Winterize cold-weather vacation plans early

With the changing of the seasons it is customary to winterize our homes and cars. Although it's still hot here, you should be winterizing your cold weather vacation plans now.

If you plan to go someplace warm this winter, a Caribbean or Mediterranean cruise for example, this is the time to choose your ship, your itinerary and your cabin while a wide selection is still available.

Cruise lines like to sell early to assure that their ships are at full capacity. To do so, they offer "early-bird" reduced prices or "second person free" policies which can represent quite sizable discounts. Early booking discounts for such cruises are still available in most cases, but they will disappear soon.

The same applies to other warm-destination vacations such as Florida beaches, Disney World, and golf vacations to warmer climates.

The best accommodations at these types of locations are filling up quickly, and the special discounted packages that are available early won't be offered at the last minute.

Golfers, for example, often make reservations for the next year at a golf resort they enjoyed, reducing the availability of the resort and the preferred tee times.

Popular locations such as Phoenix and Tucson, the Southern California resorts and Florida have an abundance of accommodations available, but the most desirable will fill early.

Caribbean Island beach and golf resorts have more limited accommodations, as do the Mexican resorts at Cancun and Cabo San Lucas. For the best rooms, and the best prices, you should be booking these now.

The winter sports areas the ski resorts also need early booking. The holiday weekends, Christmas, New Year's and spring break may already be filled at some ski areas.

Skiers, like golfers, often book favorite resorts and accommodations a year in advance to take advantage of low rates and the best rooms. Domestic and European ski resorts generally offer early-booking discounts like the cruise lines, but these usually disappear before October.

If you have thoughts of a winter vacation, decide on your dates, the type of vacation you would prefer, your choice of destinations and take this information to your travel agent soon.

Although it may not feel much like winter now, you'll get the best choices at the lowest prices to make your vacation more pleasurable when cold weather does get here.

(Linda and Dr. Don Overend are principals in The Travel Group, a full-service travel agency formed by the merger of Ozark World Travel, Con-sulting Travel and Thomas Travel.)