Cheap summer destinations, part two

Summer prices tend to be higher and summer crowds tend to be larger, so lists that focus on cheap or popular destinations can be mighty helpful to travelers on budgets and those who either want to be where the action is or avoid the summer crush. I’ve just received an influx of such lists from travel consolidators. Part one of this makeshift series covered CheapTickets.com’s Cheapometer. Today I’ll cover Orbitz’ Insider Index, and early next week I’ll look at Expedia’s Travel Trendwatch.

I’m a big fan of putting data to good use, and I think the trends these travel companies are privy to in terms of pricing and consumer interest certainly falls in that category. In a mostly unrelated aside, when I worked at a search engine in the late 1990s, I kept tabs on what kinds of celebrity information people were looking for. One of the most interesting things I found was that one of the only famous people no one seemed to ever want to see naked was Margaret Thatcher.

And on that note, I’ll return to the point. Orbitz’ Insider Index is based on future air bookings, and focuses on the summer’s most popular destinations, so this is one of those lists that you can use to either join the crowd or avoid it. There are top ten lists for both domestic and international cities, but I’ll just list the top five for each. Orbitz has the full list as well as Orbitz’ own picks for the best summer destinations.

Domestic

• Las Vegas
• New York
• Orlando
• San Francisco
• San Diego

International

• Cancun, Mexico
• Los Cabos, Mexico
• Riviera Maya, Mexico
• Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
• Rome, Italy