Gas prices are up; the staycation is hot. More people than ever are camping. Airline deals are enticing people to fly both domestically and internationally.
Summer travel is all over the map. With trends happening faster than the industry can fabricate cutesy names for them, it’s hard to keep track.
In the span of two recent weeks, four national polls came out offering conflicting information. One, from The Associated Press, revealed that only 42 percent of Americans plan a leisure trip this summer; another announced that 89 percent surveyed said they intend to take a summer vacation.
Talk to locals, though, and their intentions are clear: It’s not so much whether they’re going or where, but that they do it with family.
Brooke Ferencsik, senior manager of media relations for TripAdvisor, whose most recent survey was the one in the 89 percent range, said that travelers are modifying, not canceling, their vacations.
“They might be taking closer trips to home; they might be taking shorter trips,” he says. “Regardless of outside influences, including a recession, summer is the time to recharge and relax.”
The top attraction, according to the 2009 survey, is the beach, with 58 percent claiming it as their destination. “One of the more interesting trends, though, is camping,” Ferencsik says. “It’s up to 13 percent of families roughing it.”
In addition to those attractions, historic sites, museums and national parks are high on travelers’ lists.
Where to go — and how to pay for it — is the next obvious question.
“We’ve made a list of places within two hours’ drive that we’ve never been to, and we’re just gonna take weekends and go,” says Anna Crosby, who moved to Denver two years ago and has been laid off twice from graphic design jobs since.
She and her boyfriend, Jim Griffin, love to travel and have been to Europe three times and Mexico twice since they started dating five years ago, but they decided that this year they would focus on Colorado.
“There’s so much to do and see right here in our own backyards,” Crosby says. “It’s not like it’s a hardship to be stuck here.”
Some locals, on the other hand, look at the current situation as a chance to take advantage of lower airfares and the deals being offered by panicky tourist hot spots.
“You can’t let all of this negative talk about the economy run your life and ruin what could be the best time to travel ever,” says Dale Goin, who owns the Philadelphia Filly sandwich cart with his wife, Sally Rock, on the 16th Street Mall.
The cart has a sign taped up letting customers know its policy of accepting euros in exchange for cheesesteaks, and they are so well traveled — usually taking at least four international trips a year — that they often can be heard handing out travel advice with their cheese-gooey sandwiches.
Goin and Rock went to Colombia in April, where they stayed at an all-inclusive resort through the company Decameron Hotels & Resorts. “It had four different, wonderful restaurants,” Rock says. “The food was fabulous, and the whole thing was just so cheap, we couldn’t pass it up.”
Once they get through the fair circuit early in the summer, they’re headed to Scandinavia. “The deals are just incredible right now,” Goin says. “If you have some money, the tour operators overseas want the American business back and spending money, and they will bend over backwards to get it.”
Those staying closer to home are spending time with their families. “We’re doing both, a trip home to see family, which we just did, and a family camping trip to Yellowstone,” says Denise Bedford Cushing, who recently went to see family in Cincinnati with husband Ed Cushing, son John, 13, and daughter Liz, 10.
The school librarian has limited travel time because she is taking summer courses to complete her master’s degree in library science, but after last summer’s successful camping trip to the Grand Canyon, the family wanted to do something similar this year. “We didn’t downsize or cut back, really, on this Yellowstone trip,” Bedford Cushing says. “We loved it last year, so we immediately started planning another one.”
Instead of driving to Cincinnati, however, the Denver family flew, which wound up being cheaper and taking much less time. “I was also very conscious this time of not getting a hotel,” Bedford Cushing says. “Instead I made an effort to stay with family and friends the whole time. It just made a huge difference not to spend $500 on that.”
What they also cut back on this year was summer camp. “I weighed that against the vacation and decided camp would go. So basically they’re staying home not doing much all summer. Hey, you have to cut corners somewhere.”
Happy campers
When the news about the economy is bad, that is good news for the camping industry.
“Camping is doing well,” says Linda Profaizer, president of the National Association of RV Parks & Campgrounds, which is headquartered in Larkspur. “Memorial Day weekend was up 3 percent over last year, and Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Parks reported that their retail operation is up 22 percent for the year so far, which is huge.”
Profaizer says that people are making reservations at the last minute, but they are planning for longer stays. In a survey on the association’s website, gocampingamerica , a majority of responses to a summer travel survey indicated that their plans were to go for four-day weekends instead of three, or for week-long camping trips if weekenders were their norm.
“Tenting is having a resurgence, too,” Profaizer says. “There are way more tenters this year, which indicates a new market; people are giving it a try. And other rentals, too, like renting RVs at the park or cabins.”
RV rentals are up 31 percent over last year, according to Paul Inman, regional vice president of Camping World, a national company with a rental location in Wheat Ridge, RV sales in Longmont and a retail store in Colorado Springs. “With gas prices holding and people looking at different ways to spend time with their families, the RV market has really been a growing one,” he says. “Campgrounds are just really such a family-oriented atmosphere, and the whole trend just speaks to that family-values issue.”
“It’s an affordable vacation,” Profaizer says. “It’s a great place to go with family and friends and be outdoors.”
The Burkhart family of Denver is also focusing on family this year. Daughter Jessica graduated from Insight of Colorado, an online high school, in May, and plans to attend college in the fall. Her mom, Janet, is in Dayton, Ohio, visiting extended family, and in August, Jessica and her father, Terry, will head there, as well. “That will be our vacation for the year,” Jessica says. “Saving up for college is our first priority, and we want to see family, so that’s important, too. Anything else is extra right now.”
The Burkharts used to go to Ohio every year, but Jessica says the family had a discussion about how it’s going to be every other year for a while because the uncertain economy has taken a chunk out of their savings. “I didn’t go last year because we knew it was time to start cutting back,” she says. “But it’s mostly grandparents, aunts and uncles, the people we want to see regularly.
For families with smaller children, such as Littleton residents Manuel and Lisa Flores, it’s harder to explain cutting back.
“Manuel got his hours cut at work, and I only work part time, so we probably won’t take a big vacation this summer,” says Lisa. “Last year we went to Disneyland, so we had pretty high expectations for this year. But we have some friends who have a boat, and so we can go with them out on the reservoir at Chatfield and go camping and stuff, which the kids really like.”
Manuel says he told Luis, 8, and Daisy, 6, that there wasn’t much money for a trip this year, but he was determined to “get creative,” especially when he saw how disappointed they were.
“I grew up going on a family vacation every year, even if it was just going to see family,” Manuel says. “It’s important, so we’re always going to find a way to do something.”
Kyle Wagner: 303-954-1599, travel@denverpost.com,
Summer travel savers
Camping is still king of cheap
If you don’t have gear, you can rent tents and other equipment from most major outdoor-gear stores, such as REI, if you aren’t sure you want to make the long- term commitment.
State and national parks and recreation areas are inexpensive destinations for camping, and some Bureau of Land Management campgrounds are free (visit and click on state in which you would like to camp, then click on “camping” for a list of available areas).
Camping in the backcountry is free, as well, although you need to check on where permits are required and find out other regulations (and always be absolutely certain you are not on private land). You also can visit to find out where you can camp or park your RV at no charge.
At , you can search private campgrounds around the country, compare rates and amenities and get comprehensive information about the world of camping.
Staycation, shmaycation?
As much as area hotels and destinations love the idea of people sticking close to help the local economy, not everyone loves the idea of staying near home. But it doesn’t have to feel like cutting back. Break out of your routine. Make a list of places you’ve never visited and see if you can get there without a car or without staying in a hotel. On the other hand, many hotels and restaurants are offering terrific deals for locals. Visit for a list of restaurants and hotels that are offering the “Eat Stay Play” bargains for $52.80, or for deals around the state.
Plan ahead
Without lists or a good idea of where you’re going and what you’ll need, the temptation will be high to buy things along the way or eat out at more expensive places than you expected. Make an itinerary that you don’t have to stick to but can use as a guide. Look up locations online to see if they’re offering coupons or deals that you can print out ahead or free days so you can plan accordingly (check out to see if your destination has a packet of coupons available for area museums or other attractions).
See if there are picnic stops or rest areas along the way where a cooler lunch or snacks can be eaten to cut down on fast-food meals (visit ). Also, get the whole group in on the budget. Come up with a dollar limit for the trip and offer incentives — a special trip souvenir, maybe — for staying under it.
Grab those deals
The national parks are offering free weekends (nps.gov). Hotels are tacking on free nights and value-added amenities and perks to sweeten the stay. Check trusted sites such as or . “Read the fine print, though,” says savvy traveler Sally Rock. “Sometimes something sounds too good to be true and it is.”
Rethink staying in a hotel
Renting a house, apartment or condo has become big business, and the deals abound. Not only can you go in on a bigger place with friends or family, but the advantages of cooking meals instead of eating out are obvious, and many of the properties have swimming pools, hot tubs and other amenities that make them just as attractive as hotels. “Accommodations are the largest portion of a travel budget, especially on a longer trip,” says Brooke Ferencsik of TripAdvisor. Want to know how much you can save by going with a vacation rental as opposed to a hotel? Visit . and check out the area titled “Vacation rentals vs. hotels.” Enter your destination and click on “Compare & Save.”
Or visit . or its sister site, . (Vacation Rentals by Owner). Another particularly good site is the user-friendly , which rents properties in the Caribbean as well as North America and is set up to allow you to view the properties immediately through Google Earth.
Make lunch the big meal
If the big-deal restaurant you want to try offers lunch, have that meal there to save money and eat a lighter, cheaper meal for dinner somewhere else. Also, try to choose hotels and B&Bs that include breakfast. Between those two tips, you can save about a hundred bucks a day.
Think Hawaii, Vegas, Mexico
These are destinations that truly are hurting. Las Vegas is finding itself down on its luck, working hard to rebound from 72 percent capacity in January to the more respectable low 90s it used to regularly enjoy. Mexico has been recovering from the swine flu, drug violence in Acapulco (now being dubbed “Narcopulco”) and other crime-related bad press, and now heads into hurricane season. Feeling nervous about swine flu? Check the World Health Organization’s site () for updates. Nervous about safety? Visit . for good info, as well as . for official news. Meanwhile, Hawaii is offering things like free Wii and popcorn in $149-a-night rooms and resort credits to stay afloat.
Kyle Wagner
