Summer, as much as we hate to admit it, is winding down and soon the city will be filled with tiny, adorable new NYU students and the crisp terror of having to bring a jacket with you everywhere again. Pile all that up with the perpetual motion machine of schoolyard absurdity that is driving our current presidential election and the fact that Frank Ocean’s album finally came out, which gives us nothing to look forward to in the near future, and it’s clear you need a vacation.
Luckily, this is fall is looking to be a great time to travel, according to Travel + Leisure magazine, which reported on a study by airfare prediction app Hopper. The company’s chief scientist predicts airfare for a domestic round-trip ticket will drop by as much as 8.2 percent to a seasonal low of $213 in October. That’s about the same as last year at the same time but 16 percent lower than in 2014; you’ve got dropping fuel prices to thank. Prices will keep going lower in the winter months too, so you’re gonna have less reason not to visit your parents for the holidays this year. Good thing I heard a rumor President Hillary is going to outlaw Christmas, or something.
Prices will probably bottom out at $210 round trip for January, according to Hopper. Don’t forget that cheap (like, actually cheap — like $99 cheap) international flights are finally finally coming to NYC in November. This means it might be the greatest fall to travel out of New York in recent memory. Of course, the only reason to travel out of New York is to remind yourself why you put up with the absurd jostling of New York life — because you would die from boredom living anywhere else.
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Cheap oil prices actually aren’t a great thing overall: Cheap gas leads to more driving, more car purchases and more plane travel, which increases our dependence on oil instead of ramping up your need to replace it with something else. But hey if we’re going to destroy the planet, at least you can see more of it before we do so.