About This Blog

WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE ARE ABOUT

Welcome to Miles to the Wild!  This is my blog that will focus on how to use your airline miles and hotel points to facilitate unforgettable ecotourism adventures.  Birding is my passion so in the beginning, I will be mainly focused on destinations that are rich in birdlife but the nice thing is that these destinations will have all kinds of wildlife.  Ecotourism has something for everyone!  While there are several excellent tour operators who can bring you to these destinations, they may not be within everyone’s budgets.  Fortunately, through use of airline miles and hotel points, you can travel to these destinations, have a free night or two in the gateway city and then head off into the bush. Many times, miles and points can be acquired for free via credit card signups if you have a good credit rating.  I’m not going to flood you with credit card links n the posts, but I will have a reference page of which cards are available.

The best way to get the most out of ecotourism and help support the environment is to spend as much of your cash locally as possible.  Even better if the lodge is supporting a research project and I will be showing you how to find these.  Many species of birds are highly endangered due to trapping by poachers and deforestation.  Ecotourism offers a valuable source of income to local people who might otherwise be tempted to trap wildlife and sell these animals and birds on the black market.  Ecotourism should be sustainable and not adversely affect the environment by flooding hundreds of people in all at once.  The lodges I will be talking about are small, sustainable and some of them employ former poachers as guides.  It’s important to have a good guide who knows the local flora and fauna and is used to spotting them as it may be difficult to spot smaller birds high up in trees.  Good guides will be familiar with bird calls and the feeding and roosting habits of the local birds.  Local people also benefit from ecotourism by providing restaurants, bars, transportation, handicrafts and other souvenirs.

WHERE WE ARE GOING

Miles to the Wild will be a partner of my other sites Feathered and Free, Feathered and Free Facebook Page and I do have lots more photos on the Facebook page as I want to keep this blog easily loadable.  Before I moved to Facebook, I had a VBulletin based forum which is now being used to archive information and collect my Facebook posts in a more easily searchable media.  So even though this blog is a new venture for me, there is already a lot of information out there.  Please be patient as I grow this blog and will hopefully become a valuable resource for anyone who wants to see birds and other animals in the wild.

If you are an elite and/or experienced frequent flyer, the miles and points posts will be old hat to you but I hope you will find some good information about eco-tourism and birding that you won’t find elsewhere.  I don’t plan to focus on credit cards other than a means to get your airline tickets for free and it is doubtful this small blog will attract any affiliate credit providers.

In the beginning, I will be building up the miles and points reference pages so when I blog about destinations and how to get there, I can simply link the appropriate reference page and concentrate on providing original content about the destination and wildlife you find there.  My plans for 2013 are to bring you a new destination each week with information about what birds you will see these, what are the best eco-lodges and how you can get there on frequent flyer miles.  I will also be blogging about ways that you can build your frequent flyer accounts at little or no cost using promos and contests.  Sometimes there are even contests to win a trip to an eco-lodge, I know there was one to Tambopata last year and just a few weeks ago, a lucky person won a trip to see Spix’s Macaws at Al Wabra via their Facebook page.

HOW YOU CAN HELP THIS BLOG

If you would like to support this blog, please use the Amazon.com search in the sidebar to begin your purchase at Amazon and use my link for Scottevest.  They make great products for travelers and both my husband and I use them ourselves!

You can also help me and help yourselves by requesting a referral for an Australian American Express card (for Australians only).  Please see red text on this page.

Programs for which I can refer you and you get a sign up bonus, please use Contact Form to request a referral and give me your email address.

Marriott Rewards

Choice Rewards