I’m a big fan of Daily Drop. It’s a points, miles, travel, and credit card newsletter created by my friends, Kara and Nate (they run a big YouTube channel of the same name). Daily Drop keeps you informed about the latest news and information around points & miles, as well as updates across the airline and hotel industries.

While the newsletter is free, they also have a subscription service called Daily Drop Pro, which promises even more points deals, alerts, and tools to help you find the award availability you need for your next trip.

But does it deliver? Is it worth the price?

As Daily Drop has gotten bigger, I’ve gotten questions about the service from readers so I figured it was time to breakdown the service and talk about who it is right for.

What is Daily Drop Pro?

According to the team at Daily Drop, Daily Drop Pro was created to be your one-stop shop for flights and hotels (whether with points or cash), deals, and chatting with like minded people in their community forum. The service has five main features:

• Flight Points Search
• Hotel Points Search
• Deal Alerts
• Wallets
• Daily Drop Pro Lounge

Let’s walk through all of them.

Flights Point Search

There are lots of websites that let you search for points flights. In addition to Daily Drop, there’s Point.me, Seats.aero, Points Path (a chrome browser extension), and a few others. The space has become incredibly crowded in the last few years.

What makes Daily Drop Pro Different?
The main feature that I really, really like is that you change your preferences to narrow the results based on time of day, stops, duration, maximum points, and aircraft type (which is a feature that is unique to them). They also have a feature that lets you compare the cash rate but that just sends you Google Flights and I don’t think that a real selling point. I think the real edge here is that you can get really specific on the award flights you want, which is something the other services lack.

Hotel Points Search

Daily Drop Pro also lets you search for award space for hotels. There’s not a lot of other competitors in this space and Daily Drop has a ton of options that let you customize your results based on points, programs, award certificates, which hotel programs you can transfer credit cards points, and so many more. I think the hotel award search is the best in class and, like the flight search, its ability to let you get hyper specific is really awesome.

Deal Alerts

This feature lists points and cash deals. It’s really cool because you can see not only award fare sales (which happen all the time but are a pain in the butt to keep track of) but also cash fare deals. You can select your home airports, choose your preferred travel regions, and let the deals decide your destinations.

Daily Drop Pro’s points deals are detailed, too — showing the taxes and fees of an award, which program to book through and how the redemption stacks up to Daily Drop’s point valuations. It’s one of the more comprehensive deal feeds out there.

Wallet & Points Management

The Wallet lets to link your different accounts (award programs and credit cards) and have them all displayed in one place. Plus, it will remind you of all the perks, credits, and other benefits you get with each card / loyalty program.

If you have a lot of different cards, this can be really helpful because it can be confusing to remember all the perk and deals that come with each card. Heck, even I forget sometimes and I’m expert at this stuff (but when you start to have double digit cards, it’s a lot to remember)!

The Daily Drop Pro Lounge

The lounge allows you to chat with other members. It’s a message board and like all message boards it didn’t seem that active. It’s a good feature but not one that I would rely on given that there’s not a lot of activity on the forum.

How much does Daily Drop Pro cost?

Daily Drop Pro Membership is $149 a year.

Is Daily Drop Pro worth it?

I think Daily Drop Pro is a good product if you have a lot of credit cards and are heavy into the points & miles game. Inputting all your cards and membership programs takes some initial start up time but the ability to track all your points, benefits, and rewards in one place is really convenient. As I said, even I forget about card benefits sometimes. It’s hard to keep multiple cards in your head so having it in one place is nice.

The hotel award feature is definitely the best in class. And, while there are other airline search tools, I do like the increased search filters (especially the ability to filter by plane type!).

And the deals feature can allow you to keep track of all the deals happening in one place rather than subscribe to multiple newsletters and websites.

So, is the service worth $12 a month? I think so. Daily Drop Pro essentially bundles lots of other programs, improves on them, and puts them all into one dashboard for you and that is a real time saver. I think the service is definitely worth it.

When it comes to seasoned long-term travelers and bloggers on the topic, our friend Matt Kepnes of Nomadic Matt is an undisputed authority. He’s a travel media maven, and we’re honored he’s invited us to speak at his conferences, give webinars to the Nomadic Network community, and write articles for his website. We share a belief in the transformative power of slow travel and that this life-changing experience is not reserved for the wealthy. In fact, traveling affordably is an insider strategy that not only saves money, but often leads to more local and immersive experiences…and that, my friends, is where the magic happens! (More on this in our Nomadic Matt interview, below!)

To learn how to have a lifetime of epic travel experiences without breaking the bank, Matt’s latest book, How to Travel the World on $75 a Day, is a must-read. The second edition of this New York Times bestselling book does an excellent job of addressing the massive changes to the travel industry in recent years and offers an inspiring way forward. Packed with relevant and hyper-specific advice, the 368-pager is broken down into three sections: trip planning, on-the-road expenses, and world travel by region. Reading through it, we felt ourselves nodding our heads in total agreement and also impressed by the clever tips and fresh resources it surfaced.

NOMADIC MATT INTERVIEW

There is a ton to be learned from this book and the author himself! Which is why we are excited to share our Q&A with Matt Kepnes, from what led him to a life of travel, his inspiration for How to Travel the World on $75 a Day, to what you can learn from this essential travel guide.

Before we get into your new book, tell us a bit about yourself…

On a trip to Thailand in 2005, I got inspired by some backpackers to quit my job and travel for one year. I left in 2006, but instead of being gone for a year, I ended up being away for 18 months. When I came back in 2008, I started my blog, nomadicmatt.com, as a way to get freelance writing jobs so I could keep traveling. Partly because there weren’t many people blogging about how to travel long-term on a budget and there was a need for this hard-to-find info, the website took off, and one day I woke up and realized that I had a career! I’ve been doing it now for 17 years.

What motivated you to update your old book and create How to Travel the World on $75 a Day?

The last edition came out in 2017, and since then, a lot has changed in the world due to COVID. The pandemic forever altered the travel industry. A lot of businesses closed, old methods of saving money became obsolete, new methods came into being, new companies have been created, destinations have changed, and, of course, prices have gone up a lot.

Since travel has changed so much, I wanted my book to reflect the current conditions people face when it comes to planning a trip, saving money, and navigating regions around the world. How to be a smart budget traveler is very different from what it was in 2017, so I wanted to make sure everyone had up-to-date info on how to be one!

What are some of the exciting updates to the new edition?

In How to Travel the World on $75 a Day, you’ll find a lot of new information. I ended up rewriting about 80% of this book because so much of travel has changed. I thought it would be a simple update, but it turned out to be a major rewrite! Some key changes:

• A new section on collecting and redeeming points and miles
• A completely updated resource section filled with companies and accommodations I love 
• More information on overtourism and how to be a responsible traveler
• Completely revised, updated, and expanded destination sections that include new prices, ways to save, tips on where to eat, accommodation, transportation, and activities
• New trips and tricks on how to save money before you go
• New ways to afford accommodation, including ways to get free stays
• New ways to save on transportation, with new information on transit passes

I bet a lot of people get stuck on the $75 number...

They do – and they are both at the extreme ends of the spectrum! There are people who think that’s too much because they are “a real traveler” and can do it cheaper (there are always people who like to prove they are a better traveler than someone else) or people who think that the number doesn’t seem like it’s enough because they’ve been told travel is expensive. 

In reality, your mileage will vary for a round-the-world trip. Some people will do it for more, some people will do it for less. Destinations vary too, so it depends a lot on where you go. But the number is based on my experience traveling the world many times over, doing the standard “budget travel/backpacker” route. 

What about people who aren’t looking to do an around-the-world trip? How could this book be helpful to them? 

Don’t get caught up in the title. No matter if you are planning a long-term trip or going on a week-long vacation, we all fly on the same planes, so we have to figure out how to find a cheap flight…how to save money on attractions in New Zealand…how to find local food in Paris…the same situations and strategies apply to us all. The only difference is that a shorter trip can’t spread out the costs as much as a longer trip, so you might not be able to get it under $75 per day. 

This book is really about helping people find deals and showing readers the strategies and tactics they need to travel like a pro and save money, regardless of how long they go away for. 

What are your three biggest tips for travelers? (Without giving away all the secrets in the book!)

Three things people can do to get the biggest wins for the least amount of effort are:

1. Be flexible with your travel dates. The difference of a day can mean the difference of hundreds of dollars. Go where the flights are the cheapest. Check out Google’s Flights “Explore” option to see where the cheapest flights are and start there.

2. Travel as you live. You don’t eat out or spend a lot of money every day at home, so why do it on the road? Head to the local markets, take public transportation, linger at a bookstore, do some Airbnb experiences, and cook your own food. Don’t go to all the big-name attractions or touristy restaurants. 

3. Collect points and miles. Credit card points can go a long, long way to reducing the cost of travel. If you can pay off your bill each month, there’s no reason not to have a credit card that earns points. I cover this in detail in the book and on my website.

Given that so much information is available online for free, why is it worth getting this book?

If anything, the fact that there is a firehose of information available online makes this book even more necessary. How do you know what info is true? What has been updated recently? Where do you even begin to search or start the process? With this book, you know that everything has been fact-checked by a team of people, it’s up to date, and has all you need to get started. There’s no need to endlessly search blogs, TikTok, Instagram, and have a million browser tabs open. You just need one book, and you are set to go!

What travel plans do you have this year? 

Well, I’m about to start a three-week book tour (hope you can join me)! I’ve also got trips in the works for Oaxaca, summer in Scandinavia, then Oman, China, and the Caribbean! This year, I want to take shorter trips so I can maintain some roots at home, while continuing to explore the world!

Thanks for the interview, Nomadic Matt! Be sure to pick up a copy of How to Travel the World on $75 a Day and leave a review; it means the world to us authors!