The 'off-season' myth that cost me nothing and saved everything

I used to avoid traveling in shoulder season, assuming bad weather would ruin the trip. Testing it directly against peak season on the same destination, the weather difference was often two or three degrees and one extra cloudy afternoon — nothing that changed the trip.

What did change: hotel prices dropped by a third, popular sites had a fraction of the crowds, and restaurants stopped requiring reservations booked weeks out. The destination was identical. Only the number of other tourists and the price changed.

I've stopped checking peak-season dates for most destinations now. The shoulder-season penalty I was avoiding turned out to be almost entirely imaginary, and the savings were completely real.

Part of the deeper dive: The Budget-Smart Guide to Traveling More Often for Less.