The holiday season, starting from Thanksgiving up through the New Year, is a notoriously expensive time to plan a vacation.
“It’s a case of supply versus demand,” said Dr. Rummy Pandit, the executive director of the Lloyd D. Levenson Institute of Gaming, Hospitality and Tourism at Stockton University in New Jersey. “Many people have time off during the holidays and want to get away, and, in turn, hotels charge premium prices. In fact, rates in high demand destinations can be four times than what they usually are.”
But there is a flip side: Dr. Pandit said that you can go on a fun-filled getaway for a good value if you do the research to find one. There are deals to be had if you look in the right places, and more destinations than ever want to lure budget-minded travelers for a late-year getaway. Here are some of them.
An affordable winter wonderland in Rhode Island
Summer is the peak tourist season in Newport, R.I., but prices go down in winter, and there’s still a lot to see and do.
Newport’s Gilded Age mansions are open daily in the winter season, and you can see them decked out for the holidays from Nov. 17 to Jan. 1 with thousands of poinsettias, fresh flowers, evergreens and wreaths.
Hotels in town significantly discount their prices in winter. For example, Firehouse Inn, originally the 1888 Newport fire department building, has rooms starting at $139 a night, compared with $450 in the summer. Rose Island Lighthouse, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has bookings at an average rate of $139 a night, compared with peak season rates of $249. By Shivani Vora