This week in Travel With Val, NY1's Valarie D’Elia takes a sneak peak of hotspots for the holidays and New Year.
Now that Halloween is behind us, we’re in full blown holiday mode. And the probing question is, have you nailed down your travel plans for the festive season?
If not, travel search engine kayak.com has launched its first-ever “Holiday Travel Hacker” to help you zero in on trending destinations.
The biggest decreases in Christmas airfare over last year are Hong Kong, Rio De Janiero, Tokyo, Bangkok, and Bogota, Colombia.
In the United States, you can save some money over 2014’s pricing by booking a trip to Cleveland and Chicago. While some of these airfares can still be pricey, Kayak says they can be significantly lower than they were last year, especially if you depart on Thursday of Christmas week and return a few days later on Saturday.
This scenario works best on domestic routes that come in at a median price of $412 roundtrip.
As for trending New Year’s destinations, based on the most popular searches, Dubai comes up on top.
Christmas favorites Rio and Tokyo also score with the New Year’s crowd, as does Cartagena, Colombia, Barcelona and Vancouver. What are sought after places to ring out the old in the US?
Atlanta and Chicago figure prominently in New Year’s flight searches.
For the best New Year’s deals domestically, consider departing Wednesday the 30th and returning smack dab on New Year’s Day, for median airfares of $415 roundtrip.
Kayak says there’s still time to snag a lowish airfare for a quick Turkey Day trip within North America if you depart on Thanksgiving Day itself and return Friday, the next day.