Backyard Destinations

This past weekend was huge in the boxing world, as Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather finally came face-to-face inside the ring at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. It was so big and so hyped that the cost of pay-per-view skyrocketed from the usual $60/$70 to $90/$100 (standard/high definition).

Well, the fight ended up being quite underwhelming. Of course, I didn’t expect it to match the hype leading up to it, but it really flopped in comparison to all the marketing that was done to promote it.

With the letdown, I thought about what other travel activities and investments that $100 could have been used for instead of the “Fight of the Century,” and came up with this:

Destinations (roundtrip from Los Angeles for the weekend of May 8 to 10 unless otherwise stated):

Greyhound bus/Amtrak

1. San Diego (up to $50.50 depending on time of departure)/ San Diego ($74 in value seating)
2. Oceanside (up to $35)
3. Las Vegas (up to $89 for standard fare or $70 for web fare depending on time of departure)
4. Santa Barbara (up to $42)/ Santa Barbara ($84 in premium seating)
5. San Luis Obispo (up to $82)/San Luis Obispo ($98 in value seating)
6. San Francisco (up to $89.50 for web fare)/San Francisco ($71 one-way in value seating)
7. Sacramento (up to $99.50 for web fare)
8. Phoenix ($97 for early afternoon departures)
9. Tucson ($98 web fare for morning/noon departure)
10. Tijuana (up to $55 refundable fare depending on time of departure)
11. Palm Springs ($58 in premium seating on Amtrak)

Travel gear (from Amazon.com unless otherwise stated)

1. Osprey Daypack ($89.95)
2. Anywhere between 82 to 100 travel essentials from dollar stores (82 is the minimum assuming the dollar store charges $1.11 per item and that the purchase is made in California, where sales tax is 9 percent. This count includes tax in the price. Click here to read about 16 travel items you can get at dollar stores, but there’s much, much more available.)
3. 8GB Amazon Kindle Fire ($99; useful for downtime)
4. Travel bundle 1 (essentials): $99.85 total
   1. Neck pillow ($12.95)
   2. Travel umbrella ($15.37)
   3. Set-your-own-combination lock ($12.76)/Three-pack combination lock ($8.99)
   4. Stainless steel water bottle ($9.99)
   5. Portable flashlight ($9.99)
   6. String backpack ($8.99; useful for going out on outdoor activities)
   7. Packtowl ($29.80 for XX-Large)

1. Travel bundle 2 (tech and electronics): $94.67 total
   1. Headphones ($21.65)/ Earphones ($6.46)
   2. Power bank ($19.99; to charge iPads, iPhones, and other USB charger devices)
   3. Universal adapter ($6.69)
   4. AT&T Nokia Lumia 635 GoPhone ($46.34)