Perhaps the best way to approach holiday travel is not to travel specifically for the holiday.
If you were planning to book a trip specifically for Thanksgiving, we’re sorry to tell you that, according to travel pricing site FareCompare, the best time to book a trip was back on September 22. FareCompare chief executive Rick Seaney notes that after that date, prices for flights climbed $3 a day through September. Even worse, that price increase jumped to $5 a day for October. That’s a whole lot of people scrambling for the least bad deal at a time when everyone is frazzled.
Last year, 43% of travelers surveyed by TripAdvisor said they expected to be stressed out by their winter holiday trips. That doesn’t include the 31% of travelers who were already stressed out by their Thanksgiving travel. The cost of those trips — estimated at an average of $436 per person — didn’t help, especially after rising from $401 in 2013. It also doesn’t help that, on Thanksgiving, everybody wants to fly out on Wednesday, November 25 and get home on Sunday, November 29.
If you don’t have to join these people, please avoid doing so. If there isn’t a grandma’s house to go to or dinner waiting, the world is your Thanksgiving feast to consume at your leisure. Seaney notes that Thanksgiving Day itself is one of the cheapest days of the year for departing flights, with Monday, Nov. 23 and Tuesday, Nov. 24 also providing some savings. Meanwhile, if you’re good with returning on Tuesday, Dec. 1, you’ll get one of the best deals available. If not, coming back on Monday, Nov. 30 also helps.How much does any of this cut costs? Well, Seaney notes that Wednesday-to-Sunday round-trip Thanksgiving flights from Los Angeles to New York were already clocking in at $746 on October 5. However, a Tuesday to Monday flight dropped that price to $643, while a Thursday-to-Sunday flight went for $637. The best deal on the table, a Thursday-to-Monday flight, cost just $510, or $236 less.
If none of that appeals to you, the absolute last cheap travel stretch on the calendar comes just after that during the first two weeks of December. Sandwiched between Thanksgiving and Christmas, nobody is flying during those two weeks unless a person absolutely has to, which leaves a whole lot of deals on the table for vacationers without pressing holiday travel plans.
We consulted with folks at FareCompare, travel deals site SmarterTravel and TripAdvisor vacation rentals to see where some of the best destinations for Thanksgiving-adjacent travel might be. If you grab a passport and are somewhat pliable about where you end up, you might find deals in the following locales:
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