Planning to visit Grandma's for Thanksgiving or spend Christmas in Rome? Traveling over the holidays can be notoriously busy, expensive and stressful, but the news isn't all bad. There are still deals to be found, provided you shop carefully and plan ahead. Check out our 10 tips for holiday travel and find some joy this holiday season.
1. Avoid peak travel dates.At Thanksgiving, Wednesday is the critical outbound "avoid" day as a rule. Traveling on Thanksgiving day proper is often a breeze and more affordable; there are often cut-rate airfare deals on Thanksgiving day. If you can fly home any day other than Sunday, you'll likely pay less.
At Christmas and New Year's, the peak travel dates change each year depending on which days the holidays fall. You can generally guess which dates will be the most expensive for travel (consider which travel days would allow you to maximize long weekends without taking too many days off work -- and that's probably when everyone will want to go). If you're not sure, use a search engine that lets you put in flexible travel dates; these will show you which date combinations will give you the best deal."
Read the rest of the article by Ed Hewitt at The Independent Traveller.