It’s that time of year again.
Summer’s over, the kids are back in school, the weather is starting to cool off and everyone’s thoughts are turning to vacation.
Well, maybe not everyone, but for some contrarians, a fall getaway is more than a passing thought. They wouldn’t dream of going away any other time.
“People are looking for good values and package deals that pack in fun, activities, sampling and still save money,” said Gary Knowles, a tourism marketing expert and former communications director for Wisconsin Tourism.
And, he added, they’re finding it.
“The prices are amazing,” said Sarah Maciejewski, a traveler from McLean, Va., who prefers the Caribbean in the fall — storms and all. “We figure the likelihood of a hurricane hitting exactly where we are is not great but that if a hurricane does pop up somewhere in the Caribbean, we’ll probably get a couple days of rain but probably not much else.”
Most travelers move with the herd, taking beach vacations during the summer and heading to the mountains when it snows. But a select few do it the other way around.
It isn’t so much the fact that people taking these vacations think differently, but that they are richly rewarded for their decisions by getting better service, lower prices and, usually, a superior vacation experience.
Once the tourists leave, locals often let their hair down, and travelers are far likelier to see a place for what it is.
Cheri Gaudet, a marketer from Springvale, Maine, visited Fatima, Portugal, during the off-season and found that she “got more of a taste of what it means to be Portuguese,” she said. “We walked through an olive grove from Fatima to an old village where people still live much the way they used to a hundred or more years ago. We visited a medieval town called Santarem and enjoyed losing ourselves in its narrow streets.”
Many people return to the same destination summer after summer and never see it for real.
An off-season getaway doesn’t have to be to a place everyone normally goes to. For example, how about a one-week cycling trip to Cuba by way of Canada? “A little illegal,” said Alan, a New York-based energy consultant who asked that his last name not be used. “But a great cultural experience.”
Americans are not allowed to travel to Cuba as long as the U.S. embargo remains in place. However, even “forbidden” destinations have high and low seasons. And there are rewards for waiting until the throngs of Europeans leave Cuba: It’s all yours.
Feel more like a local
Vacationing during a quieter time can be more eventful. “There’s an opportunity to meet local people, experience their foods, customs and ideas,” said Sarah Melamed, an Israel-based food blogger. She heads to places like China and Thailand with her three boys in tow and is planning to visit the western Balkans — including Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania — later this year.
“These vacations are often cheaper, less crowded and always so much more interesting,” she added.
When the tourists leave, a lot of the tourist traps — T-shirt shops, fast-food stands, campsites — close down. If nothing else, you can feel more like a local and less like a walking dollar bill.
Speaking of dollars, off-season getaways can be considerably cheaper.
Where to go? For video blogger Alex Berger, it’s Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. Two weeks’ vacation costs him between $2,000 and $3,000, including airfare. “Traveling during the off-season can be a huge money- saver,” he said.
Ready to book your off-season vacation? Hang on.
There are a few drawbacks to going against the grain. Many popular restaurants and attractions shut down when the guests stop coming, so your vacation could get interesting in ways you may not want.
And of course, there’s the weather. If you take a beach vacation in the fall or winter, it might get chilly.
“When road-tripping in the winter from Minnesota, we have to come to grips with the realization that our trip may be altered or canceled due to snowstorms,” said Linda Kramer, a contrarian vacationer who ought to know — she lives in Minnesota. “Hurricanes can have the same effect on fall travel to the southeast U.S. and other areas.”
Oh, and if you’re worried about high airfares — don’t. Seth Kaplan, an airline expert who writes for Aviation Weekly, says prices should be “decent,” predicting they’ll “certainly be cheaper than in 2008 but somewhat more expensive than in 2009.”
Do I have to pay for that ding on my rental?
Q: We recently rented a car through Avis in Frankfurt, Germany, via AutoEurope. We declined the insurance, since our credit card covers us.
When we picked up the car, we were asked to check for any damage, but the car hadn’t been cleaned, so it was difficult to do a thorough inspection. We looked over the car and didn’t notice anything.
When we returned the car, the lady at the rental location went around the car a few times looking very closely and she finally pointed out a tiny chip on the edge of the driver’s door. We had to look extremely closely to see it, and we actually thought she was joking at first.
When we realized she was serious, we took a few photos but knew that it must have been there before. The tiny chip had to have happened when the door was open, and we had never touched anything with the car. She said there wasn’t anything noted from the previous renter on the papers she had so she told us to go to the Avis counter upstairs to see if it was noted on the computer. When we checked, a representative told us everything was “OK.”
A week or so after we came home we received a letter from Avis, with an estimated cost for the car damage of 800 euro. This is very hard to accept, since we know for a fact we didn’t damage this car. Also, I believe the repair cost has been exponentially exaggerated for such a tiny chip or scratch; this is extortion.
We contacted AutoEurope but they said we have to deal with Avis. We have been given the runaround for months. Could you please contact Avis and ask them to drop the 800-euro charge? — Lidia Conte, Brooklyn, Mich.
A: If you aren’t responsible for that tiny ding in your car, then Avis shouldn’t charge you for it. Either way, 800 euro is way too much for a chip that can’t be seen under a layer of filth. I can certainly understand why you’d think this is a scam.
It’s hard to see this from a car rental company’s point of view, but let me give it a try. Assuming this isn’t a scam (which I hope it isn’t) and an Avis representative discovered legitimate damage to your car, and assuming it wasn’t noted on an earlier rental, then who should pay for it? The company? Your credit card? Or you?
Your credit card probably wouldn’t have covered the dent, since most cards have only secondary coverage, which kicks in only after a primary policy, such as the kind offered by car insurance, has been used. What’s more, not all card coverage can be used overseas.
So who pays? You do.
Still, I share your suspicions about what happened. Why charge 800 euro for minor damage? Why tell you everything is “OK” when it isn’t? Given the many other cases of ding-scams I’ve described in this column and on my blog, you have every right to be concerned.
This could have been avoided by saying “no” a few times when you picked up the car and returned it. No, first, to the dirty car. (You’re entitled to a clean one.) No when the guy at the gate waved you through without checking the car for damage. I always mark up my rental form and ask the rental employee to sign it — just in case I end up with Inspector Clouseau when I check back in.
Also, don’t accept an employee’s word that everything is “OK.” Get it in writing. Had an Avis employee signed off on your rental, this would have been an open- and-shut case.
I contacted Avis on your behalf. It contacted you, apologized for your experience, and dropped the charges.
Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. E-mail him at celliott@ngs.org.
