St. Patrick’s Day is coming up. Most families don’t seem to think about traveling for this holiday. However, it can actually be a perfect time to take a little family trip. It’s off-season for many places so you can easily find good deals on hotels. Destinations aren’t too crowded. And you can see some things that you wouldn’t normally see on family trips.

Five terrific places to think about visiting for St. Patrick’s Day this year are:

1. Ireland. This would, of course, be the ideal St. Patrick’s Day destination. It’s not easy to find budget flights to Ireland at the last minute but if you can swing it then it would surely be an experience to remember.
2. San Francisco. Believe it or not, this is a terrific city for celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. There is a very cool historic green church which is, of course, St. Patrick’s church. There are also great Irish restaurants and other fun activities to enjoy in this big city during St. Patrick’s Day.
3. New York City. Many people love to visit St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. What better time to see this landmark than during St. Patrick’s Day? Get a cheap Times Square hotel room and make a whole weekend out of it!
4. Chicago. Another major city where you can see a lot of fun events and also visit a St. Patrick’s church is Chicago. The church here is also well-known and fun to spend time at with your family.
5. Boston. If the thing that you are most interested in is a great St. Patrick’s Day parade then look no further than South Boston. Over half a million people attend this event, though, so be sure to keep an eye on the little ones!

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I’ve developed a wonderful online friendship with someone who had read this blog and written to me. She had originally written to let me know about some good discount hotels in Houston. Although I didn’t particularly need that information right now, I really liked the woman and we’ve been talking about travel online ever since. She just wrote to me to ask me what I thought about doing New Year’s Eve at Times Square. What a great question!

I have to confess that I’ve never done New Year’s Eve at Times Square. It’s not something that I want to do with my kids and I like to be with them at the holidays so it’s not a trip that I’ll be taking any time soon. However I’ve known people who have done this. Some of them loved it and some of them hated it. Some did it frugally and others spent way more money than they wanted to. Based on what they have told me, the tips I’d have for doing New Year’s Eve at Times Square include:

• Book a cheap Times Square Hotel in advance. You have to book in advance to even get a room let alone to get a cheap room. It’s best to get a room right at Times Square because it saves you the cost and hassle of transportation to the event.
• Make the New Year’s Eve event the big deal event. You shouldn’t try to fit in a lot of other touristy stuff during this quick trip to New York. The event itself is free so focus just on that and do other New York stuff on a different trip.
• Do some pre-drinking at your hotel. If you’re a New Year’s Eve drinker then you’ll want to plan on only getting one drink at the bars near Times Square. Before that you should do your drinking at the hotel with beverages purchased at a local grocery store. It’s a lot cheaper that way.
• Bundle up. A lot of people that I know worry about wearing beautiful clothes to this event. Don’t spend the money on something special. It’s going to be cold out anyway so just put on your cutest jacket and scarf over whatever you feel comfy in.

Have a safe new year whether it’s in New York or elsewhere!

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