If you have any discretion as to when you can take your vacations, my tip is to book them in the off-season at various resorts and destinations.

Youll be happy you did, for at least five good reasons:

(1) Off-season travel is almost always cheaper. You can save 50% and more, for example, on hotels alone, by booking your trip to Hawaii in October or In March, when most people are trekking over there in the dead of winter and during summer and spring vacations.

(2) Youll miss the crowds. Hey, you may love people and adore having lots of company, but believe me, crowds are no fun if they mean you have to shuffle along in tedium waiting for your chance to get on a chair lift at a ski resort. The more you ski, the more fun you have and the better you get. Standing in lines has absolutely no advantage, so why not book that trip to Lake Tahoe, as Ive been doing the past few years in late March or early April, when theres no waiting, whatsoever?

(3) Youll deal with friendlier locals. Resort personnel are much more mellow after the crowds have waddled back home. Theyll tend to be more patient with you, and this will pay off in better suggestions for great local haunts and hangouts and nifty side trips that theyll have the time to tell you about.

(4) Youll get better service, and this is a mathematical fact. A few weeks into the off-season most resorts dont slash their staffs, so there are more servers serving you! If you like being pampered, this is the time for it!

(5) Youll save so much dough that you can afford two off-season jaunts for the price of one prime timer. So, that means skiing and surfing, in the same calendar year.

Typically, what constitutes the off-season is not pegged to the weather but more to the calendar. For instance, when Spring Break finishes early, say in the beginning of March, this means many Florida venues downshift to bargain rates.

The skies and waters are still warm and blue, but your money goes a lot further. And the snow doesnt always disappear from the Sierras in February.

So, do what you can to seize the off-season as soon as it is announced, and youll have better and cheaper vacations!