In a Season of Bargains, a Handful of Standouts

The post-Sept. 11 travel industry is a bargain-hunter’s playground, and even a full-time observer like me can get punch-drunk from the array of deals. But among numerous cut-rate offers, at least three stand out as special opportunities.

* Orlando, Fla., for $29.95: We begin with the hotel sale recently announced by the flamboyant Harris Rosen, longtime hotel king of the theme-park city, who owns four giant budget-priced Orlando hotels totaling more than 2,500 rooms. Throughout January, all four of Rosen’s economy properties will be available for $29.95 per room, per night (and each room is capable of housing up to four people).

Moreover, Rosen says that if rooms at his four low-tariff properties are sold out at that price, the overflow will be sent to two larger but higher-priced Rosen properties at the same $29.95 per-room rate.

Rosen’s four budget properties are the 1,020-room Quality Inn Plaza on International Drive, (800) 999-8585 (largest Quality Inn in the world); the 728-room Quality Inn International on International Drive, (800) 825-7600; the 315-room Rodeway Inn International on International Drive, (800) 999-6327; and the 640-room Comfort Inn in Lake Buena Vista, (800) 999-7300 (next to Disney World).

When the budget properties are full, guests will be sent on a space-availability basis to the Rosen Centre, 1,334 rooms on International Drive adjoining the Orlando Convention Center, and to the Rosen Plaza, 810 rooms adjoining the convention center on the other side.

“If they fill up, we will find other hotels in the area that will honor the $29.95 rate,” Rosen says.

We asked Rosen about his motivation for the offer. He replied, “To keep our employees at work.”

To take advantage of the windfall, call the individual hotel numbers above or (800) 221-2222 (a central reservations number for Choice Hotels, which represents the Rosen properties), or access www.orlandohotels4less.com. The promotion remains valid throughout January.

* London or Paris for $549: This price for round-trip transatlantic air fare from the West Coast and a full week of hotel accommodations in London or Paris is no minor accomplishment. Yet Go-Today.Com, www.go-today.com, is charging $549 for that from Jan. 9 until March 15 on an Internet deal: round-trip air from Los Angeles or San Francisco to either capital, and six nights at modest hotels.

When the jumbo jet was introduced, could anyone have imagined that all the basic ingredients of a vacation week in a major European capital would someday be available to Californians for less than $600?

* Ireland for $629: All of Ireland awaits at that price from Los Angeles, but only from Jan. 1 to a last departure on Feb. 8, from Irish specialist Sceptre Tours at (800) 221-0924, www.sceptretours.com.

You get round-trip air on Aer Lingus, vouchers for six nights of bed-and-breakfast accommodations in your choice of hundreds of small Irish guest houses and private homes, and a compact standard-shift car with unlimited mileage for the week. (The same package increases to $739 for departures between Feb. 9 and March 31.)

With those vouchers and the car, you can design your itinerary (electing to fly to Dublin or Shannon and leaving from either), and about the only negative is the Irish weather (wet and windy).

Luckily, two of the great things about Ireland--its friendliness and its traditional music--are best enjoyed inside warm pubs.