Traveling During Labour Day

Before the kids head back to school, the Labour Day long weekend is the last chance to escape for a while before the end of summer official hits and fall sneaks up on us. When it comes to Labor Day, it is the last big holiday before the kids go back to school so you can expect a lot of family travel. Due to this, locations that feature theme parks, beaches, or other family friendly type getaways will be extremely busy. If you are just going away for the weekend then you will want to stay somewhere close to home so then you do not have to worry too much about time changes and jetlag. States that will usually have more families travelling to them during this time will be California, Washington DC, Florida, Hawaii, and New York but this does not mean you should skip them all together as there are lots of other airports to fly into which you may have more luck with.

For adults, my top recommendation would be to aim for Wine Country or something more history / culture based. California has a great wine country with airports close by so you can skip LAX and Anaheim’s airports which may give you better flight prices. If you are wanting a different wine country then check out Walla Walla in Washington State, the Wine Trail in Virginia, Fredericksburg in Texas, Palisade’s in Colorado, or one of the many Wine Trails that Ohio has to offer. You could also head to Georgia for golf, Louisiana for culture & food that will make you feel like you are in a different country, try Connecticut’s casinos instead of Vegas, and New Hampshire for the fall colours coming in as summer starts to fade.

If you have kids, a road trip can always be a fun exploration and even with gas prices being as high as they are it will probably be cheaper than flying especially if you are a family of four. Minnesota has views of the great lakes and you can pop up into Canada, Texas is massive with lots to explore, Utah has gorgeous rock faces and landscapes, Louisiana has a lot of elevated highways that travel over swampland which can provide some unique views, North Carolina has the Blue Ridge Parkway that winds through the mountains, Oregon is one of my favorite as the drive along Highway 101 is gorgeous, and of course you could always try to recreate the iconic Route 66.

Another option no matter your family status is a Staycation. Take a look of the map of your area and find a town or city you have never been to. Jump online and do some research to see what you could do in town, where to stay, what it is known for, and maybe there will be multiple towns that you could work into a little itinerary. If you do not live in the main city then maybe head there and be a tourist in your own city. After all the larger cities usually have something touristy to do and most people who live in these areas never do them so now is your chance!

When it comes to saving money on airfare, if you have not already booked a flight then see what seat sales the airlines that fly out of the airports closest are having. If there are no seat sales and you have flexibility with your dates then play around with those. If there is another airport not far from you then check out the prices there as well. You could also see if there are any perks on your credit card or if you collect reward points for the airline, see how many points you need to redeem to get your flight and find out how much money you would need to spend to purchase the points needed for the free flight. Sometimes you would be surprised that buying points to purchase the flight is actually cheaper than buying the flight outright.

For hotels, they usually have last minute deals so if you can leave booking the hotel to the night before you will get a better deal than booking a week out. You could also try trusted travel sites like Hopper, SnapTravel, Travelocity, Expedia, etc to see if they have any deals. If you are having to travel for business or a funeral then hotels will also sometimes have special rates for this so you could call the hotel directly (not the reservation phone number) and ask if there is anything they can do with the price.