Seize the time: Europe is offering good fall deals

There may be no better time to take a European vacation than now.

Fall in Europe normally draws fewer crowds, brings milder weather and offers significant savings for travelers who waited out the summer months. Combine that with a global travel slump and you've got a bargain-hunter's dream. Desperate to make up the drop in tourists, even the most popular European destinations like Britain and Italy are trying to lure visitors with sales.

Another factor: Americans can still take advantage of a relatively solid dollar against the euro.

Among the best deals are hotel /airfare packages to London and Amsterdam, down more than 30 percent on Expedia compared with last fall.

Deals to Rome and Barcelona are down 26 and 17 percent respectively. And Dublin offers a significant bang for your buck. With hotels averaging $92.40 a night, a year-over-year savings of 44 percent, Orbitz listed it as the top fall "shoulder season" destination.

Airfares down

Airfare to Europe has dropped, too. Overall, fall fares to Europe are tracking 13 percent below last year, said Joel Grus, the so-called fareologist at Bing Travel, part of Microsoft's new search engine that predicts airfare prices. If all you care about is a cheap flight, he recommends Madrid.

The next best deals are to Paris and Rome, where flights are down about 15 percent from a year ago.

There are also plenty of hotel bargains for travelers who prefer to piece together their own trips, as properties try to lure guests with attractive rates and extra perks.

Concorde Hotels & Resorts, which has 22 hotels in Europe, is offering rates from about 80 euros ($120) a night with buffet breakfast and a gift, starting Nov. 1. The One More Night promotion of Small Luxury Hotels of the World offers three nights for two, four nights for three and so on when paying with an American Express card through November.

While there are many last-minute hotel deals to be found on such sites as Travelzoo.com and Lastminutetravel.com, hotels are also offering incentives to book early. In London, for example, the Metropolitan and the Halkin, part of the high-end COMO Hotels and Resorts, have rooms starting at 199 pounds and 229 pounds ($318.40 and $366.40) a night respectively, for two-night stays booked seven days in advance.

Package deals are plentiful, in part because of packagers' ability to negotiate favorable rates with hotels, and offer some of the best bargains.

In Ireland, Sceptre Tours has a seven-day Emerald Luxury package for $659 a person, including rental car, down from $999 last year. And Contiki Holidays is offering $200 off its summer Europe trips of eight days or longer if booked by Oct. 29.

Spain, Portugal deals

Spain or Portugal continue to offer great value. Petrabax, a 25-year-old tour operator, specializes in those regions and is the sole U.S. representative of Talonotel, a voucher-based hotel discount program that is well-known in Spain.

With the vouchers, travelers can save up to 65 percent on thousands of hotels, mostly in Western Europe. Each Talonotel voucher offered through Petrabax.com is currently $90, and buys a night in a double room for one or two people including tax.

The Hotel Melia Avenida de America in Madrid was listed for just one voucher or $90 on Nov. 29, according to Petrabax. That's a savings of almost 25 percent off the lowest rate (79 euros) found on the hotel's site.

France, Britain cheaper

France and Britain, which some American tourists had written off as too expensive, are now scrambling to woo visitors back with savings. Liberty Travel, the travel agency chain based in Ramsey, N.J., said many hotels in popular French destinations are offering fourth nights free. They include the Palais de la Mediterranee in Nice, the Hotel Martinez in Cannes and the Waldorf Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

Meanwhile, VisitBritain has been running a Get More Britain for Your Buck campaign at www.getmorebritain.com since the summer. Deals, which extend through the fall, include rooms from about 60 pounds a night at Jurys Inns, a budget hotel chain, and a third night free at the Chesterfield Mayfair Hotel, where a recent online search showed rooms from 175 pounds a night.

And don't forget Iceland, which is still recovering from a financial collapse last fall. Until recently, it was considered among the most expensive countries in Europe, but now at roughly 124 krona to the dollar (it was about 100 to the dollar a year ago), it's a pretty good deal for travelers who don't mind the cold. Icelandair, its national airline, seems to have an endless supply of low rates and incentives, and flies nonstop from Seattle.

But don't wait too long to book a trip to Europe.

While visitor numbers are still down, there are signs that travel to Europe is beginning to recover, as the economy picks up and airlines bring capacity more in line with demand. And as bargain hunters well know, once business returns, prices will rise and deals will dry up.