Fall Travel For The Win

Five Reasons Why Fall Travel Is Better

In the Northern Hemisphere, peak travel season is typically June through August. This is when the weather is warmest for spending time outdoors and kids are out of school and available for travel. That might not actually be the best time for travel. When planning your next trip, consider fall travel instead.

Travel guru Rick Steves talks about shoulder seasons. These fall in the spring and fall, the three months before and after the peak season. Both have their perks, but fall offers some advantages that spring simply does not.

Fall colors

When you think of fall, you immediately conjure mental pictures of painted landscapes of reds, golds, browns, and purples. Green trees in parks and in the mountains are lovely but not nearly as lovely as when they begin to change for fall. And think of the images you will capture with your camera as you stroll along a path sprinkled with leaves!

Cheaper prices

The travel industry is profitable during the peak season. Have you ever tried to book a beach house in the summer? When they are available, they are often thousands of dollars for a weekend. By contrast, prices are much more reasonable if you don’t mind adjusting your vacation time.

Many airlines, hotels, ect. offer deals during this time that sometimes seem too good to be true. That is why we suggest getting on the email distribution lists of airlines who fly to destinations you are interested in. These deals don’t last long, and you won’t want to miss them.

Less crowded

During the fall, children are back to school, and adults are back to work. If you like to avoid the crowds, this is your chance. During a shoulder season trip to Paris, we were able to skip the lines for museums and other attractions and be seated immediately at our favorite cafes. It also afforded us the opportunity to observe real Parisians, and not other tourists, in their natural states as they go about their lives.

Cooler Temperatures

One summer our family traveled to Milan, Italy. It was July, and the temperatures were in the 90s every day. It was miserably sweltering for us as we were coming from Germany where the temperatures were a lot more, well, temperate. We still enjoyed a walking tour of the city and a hike up the stairs to the top of the Duomo, but we resolved that the next time we returned to Italy would be in a cooler time of year.

Warm Ocean Water

A friend of Erica’s mother managed a bank in Ohio. As the manager, Sue was often forced to postpone her own vacation time until October while she allowed her employees the summer months to vacation with their children. This actually worked to her advantage. Not only did Sue avoid the crowds and save money on her yearly trip to Myrtle Beach by traveling in the fall, but the water in the Atlantic Ocean was still warm from the months of summer sun.

We recommend travel at any time of the year, but when you are able to schedule your trips for the fall, you can tap into the financial and natural advantages of the season, perhaps making your trip all the more enjoyable.