future. There are some hidden gems and amazing sights to be seen on the road. 

Check out our guide on the best credit cards for road trips to make sure you make the most of every purchase on your next journey!