Spring Brings Discount Travel Opportunities

Judging from the calendar, it might not seem that winter is ending, but only 63 days from now, spring will usher in better travel weather. With those balmy days will come a host of budget-priced travel opportunities.

Sierra Club: Spring, especially April and May, is peak season for the 200 or so outdoor vacations offered all over the country by the Sierra Club environmental activist group. Each short-term outing is created, offered and operated by volunteer experts in particular locales or modes of outdoor vacations. And they are booked by thoughtful, high-spirited Americans whose company will be a dividend of your trip.

These outings include a variety of inexpensive trips by bicycle, backpack, canoe, kayak, raft, sailboat and snowshoe, plus base-camp outings and service trips (volunteer work in the national parks). The outdoor holidays range from seven nights in Yosemite to 11 nights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, from six nights in the Mojave Desert to five nights in the Florida Everglades, and so on.

Outings cost as little as $60 a day, plus the cost of transportation to the kickoff point.

All are listed in the Sierra Club Outings Catalog, which is yours free by writing to the club, 85 2nd St., San Francisco, CA 94105, or by e-mailing to national.outings@sierraclub.org, or by telephone, (415) 977-5522. The list also can be viewed on the Internet, https://www.sierraclub.org.

Skiing: From the last week of March through April 16, Ski Vacation Planners, tel. (800) 822-6754, or (201) 801-0028 (Internet https://www.skivacationplanners.com) will fly you midweek on United Airlines to Steamboat Springs, Colo. The price from Los Angeles is $670 per person, based on sharing a room. This includes six nights at the Alpiner Lodge, transfers and a four-day lift ticket pass. Departures are midweek.

Or, longer into the spring (from April 9 until at least April 30), you can opt (again through Ski Vacation Planners) for Canada’s remarkable Banff/Lake Louise area. The price, $612 per person from Los Angeles, includes round-trip air fare on American Airlines, transfers from the Calgary airport, six nights at the Travellers Inn in Banff, and lift tickets for four days at ski sites throughout the area.

Drive a bargain: Every year, immediately after Easter--this year, April 23--and at least until mid-May, the car rental companies shift thousands of their cars from Florida (where they are no longer needed) to the Northeast U.S. To a lesser extent, they do the same with their fleets in Arizona, shifting them to California, Oregon and Washington. If you’ll help them do that, taking a car from Florida or Arizona to one of 30 major cities in the Northeast or along the West Coast, they’ll rent the vehicle to you at sacrificial rates. These might be as little as $19 a day for compact cars, $5 more for midsize.

Two or more of the major companies always announce those one-way price reductions shortly before Easter. Call around, and you’ll eventually find a great Florida or Arizona drive-out.