Cheap Destinations Forecasted for 2009

Molly has also written for National Geographic Traveler Magazine and Fodor's Gold Guides. Her photography has been published in The Boston Globe Magazine.

See recent posts by Molly Feltner

Those of us who write about travel love to look at stats and trends in order to compose lists of affordable destinations because there are always budget travelers on the lookout for the latest cheap vacation spot. Now that we’re officially in a recession and money is tighter, we have to work even harder to pinpoint the very best values. Last month in fact, SmarterTravel.com published its first-ever Free Travel Special Report.

The latest cheap destinations list comes from CheapTickets.com, which released a forecast predicting the top three cheapest U.S. cities or international destinations to visit in each month of 2009. According to the forecast, here are the destinations that offer the biggest percentage of savings over peak rates in each month:

January: New York City
February: Italy
March: Portland, Maine
April: Brazil
May: Lake Tahoe
June: Egypt
July: West Palm Beach
August: Tucson
September: Orlando
October: Mexico
November: Greece
December: Napa and Sonoma valleys.

CheapTickets.com results are based on its tracking of hotel pricing.

What do you think of cheap destinations lists? Do they make you want to pack your bags or are you still uncertain about spending money on travel in 2009?

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