Talking Travel: Book Your Spring Festival Holiday Now

And so the annual insanity known as the October 1 holiday draws to a close. Seeing this annual migration should remind everyone why there are very few other week-long public holidays worldwide. And not only does China have one, it has two; it used to have three.

The laundry isn't even done from the trip but your Talking Travel correspondent is going to offer up one of his golden rules of China travel: book your Spring Festival/Chinese New Year trip now. Booking now before the leaves fall off the trees means more money for duty-free when that time off comes around.

At the very least, if you're traveling to Europe or North America for any of the solar new year holidays, then it's even more urgent. Don't believe me? Pull up the seating chart for flights during the last three weeks of December, and see how full they already are, a full almost four weeks before Halloween.

The timing for Spring Festival this year is quite good, falling on February 18. That means that it won't screw up Super Bowl viewing or its polar opposite, Valentine's Day. It's also far enough after Christmas/New Year that people who hate or love winter will be ready to get away from it again or go somewhere with a lot more snow to enjoy it. Now is the time to book. The days of being able to buy reasonably-priced tickets to Southeast Asia one month before Spring Festival are ancient history. Use the Talking Travel Rule of Holiday Planning: buy air tickets for your next holiday as soon as you return from the previous one.

In other travel news, flying to Hong Kong right now is unbelievably cheap for some reason. Fly there later this month on Cathay Pacific Airlines for only RMB 1,616, including tax.

Photo: heartofavagabond.com