Late March Spring Break '14
 

I'm at a loss. Trying to book spring break has become a difficult task!!! I just cant figure out where to go!!!

I really wanted to go to London and thought I had it set when American points were 40K a piece, but the fee per ticket is $700 - what??? That's just NUTS!! So sadly although London is calling - I cant answer. :(

So I'm looking closer to home - hoping to not spend a fortune on airfare from Miami.
Ideas Ive come up with -

Austin/San Antonio - with possibility of Big Bend - but that drive - ugh.
Sante Fe - although Ive been told the weather isn't so accommodating in March.
Portland, OR - airfare is crazy and Crater Lake is still closed (been dying to go),
Tennessee - Nashville, Memphis or both.

I'm open to comments or other suggestions.....
No skiing
No laying on beaches

Trying not to repeat places we have been......
California, Arizona, Costa Rica, Panama
Vegas, North Carolina, NY, DC.......

<i>I really wanted to go to London and thought I had it set when American points were 40K a piece, but the fee per ticket is $700 - what???</i>

That's because you were being offered flights using British Airways planes. BA adds a "fuel surcharge" (aka pure profit) to award tickets using miles/points, which AA passes through to AAdvantage members.

Find another carrier (e.g. AA itself, or airberlin, or Finnair, or Iberia) and you'll find the extra charges (grouped as "taxes and fees") are reduced big time. If you picked another European country besides the UK for your trip home, you could also avoid the usurious UK Air Passenger Duty, which <i>is</i> a tax. You don't pay it flying into Britain, just on departure (and you don't pay it if you just change planes in the UK without a stopover.)

For example, not knowing your dates, I plugged in Miami to London for March 21, and "de-selected" British Airways on the AA award finder. I found several itineraries involving AA and/or US Airways (the two are merging hence both airlines' award options are visible on AA.com) for 20,000 miles (via Charlotte) and <b>$5</b> in fees. Coming back from London, the price goes up to $190 in fees due to the UK APD; if you came back from Paris the "extra" (including a smaller but still annoying French departure tax) would be around $70, justifying a trip on the Eurostar or even a short flight (lower APD on short-haul flights) from London to CDG.

All of which is to say that you CAN get cheap mileage flights to Europe, even in key spring break periods, if you know some of the ropes, and avoid British Airways.

For a spring break, I had a quick look at Barcelona, Milan (for Venice or the coast, even over to the Cote d'Azur) and Seville, and all were available for 20,000 miles and under $40 in taxes/fees one way, ditto coming back. Or fly to London, then train or fly to someplace warm for a few days, then back. Easy peasy.

I did answer on your other post-thread.
I live in Klamath County Oregon. The north entrance to Crater Lake is closed probably until sometime in June. I'm hoping that we do get a lot of snow between now and April. We really need it.
The south entrance of Crater Lake is open all year long.
On Saturdays, there are ranger led snowshoe hikes up to the rim to see the lake.
One way to get to see the park in March would be to fly to Las Vegas and then take a flight on Allegiant airline to Medford where you would rent a car.
Keep checking the prices to fly to Portland. Don't be dependent on a single airline.

The weather in the Northwest for spring break is unpredictable...maybe you want a change from Miami weather and are OK with some (or even a lot) of rain and cool temps...in that case, Oregon would be OK, but summer there is much, much nicer. Have you been everywhere in California? It usually has pretty good weather that time of year.

Gardyloo - thank you so much for the tip!!!!! You used the AA website for all your searches?

tomfuller - I'd love to so the snowshoe guided hike - WOW!!! That sounds incredible!!1 Although Ive never snowshoed. It is easy for kids? 14 and 11??

voyager - cool temps are fine. I get to break out the Uggs. But, Im not a big fan of rain. We have really been all over California, except Tahoe, but I dont want to ski.

<i>Gardyloo - thank you so much for the tip!!!!! You used the AA website for all your searches?</i>

Yes, but I have other resources (ExpertFlyer and KVS) that can also help finding award availability, but you'd have to phone AA to make the actual booking.

If you give some dates I can be more specific.

Nashville is not as glamorous as London, but it's a really fun town/area, especially with all the hype of the ABC series by the same name. We just did a quick trip to Nashville over Christmas and had a great time. I had been there 7 or 8 times for various meetings, but never to play tourist and we now can't wait to go back in warmer weather. If you are a country music fan, obviously Nashville has tons to do but there is plenty for those who aren't interested in the music. We went to the Grand Ole Opry and my husband, who is not a music person, loved it, because of the variety of music and the interaction of the performers with the audience. We toured Belle Meade plantation which was very interesting and stopped by Antique Archeology, (the TN branch of the American Pickers). For our next trip, we want to get to the Bluebird Cafe, the Country Music Hall of Fame, walk through the Parthenon, visit the Hermitage....and there is a lot more good food in Nashville than I had realized. We stayed at the new Omni downtown and I cannot say enough good things about it. They weren't very busy, as we were there on the weekend between New Year's and the beginning of the first full week of the year, and the lady at the desk gave us an amazing unsolicited upgrade to a corner suite with fabulous views. It was also a great location for downtown, just two blocks from the Ryman and a block from Broadway and right next to the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Bridgestone arena. I think it could be a fun spring break trip, with or without Memphis added to it...or it could be interesting to drive part of the Natchez Trace from Nashville toward AL/MS.

If kids have an interest in learning to snowshoe, it's not too hard to learn. Breaking trail is a little harder than following a ranger on snowshoes. If they really like it, come spend a day at Mt. Bachelor outside Bend.
There is a snow tube hill at Mt. Bachelor if they don't like snowshoeing, X-Country or downhill skiing.

Idaho??

Smoky Mountains? Or somewhere in the Appalachians?

For Big Bend, Midland/Odessa is the closest airport, with El Paso about an hour further away than that. However, if Big Bend is just a few days of the trip I wouldn't use Midland as there isn't a lot in that area. El Paso would be a much better choice - there are some great state parks between El Paso and Big Bend. And Guadalupe National Park is not far out of the way....

I would however check on lodging for your spring break dates as Big Bend is notoriously busy during that time. If your dates match when public schools or universities in Texas are on break you are probably screwed. But if you are later than that you may be ok.

Just to follow up on that:
near El Paso is Hueco Tanks State Park
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/hueco-tanks

About 110 miles east of El Paso is Guadalupe Mountains NP:
nps.gov/gumo

Big Bend Ranch State Park is along the Rio Grande (great scenic drive) about 30 miles west of the national park. It is pretty remote though as the only access road to the interior of the park is a rough dirt road, and most of the interior park roads are 4WD or high-clearance recommended.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/big-bend-ranch

North and a little west of the national park is Fort Davis and Alpine, with the Fort Davis National Historical Site, Davis Mountains State Park, McDonald Observatory and Museum of the Big Bend. All are great places to visit.
http://www.nps.gov/foda/index.htm
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/davis-mountains
http://mcdonaldobservatory.org/
http://ww2.sulross.edu/museum/

Alpine also has a lot of art galleries which I loved.

And last, there's Balmorhea State Park on the way to/from the park, depending on which route you take. It has the world's largest spring fed swimming pool.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/state-parks/balmorhea

I've done the drive to Big Bend from the east (Austin area), Midland, and El Paso. Midland is the fastest but most expensive airport, and it has pretty limited flights. Driving from El Paso definitely had the most options for interesting stops along the way IMO. Coming from the east just took forever and really the only 2 stops I made were the Judge Roy Bean museum and Seminole Canyon State Park, neither of which I would go out of my way to visit if I hadn't been going in that direction already.

If you don't like rain, I would save the Northwest for summer...it usually has the best weather in the country then and is a spectacular destination if you combine Portland/Cannon Beach/Columbia Gorge/Seattle/Mt. Rainier/San Juan Islands, etc.

We are going to Nashville for spring break from Seattle this year and looking forward to it!

Maybe the Utah National Parks - Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches? The weather can be mixed but the coldest spring break my family ever experienced was in London, so wherever you pick could be a toss-up.

London is off the table - its just too complicated. And I only have enough AA miles for 3 tickets - not the 4th. I'll save them for a later date....

Thinking summer should be be Utah Parks or Pac NW.
If we do Pac NW in the summer wondering if its wise to check out Utah parks for Spring Break. In the summer we have 2+ weeks to explore. Spring is really 9-10 days max.

If Europe is off, then the southwest might be a good option. Be careful with the high-altitude national parks in Utah (Bryce is at 8000+) where winter can hang around.

Any baseball fans in your group? Fly to Phoenix and go to a few Cactus League games, then head to the Grand Canyon, over to Canyon de Chelly and Monument Valley, then back to PHX and home. It's a fab route in the spring - red rocks, wildflowers, still some green, warm sun, good Mexican food, and the sound of horsehide on ash in Phoenix. What's not to like?

http://www.cactusleague.com/

No baseball fans here :( And we visited the GC last year.

Thinking Fly to Vegas - then
Zion, Bryce, Arches, Canyonlands, Monument Valley.
Is that doable in 9 days?

Skip Bryce because of snow?

Two years ago we did the Utah Parks/Vegas for Spring Break and then Vancouver, Olympic NP and Seattle in the summer. Mostly, good weather for both trips. There was no snow at Bryce in late March, although it was spitting snow one morning in Zion. I prefer that though to 100 degree temps in the summer.

Hoover Dam is worth a stop on the way if you haven't been yet. Nine days is enough for the first four. I haven't been to Monument Valley so I'm not sure how much time you should spend there. You might want to start a new thread specifically for the Utah NPs if you are leaning in that direction.

In park lodging might be tough to get, but I really like the Desert Pearl Inn in Springdale.

www.desertpearl.com/home.shtml

I have tickets on hold on American to fly r/t to Vegas and then to drive to the Utah parks. It comes out to 8 nights. Is this doable?? I can drop Momument Valley - but I really want to get to Arches NP. Is there somewhere closer to fly out of so we dont have to double back to Vegas?

Weve been to Hoover Dam, so we wouldnt need to make a stop there....