Secrets Of A Multi-Million Mile Traveler From Personal Development Guru, Marc Accetta.

For over 20 years, personal development and motivational speaker and author Marc Accetta has traveled to more than 30 countries on six different continents training over 1 Million salespeople. He holds the highest frequent flyer status there is, and the secrets to traveling better - which he shares with you.

Eden Roc (now including Nobu Hotel) or Fontainebleau? The rivalry between these icons - two of the most historically and architecturally significant hotels on Miami Beach - has raged on the oceanfront of Millionaire's Row since 1955. Further down on South Beach, escalating prices and crowds have made it tough to know where to stay and where to eat without getting fleeced. Mike & James offer first-hand reviews and advice to settle the choices. Plus, Jessica the Deal Guru comes up with the steals on Amtrak Rail Holidays, MSC Cruises, and more!

Marc Accetta and the Five-Million Mile Milestone

Mike Putman: Welcome to No Tourists Allowed. I'm Mike Putman.

James Ferrara: And I'm James Ferrara. Mike, we're going to talk about a lot today. We're going to give up some secrets on Miami and maybe get a lawsuit or two from one of the hotels. But we also have a very special guest today.

Mike Putman: Yes, we do. I'd like to welcome our podcast listeners to Mr. Marc Accetta. Marc is a notable motivational speaker, world traveler, and a good friend. So welcome to the show, Marc.

Marc Accetta: Thanks, Mike. Appreciate you having me on.

Mike Putman: Where are you today?

Marc Accetta: I'm actually at home, which is a rarity. I live in Dallas, so I'm just running around doing errands here in good old Dallas.

Mike Putman: For our listeners, about what percentage of the time or how many days do you spend on the road per year?

Marc Accetta: At the height of my traveling, I was probably only home about seventy or eighty days a year. It was crazy traveling to all six major continents. Now I'm probably on the road at least a hundred twenty-five days a year, something like that.

Mike Putman: So a little pullback in your older age, I guess.

Marc Accetta: Just a little bit.

Mike Putman: Do you have any idea of how many miles you have traveled over your lifetime?

Marc Accetta: Absolutely. Just on American Airlines alone, I've done over five million miles. That's documented, actual miles flown.

I remember the George Clooney movie, Up in the Air. He was celebrated for traveling his second or third million miles. When I hit my five million, I was ready for something to happen. I got a couple of extra upgrades, but other than that, there was no George Clooney treatment for me when I hit the five million miles.

Mike Putman: They didn't come over the intercom and congratulate you?

Marc Accetta: No intercom. The pilot didn't talk to me. No cheerleaders. Nothing.

Mike Putman: Have they done it on any of your other milestones?

Marc Accetta: No. I mean, anytime VIP upgrades, and they just did the same thing they do for the typical million miles. I know at two million miles they give you lifetime executive platinum, but I've been fortunate to move up to Concierge Key with all I do with them, which is their highest level over the last couple of years.

That really is remarkable. That's been the white-glove service I'd never received from an airline before. I am enjoying that status a lot.

Mike Putman: James is working on that for himself and me hopefully to get us there through some industry contacts, but we haven't been able to pull it off yet. I'm a very loyal American flyer. I've been executive platinum for eleven or twelve years, something like that, but haven't made Concierge Key yet.

James Ferrara: I'm executive platinum out of a gift from the airline. I don't really qualify for it in terms of mileage, but we do a lot of business with them. Concierge Key would be amazing, so my hat's off to you. I'll probably get it for me; I don't know about Mike.

Mike Putman: We'll be ending this podcast if you get it and I don't. Or you'll be doing it by yourself.

Motivational Speaking and Arena-Sized Events

A little bit about Marc’s background. Marc does motivational speaking. Is that the right way to title you? That's the way I title you.

Marc Accetta: I think that's a good overall fit. I do a lot of leadership and business training. Personal development is probably the best way to categorize it, but motivational will work. I'll take any of the above.

Mike Putman: He does this all over the world with generally one to three-day meetings, and then a few seven-day meetings as well, right?

Marc Accetta: Yeah, you know the programs well, my friend. I know we worked together for a long time. That's pretty much the deal. We have one-day, three-day, and six-day events.

Mike Putman: Just to give our audience a little bit of understanding of the audience size.

Marc Accetta: Over my career, the average is two to three thousand. I do events as small as a couple of hundred, but as large as twenty-five thousand. I would say a very reasonable average would be about three thousand.

Mike Putman: I know some of those bigger ones were ones that I helped you with, so I can appreciate why you got bigger numbers there.

Marc Accetta: Whenever you're a featured speaker, it drives numbers through the roof.

Mike Putman: That's arena size, right? You have to be in a big arena for that.

Marc Accetta: We were in big arenas most of the time. We've been in the Toyota Center in Houston and the American Airlines Arena in Miami.

The biggest one we ever did was actually in AT&T Stadium. Not the center there, but the actual football stadium. We took over about twenty-five, maybe up to thirty thousand seats in there, so that was a lot of fun.

Cultural Adventures and Global Flavors

Mike Putman: That was a big audience. Share some of your adventures, Marc. You've traveled the world and seen a lot of things. What are some of the most important travel memories that you have?

Marc Accetta: I'll tell you a couple of things. First of all, I grew up in New Jersey. Everyone in New Jersey and New York always said, "Oh my God, don't go to Paris. Those people are so rude."

It was about forty-five years before I got to Paris, which is now my favorite place in the whole world. What I found out about the people in Paris is they're not rude. If you don't speak English, they won't try to speak English to you.

Americans are so egocentric and think everyone in the world should do things the way we do it. Growing up in New Jersey, I think some of the rudest people on earth are there. It's ironic that they gave me that advice.

I'm a huge Paris fan. My daughter went to school in the south of France, and we've done events all over France. I'm a big fan of France, Italy, and really all of Europe. I think I've gone to about seventy-five percent of the countries in Europe.

I love seeing professional sporting events all over the world. I've done that in Asia and South America. Going to a football game down there is incredible. Real Madrid, live sporting events—it's something I love to do.

I always eat local food. When I see any sort of American chain or fast food, I run the other direction as fast as I can. It's so cool to hook up with local people and find out what they eat.

I remember eating a durian fruit in Singapore. When you check into an airport in Asia, they have signs that say "no guns, no knives," and then it says "no durian." The smell of this fruit is so foul, but if you can get past that and eat it, it actually tastes good. To my knowledge, there are only a couple of countries in Asia where you can get that fruit.

That's the stuff I love the most: having really unique experiences and doing it the way a person who lives there would.

Mike Putman: I've been lucky or unlucky enough to have eaten durian with our mutual friend Monico Perez. The most popular video that I'm part of on YouTube is me eating durian. Listeners, if you're bored, you can go to YouTube and put in "Mike Popendurian" and you'll see what it's like. It is foul-smelling, and the texture is probably worse than the smell.

Marc Accetta: What you mentioned about Monico—my favorite video online is when we were on another Asian trip with James Lee. We got a salmon cheek, which was a delicacy, and with the salmon cheek comes the actual eyeballs.

Monico asked if I wanted one, and I said I was good. Monico said he'd eat it. That was the very first video I ever took on my very first iPhone. If you want to Google something, look for our boy Monico trying not to vomit after he ate this. It's one of the funniest things ever put on video.

James Ferrara: Well, we espouse new experiences and trying something different. That sounds like our kind of story.

Experiencing Iconic Destinations Firsthand

Mike Putman: Marc, what is your typical travel experience when you do one of these trainings? You're going to Australia, Asia, Europe. What's that like?

Marc Accetta: It's my favorite part of it. A lot of people would say, "Oh my gosh, you're on the road again, poor guy." But I'll hit the road for three weeks, maybe starting off in Europe, then going to Asia and on to Australia.

Truthfully, being in these places is amazing. With Instagram, everyone can see vivid pictures and videos, but to actually be there is just too much. Seeing an opera at the Sydney Opera House and walking around the waterfront area down there is so different than anywhere else in the world.

Cape Town, South Africa, is another one. My wife is from South Africa, so I spend a lot of time there. I've never seen anything even remotely close to Cape Town. It's almost like a combination of being in San Diego with the Rocky Mountains surrounding you.

Some of the restaurants and hotels there have the most breathtaking views I've ever seen. The sunsets in Santorini are incredible. I just encourage anyone who's never done these iconic things to do them at least once in your lifetime. The feeling of experiencing it in person is overwhelmingly incredible.

Travel Essentials, Electronics, and Luggage

Mike Putman: It's certainly something you cannot replicate by watching a video or a virtual reality application. When you're spending a lot of time in the air, are there certain things you just have to have on each flight?

Marc Accetta: No doubt. I always have my Bose headsets no matter what, and I keep my AirPods with me too. I use the AirPods and my phone for last-minute work, then I put those away and throw on the Bose headsets.

My iPad Pro is one of the things I can't travel without. I'm in front of people all the time, so when I'm on an airplane, I don't want to think or talk. I just want to get in one of those nice little pod seats and binge-watch. My latest delicacy was blowing through all four seasons of Yellowstone on three or four different international flights.

Those two things are my absolute 100% go-tos. I always have stuff in my bag in case I get a headache, like aspirin or Sudafed.

I usually travel in a t-shirt or a light shirt, and then I'll bring a sweatshirt in my bag. As you guys know, the cabin temperature can vary dramatically. On a sixteen-hour flight from the US to Australia, you may be freezing for two hours and then baking for a little while. Having that extra layer has always been very beneficial. I also travel with eye drops in case my eyes get dry during the trip.

Mike Putman: Do you have a specific suitcase? I have one suitcase that I keep halfway packed. For me, it's the Tumi MacDaddy one. It has a soft casing, but it's like a hard suitcase. They also have the metal one. I had the metal one for about a week and had to give it back; it was too heavy.

Marc Accetta: Same for me. I actually broke away from my Tumi and ordered one of those hard-case plastic ones. I used it on a trip to Miami this week one time and just took it back to UPS to send it back because it doesn't work for me.

Even though the Tumi is called an Alpha 2, which I think is what you're talking about, it has some flexibility in it. If you go somewhere and you buy some more clothes, it's nice to be able to make that thing expand a little bit.

James Ferrara: You've got three of the most frequent travelers right here. I agree; I need a soft-sided case to give me a little expansion room. But I am waiting for the ones that you can sit on and drive through the airport. I keep seeing commercials, but I haven't actually seen one yet.

Marc Accetta: Those look pretty cool. On my flight back on Sunday, I saw a kid on one of those suitcases. They were getting off the plane and the thing flipped over; he hit his head on one of the railings. James, I don't know if that would be a good idea for you or not.

Mike Putman: I could see you on that, James. We could race on a trip.

James Ferrara: That would be fun. I want to travel like they did in the 1920s. I want big Louis Vuitton trunks and a Sherpa to carry them for me. That's the way it should be done.

I have traveled with both of you guys extensively. You both carry jumbo checked bags with crazy amounts of stuff I would never do.

James Ferrara: I need shoes, suits, sports jackets, and more shoes. I can't get away with a roll-on bag.

Mike Putman: Remember when we flew on easyJet, Marc? I'd never flown on easyJet. You had your carry-on and I had a checked bag. I had to check my bag, and the bag cost more than the ticket.

Marc Accetta: Absolutely. I still have a photo of you drinking wine out of one of those little wine bottles with a straw. Every time you call me, that's the picture that comes up. That was years ago when we were coming back from the south of France.

Mike Putman: Château Roubine. Exactly.

James Ferrara: There are many photos I have of Mike that I'd love to share with the world, actually.

Upcoming Trips and College Football Rivalries

Mike Putman: We'll skip over that subject for the moment. So Marc, where are you going next?

Marc Accetta: I leave tomorrow for Vegas and then fly on to Orlando. I have two brand new clients, so I'm going back to back. After that, I'm headed to Athens for a big event in November. I'm excited about that. I love Greece; great food in Athens.

Mike Putman: Who's your favorite college football team this week?

Marc Accetta: You're so funny. Unlike you, I never switch. I'm an Alabama fan. My daughter went there. I paid forty-five thousand dollars a year for the right to be an Alabama football fan, and I'm proud of it.

Marc Accetta: It's interesting that when Clemson is good, Mike is from South Carolina. When Georgia is good, he's back in Georgia. Marc never pulled for Alabama until they won a national championship.

Marc Accetta: That's not true. I was not a college football fan at all, and then I got into it. I'm telling you, I paid for the right. How much tuition money did you pay for Clemson, which is up in South Carolina?

Mike Putman: I'm not a Clemson supporter. I'm a Georgia supporter, and they happen to be number one, so I'm alright.

James Ferrara: Alright, guys, let's bring this back to travel, shall we?

Travel Hacks and the Power of the Concierge

Mike Putman: Marc, any other travel hacks? Anything you do when you check into a hotel? James explained a couple of weeks ago that the first thing he does is ask the concierge to send fresh flowers up to the room.

Marc Accetta: I unpack my bag right away and plug in all the electronics. Travel with adapters for international travel; you've got to have the adapters that convert, otherwise you're at the mercy of the hotel. Virtually every airport has the ones where you can convert to anything you have.

I do use the concierge. For years I didn't, but now I’ll pick a specific hotel based on how engaged the concierge is. I've found some of the very best restaurants and gotten great tickets to shows at the eleventh minute in places like Broadway or London strictly because of that.

One time in Tokyo, it was our friend Jeff Wolf’s birthday. I wanted to take him to Sukiyabashi Jiro, the famous three-star Michelin sushi restaurant. We couldn't get in even through the concierge at the Okura Hotel, but they got us into a place called Aragawa.

I did some Googling and at the time it was the most expensive restaurant in the world according to Forbes. To this day, of all the best steakhouses in Dallas, nothing is even twenty percent as good as Aragawa. It is unbelievable. I would have never had it without the concierge.

Mike Putman: What was that tab, if I might ask?

Marc Accetta: It was expensive. For the four of us, it was about forty-five hundred dollars. The steaks were eight hundred each. I'm telling you, it was worth every penny. I know it sounds grossly overpriced, but everyone who loves steak should do that once in their life.

James Ferrara: I agree with you, Marc. "Use the concierge" is something we say here all the time. But of course, it is customary to take care of the concierge a little bit when they find you a good restaurant. You'll find them very eager to take care of you again.

Marc Accetta: It is unbelievable how many travelers wouldn't think to do that. When I was younger, I just didn't know any better. But once you show some appreciation, they really do double down on anything else you need.

Mike Putman: Marc, thanks so much. You've been very gracious with your time here on No Tourists Allowed. I'm sure our listeners appreciated your tips and stories. We'd love to have you back in the future.

Marc Accetta: I would love it. I think what we need to do is bring on Monico Perez. He's probably at two or three million lifetime miles and one of the funniest people on the planet.

Mike Putman: Thanks again, Marc. We look forward to catching up with you in person soon.

Weekly Travel Deals: Air, Rail, and Sea

James Ferrara: We're very happy to have Jessica Deverson with us again this week. Hello there, Jessica.

Jessica Deverson: Hello there, guys.

James Ferrara: Jessica is the deal guru here at No Tourists Allowed. She does us the service every week of culling through all of the deals that come across her desk and curating the best of the best. Jessica, what did you bring for us this week?

Jessica Deverson: I have three great deals for you. We'll start with Southwest Vacations. Southwest is probably a familiar airline, but Southwest Vacations is a great company that incorporates Southwest air.

Right now they're doing an early bird savings event. If you plan ahead, you can save up to $200 on your vacation when you book flights and a hotel package. You can book that anytime between now and mid-November for travel through April of next year. Destinations include US cities, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Hawaii. You’ll need a promo code, so contact your travel advisor to book that.

Mike Putman: When I lived out west, Southwest was very important. The airfares can be very discounted. One of the secrets living in Southern California was that Southwest Vacations was where you went to book your ski packages. If you live in a market where Southwest is a big player and you're a smoker, I suggest you look into those ski packages.

Jessica Deverson: Next up we have Amtrak Vacations, which includes Amtrak rail. They're having a pre-Black Friday sale. It's only October, but we're already talking Black Friday deals.

Amtrak Vacations is your one-stop spot for trips that include the rail, hotel, sightseeing tours, and meals. When you book an Amtrak train, it's so much more than just getting to your destination. You get to stretch out and watch the scenery go by.

With the pre-Black Friday sale, you'll save $300 per couple for three to six-night packages, $400 for seven to nine-night packages, and $500 for ten-night or longer packages. Solo travelers can save anywhere from $150 to $250. This offer is available until November 22nd.

You have tons of destinations to choose from, including national parks like Yosemite, Yellowstone, Bryce Canyon, and Zion. There's a cross-country trip called the California Zephyr, which goes from Chicago to San Francisco.

James Ferrara: I think that this is very cool. We don't often talk about rail vacations. Amtrak Vacations is part of a family of brands that includes Yankee Holidays and Railbookers.

Through those brands, you can even get into Canada and Europe. This is a choice you make for a certain style of holiday—very relaxed. Trains put you in a certain kind of mood.

Mike Putman: Like a sleepy mood?

James Ferrara: Maybe for you, Mike, but trains make you a little romantic. What else you got, Jessica?

Jessica Deverson: Last but not least, we have MSC Cruises. MSC just named their next ship, the MSC World America. She will call the United States home when she debuts in 2025, dedicated to cruising the Caribbean.

Her sister ship, the MSC World Europa, launches this December. MSC was recently nominated for the Travel Weekly Readers' Choice Awards for Best Cruise Line in Europe and Best Private Island. Their island is Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve in the Bahamas.

It's a beautiful destination founded on ecological principles. Right now, MSC has a really great offer: free balcony upgrades plus up to five hundred dollars onboard credit. On top of that, kids sail free.

Mike Putman: That's a killer deal. To get a balcony upgrade, onboard credit, and have your kids go free—that's a heck of a deal. I haven't been to the MSC private island. We just got back from Carnival's private island, Half Moon Cay, and we were all stunned at how beautiful it was.

James Ferrara: MSC is the largest shipping company in the world. They have a massive cruise business in Europe and a shipping business on top. The family that owns MSC really controls the largest shipping company in the world.

A number of years ago, they announced they were going to be spending billions on hardware. They have been stunning the industry with these ships. They are rolling out these beautiful, innovative Italian-design ships. They really did pay off on that promise they made.

Jessica Deverson: It's one of my favorite mass-market cruise lines. They do a really good job with service and food quality.

James Ferrara: For our listeners, if you see a container truck that says MSC on the side, that's the same company.

Mike Putman: And for a really discounted price, you can stay in one of them.

Miami Hotel Reviews: Nobu, Eden Roc, and Value Finds

James Ferrara: No. We were all together recently in one of the most popular destinations in the country: Miami, Florida. Jessica and I attended an event followed by another event Mike and I put together.

We had some really memorable experiences. We started out at the new Nobu Hotel, which is within the legendary Eden Roc hotel. You probably know the hotel next door to the Eden Roc, the Fontainebleau. Back in the fifties and sixties, these were the places to stay.

The Fontainebleau looks spectacular. I did sneak over there for breakfast and it is a world-class property. The Eden Roc, which contains Nobu, is more of a mixed story. I was hosted in a Zen Suite in the Eden Roc tower. The original tower was designed by Morris Lapidus, but the interior has been redone in the style of a Japanese xspa with the Nobu brand.

My room was spectacular. My bathroom was the size of a typical bedroom. I had a TV that comes up out of the cabinet when you press a button, and a wraparound terrace. But the rest of the hotel—a new tower that's not the original—is under the Eden Roc brand. I think we thought that part of the hotel needs a renovation. Wouldn't you say, Jessica?

Jessica Deverson: I would. My room, with no windows and no wrap-around porch, was not quite up to your standard. I will say the service is really great. The staff and employees were really lovely and helpful.

James Ferrara: They tell me that the elevators are the original elevators and they are landmarked, so they're not allowed to upgrade them. Maybe that was true of your room too.

Jessica Deverson: Now I feel special and honored.

James Ferrara: I had some criticisms of the service. It's marketed as a five-star hotel, and I didn't feel the service rose to that level. It's very limited in terms of food venues and the ones there are incredibly expensive.

The Nobu restaurant is spectacular; you'll never get better sushi in the United States. But it is very dear. I also felt the other venue on the property was predatory. It's an indoor-outdoor oceanside space called Ocean Social. Because these hotels were built a hundred years ago, they have the best locations.

The restaurant was beautiful, but it had that South Beach attitude where bottles of water cost what you think a steak should cost. I'm not a big fan. I love the feel of the Nobu side of the hotel, but overall, the Fontainebleau next door was far more impressive.

Mike and I had other business. Since we weren't being hosted, we looked for a real value in South Beach. I'm going to leave the rest of the story to Mike.

Mike Putman: I was looking for a place in South Beach that was a little bit outside of the action, but not too far away. Good value and cheap are not the same thing. I found the Kimpton Palomar at South Beach.

It's on Alton Road. You've got the beach on the east side and the bay on the west side. This is closer to the bay side. Alton Road runs into Lincoln Road, which is a very popular pedestrian mall with tons of shops and restaurants.

I went to one of my travel club sites and found this hotel, which is normally three hundred dollars a night, for a hundred and fifteen dollars a night. It’s a modern hotel with a great restaurant called Morini. The rooms were modern, well-appointed, and spacious. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to avoid the hectic part of South Beach.

James Ferrara: I should clarify there are no paid endorsements on this program. We have no benefit to talk about a particular hotel.

Mike, I was a little suspect when you came back with that rate. I thought I was going to wind up in some scary part of town, but I was dead wrong. You walk out the door and you're at the Lincoln Road Mall.

There's also a part of South Beach I had not visited before: Sunset Harbour. We took some complimentary bikes from the hotel and went on a bike ride to a long, boozy dinner.

The hotel is really designy. They purposely went for a high-style look. There's a rooftop pool and cabanas. It's right on the canal that connects the bay to the ocean. I’d say it was a find. Even the regular rate is quite a bit less than staying on Ocean Drive.

Miami’s Best Eats: Seafood Festivals and Fine Dining

Jessica Deverson: While I was at the conference in Miami, I was invited by Celebrity Cruises to experience the South Beach Seafood Festival. I'm not a huge fan of seafood, but I tried my best to try everything.

There were ten categories, from ceviche to tacos to surf and turf. They had two stellar chefs from South Florida in each category. You went to each booth, tried the dishes, and voted. There was a ton of food, wine, and tequila. It was a really great experience.

James Ferrara: I went out one night to Juvia. It’s a rooftop restaurant and nightclub with Peruvian-Asian fusion food. It's full of beautiful people and turns into a bumping nightclub on the roof of a parking structure.

Another night I went to my favorite restaurant in Miami: The Bazaar by Jose Andres. He and his team are amazing. The Bazaar has two sides to the menu: traditional Spanish tapas and creative contemporary tapas.

The food will blow you away. There is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich made with foie gras. It's full of chemistry and magic, overflowing with smoke and beautiful presentations at the SLS Hotel.

Mike Putman: We went to my favorite restaurant in the world: Joe's Stone Crab. It's in the southern part of South Beach on First Avenue. It's a legendary restaurant that's been open for eighty years.

The service is great. When you go to a place and all the waiters are fifty years old or plus, you know it’s got to be good. They just opened back up for the season on October 14th.

James Ferrara: A restaurant called Joe's Stone Crab is famous for stone crab claws. They come in different sizes: jumbo, colossal. They are pricey, but there are only a few places where you can get the real thing fresh.

Mike Putman: I like it much better than lobster. Mike liked it so much he brought some crab claws back to his hotel mini-fridge. James, as typical, over-ordered. I told him to stop, but he kept going, so I went home with about a hundred and fifty dollars worth of stone crabs.

James Ferrara: That's a little bit of Miami. Sometimes when you go to a destination, look for the neighborhoods you haven't explored yet. Look for alternative places to stay and you might find an incredible way to experience the destination.

Mystery Question and Orlando Prize Giveaway

Mike Putman: I want to remind our listeners we have a contest with a trip to Florida. Go to our site, No Tourists Allowed, and scroll to the bottom to enter our prize giveaway. We're giving away three nights at a Universal resort in Orlando.

You can increase your chances of winning by sharing the podcast, subscribing, and answering our mystery question of the week. James, what is the question?

James Ferrara: Our mystery question of the week is: What is the name of the hotel within the hotel at the famous Eden Roc in Miami Beach?

Mike Putman: Go to notouristsallowed.com, enter your correct answer, and you'll get five additional entries. Thank you very much for listening today. Please tell your friends about our podcast if you like it.

Thank you for listening to No Tourists Allowed.