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Year End Vacation Idea's

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Beernuts

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Nov 9, 2017
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I need your thoughts...please.

We are a family of 5 looking for recommendations for a vacation towards the end of the year / early next year. Probably five days...would like to stay in the states. Time frame would be after Christmas through first week of January - one is in college.

Family enjoys warmer climate (we have made several trips to Caribbean in the past), and we are all 18+.

Thank you for any helpful advice.
 
Beernuts said:
I need your thoughts...please.

We are a family of 5 looking for recommendations for a vacation towards the end of the year / early next year. Probably five days...would like to stay in the states. Time frame would be after Christmas through first week of January - one is in college.

Family enjoys warmer climate (we have made several trips to Caribbean in the past), and we are all 18+.

Thank you for any helpful advice.
Click to expand...

Can never go wrong with San Diego/LaJolla. Hilton Head and Charleston SC also was a lot of fun for my fam over Spring Break. But I don't think you'd be looking at beach weather in either during December/January.
 
I know you said to stay in the states but we loved Isla Mujeres, just a short ferry from Cancun. What we've found is vacationing in the states in the winter there really is no place warm enough that you can really enjoy the beach. Even FL is 60's-70's which too cold IMO. If beach isn't a priority I like the Phoenix area. Lots of hiking. Pools are heated that time of year. You can day trip to Sedona.
 
Went to Charleston and Hilton Head a couple of weeks ago, thought Charleston was overrated and we loved Hilton Head. That said those wont have great weather that time of year, south Florida is where you are probably going to want to be. Gulf side, Naples, Marco, Siesta Key ..
 
If ISU ends up in the Camping World Bowl, that would be my vote. Tons to do in Orlando (Universal Studios/Disney/Sea World). Beaches can be reached easily in 1-2 hours. Kennedy Space Center is also awesome and only 1 hour away. This bowl game also fits your timeframe.
 
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spierceisu said:
If ISU ends up in the Camping World Bowl, that would be my vote. Tons to do in Orlando (Universal Studios/Disney/Sea World). Beaches can be reached easily in 1-2 hours. Kennedy Space Center is also awesome and only 1 hour away. This bowl game also fits your timeframe.
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True, Orlando is a good vacation destination only made better by a bowl game crowd. Dont like Disney though.
 
Does anyone have any advice for finding good deals on flights to Europe out of DSM?

Sometime next spring/early summer.
5-7 days.
No real destination in mind.
Don't want to hire travel agent.

Just skyskanner/kayak/etc?
 
Primetime26 said:
Does anyone have any advice for finding good deals on flights to Europe out of DSM?

Sometime next spring/early summer.
5-7 days.
No real destination in mind.
Don't want to hire travel agent.

Just skyskanner/kayak/etc?
Click to expand...
Check out Scott's Cheap Flights (free unless you want to pay for more deals). They send emails every couple days when there is a good price on plane tickets from major US airports to international airports. The catch is the prices usually only last for a couple days or even hours so you have to be willing to buy almost immediately. Just the other day there were flights out of almost every major US city to major cities in Europe for $400-$500 round trip.

Google flights is also good for open ended searches where you pick the airport you're leaving from and it shows prices to major cities based on the time frame you've selected.

Also, I don't know if it's still true or not but I use incognito mode when doing any flight searching because it's been shown in the past that airline websites track and raise prices if they see you searching frequently.

Also also, I recently learned that Southwest flights don't show up on any search sites like Kayak so be sure to look at them separately for flights within North America.
 
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Primetime26 said:
Does anyone have any advice for finding good deals on flights to Europe out of DSM?

Sometime next spring/early summer.
5-7 days.
No real destination in mind.
Don't want to hire travel agent.

Just skyskanner/kayak/etc?
Click to expand...

Just FYI, you don't really "hire" a travel agent. Any more than "hiring" Expedia to do your flights. Not an explicit fee that you're charged.

I'll never travel overseas without using a travel agent. Our flights to Europe were all hosed up. We got on the plane to Chicago, and by the time we'd landed our agent had the new ones waiting for us.

Domestically, I'm typically gonna DIY it, but that's usually a much simpler ordeal.
 
Primetime26 said:
Does anyone have any advice for finding good deals on flights to Europe out of DSM?

Sometime next spring/early summer.
5-7 days.
No real destination in mind.
Don't want to hire travel agent.

Just skyskanner/kayak/etc?
Click to expand...

whenever i've gone to europe i drive to MSP. It's a delta hub so lots of flighs from there and usually much cheaper than flying from DSM and having to connect somewhere else.
 
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