ATLANTIS FOR LESS: Save big at the Comfort Suites. (
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Airline mergers, high fuel prices, European economies on the fritz — you name it, it’s happening, and — hurray — all just in time for the start of summer. What to do, right? Run under the sprinkler in the backyard, and call it vacation, maybe? Well, yes, do that anyway, because it’s awesome, but also don’t give up on traveling, because there are plenty of destinations that won’t break the bank. Here, a few great ideas to get you motivated.
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SPLASH AROUND IN THE BAHAMAS Kids — and parents who act like kids — flip for the insanely cool water parks at Atlantis, on pretty Paradise Island. But why pay the going rate when you can check in next door at the perfectly-fine Comfort Suites Paradise Island, where guests receive wristbands that allow them into Atlantis attractions? You’ve got to book this week and travel June 19-Aug. 31, but $678 per person for four nights at the Comfort Suites, including air from New York, makes planning ahead worthwhile. Find this one at cheapcaribbean.com.
2YOU’RE GOING TO DISNEYLAND No, seriously. It’s enough already with the Orlando and the sweating and the riding of buses for days and the walking 12 miles to get anywhere. Not that better weather and everything in closer proximity are all that Anaheim’s got going for it — there is of course Disneyland the park, more magnificent in every way than the Magic Kingdom. (True fact. If you’ve been, you know.) And there is also the small matter of the $200 million, 12-acre Cars Land opening June 15 at better-than-ever Disney’s California Adventure. Really — you’d best go, or we’re telling the kids you’re holding out on them. Affordable rates at park-adjacent, friendly motels like the Park Vue Inn make the idea easy to swallow — we found rooms for just $149 a night
in July (anaheimoc.org).
3BUNDLE UP AND HEAD FOR EUROPE The days of DIY on the Continent aren’t necessarily over, but they’re definitely on break, unless you’re made of the kind of money that a simple roundtrip ticket to Paris requires. But if you’re willing to bundle up your air and hotel and maybe some of your ground activities, you can still get in the door for a whole bunch less than if you tried to go it alone. Take Italy (please!). Starting at $1,349 per person in August, reliable bargain source Go Today is offering a flight (Air Berlin, stopping over in Germany both ways) and six nights in a clean, modern hotel in Rome. Breakfast included, no less (go-today.com).
4KICK IT OLD SCHOOL With fares to places people want to go soaring into the four-digit range, what’s a few gallons of gas, right? It’s time to get reacquainted with the joys of the classic road trip. Fun, right? Tip: Go away — not toward — from the crowds. As in, head north into the wilds of New York’s mighty Adirondack Park, then on to the Thousand Islands, crossing the border (bring passports), looping up to Canada’s attractive capital city, Ottawa. Want to keep going? Give overcrowded Toronto a wide berth, skipping across to the beautiful Bruce Peninsula, then down the shores of lovely Lake Huron, back into the United States and up to Northern Michigan, with outstanding scenery in places like the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and small towns so charming that even coastal celeb types like Mario Batali are falling in love. From here, you can be back home in a day and a half — if you must. If you can’t have fun on an itinerary like that, you should probably check your pulse, because you might actually be dead.
5 TAKE A CRUISE If you’re at the point where you’re thinking it’s just all too much, and even the deals don’t sound like deals anymore, you might be ready for a cruise out of New York or New Jersey. All you have to do is get to your nearest pier with cruise service, get on the boat and go. Many boats have enough distractions for all ages that expensive land tours are all but unnecessary. Don’t like the Caribbean? Fine. It’s not for everyone. Go to Bermuda. Or up to New England and on to Canada. Or even over to old England, with Cunard, departing from Brooklyn. (Well, maybe not this summer, what with those pesky Olympics bunging things up in London.) Sample deal: Eight days, seven nights departing Aug. 12 to classy Bermuda on the classy Celebrity Summit for $849 per person based on double occupancy (cruisesonly.com).