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Last-minute spring break bargains
It'll be tough to find sun on a shoestring next month, but flexible travelers can still save.
February 27, 2004: 3:48 PM EST

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - There are still bargains to be found for those making last minute spring break travel plans, but experts in finding travel savings say you'll need flexibility if you want a cheap getaway.

"Florida is going to be a tough ticket," said Tom Parsons, president of BestFares.com. "When the snow hit the Northeast early this winter, the snow birds came out early and made their reservations."

Still Parsons said that flying on less desirable midweek days or going down to Florida on a late evening flight can help travelers from the Northeast or Midwest find fares for less than $300 round trip.

"On March 6 (a Saturday) I see one flight out of 15 with cheap seats and that's at 7:45 p.m. The next week there's nothing cheap on Saturday," he said. "If you're flexible you probably can get the seats."

Phil Carpenter of online travel search engine SideStep agreed that traveling at the less desirable times is the key to finding a good air fare for spring break. But once you get where you're going there are still cheap hotels and rental cars available, he said. Carpenter said there are three-star hotels available near Disney World or in the South Beach area of Miami for less than $70 a night.

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As far as finding deals on cars, bargain shoppers should look for little known, low-price brands rather than the nationally recognized name. For example E-Z Rent-A-Car in Orlando has cars available for as little as $10.66 a day.

Parsons said that the Caribbean is actually a better bargain than Florida at this point for travel through Easter. Some eastern cities like Baltimore have round trip flights to the Bahamas for as little as $180. For West Coast cities, Mexico is where there are cheaper flights to cities such as Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan.

Parsons said that it's also not to early to start thinking about making summer travel plans.

"Remember last summer when the airlines were 83, 84 percent full? I think if you're buying June, July or August, if you don't buy by a week before Memorial Day, you'll pay a premium of 50, 100, 150 percent."  Top of page




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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.