You can save money by traveling on actual holiday

Traveling for the holidays? Here’s some advice from the travel mavens at Hotwire.com that can help you save money and cut down on hassles:

Planes are less full on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day than on the day before or after, so try to travel on the actual holiday if you can.

Dec. 29, the Wednesday between Christmas and New Year’s, is also listed by Hotwire.com as a “best bet” if you must travel during peak season. In contrast, Dec. 18 through 23, Dec. 26 through 28, Dec. 30 and Jan. 2 are likely to be the most crowded and expensive dates for travel over the holidays.

If you’re not tied to the actual holidays but just want an early winter getaway, plan your trip between Dec. 1 and 16 or after Jan. 3 for the cheapest airfares.

If you’re looking for a hotel during Christmas and New Year’s, you may be pleasantly surprised, according to Hotwire.com. Business travel is down at that time of year and many leisure travelers stay with families, so occupancy is low in many big-city hotels, which means deals abound.

Finally, shop around. When multiple airports serve the same destination, airlines frequently charge more to fly into one than the other. But if you’re leaving your car at the airport while you’re away, remember to compare parking prices too so you don’t lose the money you save on airfare by spending it on parking.

CdA Resort cited by Zagat

The Coeur d’Alene Resort was named the No. 1 place to stay for both golfing and skiing in the Zagat Survey’s 2005 guide to “Top U.S. Hotels, Resorts & Spas.”

Chicago’s Peninsula, Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton hotels snagged three of the top 10 spots in the overall best hotel list in the new Zagat guide, which was released Monday.

The top 10 also included three other Four Seasons hotels, in New York, Philadelphia and Las Vegas. Also on the list were the Beverly Hills Peninsula, Miami’s Mandarin Oriental, New Orleans’ Windsor Court and the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas.

The five best small hotels were the Lodge at Sea Island in Georgia; Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tenn.; Canoe Bay in Chetek, Wis.; Twin Farms in Barnard, Vt.; and the Woodlands Resort in Summerville, S.C.

Hawaii was a favorite on Zagat’s list of best resorts, with the Four Seasons Hualalai on the Big Island, the Four Seasons at Wailea on Maui and the Lodge at Loele in Lanai among the top 10.

The Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Fla., the Four Seasons Aviara in Carlsbad, Calif., the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, the Inn at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach, Calif., the Stein Eriksen Lodge in Park City, Utah, the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Va., and the Royal Palms in Phoenix, Ariz., also won top honors.

Disney was a big winner among best places for families to stay, with Animal Kingdom, BoardWalk Inn and Grand Floridian in Orlando and the Grand Californian in Los Angeles snaring the top four spots. Also on the list for families were the Fairmont Kea Lani in Maui, the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess in Arizona, the Grand Hyatt in Seattle, the Hershey in Hershey, Pa., the Hilton Waikoloa on Hawaii’s Big Island, and Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

The guide, which sells for $14.95, also provides recommendations for hotels with fine dining, extraordinary beaches and other amenities along with various top 100 lists and reviews of individual facilities.

Like all Zagat guides, the hotel book is based on reviews from the public. More than 16,000 people who spent an average of 36 nights a year in hotels sent in reviews for the guide. To join the corps of Zagat reviewers, visit www.zagat.com.

Northwest wine country

California’s Napa Valley and New York’s Finger Lakes are getting some competition for vineyard vacationers from the wine country of Washington and Oregon, and two new guides from Fodor’s can help you plan a trip to tour the area.

“Washington Wine Country” and “Oregon Wine Country” ($21 each) by John Doerper are insider’s guides to planning a tasting-and-buying tour of the region’s up-and-coming wineries. Both books include maps, driving itineraries, dining and lodging recommendations and sidebars on topics like how to read the label on a wine bottle.

Doerper notes that many wineries that are not otherwise open to the public invite visitors in for Thanksgiving weekend. Some localities coordinate open house events among a number of vineyards around that time.

For example, Washington’s Yakima Valley hosts an annual “Thanksgiving in Wine Country” event Nov. 26 through 28 in which wineries and restaurants feature sample-size portions of an entree paired with local wine. For details, visit www.wineyakimavalley.org or call (800) 258-7270.

The “fall crush” – when grapes are harvested, crushed and then fermented – is the perfect time to visit Oregon’s Washington County, where 13 wineries are located.

This year, area wineries are teaming up to offer visitors a package of classes and tours the weekend after Thanksgiving. For $20, participants receive tastings, a free wineglass and admission to as many as eight half-hour classes throughout the weekend, ranging from lessons in sushi-rolling to instruction in viticulture.

Visitors to the region will also want to check out the Washington County Fairgrounds between Nov. 16 and 21 for the “Every Husband’s Nightmare Bazaar,” where more than 200 vendors will sell everything from arts and crafts to collectibles and food.