October is perfect. If you go up the coast toward New England, the scenery will take your breath away. If you go south, it will get gradually warmer until it is summer again. In October, there will be fewer famlies. The kids are in school.

Prices are sometimes better in the fall.

Look into "repositioning" cruises. Those are one-way trips when the ships are moving to a new area. You get to see places that are not on the usual routes. Prices are sometimes very good on repositioning cruises, but they are one-way and you have to fly back.

You might want to look at Norfolk, Virgina as a starting point. They have the smoothest running port that I have seen.

If you don't have one, be sure you apply for a passport well in advance of your planned sailing date. The process keeps getting slower and slower. These days, you almost can't find a cruise that doesn't require a passport.

Cruising is the easiest way to travel. You can do most of the paperwork in advance on the cruise line's website. Unless you drink and gamble a lot, a cruise is not very expensive. You would spend a lot more going to a resort area in Florida or Myrtle Beach.

It's also easier, considering that you only unpack once. You get time in a number of locations without driving or moving from room to room.

I can even recommend cruise lines and a travel agent if you like.

As you may have noticed, this is one of my favorite topics.
Howard

> > I just returned from a great geography lesson. My wife and I drove across the mountains to Ashville, down through South Carolina, across southeast Georgia to Florida. At Port Canaveral, we got on a ship and sailed the western Caribbean.
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> You and I will have to have a conversation sometime and you can give me some cruise tips. I'm about to start looking into cruises out of Baltimore for my wife and I for our tenth wedding anniversary next year.
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> Is October a good time of year to go sailing?