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Can You Be Excused From The Table? Three Last-Minute Thanksgiving Trip Deals
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.
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A Guide To The Second Best Thanksgiving Parade, In The Second City
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.
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Thanksgiving Travel Down, Prices Going Up Anyway
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:
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Ditch Cooking and the Fake Smile for Thanksgiving in Tahoe
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.
Tags: Thanksgiving Alternatives / Thanksgiving Travel / New York City / Rio de Janeiro Travel / → All Tags
Skip The Macy's Parade For Four Nights In Rio This Thanksgiving
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.
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The Year's Darkest Shopping Day Made Sunny At California Outlets
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...
Tags: Train Travel / California / California Travel / Napa Valley Travel / Thanksgiving Travel / Thanksgiving Alternatives / Wine Travel / Wine Country / → All Tags
Gourmet On A Train: Ditch Cooking For A Napa Wine Dinner
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.
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Go Balls-Out at Huntley's Turkey Testicle Festival
When November comes around, people's mouths water for turkey—be it the white meat, dark meat or wings. Then there are those who salivate for turkey balls. Seriously. In Huntley, a small suburb about 45 minutes west of downtown Chicago, turkey scrota are as much a Thanksgiving tradition as stuffing at the annual Turkey Testicle Festival, which will swing into town on November 25.
What began as a local tradition has become a draw for tourists. Last year, more than 3,900 people turned out to to the Parkside Pub, the festival's home base, to munch on 1,280 pounds of turkey testes. The small bits—no offense to male turkeys—are coated in breadcrumbs and then cooked crispy in a deep fryer. They taste gamey, like chicken, or so we're told. Some douse them in ketchup or Tabasco, but most people just eat them plain. The bar usually sells out of the treats by 9:30 p.m.
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Six Nights In Prague Over Thanksgiving For $669? See Ya, America!
Are you a last-minute planner when it comes to big holiday travel times like Thanksgiving in Christmas? Yes, we are too, especially because everything looks so darn expensive and plain booked up. This year, it's either another Thanksgiving of ordering Chinese takeout or booking it out of the country for some autumn appeal overseas...like in Prague.
Remember that it's not Thanksgiving over in the Czech Republic, so that means no dinner reservations or pressure to eat cranberry sauce. Virgin Vacations seems to have the best deal we've seen for this, with a 6-night hotel, airfare, and daily breakfast starting at $669 per person. Sure they have other deals for Thanksgiving to Barcelona, London, Paris and Rome, but the Prague trip sounds like the most fall foliage and old school charm for the lowest price.
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How's Your Travel Day So Far?
For a holiday, it's pretty light trading at JFK International Airport right now. Heavier than a normal day, to be sure, but the twin threats of high prices and fewer than usual flights seems to have cleared the air a little bit on the national scene. From light traffic in Washington state to lower gas prices in New Jersey, it seems like more people than usual have opted to stay home, or hit the road if they want to go at all.
One thing that we noticed, at least in the terminals we visited: The promised "family lanes" have not yet been marked out, even after the TSA made such a big hurrah about adding them and how much faster it would make the boarding process. We give them credit for a good idea, and this is what they do? It didn't slow us down any, but it would have been nice to see that innovation in action.
One innovation we did see: No one challenged our "checkpoint friendly" laptop sleeve, which we were allowed to run through the X-ray without taking out the computer inside. We didn't buy one of the TSA branded ones either, which can easily be triple the cost of a usual sleeve (we're sporting one of the colorful designs from Built NY). Results may vary, but let us know.
The Wall Street Journal's Middle Seat Terminal blog predicted an easier Thanksgiving than years past because the weather forecast looks so good. We can't argue with that on our end; it's still sweater weather here in New York. But that doesn't mean we won't be on tenterhooks all weekend.
Let the world know your Thanksgiving travel story here. Or drop your snaps in our Jaunted Flickr Pool.
Related Stories:
· Thanksgiving Travel Forecast Looks Good (Knock Wood) [WSJ]
· Airport Survival round-up [Jaunted]
[Photo of adorable mini-frequent flyers at SFO: AP via Yahoo! UK]
Tags: Thanksgiving / Thanksgiving Travel / High School Musical / → All Tags
You're Welcome For This Left Coast Parade
New York City's gets all the glory, but if you can't get excited about standing around in the cold waiting for a Thanksgiving parade to start, set your sights on SoCal. The Mother Goose Parade in San Diego County may never inspire a Super Bowl ad, but it would make for a great game of "Hey! It's That Guy!"
Grand marshals for the 2008 parade, which begins at 10 am on Sunday, November 23 are Tori Spelling (Hey! It's that reality star who was on the original 90210!) and KayCee Stroh (Hey! It's the break-dancing nerd from "High School Musical"!) Other slots for your Celebrity Bingo card should go to Chris Knight (see Spelling, only substitute "The Brady Bunch" for 90210), Mason Vale Cotton (Hey! It's that kid from "Desperate Housewives"!) and Lou Ferrigno (Hey! It's that Hulk!)
Guess in this case the parade's proximity to Hollywood brings all these guys and girls out of the woodwork. Snoopy, that's your cue to move.
Related Stories:
· Morally Ambiguous Travel: Just Relax And Enjoy New York's Columbus Day Parade [Jaunted]
· Macy's Parade Hotels [HC]
· Thanksgiving coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo from the 2007 Mother Goose parade: Bisayan lady]
