Off Season

The wise traveler schedule’s their trips on the off season. January – March is perfect timing for a great deal on a vacation. Although it’s hard if you have full families to coordinate with school schedules, etc, if you can plan it, the best time to take off is now!

What to do:

For skiing and winter adventures, you could go just about anywhere in January. Everything is still open and you may be able find great deals for Canada or Aspen.

Wanting a break from the winter gloom? The Southern hemisphere is having summer! You could go any where from Argentina to New Zealand and find a nice hot spot resort. The Caribbean has great deals on cruises and resorts and even Hawaii has good deals, too.

Looking for just a quick trip? Always look for the next big city near you. Living in Portland, I would be checking out deals for Seattle or even San Francisco. Flights tend to be cheaper making the get-away easier. If I was still in Southern California, I would be looking to the Bay area as well as a Vegas weekend. Many times you can find great combo deals with restaurants and hotels, flights and hotels, or even rental cars and shows.

Recommendations:

For over all ease, go to Kayak.com. This will search several of your favorite bargain hunting sites and tell you who or what has the best deal. If you want things simple, this is your one stop shop.

For best search options, go to Expedia.com. If you want to play with your options from popular routes, flexible dates, or major cities this is the place to play around. You may want to keep track of all the searches you are running so you don’t get lost in your searches, but this definitely has the most possibilities at your finger tips.

For best prices, go to Priceline.com. I have heard great things about the guarantees for Orbitz, but in my personal use, I have found that the best deals I find are on Priceline. They may only differ from site to site by a few dollars, but those extra fees that are tacked on can add up. Plus, who doesn’t like William Shatner fighting for your low prices?

For no nonsense, go to Jetblue.com. If you hate searching through all the competition and want a recommendation for the best airline, my vote is for Jet Blue. Although I have heard horror stories with their customer service, I personally have not needed to use them in that way. I would highly recommend keeping an eye on your luggage, but you can ensure a very comfortable flight. They now fly out of most major cities and regardless of the length of the flight they all have personal TVs with many channels, more leg room, and they still give you drinks and cookies! Other airlines are trying to do this more, so I have had success with Delta and even Alaska Air wasn’t bad, however the clear cut winner for a great flight is Jet Blue.

Happy jet setting this “off” season!