SALT LAKE CITY — Have you planned your trip for spring break? Now is the time to do it, if you haven't already!
Travel experts warn that this year will be busier than ever, but there are some deals to be found. You just have to start looking sooner than later.
"As a family, they get a trip every other year — a bigger family trip," said Marci Childs, a mother of six and an educator from Centerfield in Sanpete County.
She and her husband are taking their entire family on a cruise to Mexico. They are driving to Los Angeles, then hopping aboard the boat there and taking the very same cruise they enjoyed two years ago. But this year they are taking all eight in their family. The last time they went, only the older four kids came along.
"We've been saving up and we found a good deal, and so this time we are taking all six kids with us. We are so excited!" Childs said. "We watched those deals nonstop. Me and my husband watched our emails and we found one that was kids cruise free, and so we just jumped on that and booked it."
Laurel Yeske, a travel agent for Harmonious Holidays out of South Jordan, says the earlier you book your trip, the better. That's how you will find the deals. She says it's still possible to book your spring break trip, but do it now — or plan a more local staycation and book a cruise for later in the year since she says they're offering deals right now.
"Right now is considered 'wave season' in the cruise industry, so a lot of cruise lines are putting out good deals right now because they want to book their rooms through the end of the year," Yeske said.
Yeske advises Utahns to expect this year's spring break and even summer travel to be very busy, and she says that's pretty much the new normal — leveling out after a peak post-pandemic.
"Right after the restrictions lifted and everyone could travel again, there was a lot of pent-up demand," Yeske said. "Some of my favorite blogs called it 'revenge travel,' where people had money to spend and they were ready to go and things got really expensive. Prices have leveled out, but they are more expensive than they were pre-pandemic."
According to the travel app "Hopper," airfare costs are relatively the same or at a slightly higher rate than they were one year ago. Rental cars actually saw a double-digit decrease, while hotels have dropped about 9% since this time in 2023.
But there is one popular spot for Utah families that remains hot year-round.
"Disney used to have on and off seasons, like January and February you could go and it's really quiet. There's no off-season for Disneyland anymore. It's busy or it's crazy busy," Yeske said.
Meanwhile, Childs says all the time and effort she has put into booking her family trips is always worth it.
"My dad passed away when I was a teenager and bless my mom's soul, there was 5 of us kids at home, and she still took us all over the place," she said.
She says that's when she made the memories with her family that she and her siblings still talk about, and she is grateful to be able to offer the same thing to her children — fun ways to bond and give her a chance to show them another part of the world around them.
