Winter’s Low Europe Prices Stretch Into Spring

In the usual pattern of transatlantic travel, prices remain at their winter lows through the middle of March, then begin to climb. Air fares and hotel rates increase sharply in late March, soar in April and climb again in May.

But maybe not this year. The European market is so sluggish that airlines and tour operators are extending their winter lows through the end of March and are raising them only $100 to $200 in April and May (an unprecedented low increase for those desirable months). The result is that you can enjoy a warm-weather week in a great European capital or area at bargain prices. Consider these opportunities:

* $699 for an Aer Lingus flight, then a week tooling around Ireland, staying in farmhouse B&Bs;: The Emerald Isle mixes high tech with hedgerows and still manages to be charming. Ireland travel specialist Sceptre Ireland, (800) 221-0924, www.sceptreireland.com, continues its popular six-night fly-and-drive Emerald Package: a hotel night in Shannon followed by five more in any of 450 country bed-and-breakfasts (Irish breakfast included), a rental car to get you from pub to pub (er, place to place) and a round-trip flight from Los Angeles. The $699 price is available from March through May; single supplement is $150.

* $599 in March, $699 in early April and $799 in late April (all prices per person, double occupancy) for six nights in Moscow and St. Petersburg, including round-trip air fare, hotel and show tickets. (From the West Coast add $325.) It’s worth packing an extra sweater or two to enjoy such czarist wonders as St. Petersburg’s Hermitage and Moscow’s Kremlin--especially for $599--on the “Land of the Czars” tour from Eastern Tours, (800) 339-6967, www.traveltorussia.com. Included are round-trip air from New York on Finnair, three nights in St. Petersburg and an evening at the Kirov Ballet. Next, take an overnight train to Moscow, where you’ll spend two more nights, with a visit to the Moscow Circus. The single supplement is $125.

* $739, double occupancy, for three nights each in Warsaw and Krakow, with air fare and hotel: You can go from medieval to modern and back again with a six-night package from Affordable Poland, (800) 497-9929, www.affordablepoland.com; besides air fare from Los Angeles, you get hotels with daily buffet breakfast and first-class train passage between bustling Warsaw and medieval Krakow. That price applies to midweek departures through March 23, then goes up $5 to $90 (depending on the date) till March 31, then up to a still-reasonable $939 till June 14. Single supplement is $129 to $149, depending on the date.

* $699, double, for five nights in Prague, including round-trip air fare from Los Angeles: The fairy-tale city of Kafka, medieval alchemists and dissident president Vaclav Havel still amazes, as does the price on this Prague five-nighter from Nordique Tours, (310) 645-7527, www.nordiquetours.com. It includes lodging at the modern Hotel Denisa in the outlying (but well-connected by subway) Dejvice district. The price increases to $849 in April and May; single room supplement is $89.

* $1,099 for seven nights in Amsterdam; Antwerp, Belgium; and Paris, including air fare and city tours: The reliable Sunny Land Tours, (800) 783-7839, www.sunnylandtours.com, is offering this romp through Holland (one night), Belgium (three nights) and France (three nights). Its price of $1,099 to $1,199, double occupancy, for March, April and May includes air fare from Los Angeles, hotels, daily breakfast and city tours. At any time, parties of four get a $100 discount, but single travelers pay $350 more.

* $1,549 for two weeks on the island of Majorca, with air fare, room and two meals a day: Saga Holidays, (877) 265-6862, www.sagaholidays.com, one of whose specialties is dirt-cheap, longer-term packages to Iberia, adds a two-week deal to Majorca, largest of the Balearic Islands and a spot where writers and artists are joined by Spanish royals and European package vacationers. Stay and get breakfast and dinner daily at the Hotel Delfin Siesta Mar, perched on a slope near shops and restaurants in the hills north of Palma, the capital. The hotel features two pools, a restaurant and 113 rooms, all with ocean-view terraces. The price is from the West Coast in March. In April and May, rates increase $150. An unusual bonus: There’s no single room supplement.