The case for travelling in the shoulder season
Fewer crowds, kinder prices, and a town that still feels like itself.
Peak season is a town performing for visitors. The weeks on either side are the town simply living, and that is a better thing to visit.
Prices soften, queues vanish, and the people who serve you are not yet exhausted. You trade a little certainty about the weather for a great deal more of everything else.
Pick a place, subtract three weeks from the obvious dates, and pack a layer. It is the closest thing travel has to a cheat code.