Thanksgiving is all about family gathering around a table laden with food, right? But there aren’t any rules about where the table is placed. Or if there are rules, maybe it’s time to break them this year and move the feast to Aspen, Miami, or Paris.
You already know, of course, that traveling the day before Thanksgiving, or the Sunday after, is asking for trouble. But traveling just before the holiday, and staying on for the long weekend, is a smart move. The week immediately after Thanksgiving is traditionally a loser for the travel industry, and therefore a huge savings opportunity for travelers. And given the state of the economy, those savings offers are being extended to the days immediately before Thanksgiving and after it, and in fact all the way through the middle of December. You can get a great deal to travel on any day you choose except the Wednesday before and the Sunday after the holiday.
Consider these ten alternatives for things to do besides stay home and baste a bird this Thanksgiving. If any of these precise deals is gone by the time you click on them, you’ll find comparable or better offers in their place.
1. Toss a Coin
Thanksgiving in a casino? Why not? Those airfare-and-hotel discounts to Las Vegas are getting sweeter for the holidays. If you leave the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, you can get airfare from New York and four nights at the MGM Mirage or the Luxor for $322. Similar deals are available at the MGM Grand ($337), the Bellagio ($386), and at Planet Hollywood ($339). In Atlantic City, you can get a three-night promotional special at Harrah’s Casino Hotel or The Showboat for $186, according to atlanticcity.com. Caesar’s three-night special starts at $284. I’m not making this up. These prices aren’t much higher than the price of a Super 8 Motel in town.
2. Sail Away
Cruise prices continue to fall so low it’s almost more expensive to stay home. Among the offers from high-end lines: You can get 79 percent off the brochure price of the Norwegian Cruise Line’s seven-night Exotic Western Caribbean cruise, departing November 22. A cabin with a balcony is $649, and interior cabins are $299. Or, you can sail out of Miami to Cozumel and back for four nights on the Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas, and stay in an ocean-view cabin for $329.
3. Give the Kids a Thrill
A fully-equipped condo in or near a family-friendly resort or beach town is a great way to take the kids along for the ride. At this writing, rentals listed on eBay include a selection of condos near Disney World, available for three nights to a week including the Thanksgiving holiday, for $200 to $400 for a one-bedroom unit or $400 to $1,000 for two bedrooms. Similar offers are listed in and around Miami and Palm Beach resorts. Out West, you can get a week in a condo in Lake Tahoe for $600, in Desert Springs for $1,000, or near Disneyland for $800. The best prices, of course, are in places that are off-season, and we’re not talking about Alaska. In Myrtle Beach, two-bedroom rentals can be found for $350, and in Hilton Head a three-bedroom was asking about $500.
4. Loll at a Grownup Resort
If you want a real break, why not leave the whole family in the dust and take a break at a resort for grownups? The Four Seasons Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, has a special offer for four nights and airfare starting at $647. A similar deal at The Phoenician starts at $773. In Sedona, the Amara Resort has a long-weekend break for $632.
5. Walk the Freedom Trail
There’s no better place to celebrate Thanksgiving than Boston, which prides itself on its American historical treasures. You can spend the long weekend at the Hyatt Regency just across the river in Cambridge for $99 a night, although prices go up a bit on Friday.
The Hotel Marlowe, also on the Cambridge side of the Charles, has a special offer for $111 a night.
Health Top Tips Nutrition Love Lifestyle Happiness Weight Loss6. Join the Thanksgiving Parade
What a town! Sure, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade is on Thursday. But get to town earlier in the week and see a show. On Tuesday night alone, scheduled events include Robin Williams live at Town Hall, Jimmy Buffett at Madison Square Garden, Sonic Youth on stage in Williamsburg, and Queen Latifah at the Highline Ballroom. The Radio City Christmas Spectacular is underway, and Wicked and West Side Story are on Broadway.
During the day, you can see the Vermeer exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, 100 works by Kandinsky at the Guggenheim, or all of the Museum of Modern Art’s Monet water lily paintings. Many New York hotels are offering 20 percent to 30 percent off per night during the holiday weekend, except for Saturday night, when rates jolt back up. For instance, the Carlton Hotel on Madison Avenue, in a nice but not snooty part of Manhattan, has rooms for $223, except on Saturday, when it jumps back to $359. Many New York restaurants are open for the holiday with special Thanksgiving menus, from turkey samosa at Jewel of India in the theater district to more traditional holiday fare at The Oak Room at the Plaza.
7. Give Thanks on the Beach
Thanksgiving borders on the high season in the Caribbean, but the special offers are still standing. Cheapcaribbean.com is showcasing special savings at five all-inclusive resorts in the Dominican Republic, available through the end of the year, with only Christmas week blacked out. The offers, for airfare and hotel for seven days, start at $479 per person.
On Travelocity’s “Deals” section, there are specials for four nights at all-inclusive resorts on the Riviera Maya, including airfare for $606 to $953.
8. Hit the Slopes
Ski resorts are rolling out their early season discounts on lodging and lift tickets, starting with the long Thanksgiving weekend. You can get 25 percent off at Hotel Jerome in Aspen or a free night at the St. Regis there. The Fairmont Chateau Whistler in British Columbia is offering a fourth night free.
9. Leave Thanksgiving Behind
Virgin Atlantic is featuring Thanksgiving Week packages, flying the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to London, Paris, Barcelona, Prague, or Rome. The offer includes airfare, six nights of hotel accommodations, continental breakfast, taxes, and surcharges, starting at about $650 to $750.
As always with these package deals, the bottom price level gets you a room at Le Cheapo Deux-Star, but you can upgrade. The hotel choices in Paris include Les Jardin du Marais Hotel, in one of the city’s loveliest neighborhoods, for $1,249 per person.
10. What’s Thanksgiving?
This is as far away as you can get for Thanksgiving and still be on planet Earth. Cathay Pacific’s $2,099 All Asia Pass includes round-trip travel from Los Angeles, New York, or San Francisco to Hong Kong. From there, you can travel to your choice of any four other Asian cities over the next 21 days.
The airline flies to twenty-four cities, including Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Osaka, Singapore, and Tokyo.