Travel by season

Does anyone travel by season?

For example. Suppose you'll know you be traveling for April, but have a lot of leeway on where to go. Wouldn't it be neat to somehow be able to determine what is going on in world, where the cheap airfares are, the temperatures, where the crowds are, what local festivals might be happening in world to help you determine where to go?


Thoughts?

In the past I used to travel quite frequently by season or more accurately by month. My work tended to ebb and flow so when work was light I would check out of the hotel I was staying at and travel for a month or two until work picked back up. Often times I would actually submit my work for approval and then while waiting for approval (normally a month or two) I would take off traveling.

Other times, travel opportunities would occur almost instantaneously (project gets delayed, etc) and I would have a few days to book things and go. As such, I developed a spreadsheet that basically breaks out countries by good travel months. I'd filter the spreadsheet by month (although these days its a little more advance and I run queries in Access) and whatever countries popped up I'd look for air tickets for. Wherever I could get reasonable air tickets to I would go.

I emailed this spreadsheet to Michael C a while back. He may have made some improvements to it. I haven't touched it in quite a while and it's far from done as it only looks at the countries I personally was interested in going to and hadn't already been.

I try to travel in the offseason...I find the airfare cheaper, cities and towns less crowded etc...for example I like to go to europe in the winter...i thnk its beautiful and I never wait to go to the famous stuff.

I still have my half-finished spreadsheet! I keep changing my mind on how to organize it. At one point I was trying to color code temperature and rainfall, and it just got ridiculous.

The calendars and diaries put out by Lonely planet will often tell you what's going on in a particular month. It won't have everything obviously but it might give you some ideas and seems a lot less time consuming than building your own spreadsheet!

I, too, love making complicated spreadsheets about travelling. But then again I kinda make spreadsheets about everything.

I've decided, though, that 3 of the most important variables are too unpredictable --

1. Travelling companions -- They rebel against my spreadsheet. The spreadsheet says we should go to Iceland in March!, I insist. Everyone looks at me like I'm crazy and mumbles something noncommittal.
2. Airfare -- although some destinations are greatly seasonal (Europe), others can swing wildly back and forth from month to month with nary a rhyme or reason. Damn prices keep changing, and I have to keep reorganizing my charts
3. Cyclical fluctuations in work and my boss' inability to coordinate with the airline industry. I mean, I'd rather have that than a health plan, really.

(BTW -- Project delays, Excel and Access-- hmmm, halfnine, do we have the same job?)