Latest / The Red Solo Traveler Podcast / Peak Season Is When You See the Line. Offseason Is When You See the Place.

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Peak Season Is When You See the Line. Offseason Is When You See the Place. · The Red Solo Traveler Podcast

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: So what if the absolute best time to visit, I
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: don't know, America's greatest historic sites is when the weather
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: is just completely miserable?
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Right. Like when half the restaurants in town are boarded
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: up for the season.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: When every other tourist has just packed up and gone home.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: Because, you know, we're so conditioned to want that perfect
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: postcard experience.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. The sun-drenched colonial streets. the golden hour lighting.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the bustling local market. We see the brochures, we
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: scroll through the Instagram feeds, and then we just instinctively
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: book our tickets for middle of July.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: And I mean, that instinct makes perfect sense on a
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: surface level. Tourism marketing is just incredibly effective at triggering
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: our desire for, well, comfort and reliability. Right. We get
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: herded toward these really specific weeks of the year because
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: that's when the destination is basically guaranteed to be fully operational. And,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: you know, aesthetically pleasing.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Welcome to the Red Solo Traveler podcast. Today, we are
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: embarking on a session that completely shatters that whole glossy
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: golden hour illusion.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: It really does tear it down.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: We're drawing from a January 2026 newsletter post by Louis
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: from Red Solo Traveler. And it's titled, Peak Season is
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: When You See the Line. Off Season is When You
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: See the Place.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Such a great title.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: So good. Our mission today is to unpack this highly
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: contrarian approach to the American travel calendar. We're going to
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: explore how doing the exact opposite of what the travel
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: brochures tell you is actually the master key. It's the
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: key to truly seeing historical sites, cities, and museums across
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: the country. And by the end of this exploration, you
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: are going to fundamentally rethink how you book your time off.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: You really will. Because it requires this fundamental shift in
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: how we perceive the actual mechanics of travel. Like, Most
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: advice out there just centers on optimizing a trip during
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: those peak times.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: Like pecking hacks and all that.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. How to pack, how to use your points,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: how to beat the morning rush at the gates. But
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: what we are exploring today bypasses all of that entirely
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: just by altering the actual timing of the trip itself.
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: Okay, let's unpack this. The core philosophy here is what
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: the newsletter refers to as the Costanza method.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Yes, the Costanza method.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: Right, so anyone who knows the classic sitcom Seinfeld will
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: remember the episode the opposite. Basically, George Costanza has this
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: Really grim realization that every natural instinct he has ever
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: had in his entire life has been wrong.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Every single one.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: Just absolute failure across the board. So he decides to
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: just do the exact opposite. Like instead of inventing some
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: fake impressive job to impress a woman at a diner,
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: he just walks right up to her and says, I'm
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: unemployed and I live with my parents.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Which is brilliant. And the joke is the man, obviously.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: But the really useful part here is the method itself. Right.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: When you apply the Costanza method to the American travel calendar,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: it demands that you fight every natural impulse you have
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: about when to take your time off. Because historically, travel
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: advice is just this massive herding mechanism.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: Oh, 100 percent. It funnels the entire country into these
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: incredibly narrow, super predictable windows of time. You've got school vacations,
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: those three-day holiday weekends.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: The peak week for leaf peeping in New England. Yes.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: Or that single week where a coastal beach town actually
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: looks like a postcard. We call those the brochure weeks.
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: And the really critical realization here is that when you
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: travel during those specific weeks, you are actually seeing the
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: destination in its natural state. No, not at all.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: You are seeing a destination that is merely performing for
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: a massive crowd.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: Performing, exactly. It ceases to be a functional, breathing town
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: or like a quiet historical site. It transforms entirely into
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: a crowd management exercise.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Right. All the local infrastructure, the sidewalks, the tour guides,
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: the restaurants, they're just trying to keep thousands of people
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: moving safely in one direction.
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: And because of that necessary performance, the actual place becomes
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: incredibly difficult to read. Like you aren't experiencing the culture
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: or the history anymore.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: You're just experiencing the logistics of moving humans through a
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: physical space.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: Yes. It's like trying to appreciate the architecture of a
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: beautiful train station during morning rush hour. Like you're too
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: busy trying not to get elbowed by commuters to actually
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: look up and see the ceiling.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: That's a perfect analogy because peak season is optimized entirely
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: for volume and throughput. It's not built for depth of experience.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: So if everyone is just shuffling through a historic house,
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: trying not to bump into the person in front of them,
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: nobody's actually experiencing the house, which really makes you wonder,
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: is the brochure week actually just a scam? Are we
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: paying a premium just to stand in line?
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: Well, which brings us to the tangible rewards of the off-season,
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: because the standard advice always, always defaults to the financial benefits. Right.
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: The cheap stuff.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: People know that traveling in November or January yields cheaper
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: hotel nights and lower airfares. That is the selling point
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: everyone already knows.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: But those cheap hotel nights? That's just the brochure version
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: of off-season travel, right? The author argues that the real discount,
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: like the true currency you are acquiring when you use
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: the Costanza method, is access.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Access, yes. What's fascinating here is when you consider the
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: spatial reality of the sites mentioned in the source material.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: We're talking about Presidential Library, a historic house museum, a
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: Major League Ballpark tour.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: A river landing, a Civil War fort.
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: Right. Look at the architecture and the core purpose of
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: those specific places. They were built to be walked by
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: humans at a normal, steady pace.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, not a stampede.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Exactly. They were designed for a specific human scale, allowing
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: people to occupy a certain amount of physical room just
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: to absorb the information, you know, to look at the
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: artifacts and really feel the weight of the history.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: But in the middle of July, that physical room is
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: just completely stolen from you. You're totally compressed.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: You're shoulder to shoulder. But the off season gives you
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: back the physical space the building was actually designed around.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, you pay less at the gate, sure, which
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: is nice. But more importantly, the line at that historic
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: house is a line of maybe two people.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: Right. You aren't in this tense, slow motion negotiation for
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: a parking spot with four other minivans.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: And crucially, you can actually hear the tour guide speaking.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: Oh, that is such a big deal.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: It really is. When a docent is speaking to a
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: group of 40 tourists in this cramped little parlor, They
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: are projecting, they're rushing, and they're sticking strictly to the
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: script because they just have to keep the group moving.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: But when that same docent is speaking to just you
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: and maybe one other person on a, I don't know,
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: Tuesday in February, it actually becomes a conversation.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: Right. You are getting the intended experience of the site
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: entirely unmediated by this wall of other stressed out tourists.
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: OK, but wait, let me push back on this for
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: a second. If it's so incredibly rewarding and we get
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: the presidential library completely to ourselves, There has to be
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: a catch. I mean, the universe doesn't just hand out
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: empty presidential libraries for free. What are we paying in return?
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: That is the big question. And the source material is
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: remarkably strict and honest about this reality. Off-season travel is
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: not some magical frictionless utopia.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: It's a trade.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: It is a highly calculated tradeoff. You are absolutely paying
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: a cost. And it really begins with the physical infrastructure
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: of travel. The literal moment peak season ends, flight schedules
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: thin out dramatically.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, they really do.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: A destination that might have had three direct flights a
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: day in the summer that might be reduced to one
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: flight a day or even just a few times a week.
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: So you just lose the convenience. You can't just casually
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: hop on a 10 a.m. flight on a Tuesday anymore.
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: You might be forced to take this brutal 5 a.m.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: connection through a completely different hub.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: Exactly. And the sites themselves, they adapt to the lack
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: of crowds, too. National Park Visitor Centers will drastically cut
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: their operational hours. sometimes closing entirely on certain days of
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: the week.
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: And don't even get me started on the restaurants.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: The restaurant scene is where the economics of off-season travel
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: become highly, highly visible. A local diner or some charming
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: historic tavern simply cannot afford the overhead to heat a
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: 60-seat dining room and pay a full staff when there
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: are literally three tourists in town. It is just a
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: structural economic reality of scaling down.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: Which leads perfectly to what the text calls the Sardinia Warning.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: The Sardinia Warning, yes.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: Travel writers just love to constantly use the Italian island
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: of Sardinia as his ultimate cautionary tale. Like, they warn
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: you that Sardinia is stunning in the summer, but it
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: completely folds up in the winter. Right.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: The direct flights disappear, the parks go on reduced calendars,
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: and all those beautiful little coastal trattorias just completely board
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: up their windows.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: But the crucial point here, the thing we forget, is
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: that America operates on the exact same principles, just with
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: different nouns.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Different nouns, exactly. We treat European destinations as seasonal, but
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: small-town America relies on the exact same tourist economy.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: Totally. A coastal town in Maine or a historic river
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: town in the Midwest, they will shut down just as
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: thoroughly as an island in the Mediterranean.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: And you really have to be careful because the digital
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: world does not always reflect this physical reality.
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: Oh, Google Maps. Yes.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: You might look at Google Maps in November and it
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: says that charming local cafe is open until 8 p.m.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: But Google relies on user data and owners who regularly
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: update their profiles.
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: And when the users vanish, the data just stagnates.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: Exactly. That cafe might have locked its doors for the
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: winter back in mid-October, and the internet simply hasn't caught
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: up yet. Right.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: So you can't treat the off-season calendar like a secret
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: menu at a fast food joint. Like you pull up,
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: give a secret nod, and they serve you the exact
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: same peak season plate, just cheaper.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: No, it is a completely different restaurant now.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: The menu has changed. The hours have changed. The staff
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: has vanished. So the author has this really strict, actionable rule.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: Call the site. Do not assume.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: Yes, you must manually call the site before you drive
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: two hours out of your way. Check the actual current
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: last tour time. Because if you assume a historical park
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: is operating on its July-Saturday schedule when you're there on
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: a freezing Tuesday in January, you're going to be staring
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: at a locked gate.
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: And speaking of a freezing Tuesday, we have to factor
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: in the extreme weather. The text definitely does not treat
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: weather as some minor inconvenience to just gloss over. It's
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: a massive defining factor of the trip.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: It dictates everything. Right.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: A January trip through the Northeast to see Revolutionary War sites.
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: That means dealing with black ice on the roads and
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: incredibly early darkness. Like, the sun is setting at 4.30 p.m.,
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: cutting your sightseeing day entirely in half.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: And conversely, if you apply the Costanza method and visit
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Arizona or Florida during their off season, which is the
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: middle of July, you are signing up for a completely
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: different kind of punishment.
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: Oh, the heat.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: The heat and humidity become just oppressive.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: And that dictates how long you can safely remain outside.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: Which means you need a complete strategic pivot.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: The honest plan for these extreme weather periods. requires relying
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: really heavily on indoor days. Yes.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: You actively build your itinerary around climate-controlled environments, sprawling art museums,
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: aviation halls of fame, massive libraries.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: Or those winter ballpark tours where they guide you through
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: the interior architecture. You deploy these indoor days precisely when
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: the outdoor half of the destination has essentially shut down,
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: whether that's due to a blizzard or a heat wave.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: So we establish the massive rewards of that spatial access.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: And the undeniable costs of reduced infrastructure and the harsh weather.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: But we have to ask, what is the actual mechanical
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: gear driving all of this? Like, why does the entire
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: American travel industry pulse with such a predictable rhythm?
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: OK, this is where we look at the underlying clock
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: that dictates American movement. The school system.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: The school system. Yeah.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: And the newsletter shares this bit of personal backstory from
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: Louis to illustrate how deeply this impacts us. So he
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: originally went to college intending to become a high school
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: social studies teacher. But it didn't pan out and he
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: ended up spending 20 years working in the insurance industry instead.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: And while his mother used to offer that classic comfort phrase,
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: everything happens for a reason.
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: Which, by the way, is a phrase that gets much
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: more useful once you stop arguing.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: Right, exactly. But the practical takeaway from his career detour
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: is actually profound.
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: Because by not becoming a teacher, he successfully avoided being
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: shackled to the exact same travel calendar... as every single
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: classroom in the United States. He completely bypassed that herding mechanism.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: If we connect this to the bigger picture, the school
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: calendar is the ultimate mechanism of the U.S. travel economy.
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: It really is.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: When school is in session, it dictates corporate vacation policies
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: because parents will not take time off when their kids
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: are in class. And that drop in family and corporate
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: travel then dictates airline route scheduling and hotel pricing.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: It's all connected.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: School being in session is the lever that empties the airports,
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: brings back hotel inventory, and reduces that line at the
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: historic house to just two people.
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: Based on this mechanism, the text maps out four highly
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: specific magic windows when the country is broadly open for business,
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: but the proverbial tour bus is parked somewhere else.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: So let's run through these windows so you can actually
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: map out your next journey. Window number one is a
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: stretch from September through mid-November. Right. The heavy summer crowds
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: have vanished. Kids are newly back in class. And the
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: weather is generally still pretty cooperative in most parts of
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: the country.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: Then window number two is early to mid-December. That captures
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: the weeks right before the massive Christmas travel crush begins.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: And window number three is the entirety of January. The
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: holidays have concluded. Everyone is aggressively back to work and school.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: And the country just settles into this deep, quiet winter lull. Finally.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: Finally. Window number four is late April through mid-June. It
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: occupies the space right before the summer break kicks off again,
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: and the whole cycle just repeats.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: Now, these aren't unreadable laws of physics, obviously, but they
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: are the reliable mechanical gaps in the American calendar.
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: I have to say that second window, the dead zone
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: between Thanksgiving and Christmas, is incredibly underrated. Like, as an
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: arbitrage opportunity, assuming you have the personal stamina to travel there. Oh, definitely.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: Because cities have already put their holiday lights up. The
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: museums are fully running their festive exhibits. The aesthetic atmosphere
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: of the holidays is completely present. But the massive throngs
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: of people who would normally be standing in front of
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: you blocking your view, they're all at home.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're at home arguing about the Thanksgiving menu or
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: recovering from travel or frantically wrapping presents.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: Exactly. You get the aesthetic benefits of the holiday season
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: with absolutely none of the friction.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: It is a brilliant observation of human behavior. However, this
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: does raise an inevitable reality check that we really have
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: to address. What if you, the listener, are a teacher?
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: Or what if you're a university professor or a parent
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: with school-aged children who simply cannot pull them out of
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: fifth grade math for a week in October to visit
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: a Civil War fort? Right.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: What does this all mean for you if you're structurally
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: blocked from using those four magic windows? Does the Costanza
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: method just fall apart completely?
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: The source material is adamant that it does not fall apart.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: Just because you only have summer breaks and designated school
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: holidays at your disposal, that does not mean you have
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: to surrender to the default itinerary.
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: You don't have to just give up.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: No, you do not have to book the crowded beach
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: town that every other family in your zip code just booked.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: You can still refuse the default option.
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: Okay, so how do you actually pull the trigger on
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: a destination you normally wouldn't pick? Like, if you're staring
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: down a calendar with only August open, you have to
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: manipulate the variables you still control. First... You manipulate the
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: days of the week. Right.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: Refuse to fly on a Friday afternoon when the entire
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: country is trying to start their vacation.
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: Fly midweek. Tuesday and Thursday departures still dramatically beat the
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: Friday rush at the airport.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: Then you flip the script on the destination itself. During
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: spring break or winter holidays, completely skip the Florida sand.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: Do not engage in the brutal competition for a 10-foot
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: square of space on a beach.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: It's not worth it.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Instead.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: Route that trip to a massive national park that can
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: absorb the crowds, or better yet, visit a major city
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: with a robust winter indoor roster.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, go to a historic downtown that thrives on museums,
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: presidential libraries, and grand interior architecture. You know, places that
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: are structurally fascinating and don't rely on tiki bars and
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: sunshine to be interesting.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: And there is a specific tactic mentioned regarding the holidays
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: that is absolutely genius. The New Year's Eve gap.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: Oh, I love this part.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: This was a realization born out of the COVID era.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: The author visited a city in that strange, quiet gap
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: between Christmas and New Year's Eve. Typically, cities are completely
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: sold out of the idea of New Year's Eve, right?
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: Well, they inflate the hotel rates, they pack the restaurants,
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: sell tickets to massive parties. Exactly.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: But because large gatherings were temporarily canceled back then, he
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: was able to experience the city when it was still
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: fundamentally itself, just completely devoid of the sold-out crowd.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: So the lasting takeaway there is that If your only
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: open week for travel is Christmas week and you have
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: the time, aim for that specific quiet gap before New
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: Year's Eve. But taking all of this into account, the
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: Costanza method really only works if doing the opposite is
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: a real committed choice.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it can't just be a theoretical bit you're playing. Right.
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: You have to actually book the warm destination in the
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: shoulder season instead of August. You have to actively commit
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: to booking the freezing cold city in January and and
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: spending the day inside the museum that was built to
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: protect you from that cold. You have to choose the
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: quiet river town in March while all the college kids
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: are fighting over square footage on a beach somewhere else.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: It requires deep intention and a real willingness to accept
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: the terms of the deal. So to summarize the ultimate
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: thesis of this exploration, yes, if you travel this way,
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: you will absolutely hit a closed kitchen and have to
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: eat gas station snacks for dinner.
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: Which happens.
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: It happens. Yes, you will face harsh, uncooperative weather that
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: forces you indoors. Yes, you have to diligently read the
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: park hours online and make actual phone calls instead of
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: just assuming the gates will be open. That is the strict,
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: undeniable trade you are making.
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: But what you get back is the ultimate prize for
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: any traveler.
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: You get time in front of the object. You get
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: uninterrupted time in the field, standing in the historic house,
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: walking along the river landing. And you get it without
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: having to perform your visit through a dense, stressful, elbow-to-elbow crowd.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: The place is still there. The history is still there.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: It is just quieter.
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: And you can actually hear the guide. This approach fundamentally
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: shifts the way we should look at a calendar.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: But as we wrap up this session, I want to
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: leave you, the listener, with a final thought to really
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: mull over. Something that takes everything we've just discussed and
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: turns it right back on your own front door.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: I love this idea.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: Because we've talked all about how peak season is simply
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: a destination performing for out-of-town crowds. and how traveling in
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: the off-season strips that performance away so you can see
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: the real functional place.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: Applying that lens locally is just an excellent perspective shift.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: Truly. So what does the off-season version of your own
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: hometown look like? Have you ever actually explored the tourist
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: traps in your own backyard on a freezing Tuesday in January?
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: Most people haven't. Right.
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: Have you ever walked through your local municipal museum or
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: that historic downtown district when absolutely no one else is around?
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: just to see the unperformed version of where you live.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: Uncovering the hidden, quiet reality of your own geography. It
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: is the perfect everyday application of doing the opposite.
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: Because if the Costanza method works out on the road,
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: it just might unlock a completely different relationship with the
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: city you already live in. Thank you so much for
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: joining us for this session of the Red Solo Traveler podcast.
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: We highly recommend checking out the original newsletter post by Louie.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: It's a great read.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: Until next time, we're wishing you quiet, uncrowded, and deeply
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: fascinating journeys ahead. Safe travels, and remember to always call
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: ahead and check those winter hours.