DAY BY DAY

DAY BY DAY
Best bets for deals
All days are not created equal when it comes to travel, according to the current issue of Travel Holiday magazine. Here's a rundown from the magazine.
Sunday: Wherever there's a beach, a casino or a golf course, the deals start tonight. Consider Atlantic City. As the weekday begins, everything from rooms to the minimum at blackjack tables can drop by half.Monday: You aren't going to the airport this morning, are you? Not only is it busy, but your chances of an upgrade are remote. The most-frequent fliers have already claimed those seats.Tuesday: A good day for museums. It avoids the Wednesday through Friday school groups. It's also a good day (along with Wednesday) to use your frequent-flier miles for a free ride to Miami, Mexico or Paris. The fewest award seats to these hot spots are for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.Wednesday: Fire up your computer. At 12:01 a.m. the major domestic airlines release their "Internet only" weekend specials.Thursday: The weekend starts at 9 a.m. or noon at many car-rental agencies and runs until midnight Sunday. Visit www.hertz.com and ask for a midsize car in Las Vegas. If you pick it up at noon Wednesday, the quote is $37.99 a day. For noon Thursday: $21.99.Friday: Check into a big-city hotel. The business types have checked out (they're now clogging the airport), and you can get luxury for a motel price. One recent weekend, a double at the Hyatt Regency Denver was $69 a night; on Monday, it skyrocketed to $180.Saturday: Heading overseas? In Israel, as you would expect, nothing is open. But in Athens, this is your day for the Acropolis, especially around 4 p.m. -- no groups from the cruise ships that dock in nearby Piraeus.