The Labor Day weekend has traditionally been a great time for us to go camping as a family. Temperatures start to drop so the days are cooler but the evenings are not frigid yet. The 3-day weekend provides one last respite before the summer officially ends. It’s also an extremely crowded weekend.
When the kids were young, we discovered by accident that the day after Labor Day is actually a great day to be on vacation. The planned departure for our camping trip had been pre-empted by stomach flu and a flat tire. But instead of missing the vacation altogether, we pulled the kids out of school for an extra day and went camping later than we had originally planned. What we discovered shocked us. Our delay meant we arrived at the campground on Monday morning. To our surprise, we found it nearly vacant. We had our pick of the choicest lakeside campsites and zero competition for the best fishing spots. We enjoyed the solitude so much we stayed an extra day.
Off-Season Vacation Experiences
That experience kind of turned us into off-season vacationers. There’s no point in standing in line at Disneyland the same day everyone else is. It’s far more logical to figure out when you can travel without competing with lots of other people. Smaller crowds, cooler temperatures, and less time standing in lines means the volume of good experiences often multiplies.
My guess is that the Tuesday after a holiday is also a good day to visit a museum or a water park that is typically crowded. It’s likely you’ll find reduced rates on admissions and travel expenses as well. While they were young and the consequences of missing a day or two of school were not particularly severe. We often vacationed off-season or post-holiday. The advantages we gained from that extra family time gave us opportunities to provide our own kind of “educational adventures.”
You Visited the Desert in the Middle of the Summer?
In our area, the National Parks are unpleasantly hot during the midsummer months. We visit in April or October instead. The skiing is just as phenomenal the week after President’s Day, but the lift lines are much shorter which means you do a lot more skiing and a lot less standing around.
As I write this, it’s September and I’m sitting poolside at a resort in Orlando. The weather reports indicate that a hurricane is approaching the coast within the week, which means there’s almost no competition for a lounge chair in the shade. While no one recommends a beachside resort during hurricane season, (and I wouldn’t have planned that to be sitting at the pool on the day when everyone else is home boarding up windows with plywood), the off-season availability and climate conditions can be pristine. Just check the weather before traveling.
If you have the flexibility to travel when others typically stay home, you can sometimes improve your vacation experience. Planning getaways when the volume of travelers is historically low can take some creative scheduling. But our experience shows there are many reasons to consider off-season travel.
