Spring break travel: Hotel rates down, airfares up

March 7, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Average airfares for spring break are up from last year, but hotel rates are down, according to data from Bing Travel and Travelocity.

Travelocity found average airfares are up 9 percent compared with last year, with the average domestic roundtrip flight at about $351, while hotel prices are down to an average nightly rate of about $156, a 3 percent decrease from last year.

Travelocity also crunched data for spring break for this season and came up with this list of top 10 destinations based on actual bookings: Orlando was No. 1, followed by other South Florida destinations, then Las Vegas, Phoenix, Cancun, New York, Fort Myers (Fla.); Los Angeles; Tampa-St. Petersburg; and Washington.

Bing Travel found that the week of March 22 is the most expensive time to travel between the end of winter and early April, but Tuesday-to-Tuesday and Wednesday-to-Wednesday trips are cheaper than traveling on Fridays or weekends.

Bing Travel also looked at airfare and hotel data for individual spring-break destinations and found that average airfare from the U.S. to Cancun is up 23 percent over last year, from $346 to $427, but average hotel rates are down year over year, from $220 in 2009 to $198 a night this year.

Bing estimates that total average cost of a trip for two to Florida is down 12 percent.