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There are the big and mostly obvious ways to earn points and miles — such as through credit card bonuses and spending, and, of course, on actual travel. But there are plenty of other easy-to-miss ways to earn rewards, too.
From dining programs to Lyft rides, Starbucks reloads and so much more, you can earn points and miles in places you might not expect.
And recently, for me, one of those places was on a private boat excursion in the middle of a bioluminescent bay during a trip to Grand Cayman.
Taking good photos of the bioluminescent bay in the dark turned out to be … impossible. But earning a few thousand Marriott Bonvoy points on the boat ride was shockingly easy.
Here’s how I did it: Marriott has what it calls a Marriott Tours and Activities site where you can book excursions around the world and earn, or even use, Marriott points in the process.
Marriott doesn’t operate these attractions and tours itself; instead, it serves as a third-party broker or aggregator. Some of the types of activities I’ve seen available to book through the site include:
- Snorkeling trips
- Walking tours
- Boat and fishing trips
- Food tours
- Historical tours
If you want to redeem Marriott points to cover one of these tours or activities, based on my test searches, you can currently do so at a rate of 0.4 cents per point.
That means it would take 25,000 Marriott points to pay for a $100 activity. TPG values Marriott points at 0.75 cents each when used for travel (based on September 2026 TPG valuations), so that’s not mathematically the all-time best redemption value with your Marriott points, but it is an option.
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But you can also earn Marriott points, like I did, at a rate of 5 points per dollar spent.
Booking a private boat to see the bioluminescent bay in Grand Cayman for my group of five didn’t cost any more per person than a group tour, so we booked that for $600, earning 3,000 bonus Marriott points we otherwise would have left on the table.
In fact, booking directly with the company we used would have cost the same as booking via Marriott, so these were really just points waiting to be earned.
Unfortunately, while the charge appeared on my statement as Marriott Bonvoy Hallandale Beach, Florida, it did not post as a Marriott purchase to earn bonus points on my Marriott credit card.
Instead, on my transaction, it coded as entertainment – general attractions. So, you may want to pay with a card that offers a strong return on everyday spending or one that earns bonus rewards on entertainment.
Bottom line
Earning 5 bonus Marriott points per dollar on tours and activities isn’t going to change the trajectory of your points and miles earnings. But I’m of the mindset that every point counts, especially when it doesn’t cost anything extra to earn them and doesn’t add any real hassle to my life.
Marriott Tours and Activities checked all of those boxes for me. I paid the same price I would have paid by booking directly and walked away with 3,000 extra Marriott points for a pretty memorable boat ride to see the bioluminescent bay that I was going to book anyway.
