Once considered the off-season, fall travel is on the rise : NPR

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Fall used to be thought of as the off-season for traveling. Not so much anymore.

ELAINE GLUSAC: I used to choose fall specifically because it was less crowded, and fall weather in a lot of places is still very beautiful.

FADEL: That’s Elaine Glusac. She’s a travel columnist for The New York Times. She recently wrote about how others are following her travel lead.

GLUSAC: What’s happened since travel resumed after the pandemic is work schedules loosened up for a lot of people, so they were able to combine work and leisure. They may have seen images of overcrowding in European cities and decided that they didn’t want to be a part of that. Add to that the extreme heat that we’ve seen in many places in summer, and you have people just looking to escape the climate.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Glusac says places that were once empty in October are now booking up. Travel services like Expedia and Booking.com are seeing increases in searches for fall destinations. That also means off-season travel is not as cheap as it used to.

GLUSAC: You’re still going to pay less than you would in summer. And I’ll also add that the travel industry itself has done a good job of marketing fall trips. For example, now there are Mediterranean cruises that run year-round. I mean, they used to really stop in October and now they’re running even, you know, in January.

FADEL: Glusac says climate change also plays a role in seasonal travel.

GLUSAC: There are lots of striking changes that we’re seeing in weather, and that is extending the seasons for a lot of places. It’s still sunny in Ireland in late October. Places in the French Riviera are reporting crowds in September that are as strong as July. And they’re saying, hey, it’s 80 degrees here, and you can still swim.

FADEL: But some fall locations have their drawbacks.

GLUSAC: Fall can be very tempting in the Caribbean, but it is sort of the worst part of hurricane season. I’ve had really great luck in Key West. Course, you still sort of risk hurricane season. And then, of course, there’s a lot less pressure on things like snorkeling reefs and bird sanctuaries.

MARTIN: So just remember – where there’s risk, there’s also reward.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “KOKOMO”)

THE BEACH BOYS: (Singing) Down in Kokomo.

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