The Seattle Mariners are still in contention. If there’s one sign that fall hasn’t started yet, that’s it. Nevermind the fact that school started back up this week in some parts of the country, and parents are rejoicing like Christmas came in August. Temperatures are still in the triple digits, football games still don’t matter, and there’s still surly teenagers working at your neighborhood pool. It’s summer, dammit, whether the local public-school district says so or not.
Photo: Jacob Lund/Shutterstock
These Are the Cheapest Weekends Left to Travel This Summer
Since the warm weather is sticking around and the crowds are dwindling as kids head back to class, this will be the best time of year to take a quick weekend vacation. And ample opportunities still abound, even if you already blew most of your summer vacation budget on rosé and unicorn pool floaties. Despite inflated summertime airfares, there are still a few summer weekends with pretty good deals.
The zany travel search-engine gurus at Kayak figured out that the median airfare for a summer weekend trip is around $441. That’s a little steep for 48 hours in Providence — we know — but they also found some other weekends with considerably lower prices.
The cheapest weekends left to travel this summer are…
The weekend of August 25 will see the lowest airfares, with median weekend prices of $305. That said, you’ll need to act quickly to get in the advanced purchase window for the weekend before Labor Day.
If you’re willing to spend the last holiday of summer at home, flying Labor Day weekend is pretty cheap, too. Provided you fly home on Sunday, weekend flights can be found for a paltry $312. If you wanna save another dollar, wait a weekend when flights for the September 8 weekend are only $311.
Looking to get out of the country for one last great summer hurrah? The bad news is that flights are still going to cost you. The good news is that a few weekends will have much lower airfares than the usual four-digit eye-poppers. The weekend of August 25, once again, will be cheapest with average airfares about $607.
The weekend of September 8 is the next cheapest at $609, followed by the alarmingly soon August 18 weekend, which will see median round trips around $613 — though a last-minute flight out of the country still sounds a little shady.
Hotel deals can be found last minute, too.
Though Kayak suggests booking hotels four weeks in advance, it also maintains that booking one to two days before your trip can yield savings of $15-20 per night. You’ll find the greatest savings if you search over the weekend when statistically 23 to 30 percent fewer people are searching, and the prices will inherently be lower. Supply and demand, yo.
Kayak also suggests checking in on a Sunday or Monday and never checking out on a Sunday to maximize savings. Though if you’re trying to book a weekend trip, you’ll need to bend the space-time continuum to pull that one off, which will probably negate the twenty bucks you save on a hotel room.
Don’t let anyone trick you into thinking there are no more vacations to be had this summer. Whether it’s the school zones you drive through or the bank account that’s not as robust as it was, summer weekend getaways are still totally possible — or at least more possible than the Mariners ever sniffing the playoffs. 