Cheap Flights, Half-Price Cruises: This Travel Tuesday, Deals Abound

As a sales season, Black Friday long ago turned the weekend corner to extend to Cyber Monday. And it’s still growing as Travel Tuesday gains traction.

In a recent report, the consultancy McKinsey & Company found that bookings for hotels, cruises and airlines spiked on Travel Tuesday 2023. Airline purchases soared, beating the average for sales over two weeks on either side of the date by more than 60 percent. Cruise bookings jumped 50 percent.

“More people are investing in travel and experiences than ever before,” said Hayley Berg, the lead economist at the travel booking app Hopper. “On the flip side, we’ve seen more marketing and more providers participating, so it’s really snowballing.”

This year, after wading through hundreds of sales, I found some of the best deals I’ve seen since the pandemic. Consider the following offers the tip of the iceberg; chances are if you want to book a hotel, airline ticket, rental car, tour or cruise for 2025, you’ll find a sale on it, many of them through Dec. 8.

As always, caveat emptor. Among pitfalls, many sales will be prepaid and nonrefundable, be subject to blackout dates and hew to off-season or first-quarter travel, so read the terms and conditions carefully.

Flight deals

Through Dec. 4, TAP Air Portugal is offering round-trip flights starting at $379 to Lisbon, Madrid, Dublin and other European destinations from its U.S. airports, including Newark Liberty International Airport, for travel from mid-January to mid-May.