Ginger on the Go

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Winter Weekends to Travel on a Budget!

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This post has been updated for Winter 2018! Start booking your winter travel now!

When people think of Winter travel, their first thought is usually traveling home for the holidays. Approximately 100 million Americans travel for the Winter holidays! If you’re one of them, you know all about the stress and holiday drama. With limited vacation time, I was one of these travelers trekking halfway across the country to see family for what was cut to a mere 30 hour trip after severe delays. Though there are many pleasures that come from traveling home for the holidays, there’s no denying it is best summarized as stressful. In addition to being overwhelmed by the stress of holiday travel, the past few Winters were particularly brutal in the Northeast. After 9 years of living in NYC I finally bought one of those gigantic puffy winter coats, which looks and feels like you’re walking around in a sleeping bag. Last Winter I escaped for ONE night to Florida. This Winter, I knew I needed more. My goal was a monthly weekend getaway somewhere warm and on a BUDGET! These are the best Winter Weekends to travel in 2017! For additional tips on how to maximize your time off head over to MVMT Blog’s How You can Travel 120 Days Each Year With a Full Time Job. 

January  Winter Weekends

Dec 29 – 31  EXPENSIVE!!! People are returning from their holiday trips this weekend. Flights are more than double!! I worked some OT instead while everyone else was traveling to save up for future trips.

Jan 5-7 GO GO GO!! Everyone is just getting back from holiday travels and too tired for a trip this weekend. If you didn’t have to travel to see family, GO NOW!! It is the perfect time to relax and refresh after the not so restful holiday break! We chose the lovely Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, FL. It was a quick two day trip, but we made the most of it. Lunch and dinner out, a quick trip to Miami, hours on the beach, and an underwater photo shoot! My roundtrip NYC –> FLL flight was under $200!!

Jan 12-14 NO NO NO!! Holiday Weekend! Resorts will be full and prices high! I don’t even get MLK day off!! Although I have seen some deals to the Caribbean for this time period, as most people won’t fly there just for a weekend.

Jan 19-21 YELLOW LIGHT! This isn’t the worst weekend for travel, but some travelers extend their MLK day trip for the week, and it will be a little busier than usual.

Jan 26-28 GO GO GO!! Another great weekend for weekend travel!

A cool underwater shot from my Polaroid Cube!

A cool underwater shot from my Polaroid Cube!

February Winter Weekends

Feb 2-4 GO GO GO!! Not a football fan? Another optimal travel weekend is Super Bowl Weekend, to a destination where the Super Bowl is not taking place. Book your return flight during the Super Bowl. Just be prepared for some grumpy passengers who accidentally booked this flight and are missing the game! I did this unintentionally one year. Fortunately, the game was of no interest to me. The men who must have accidentally booked this weekend were glued to the TV in the airport sports bar until seconds before last call. They missed most of the game and finally figured out why their flights were so cheap!

Feb 9-11 Yellow Light!! Lovebirds will be traveling to celebrate Valentine’s Day a little early.  

Feb 16-19 EXPENSIVE!! President’s Day weekend, and the start of Winter break for some school districts. Be prepared for the crowds and higher prices. The most common week for a Winter break is the week of President’s Day. The NYC DOE observes this week off (did you know it started as a way to save money on heating? If they shut the schools down for a week during the coldest part of winter, they would save money on heating costs).

Feb 23-25 Yellow Light!! NYC Winter breakers are still enjoying their time off and will be heading back this weekend. Places will be a little more crowded and travel a little more expensive.

March Winter Weekends

March 2-4 A GREAT CHOICE! Just don’t photobomb my pics, because this is when I’ll be traveling next. Winter will have exhausted us by this point, and a quick getaway before the flowers start to bloom is in order. 

March 9-11 Go Go GO!! This should be another quiet travel weekend in the US.

March 16-18 Yellow Light!! Some cities in the US will be having St. Patrick’s Day festivities, and some colleges might be having Spring Break which could make travel more expensive. 

March 23 – 25  Go Go GO!!  Technically it is the first weekend of Spring. Sometimes students will be on Spring Break this weekend, but for 2018 it is clear! Easter & Passover fall a bit later, so this weekend is another great travel weekend. 

March 30 – April 8  Don’t Travel This is when many of America’s youth will be out of school for the holidays. If you are childfree, stick to adult only venues for this time period if you’d like some peace and quiet!

Hopefully these tips help you find great savings and plan a peaceful weekend winter getaway to a warm destination! If not this year, it is never too soon to star thinking about next year. We’ve already broken all of our New Year’s resolutions anyway, right?

Until next time....

Until next time….

Where are you headed this Winter? 

 

 

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. This is great advice! Thanks for sharing some of these tips about dates – sometimes I forget to check holiday weekends and wonder why the HECK it’s so much more expensive on those days!

  2. Oh wow, this is surprisingly logical and useful — why isn’t this kind of post more common in the blogosphere? Kudos on being something I benefit from reading, haha. That’s a rare find these days!

  3. Great timeframe advice! This is so true when visiting any area near me in Florida as well (hello house of mouse) so much better to avoid the crowds!

  5. Interesting post 🙂 I think we are very blessed here in Europe to pretty much always find a cheap flight to a nearby European country – even on Christmas, Valentine’s Day etc. there is always a great last-minute deal available. I love your photos! Especially the Yoga pose 😉

  7. Interesting! I will say that I usually go down to Florida for MLK weekend and I’ve always been able to get good deals, but maybe I’ve just been lucky. Great photos!

  8. A very useful post for people in America I’m sure, in England we have certain weekends that are much better to travel and it’s good to check first! Looks like you had a great time in your photos 🙂

  14. Love this list!!! You are so right! I love finding “off peak” times to fly- you never know what kind of deal you can get. We just returned from a trip to Ireland- our tickets were under $300 round trip… TO EUROPE!! How crazy is that! Now you have me ready to plan our next trip!
    http://beyondblessedblog.com/

  16. This is really helpful for anyone traveling this winter! I used to have to fight for a week’s vacation (even though I was supposed to have 2 weeks) and each year I would have to spend my vacation visiting family across the country. It was nice seeing them, but it would have been nice to spend it somewhere exotic! I should have looked into more weekend trips during these dates! We are in the States most of January so we will also use this to plan any weekend getaways! P.S. noticed you were reading Americana in your photo, I loved that book!

  17. You’re right, just after the festive season around 6th of January is a perfect time to travel- I was thinking of going to Brussels then. But Europe can be cold at that time of year! March would be a welcome break too, look forward to your travels!

  19. I don’t watch the super bowl and didn’t even realize it’d be a good time to travel! Now I know! Thanks for sharing! I need to go google some trips now… haha

  20. these are great tips!! I love how you Incorporated the yellow,red,green lights hahahah youre always in the know when is the greatest time to travel.. and for cheap!

  21. I am loving that hat Steph! You look fabulous. Thanks so much for sharing these great tips. I wasn’t able to take a vacation at the end of the year, but I love your suggestion about the 2nd week in January. I’ll have to start pricing flights.

  22. This is a good little list. I hadn’t really thought about it, but gotta look ahead and figure everyone has the same days off. Go Go Go! hahaha love it.

  24. Nice list! My husband and I planned to go to Armenia to experience snow for this holiday but didn’t materialize. So we stayed here in Abu Dhabi UAE and just have a little breeze of cold air.

    This post, gives us an idea for Jan – March 2017! Thank you!

    God Bless!

    JM Kayne http://www.iamjmkayne.com

  26. Such a lot of great travel advice in here. I love nothing better than escaping the cold and chasing the sun in January. this year I’m heading south to Guatamala. Bring on the sunshine 🙂

  27. Wow what a great guide for budget travelers. I’m excited to be back from Korea/school schedule now as I have wayyyy more flexibility with my travel schedule! I’m excited to hear about your upcoming travels. 🙂

    • I initially wrote this post last year and then revamped it for 2017. I’m amazed at how much my life has changed in a year. I am no longer limited to ten days of vacation a year! It’s amazing. So weekends are less important, but it is still good info to have as most people still work the Mon – Fri 9-5 grind.

  29. For Winter we will go freeze in the Nordic countries!
    Can’t wait!
    Great idea to have a getaway monthly. I can understand it is harder in America and Canada to travel to nice destinations that is in another country. Since I moved to Asia and now Middle East, travelling to a new country is so much easier than booking a flight Montreal-NYC for example at 400 bucks…. Good if you can find budget flights but I think it’s still too expensive to fly in the US and Canada…