Summer vacation is over and children are back in school, but for people who have the flexibility to travel in autumn, this season can be a good one for bargain hunters.
“We find a lot of people putting off trips until after the kids are back in school, so they can take advantage of better prices,” said Orla Carey, spokeswoman for the Irish Tourist Board. “Also, we now see people taking second vacations in this season.”
Nigel Osborne, president of Insight International Tours in Boston, said: “We think of fall as a switch-over time in travel. People are not quite sure of what they want. Most of the buying is impulsive, or semi-impulsive.”
Barbara M. Loosbrock, an agent at Classic Travel in Madison, N.J., confirmed the “fall impulse” theory, saying that people shifted fall plans frequently, particularly this year because of the weather.
“Right now,” Loosbrock said in mid-September, “everything is upside down while we route people away from the storms.” She said that Cancun, with its vast supply of hotel rooms, was drawing travelers who had initially planned to go to the Caribbean. Six- and seven-night packages from Apple Vacations in Newtown Square, Pa., or Friendly Holidays in Lake Success, N.Y., were selling well, she added, at $399 to $450 a person, with two in a room, including air fare from Newark and accommodations at modest hotels; at better hotels, the prices start at $500.
Hurricanes aside, fall brings good traveling weather to many destinations. Carey said that that was typically true of Ireland, and that the only drawback was the shorter days common to the northern latitudes.
Here are some samples of values for the season. The prices quoted do not include any applicable departure taxes, airport charges, customs or immigration fees. Hotel taxes are included.
Bermuda, having escaped all but a brush with early storms, has been offering low air fares and hotel rates. In September, Continental, USAir and American were offering round-trip air fare from New York for $198; after that, Continental and USAir’s customary fares from New York for this season returned: $273 to $320, depending on the day of the week.
Gogo Tours has Bermuda packages for October with two nights and three days starting at $335 a person and going to $675, depending on accommodations, with travel on American Airlines, transfers to and from the airports, and hotels ranging from the nine-room Valley Cottages to the 600-room Southampton Princess, or their equivalents, with two in a room. A package for six nights starts at $539 and rises to $1,539.
In November, prices per person for the same two-night packages with air fare drop to a range of $319 to $419, and for the six-night packages with air fare, from $489 to $779. The Southampton Princess does not participate in this later program until Nov. 26.
Gogo Tours are sold by local Liberty Travel agencies.
Aer Lingus is offering Discover Ireland fly-drive packages starting in November for $42 a person a day in double occupancy, or $252 a person for six nights. Air fare, a rental car and a choice of 1,000 B&B accommodations are included.
The line’s Dublin Fall Escape covers air fare for flights leaving on Thursday and returning on Monday, three nights in a Dublin hotel and airport transfers. The price from Nov. 1 to Dec. 14 is $589 a person, two to a room; after Jan. 15, the price is $529.
Atlantic Golf in Westport, Conn., is selling six nights at a choice of four hotels: three in County Kerry and one in County Clare. The price per person for two or four people traveling together is $1,325. That price includes five rounds of golf on a choice of courses, a rental car and five breakfasts. The package is not available between Dec. 16 and Jan. 9. For information, contact Atlantic Golf at 203-454-0090.
Aer Lingus has special fares until Oct. 14: $398 for a midweek round trip from New York or Boston to Shannon, $418 to Dublin or Belfast; the period for travel is Nov. 1 to Dec. 10.
At Insight Tours, Osborne said he considered his eight-night Treasures of Egypt a good buy: $1,825 a person for departures from New York from Nov. 7 to Dec. 5. This provides travel on KLM and four nights in Cairo at Sheraton or Marriott hotels, with two to a room, and four nights on a Nile cruise aboard the Nile Beauty or the Nile Romance, both operated by Epirotiki. Travelers fly to pick up the cruise, either in Luxor or Aswan, and fly back to Cairo after disembarking. Eight breakfasts, four lunches and three dinners are included.
Osborne, formerly president of Trafalgar Tours in New York, said that KLM offered a particularly good air fare because Insight was producing a lot of business for the airline. After the KLM discount, he said, he negotiated with the hotels anew, coming up with a package under $2,000. From January to March the price is $1,899, and for the Dec. 12 and 19 departures it is $1,950.
Insight Tours: 800-582-8380 or 617-482-2000.
For coupon fans, this is the season when Entertainment Travel Editions are published, providing discounts at hotels, restaurants and attractions in a particular area, or a whole country.
For the second year, discounts on American Airlines flights are provided, along with the Continental domestic coupons that have been included for several years. American does not permit its coupons to be used on flights from its hubs, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Chicago, Miami and San Juan. Continental limits to $35 the value of a coupon used to fly out of Houston.
The American coupons, four in all, are valid for discounts of $25 on a round trip costing $150 to $249, $50 for one costing $250 to $349, and $75 on a round trip costing $350 or more. Each coupon will provide discounts for four people on the same itinerary. One coupon is usable for travel to Hawaii, Mexico or the Caribbean; one for travel to Europe, except for destinations or terminations at Kennedy International Airport and Brussels, Zurich or Paris. Two coupons are usable for travel to anywhere in the lower 48 states or Canada.
Continental’s coupons provide $35 off the price of a round trip costing $200 to $299, $60 off a round trip costing $300 to $449, and $100 off a higher-priced ticket.
Both sets of coupons have blackout dates and other small type. They expire Dec. 15, 1996.
These coupons are available in most, but not all, Entertainment books, which cost $28 to $48, depending on locale. Employees in large companies sometimes sell these books; they can be ordered by telephone, with a Visa or Mastercard, from 800-445-4137. The mailing address is P.O. Box 1068, Trumbull, Conn. 06611.
