David Streisand has made his love of cheap travel into a family affair — and a business venture.
After “travel-hacking” his own 142,000-mile round-the-world trip for just $240.75 in 2013, the East Williston native and Wheatley School graduate took his wife, Christine, and 3-year-old daughter, Bella, on a three-week vacation to the South Pacific and southeast Asia in February.
With their crafty use of credit card points, they paid just $500 for a trip that should have cost about $30,000 with business-class international flights and lodging, Streisand said.
Along the way, he and Christine got married in an intimate beach ceremony in Bali.
Since publishing a guide to “travel-hacking” in April, David Streisand has launched Napoleon Streisand Intelligence, a subscription-based service that teaches customers how to pay pennies on the dollar for their own trips, large or small.
“With a little smart, strategic planning, [you] could really create experiences of a lifetime, and I feel that really comes easy for me, just with years of research and travel-hacking,” he said.
While Bella had flown to Jamaica once before, the Streisands’ “epic family vacation” was her first major trek, Streisand said.
The family first flew to Fiji from New York via Los Angeles on first- and business-class flights.
They stayed with locals there for about a week, including three nights in a small beachside village where the residents lived off the land, Streisand said.
They visited a volcano and a mud spring and ate mangos that fell from trees.
They then spent four days in Brisbane, Australia, before heading to Balangnan Beach in Bali, staying first in a beach bungalow and then in the Grand Hyatt Hotel — paid for with credit card points, he said.
It was there that David and Christine eloped on a beach.
They made the plan about a month before and didn’t tell any family or friends to avoid the to-do of a big ceremony, David Streisand said.
“It was really spontaneous,” Christine said. “We had this huge trip and then to get married in a destination that’s so exotic — it was exciting.”
They then traveled to Ubud, about three hours from the beach, and then flew to Taiwan, where Christine had a special reunion before they took the long trip home through Osaka, Japan.
David and Christine took similar international trips in 2013 and found out Christine was pregnant with Bella about a week before they left. They met in Thailand and celebrated the Thai New Year together.
Christine’s trip took her to Taiwan, where she stayed with a woman named Anna who cared for her when she struggled with morning sickness and some other pregnancy issues, Christine said. The two reunited in Taiwan, and Anna got to meet David and Bella.
“It just felt like even though we live in other countries, being back with her and seeing her again, it felt like everything was the same.” Christine said.
Bella’s longest trip before this one was one week, and sleeping in 10 different beds in three weeks wore her out, David said.
He often carried the small rolling suitcase he and Christine bought for her.
But it was a good introduction to the kind of travel David and Christine want to do in the future, he said.
“It makes her learn how to be around other cultures and hear other dialects of language,” Christine said. “I think it helps with her brain development and I think tasting different foods helps her to be more open-minded.”
The family moved from Mineola to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in March after returning from the trip.
David then published “Memoirs of Napoleon Streisand,” a document of his 2013 trip and a guide to getting cheap flights and lodging.
Some friends asked for David’s help “travel-hacking” their own trips, and in July he started Napoleon Streisand Intelligence, now charging $15 a month to help clients manage credit card rewards to make their travel dreams come true.
David helped one friend fly to Hawaii for $10 round-trip and visit his mother in Kansas twice, he said.
Another was able to go to a conference in Israel with three free days in Germany for less than $200.
David said he sometimes thinks about the risk of his travel-hacking plans getting his clients — most of whom are friends and family so far — into credit card debt. He always stresses that the credit card is “just a tool” and “shouldn’t be used to buy anything that they couldn’t pay for.”
Getting to share his passion for travel makes David Streisand feel “very fulfilled,” he said.
“For me it’s very rewarding to help people just have an idea that they want to travel,” he said.
