Bonjour! Hola! Guten Tag! International Cities Make Strong Comeback On Priceline List Of Top 50 Labor Day Destinations

T2F Note: We just love Atlanta made the top 50 list. We just happen to agree-- Atlanta is a great city in which to have fun whether it is the museums, theatre, or sporting activities you crave!

Who could forget our favorite Georgia city by the sea? Savannah is always a treat for the historical eye. The Fayette Front Page Day Tripper Award this week goes to both Atlanta and Savannah for Labor Day fun.

(BUSINESS WIRE)--A year ago, no international cities, save for a handful in Canada, appeared on priceline.com’s (Nasdaq: PCLN) annual list of the 50 most popular destinations for the Labor Day holiday. What a difference a year makes. In 2009, no fewer than 11 international destinations, including London, Rome, Berlin, Barcelona and Paris, made priceline.com’s 7th annual Labor Day list.

The list is based on more than 30,000 hotel room booking requests made on priceline.com’s Name Your Own Price® hotel service for the holiday. Because the survey is based on actual booking requests, and not on consumer preference polls or votes, priceline.com believes its annual survey is one of the more accurate predictors of Labor Day travel trends.

Priceline.com also said it still has plenty of last-minute airline tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, vacation packages, tours and attractions, and cruises available for Labor Day getaways. A sampling of deals is included below. All quoted deals were being offered today on priceline.com’s PriceBreakers last-minute deals service. Hotel-only deals are offered on a Name Your Own Price® basis. Availability is subject to change at any time.

* U.S. and Hawaii flights from $88. http://pcln.com/h0y5
* Labor Day one-night hotel specials – New York, Seattle & San Francisco from $79 a night. http://pcln.com/h8fv
* 3.5 star Boston hotels from $109 a night. http://pcln.com/h8f1
* 3 star Las Vegas hotels from $79 a night. http://pcln.com/h8fl
* 3-night flight-plus-hotel Las Vegas vacation packages from $132 a night. http://pcln.com/h8g5
* 3-night New York City vacation package. Flight plus accommodations at the Waldorf Astoria from $327 a night. http://pcln.com/h8gp
* 3-night flight-plus-hotel vacation packages to San Diego from $302 a night. http://pcln.com/h8gz
* Up to 20% off on weekend rentals with Hertz. http://pcln.com/h8h9

Visit www.priceline.com/pricebreakers for a full list of Labor Day specials.

“International destinations are quite appealing this year,” said priceline.com’s in-house travel expert and blogger Brian Ek. “Airfares are very reasonable and the dollar vs. euro exchange rate, which was as high as $1.60 last summer, is now down to a more manageable $1.43. In the U.S., major cities that may have lost convention and business travelers are offering spectacular hotel deals to lure leisure travelers for the fall.”

For the second year in a row, New York City’s Times Square/Theater District and Chelsea Area took the top two spots on the list. However, the Big Apple’s Labor Day popularity appears to have slipped a bit. After taking 11 spots last year, New York City area neighborhoods were selected eight times in 2009.

Big cities and their downtown areas, brimming with restaurants, theaters and back-to-school bargains, are popular destinations for this Labor Day. Beach attendance, which was lighter than normal last year due to late summer storms, was up again this year, led by Hawaii, San Diego, Key West, Virginia Beach and Atlantic City/Cape May.

Priceline’s Top 50 Destinations for Labor Day 2009

Rank Neighborhood

#1 New York City, Times Square/Theater District
#2 New York City, Chelsea Area
#3 Las Vegas, Strip Vicinity South
#4 Seattle, Downtown/Pike Place
#5 New York City, Empire State Building Area
#6 San Francisco, Union Square West/Nob Hill
#7 New York City, Midtown East
#8 Chicago, Millennium Park/Loop/Grant Park Area
#9 Las Vegas, Strip Vicinity North
#10 Boston, Copley Square/Theater District
#11 Vancouver, Downtown
#12 Chicago, North Michigan Ave./River North Area
#13 New York City, Madison Square Garden/Convention Area
#14 Oahu, Waikiki Beach Area
#15 New York City, Central Park South
#16 Montreal
#17 Paris, Eiffel Tower/Port De Versailles/Montparnasse
#18 St. Catharines, Niagara Falls
#19 Toronto, Downtown
#20 Memphis, Downtown
#21 San Diego, Downtown & Harbor Island
#22 Boston, Harbor Front/Aquarium
#23 New York City, Midtown West
#24 Austin, Downtown
#25 Buffalo, Niagara Falls
#26 London, Mayfair/Soho
#27 Rome, Central Area
#28 San Francisco, Union Square East
#29 Washington, DC, White House/Downtown
#30 San Diego, Coastal Area
#31 Orange County, Disneyland Area
#32 Key West
#33 St. Louis, Downtown
#34 Savannah, Historic District
#35 Virginia Beach
#36 London, Bloomsbury, Marble Arch
#37 Atlantic City/Cape May
#38 Monterey, Monterey/Pacific Grove
#39 Toronto, Markham
#40 Newark/Meadowlands/Jersey City
#41 San Diego, Point Loma/Shelter Island/Old Town
#42 New Orleans, French Quarter
#43 Barcelona, La Rambla/La Barceloneta
#44 Maui, Wailea/Makena
#45 Napa/Sonoma
#46 Berlin, East District
#47 Oahu, Waikiki Marina Area
#48 Los Angeles, Beverly Hills/West Hollywood
#49 San Antonio, Downtown/Riverwalk
#50 Atlanta, Midtown Area

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