Skip the turkey and spend Thanksgiving in Europe

Pssssttt… I’ll let you in on a little secret. If you’re willing to skip out on turkey and trimmings, you’ll be able to travel to (and feast in) Europe for less over Thanksgiving week. So if you’ve been hungering for a European vacation but felt the tightening of purse strings, consider spending this oh-so-American holiday back in the old country.

Although domestic airfare typically goes up for the holidays, you can find good values for European travel, and especially for vacation packages. Travel to Europe generally ebbs in fall, after the busy summer season is over. Kids head back to school, locals head back to work, and the prices get reduced accordingly for the shoulder season. And with most Americans focused on family reunions and the start of Christmas shopping stateside, Thanksgiving week offers some of the best prices of the year for European vacations.

Here are some possibilities for European vacation packages over this Thanksgiving, testing departures from New York.

• Go-today’s London Thanksgiving Escape: Four nights including airfare and hotel starting at $599; travel is valid from November 16 through 21. A comparable four-night package costs $639 for other dates in November.
• EuropeASAP has a Paris Escape offering four nights with hotel and airfare starting at $549 for travel between November 1 and December 14. This same package cost $699 just one month earlier.
• Spend Thanksgiving in Rome with Gate 1 Travel‘s four-night package, starting at $599. The departure date is November 21. A similar package could have cost you up to $1,159 for travel earlier this fall.

Regardless of which European destination you want to visit, you should be able to find a few good deals over the holiday. Check EuropeASAP, Gate 1 Travel, and go-today.com for packages, or use SmarterTravel.com’s price-comparison tool to search multiple travel providers.

Have a great travel tip you’d like to share? Send your insider travel strategies to editor@smartertravel.com.