When was the last time you took a vacation? A real “toes in the sand, cold drink in the hand” kind of vacation? If you’re like most of us, it’s been too long.

We’re here to help.

One of the main reasons it can be tough to book a great trip is that those carefree vacation days don’t always come cheap. But the solution might be hiding in plain sight: travel points.

We’re going to walk you through the basics of what travel points are, what they’re worth and why they matter — so you can spend time in your vacation destination without spending a big chunk of your savings.

What are travel points?

Travel points are a type of currency that can be earned in many different ways. For the purpose of this explainer, we're going to use the umbrella term "travel points" to include both airline miles and hotel points — the two most common types of travel points.