NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The travel industry has to work extra hard to lure people away from home in late spring. Now that temperatures are on the rise and the days are getting longer, would-be travelers tend to their gardens and clean out their garages.

But if you can tear yourself away for a few days, you'll find great deals and avoid the crowds. Here are some of our favorites.

Spring is a great time to visit Manhattan. Central Park comes alive, restaurants open their outdoor seating and temperatures down in the subway are still nice and cool. But hotel rooms don't come cheap. As an alternative, you can stay in one of the 300 apartments rented out by the Hospitality Company. Prices start at about $99 a night for studios and go to around $300 a night for two- or three-bedroom units; there are no minimum stay requirements. Use the Web site (www.hospitalityco.com) to search for apartments by neighborhood or size and take virtual tours.

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During the months of April and May you can get two rooms at the Hilton Cocoa Beach Ocean Front Resort for $82 a night. This offer, which Hilton is calling "April 2 May Showers Savings," is not valid if the hotel has already booked 80 percent of its rooms, but so far the deal is widely available. Visit the hotel's site (www.cocoabeachhilton.com) to check out the accommodations and reserve your room on-line or call 800-987-1235.

The skies are blue, lift lines are nonexistent and the snow is still plentiful on most high-elevation slopes. Best of all, ski resorts are rolling out major deals to lure people to the mountains instead of the beach. Moguls Mountain Travel is offering all kinds of cheap packages for the month of April and beyond. Among them: Lodging and lift tickets for $75 per person per day in Vail, Colorado (Lift tickets alone are $67 during the regular season) and 5-night ski packages in Whistler, B.C. for $350.

Campus bookstores aren't the only places handing out discounts to college students and faculty. Student Universe and Orbitz have teamed up to offer academia airfare discounts. Tickets from Seattle to London, for example, are $325 if you book by April 18 and fly by June 13. Boston to Chicago is $109 between now and the end of May. Your expired student I.D. might work at the movies or museums but not in this case. After you book your ticket, Student Universe validates your information to make sure you still have your nose in the books.

Before you hunt for discount airfares or map out a family road trip, consider traveling by train. In fact, if you book a seat on Amtrak between now and May 19th, you can get 30 percent discounts on adult tickets and 50 percent off tickets for children ages 2 to 15. (Be sure to mention the promotion code H208.). The deal is good for travel between now and June 15th on tickets booked seven days in advance.

Between April 16 and December 20, the Blue Horizons Cottage Hotel in Grenada is offering eight-day/seven-night dive packages for about $522 per person. Packages include accommodations, breakfast, daily guided diving excursions, equipment, and service charges and taxes. Book your trip for the months of May and June and the resort will throw in two extra dives for free.