Cheap Airfare - Travel Deals

Although the fall is usually thought of as a “shoulder season” – not the high season, not the low season, but somewhere in between – it’s becoming more popular for people travel in the fall. With prices typically lower than in the high season and weather still on the nice side, the shoulder seasons are probably the best in terms of what you get for your money, so it’s easy to understand why it’s gaining in popularity – even though summer travel will probably always be the busiest.

If you’re looking for fall travel deals to places that are getting more popular in the fall, then, it’s important to plan ahead a little bit more just to make sure you don’t pay more for your trip than you should. Because that would sort of defeat the whole purpose of taking a shoulder season trip, wouldn’t it?

Here are a few tips to help you avoid paying a fortune for your fall trip, especially if you’re visiting a place that’s particularly popular in the fall.

>> Here are more tips to finding cheap fall airfare

While summer trips may be what you hear people talking about most often, ask anyone who travels frequently when they prefer to get out of town and it’s very likely they’ll mention any season except summer. Sure, summer weather can be great, but summer travel also typically comes with higher prices and bigger crowds – two things frequent travelers like to avoid whenever they can.

The good news is that planning a trip in the fall (especially the early fall) means you get to skip the biggest crowds and highest prices – and, in many cases, you still get fantastic weather to boot. Of course, the word is getting out, so fall travel deals aren’t always as easy to find as they used to be. Don’t get caught paying more for your fall trip than you should – here are some ways to help you save money on fall airfare.

For anyone who’s even remotely fond of giant cultural celebrations that also serve as non-stop parties, the Oktoberfest party in Munich every year should be on your lifetime to-do list. The trouble is that Oktoberfest is on so many people’s lists that it has become over the years an incredibly popular festival for travelers. And any time there’s a popular festival that people are willing to travel for, you can pretty much count on airfare to go up as a result.

There are a few things you can do to make sure you’re getting a better deal on airfare to Oktoberfest, though, so that you’re not stuck paying full price on a plane ticket – you have enormous beers to spend that money on, my friend!

The tips below should help you find cheap airfare to Oktoberfest, and the good news is that many of them will help you find cheap airfare no matter where or when you’re traveling. When you’re going to a popular location or a big festival like Oktoberfest, however, it’s even more important to keep tips like this in mind.

>> Oktoberfest in Munich is from September 22 to October 7 in 2012
>> Don’t miss this guide to Oktoberfest in Munich

When you start looking at all the great summer music festivals that take place from April to September, you may begin to think it’s possible to go from one to another without ever going home or having a day off. And when you’re talking about long festivals like the excellent Summerfest in Milwaukee, you’d even have time to settle in to your temporary residence before moving on to the next big festival.

Milwaukee’s 11-day Summerfest takes you through the end of June into the start of July, and even spans July 4th – so it’s like two parties rolled into one. But unless you already live in Milwaukee or relatively close by, you’ll need to start thinking about flying there pretty much as soon as you’ve decided to attend the festival.

Because this is a summer festival we’re talking about, and because summer in the U.S. is such a popular time to travel, that can mean that prices on airfare are higher. Routinely higher summer fares shouldn’t be the thing that keeps you from going to Summerfest, however, and the tips outlined below will help you find cheap airfare to Summerfest. Not only that, most of these tips are handy enough they’ll help you find cheap airfare to just about anywhere at just about any time you’re traveling.

>> When is Summerfest in Milwaukee? In 012, it’s from June 27 – July 8 (closed Monday)

You don’t have to be an adventurous traveler who gets away somewhere new every single year to plan a non-traditional honeymoon trip. Sure, a honeymoon in Italy or Hawaii might be the kind of thing little girls dream about when they think about the honeymoon they’ll take one day, but it doesn’t take a genius to realize that when a destination is incredibly popular as a honeymoon spot then it’s more likely to be a costlier vacation. So if you’re traveling on a budget, you may need to look elsewhere on the globe.

Does taking a budget honeymoon mean you’re stuck spending your first days as a married couple in Kansas City or Cleveland? Absolutely not. There are all kinds of locations around the world that are plenty romantic but won’t break the bank – and what’s more, they’ll set you apart from all your other newly married friends because they’re atypical honeymoon destinations.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of cheap honeymoon destinations, but this list should get you brainstorming other places you could go for your honeymoon that are the ideal combination of having a romantic atmosphere and being budget-friendly.

The summer calendar is full of music festivals, but some stand out more than others. (And, as an aside, why do they all seem to have names that are impossible to spell?) The Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival is just one of the many fantastic multi-day music fests that take place during the summer, but this one usually has such an incredible lineup of performers that it’s a must-see for any serious music fan.

What makes it a little challenging, however, is that at first glance you’ll likely say, “Wait – Manchester, Tennessee? Where’s that?”

Unlike some summertime festivals, Bonnaroo takes place in a Tennessee city that – at any other time of year – has a population of just over 8,000. Since Bonnaroo started rolling into town in 2002, however, the local population is dwarfed for a few days each June by the number of festival-goers. In 2009, for instance, there were around 75,000 people who came in for the festival.

If you’re one of the people who’s planning a trip to the Bonnaroo Festival in 2010, then, you’ll want to be a savvy traveler – because obviously there are thousands of others who might just beat you to the cheapest fares. So here are the tips you’ll need to know to find cheap airfare to Bonnaroo.

>> Bonnaroo runs from June 7-12, 2012

The world outside your window may look like a winter wonderland right now, but if you’re one of the hundreds of thousands of people (some projections are for more than a million to show up!) planning to go to South Africa for the World Cup in the summer of 2010 and you haven’t already booked your trip – what are you waiting for?

Seriously, we know that summer 2010 may feel like it’s really far away right now, but it’s not as far away as you think. And when an event of this magnitude only happens every four years, you can bet that people in the travel industry – including the airlines – have been planning for it for a lot longer than you have. What’s more, they’ve been jacking up their prices on flights to South Africa, since they know so many people will be going.

Now, if you’re one of the lucky people who got tickets to World Cup games in the lottery, then you’re going to be buying airline tickets to South Africa no matter what. But wouldn’t it be great not to pay a king’s ransom for them? Yes. Yes, it would.

Here are our tips for finding cheap airfare to the World Cup in South Africa in 2010.