I'm pricing out a long weekend trip the weekend before Thanksgiving in November.
We're flying out of NYC. I go to Travelocity and search out non-stop flights to Houston, and turn it into a package with a hotel and car rental. The cost comes out to $1,700. I gasped slightly, though realized the price was a bit inflated as this is the weekend before Thanksgiving. (Maybe some people take the entire week off - so flight prices tend to be inflated due weekend before, and the weekend of?)
I then throw Iceland into the search, and price out the same days, with non-stop flights and hotel. (If we rent a car, we will do it locally for one day, for roughly $50.)
Iceland came out to a smidge over $1,300 total for 2 non-stop flights and a room at the Hilton. (Great hotel - we stayed there last time.)
All prices were quoted after tax.
Lesson I want to pass along - if your heart isn't set on a specific destination, don't settle. Throw random cities into your search if your dates are somewhat nailed down, but the destination is not.
We have had similar outcomes when attempting to book a trip to Switzerland a couple years ago, and the cost to fly to Japan (plus hotel) was half the cost the same week.
So rather than finally get my weekend in Texas, buying my first cowboy hate, etc., it looks like we will probably be headed to Iceland again!
Re: Iceland is coming out as less expensive than Texas!
I totally agree. We have three vacations yearly, and while the weeks are always the same (end of April, middle of summer, beginning of November), we never totally commit to a location unless we absolutely have to.
Our summer vacation has bounced from Amsterdam to Albuquerque to a cruise and we finally chose Canada (Montreal and Quebec City). We are going to Seattle for our April vacation partly to see friends, but mostly because we snagged a great travel deal on Virgin America (under $300 r/t direct from NYC which is practically unheard of). If you have flexibility, it's a lot of fun.
It's exciting not knowing where you may end up sometimes!