Summer trips and winter getaways get all the love, but this time of year – right now through early December – might be my favorite time to travel.
Fall trips have everything. For one, as we'll show and tell later, flights are incredibly cheap right now. But also, lodging prices drop this time of year, the fall colors (and cooler temps down south) make almost every destination prettier, and there are no summer crowds packing restaurants and popular areas in October, November, and early December.
And, like clockwork, airlines cut flight prices for travel this fall as travel demand cools. Over the last month, most Americans have shifted their focus from their summer travel to back-to-school season and the slower fall months. Little do they know their fall break trip might be cheaper and easier to book than ever this year.
Lately, we've been finding and sending our Thrifty Traveler Premium subscribers great domestic flight deals that include fall – and more importantly, fall weekend – availability for last-minute trips. Even as we get further into fall, we're still finding cheap fares for flights that are mere weeks away. For once, it may have paid to procrastinate.
Here's how to find a cheap fall weekend trip, where to focus your search, and some of our best recommendations for where to find flight deals this fall.
How to Find a Fall Weekend Trip
Three words to help you find a fall weekend trip this year: Google Flights Explore.
Google Flights is where you should always start your airfare searches. There are a million reasons why this is the case, not the least of which is the “Explore” feature, which is extremely easy to use, even if you're searching for specific dates.
For your fall weekend trip, for instance, you should start by heading to Google Flights, putting in your departure city, enter your desired dates, and then leave the “destination” box empty like I did below.
When you hit the blue “Explore” button, it pulls up a map like this. Those are all the cheapest available fares on the dates you want from your home airport to anywhere across the U.S.
You can then filter for nonstop flights and by airline alliance or free carry-on bags, too if you want to keep out the low-cost carriers like Spirit, Frontier, and more. It's the quickest and easiest way to pinpoint the best fares on your desired dates.
Thrifty Tip: Reverse-engineer your Explore map. Click on any two cities, put your desired filters into the Google Flights search results, and then select “United States” for the destination to pull up the map with all your filters put in!
It's actually as easy as that. But there are a few other considerations that can make your trip even cheaper.
When, Where, & How to Book the Cheapest Flights
Timing is everything when it comes to airfare. You should use this quick, four-point checklist to ensure you're getting the best fare possible.
Tips to finding the best fall deals:
- Avoid Thanksgiving & Christmas where fares will be three to five times more expensive.
- Avoid flying on Sundays where fares are typically pricier. (Choose early Sunday morning if you have to.)
- Check the points and miles rates on these fares for further savings.
- Book one-way flights for maximum flexibility (especially when booking with points and miles)
Read more: The Best Day to Book Flights & Buy Airfare Isn't What You Think…
By avoiding holidays and Sundays and using your points and miles efficiently, you could make this trip as cheap as humanely possible, but as I'll show you here, you don't need many “hacks” to get great deals this year.
Here's another Google Flights Explore search, this time with Chicago (ORD) the departure airport.
Filtering only for flights on major U.S. airlines (no ultra-low-cost carriers), here's what the west-facing map looks like for nonstop flights only.
There are some seriously amazing fares on here, including sub-$200 roundtrip flights to places like the Bay Area, L.A., and the Pacific Northwest among others. Facing east, it's a similarly stellar list of fares.
So, let's say you want to make this a weekend in New York City. When you click on NYC and get your search results, I recommend you click on the dates on the top right of the screen. When you do, you can see exactly where to find the best dates like on this result.
As you can see, our tip about avoiding Thanksgiving and Christmas is smart here (even though some of those flights are still relatively cheap).
Read next: It Could Be Cheaper to Go to Europe Than Fly Home This Thanksgiving
When you do this, you'll find the cheapest dates so you can tailor a trip like this one we found for a weekend in early November.
Use that Explore feature and book your trip!
Our Best Fall Getaway Destinations
We stumbled on this trend while putting together flight deal alerts for our Thrifty Traveler Premium members. Even as we've gotten further and further into fall, we're finding flight prices for trips just a few weeks out have been getting cheaper.
In fact, the Chicago search from above was triggered from our roundup of more than 100 U.S. airports with flights to Chicago (ORD, MDW) this fall.
This deal had the best availability from October through December. The weekend-length three to five-day trips were the highlight of this deal, just like they were for these South Padre Island (HRL) flights.
For travelers seeking summer's last gasp, a trip to South Padre will feature warm weather, sandy beaches, vibrant nightlife, and more for less than $200 roundtrip this fall.
This Minneapolis (MSP) fare was a perfect, tantalizing example for travelers based up north, where waking up to temperatures in the 30s and 40s might have had this flight deal analyst thinking hard about this one…
Plus, it's sale season for the airlines. Just last week, Alaska Airlines went wild with this fall flight sale featuring nonstop, roundtrip flights under $100!
These are just a few cities that featured low, low fares. But it doesn't stop there…not even close.
Other U.S. domestic flight deals for fall weekend trips:
- Nonstop to Austin, TX (AUS) under $197 RT
- Bend, OR (RDM) under $248 RT
- Nonstop to Denver, CO (DEN) under $198 RT
- New Orleans, LA (MSY) under $248 RT
- San Francisco, CA (SFO) under $249 RT
But if you want to dust off the old passport for a flight this fall, Canada is the perfect place to target for a great deal.
How about Quebéc City (YQB), a little slice of Europe in North America.
This was just our latest Canada deal that turned some heads among our tens of thousands of flight deal subscribers. The easy-to-book weekend trips made it even more tantalizing. If you only have three days, you could still build this trip, easily!
And like the U.S. flight deals, we dug up many other Canadian deals for this fall, too.
Other Canada deals we've sent including fall weekend trips:
- Nonstop to Banff & the Canadian Rockies (YYC) under $371 RT
- Nonstop to Montreal (YUL) under $390 RT (Including Xmas and NYE!)
- Vancouver Island, B.C. (YYJ) under $386
Read next: Get Away for Less: Our Best Tips to Save on a Weekend Trip This Fall
Bottom Line
With fall break coming up, it's the perfect time to book a last-minute fall trip this year.
Airfare for this October, November, and early December is cheap right now, with some of your favorite destinations benefitting from low, low fares.
By using Google Flights Explore and checking on your Thrifty Traveler Premium flight deal alerts, your fall trip is well within reach and cheaper than ever this year.
