Forget Christmas: Now's the time to get great deals on Chinese New Year travel

Date: Dec 1st 2008 12:10p.m.

Contributed by:
leemack

Spring Festival is coming quickly, along with a big fat week-long holiday (starts on Jan. 24 if you’re keeping score at home) and the tour companies are slinging package holidays faster than McDonald’s slings Happy Meals. Tour agencies have groups going to the most popular destinations in Asia and if you act now, you can angle in on some hot deals. Singapore-based Country Holidays (www.countryholidays.com.cn) is the most reliable name in town for high-end voyaging. They have a slew of fab trips lined up for Chinese New Year, but our pick is their seven day jaunt to Myanmar (RMB15,000, departs Jan. 23). Or bust out that down jacket and head to Harbin for famed Ice Festival (three days for RMB7,800). Local-based SCUBA outfitter Big Blue (www.big-blue.cn) heads to Malapascua in the Philippines on Jan. 23 for a week diving with Thresher sharks (RMB7,480). Cycle heads will also want to check out Yunnan Cycling, a new tour operator in Yunnan (www.yunnancycling.com) which is running multi-day bike trips around places like Lijiang and Dali for less than RMB5,000. The travel industry is feeling the pinch (along with everyone else) and is slashing prices for the upcoming holiday season. No better time to pack a bag and get gone.