Chris McGinnis discovering a market in Seoul, South Korea (Photo: Caitlin Martin)
Chris McGinnis discovering a market in Seoul, South Korea (Photo: Caitlin Martin)

Our good friend and fellow travel writer Chris McGinnis has partnered with Best Western as the YouMustBeTrippin.com business travel expert to offer some predictions for the summer travel season ahead. This guy has basically been everywhere, written a few books and contributed to many major media outlets to offer his travel advice. We just love hearing his thoughts!

Here is his assessment on what should be a busy summer travel season this year:

1. Weather
We had a cold winter this year and Americans are ready for summer. Best Western says that advanced bookings for June, July and August are already up 6 percent compared to this time last year; and compared with 5 years ago during the same time period, bookings are up 48 percent this year. To get ahead of higher demand, redeem points to help defray the cost of trips. Also keep an eye out for bonus deals that start in spring and continue into the summer travel season.

2. Gas prices
While we have seen gas prices plummet to record lows earlier this year (2 bucks a gallon!), chances are we won’t see the typical spike of summer gas prices like we did last year. That means book your summer trips to parks like the Grand Canyon and Yosemite now before they fill up.

3. Strength in the US dollar
Due to the strength in the US dollar, Europe is on sale this year—some parts of Europe you can find deals up to 25 percent off. Even despite lower fuel costs, we likely won’t see airline deals to Europe but your savings on the ground will help defray the cost of the airline ticket.

For the full Summer Travel Forecast video with Chris McGinnis and his helpful tips, check out Best Western’s You Must Be Trippin’ blog at youmustbetrippin.com.

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