You feel that little nip in the air? That’s fall, or at least the first hints of it. And while we might not have full-on sweater weather yet, it’s getting to be the time of year where your destination options may be a little bit more limited. Luckily for all of us, we have a month or so of tolerable temps left even in cold-weather cities. And some of those have some great late-fall leaf peeping to boot.
Photo: Maridav/Shutterstock
Flights to These Cities Are About to Get Crazy Cheap in October
In an effort to get folks out for one last, kinda-warm weather hurrah, many seasonal destinations will have some crazy flight deals coming up in October. How do we know this? Because the flight-price gurus at Skyscanner did a ton of research on historic airfares, scanning millions of historic prices to predict which cities will have the best deals next month.
If you’re looking to stay stateside, you’ll find some of the friendliest people who’ll ever slam you through a tailgate table in Buffalo, who has flights down 19% to a laughable $209. Seattle will get its last glimpse of sun until May, but will at least have cheerfully cheap airfares down 21% to $221. Minneapolis has some of the best outdoor recreation in the fall, but won’t have much other than ice fishing after that. So maybe jump on those $220 fares — down 15% — next month. The rest of the domestic leaderboard:
- Seattle, Washington — $225 (21%)
- Buffalo, New York — $209 (19%)
- Fort Lauderdale, Florida — $205 (19%)
- Salt Lake City, Utah — $364 (17%)
- Houston, Texas — $220 (16%)
- Los Angeles, California — $242 (15%)
- Minneapolis, Minnesota — $220 (15%)
- Charlotte, North Carolina — $229 (15%)
- San Francisco, California — $241 (14%)
- Denver, Colorado — $179 (14%)
Outside the US, your options aren’t quite as season-sensitive, but still offer some awesome shoulder-season deals to big-time destinations. Beijing — whose weather is pretty much just “smog with a chance of more smog” all year — will have eye-popping flights at $528, down 28%. San Jose, Costa Rica and Guadalajara, Mexico always have pleasant weather, but now might be a good time to lock down a winter trip with flights 20% cheaper to both. And there’s never really a bad time to visit Athens, whose Mediterranean climate is extra inviting with $705 airfares, 25% less than usual. The best of the rest from overseas:
- Beijing, China — $528 (28%)
- Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic — $321 (25%)
- Athens, Greece — $705 (23%)
- Madrid, Spain — $456 (23%)
- Milan, Italy — $564 (22%)
- Warsaw, Poland — $686 (21%)
- Medellín, Colombia – $414 (20%)
- San Salvador, El Salvador — $431 (20%)
- San Jose, Costa Rica — $361 (20%)
- Guadalajara, Mexico — $271 (20%)
Much like the weather getting colder in the fall — at least the past few years — these airfares aren’t a lock, so you may want to take advantage of them soon. You can do that by downloading the Skyscanner app, looking at your locations and dates, and letting it find the best deals for you. Or you can enjoy the last remaining days of fall sunshine searching for flight deals online. And even if winter does come a little early, you’ll have plenty of leftover money for a nice new jacket. 