If you are a traveller -- and you wouldn't be reading this if you aren't -- then you welcome Labor Day not as the end of the summer but as the beginning of the travel bargain season. This is the time of year to save green.Labor Day is the day rates drop for hotel rooms and airplane seats. The travel industry calls it 'shoulder season', but don't ask me why or how it got that name. It's low season through mid-November, when prices rise again for the high-priced holidays.
So, here are some great travel deals to take advangtage of -- quick -- before they disappear:
Delta Air Lines has put Hawaii on sale. If you book before Sept. 18th, you can fly for as low as $299 each way between the Mainland and either Honolulu or Kona.
Virgin Atlantic has put London on sale. You can hop across the pond before Oct. 18th for as liittle as $696 round trip from NYC or Boston, $806 from Miami and Orlando, and $950 from Los Angeles. The price is even lower for travel after zoct. 18th.
African Travel, Inc., which specializes in luxury African safaris, is offering free round trip air fare to Africa -- worth more than $1,500 -- from October through December. Choose from a 12-day trip to South Africa and Victoria Falls, or 13 days in Northern Tanzania. Accommodations are in luxury camps, and you'll get the chance to see the Big Five, which incudes elephants, lions and rhinos. It's an amazing experience.
Or, head for the Caribbean in January, when it's warm and sunny and the holiday crowds have left and you have the beach to yourself. Reserve any time this month to save 25% at The Reef Resort in the Grand Cayman islands.
You don't need a US Passport to visit the US Virgin Islands. where most of the top resorts are offering five nights for the price of four between January 1 and March 31, 2009. Just make your reservation before Oct 31, and this travel bargain also includes $300 in travelers checks, and a coupon book with savings on activities and attractions.
Here are just some of the USVI luxury resorts on the islands of St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas joining in this offer this fifth-night-free deal --
- The Palms at Pelican Cove, Chenay Bay Beach Resort,
- Carambola Beach Resort & Spa,
- Divi Carina Bay Resort,
- Hibiscus Beach Resort,
- Sand Castle on the Beach,
- The Buccaneer,
- Best Western Emerald Beach,
- The Ritz-Carlton, St. Thomas,
- Frenchman’s Reef & Morning Star Marriott Beach Resort,
- Sapphire Beach Resort and Sapphire Village,
- Wyndham Sugar Bay Resort & Spa on St. Thomas.
Travel green and save green during shoulder season.
