Are You An Off-Seasoner?

Choosing to visit popular destinations during the off-season is something we like to do, but we do know that there are some pros and cons to this which is why today we’re discussing what one faces as an off-seasoner! So when we’re talking about visiting places off-season, we’re talking about making the effort to travel to places when people generally don’t want to visit. For instance, during our most recent road trip to Colorado, we visited Rocky Mountain National Park when it was technically closed and visited Vail right before ski season started. Also we’ve taken off-season trips to places like Montreal in February which is a frigid time, and Yosemite National Park in the fall when there’s none of those popular waterfalls to see. Doing this type of travel has a lot of benefits, but it also has its downfalls. So let’s discuss those ups and downs of off-seasoning!

Pros of Off-Seasoning:

No crowds. Off-season travel means you get to avoid all those tourists that make sometimes viewing the popular destinations so difficult and sometimes frustrating. We like that feeling of having the place to ourselves…or as close as it can get these days!
Get a local perspective. Most of the people we notice that are around popular destinations during the off-season, live there all year…so you get to see and experience something closer to being a local. We find this to be one of the most authentic parts of travel!
Choose your own experience. Popular activities are usually not available, so you get to carve out your own adventures during the off-season. You may even experience something that very few people have done before!
Easy on the wallet. Off-season means cheaper rates on a lot of resources like food…we definitely love that!
Hotels at your disposal. Speaking of cheaper…hotels tend to have an off-season rate that is significantly lower…which means why not book that luxury suite!
Parking no longer a frustration. We hate fighting tourists when it comes to parking spaces (we tend to back down easily)…so off-seasoning definitely reduces that debacle!
Take photos like you’re alone. Off-season times give way for less photo bombers and more images of what you intended to photograph! It’s a landscape photographer’s dream come true!

Cons of Off-Seasoning:

Not everything is open. That means during the off-season…restaurants, shops, and activities that make the destination so popular are sometimes unavailable. I have to admit, it hurts to see a closed sign at a store with cute clothes in the window!
Miss out on well known natural events. Those forces of nature that only happen at specific times of the year are a bit of a miss. You might need to travel back to the place at a busier time. We definitely have a long list of places we have to return to!
Might feel a little too alone. This often happens to us when we visit national parks…sometimes we feel safer on trails when we see people more frequently! Not a huge fan of meeting bears in close proximity…we’ve tried it once and didn’t like it!
Reviews not reliable. We love reading reviews, but they don’t always apply to off-season times! I wish there was an off-season travel app…we would find that helpful!
Weather an issue. Usually what dictates off-season times is weather…so you may encounter bad snow, extreme heat, or storms! We’ve had some tense times driving through mountains in the middle of snow storms…not fun!