You have itchy feet and nowhere to be next Thursday (or you simply need a good excuse to get away from the day). We have a few packages that will be more cost-effective than buying a whole turkey. Let's check 'em out...

Option 1: Spend it with the First Family:
LastMinute.com has flight and hotel packages to Washington D.C. starting at just $246. When you get there, work up an appetite at the Eighth Annual Trot For Hunger 5K along the Potomac, then chow down at the Mandarin Oriental's new restaurant, Sou'wester. On Friday, hit Pentagon City mall at 5AM to get all your shopping done, then attend a tree lighting in Old Town Alexandria. ]]> egw 2009-11-19T11:24:30-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/17/211536/15

Obviously, the biggest Turkey Day festivities happen in New York City, but a good second option is Chicago's 76th annual McDonald's Thanksgiving Parade. The name doesn't carry the panache that Macy's does, but it's probably the country's second-most-famous parade to see gargantuan balloons, floats, marching bands and numerous performers.

Dress warmly and go to iconic State Street early to get a head up on the 400,000 spectators expected to attend. The action steps off at Congress Avenue from at 8 a.m. and heads north, ending at Randolph Street at 11 a.m. We recommend snagging a spot in front of Macy's on State Street. It'll be crowded, since it's the parade end point, but it's also the spot where all of the dancers and other acts stop to perform. You could also shell out $50 for the VIP treatment, which allows you to see the first-hour performances live with television zone seating, a continental breakfast and VIP-only restrooms.]]> Jennifer Kester 2009-11-18T11:28:56-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/17/141854/02

Fewer than one in five Americans are planning to cut back on their Thanksgiving spending, but almost one-third are curbing their overall holiday travel this season. That's not going to devastate the airline world, since a lot of that travel would have happened by car anyway. And to be honest we kind of like the excuse: "sorry uncle and aunt so and so—we'd love to come over and have our annual fight about whether Obama's birth certificate is real, but we just can't afford the gas in this recession."

But the scaling back is still going to be enough to take a bite out of the industry: ]]> Omri 2009-11-17T15:34:28-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/16/132641/14

Lake views and no cooking; that's what we call Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving can either make you feel elated or totally stressed out—usually some combination thereof. After that Pumpkin Pie high, your mind might turn to thoughts of dishes that need to be washed, relatives that need to be entertained, and horrific Black Friday shopping. The benefit of hightailing it out of town during this time is being able to push some of these worries away, while still enjoying the Thanksgiving spirit.

Lake Tahoe is always a favorite holiday destination, for its views of the water, skiing, and the fact that it's pretty much the opposite of a harried urban setting, however overrun with tourists it can get. We found some last minute event deals at the Hyatt Regency Resort that offer easy and relatively cheap remedies to some of the problems we mentioned above. ]]> Heidi Atwal 2009-11-16T15:24:28-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/10/143620/26

If it's good enough for Madonna and Jesus, then it's good enough for you. As we reported today, the transformative Queen of Pop recently landed in Rio de Janiero for "humanitarian" work and quite possibly to meet her boyfriend's parents. We're not sure if this contributes to Rio's international appeal or detracts from it, but we did happen to stumble across a four-night travel package, airfare included, for Thanksgiving travel to the Brazilian city.

Travelzoo recently posted a $699 (base price) all-inclusive deal which includes roundtrip travel from New York City, daily breakfast, four nights accommodations, and the option to tack tour extras onto your package. The catch is, as we mentioned, the date that you'll have to depart—either dangerously close to Thanksgiving on the 19th, or the day itself. So, you'll have to decide whether forgoing turkey, football, and that yearly screening of the MACY*S parade is worth the $700 pricetag. ]]> Heidi Atwal 2009-11-10T15:34:24-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/9/13513/7666

A sunny scene at the Desert Hills Outlets—before Black Friday

Black Friday is not for the faint of heart. Should you bear traces of tryptophan in your blood stream, or experience the after-effects of one too many glasses of wine from Thanksgiving, then sleeping in may suit you more than braving a crowd of rabid shoppers—and we do mean rabid. We've heard horror stories about Black Friday deaths and witnessed parent-on-parent showdowns at Toys 'R' Us, which are precisely the reasons that news outlets line up in the wee hours of the morning to document the mania.

If you're a brave enough consumer, then by all means drag yourself out of bed before sunrise and take advantage of the deals. Hey, it's your "patriotic duty," right? The West Coast, with shopping safe havens like Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, and San Francisco's Union Square, is ripe for spending sprees, but some of the best deals are where discounts are knocked off of already marked-down prices.

Say it with us, readers: outlet shopping... ]]> Heidi Atwal 2009-11-09T15:39:43-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/11/6/153743/599

There is a certain romantic allure to train travel—just ask fictional sweethearts Jesse and Céline of Before Sunrise. But Stateside, unfortunately, the mode of transport isn't as common as it is in other parts of the world. While you continue to dream about hopping aboard a Darjeeling Railway car, we're happy to report that a smaller-scale train trek can be had in California, even if it is less grand than journeying across exotic international ground.

The Napa Valley Wine Train is a refined alternative to unofficial "drunk buses" tourists often book to stay safe while sipping wine flights throughout the day. Equally drinker-friendly, and much more respectable, the train is holding a special Thanksgiving dinner aboard its Gourmet and Vista Dome cars for $104 and $139, respectively. Sadly, lunch tickets have already sold out. ]]> Heidi Atwal 2009-11-06T15:40:49-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/