In summer, it pays to be spontaneous

PEOPLE who procrastinate in making summer vacation plans probably feel dismayed about their prospects now that we’re in the middle of the hot-weather season. They needn’t be. The travel industry is full of August openings.

It isn’t too late to book yourself onto a one- or two-week cruise of the Caribbean or the Pacific aboard ships departing from ports all over America in the month of August.

Go to www.vacationstogo.com and click on the button for departures within 90 days; you’ll find discount offers for every sort of ship on the routes that go to the tropical islands of the Western Hemisphere or along the Pacific coast of Mexico. The Caribbean is particularly available at this time of year because of hurricane fears, and low prices are offered as an enticement.

Cruise prices are so low that they have affected hotel and package rates to islands outside the hurricane belt, where there hasn’t been such a storm in years: Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Trinidad and Tobago, and Margarita, off Venezuela. Travelers can take advantage of bargain rates on islands where hurricanes almost never occur. (The places where they most frequently occur are the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Bahamas.)

If you’re worried about bad weather spoiling your last-minute vacation, there are ways to reduce the risk. Some tour operators have introduced insurance policies costing $49 that allow the interruption of vacations if poor weather threatens; www.cheapcaribbean.com is allowing customers to cancel a vacation without penalty for any reason at all as late as three hours before trip departure. (And it will be the passenger, not the tour operator, who determines whether it is advisable not to travel.)

Consider Italy: It isn’t too late to book yourself aboard a transatlantic flight of the new Eurofly airlines from New York to Bologna. This is the first year of Eurofly’s scheduled operations to and from the United States, and bookings are slow. The fledgling airline has responded with a price of $749 for round-trip, nonstop service from New York to Bologna, including government taxes and the $150 fuel surcharge that carriers add on flights to Italy. You’ll pay $400 to $500 less than most other airlines charge at this time of year. Contact www.euroflyusa.com, or call (800) 459-0581.

You could also book a stay in one of the country’s national parks or to Orlando, Fla. Domestic travel slumps a bit in the latter half of August, probably because of the reopening of many schools ahead of Labor Day.

Despite rosy predictions about a record-breaking summer-travel season, I predict that high gas prices and concerns about the weakness of the U.S. dollar might reduce the summer figures to well below what many expected. The drop-off may be especially apparent in August, and that factor will create a great many vacation opportunities.