RTD EXCLUSIVE: Cheap vacations are a summer premium

Laid off from Qimonda, Dave Johnson of Hanover County won't be taking his family on their usual week's vacation on the Outer Banks this year.

What he is going to do is go back to the Hanover Tomato Festival.

"It was a blast," Johnson said, "and it cost absolutely nothing. We're definitely going back."

With the state's unemployment rate at 7 percent, many recession-battered Virginians are joining Johnson in looking for great ways to stretch their dollars during the summer vacation season.

They're in luck.

The same downturn that has depressed incomes has also helped pushed down hotel rates, airline fares, gas prices, restaurant tabs and attendance fees.

"Right now . . . is the best time for travel deals that we've had since 9/11," said San Francisco-based travel expert Christopher McGinnis. "The travel industry is lowering prices like crazy to get people to book."

Average airlines fares from Richmond International Airport, for instance, dropped 4.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 alone, compared to the year before, the U.S. Department of Transportation reported this week.

The average fourth-quarter air fare from RIC was $330.08, the federal Transportation Department said, and by doing their homework with a little on-line checking, travelers can find much better deals than that.

This week, for instance, central Virginia travelers -- if they were willing to be flexible with their plans -- could snap up tickets for $59 on AirTran Airways to Atlanta, $79 to Orlando, $99 to New Orleans or Cancun, Mexico, and $129 to San Francisco.

Playing off the 40th anniversary of the state's "Virginia is for Lovers" slogan, state tourism officials have sweetened the season's pot by partnering with more than 200 attractions, restaurants and hotels to offer 40 percent discounts, and $40-off and buy-three-get-one-free deals.

"The economy is creating concerns for travelers," said Tamra Talmadge-Anderson with the Virginia Tourism Corp. "We wanted to do everything in the world to make sure the economy doesn't get in the way of people traveling to Virginia."

Local and state tourism agencies are also touting the long lists of free and low-cost activities and attractions available now to vacationers and "staycationers" in the Old Dominion.

"In this weak economy, price is almost everything in deciding where to go," said VCU transportation economist George Hoffer.

Elizabeth Muse, CEO of A Day's Outing, an online guide to day and weekend trips in and around Virginia, agrees with Hoffer.

The Charlottesville woman recently joined with another mother to bring their five kids to Maymont's gardens, museum and children's farm in Richmond. "It's actually just a phenomenal free place to be able to take your children," Muse said.

"We packed a picnic lunch, we had a picnic right there on the lawn, and then we toured all the grounds and visited the animals," she said. "That didn't cost us anything."

Virginia's 35 state parks are the high-quality, low-cost option for spending time away from home. Voted the nation's best by the National Recreation and Park Association, the parks offer recreation ranging from mountain climbing to water sports, as well as camping and climate-controlled cabins. A two-bedroom cabin at Smith Mountain Lake State Park goes for $613 a week -- in prime season.

"Travel vendors want business," AAA Mid-Atlantic spokeswoman Martha Meade said, "and they're getting creative."

Ocean cruises present particularly good bargains, Meade said, and people willing to drive to Baltimore next month can sail away on a 6-day cruise to Bahama for as little as $669 a person.

Dave Johnson's 25th wedding anniversary is coming up this summer, and he's already done some thinking about how he'll be able to mark the occasion properly with some time away with his wife, Betsy.

"We may take a weekend out of season," he said, "and go to Nag's Head" -- to celebrate without paying high in-season rates.

Contact Peter Bacqué at (804) 649-6813 or .