It's called the vernal equinox, when night and day are exactly the same length, 12 hours.
Most of us call it spring. Travel professionals call it 'shoulder season', the weeks before peak summer travel. Spring is when destinations and resorts are gearing up for the crowds, but still offering bargains. Here are some of the best:
Get ready for iced tea season by visiting Europe's only tea plantation. It's in Gorreana, found amidst the mild climate of the island of São Miguel, in the Azores. While you are there, take a hike on one of the 43 marked trails on eight islands of the Azores, just off the shore of Portugal
The red rocks of Sedona, Arizona glow a magical copper gold at sunset, and it is easy to lose yourself just sitting, watching puffy clouds play with the light and shadow on the rocks. Before or after, ennoy one of the city's spas or shopping for local Native American crafts.
Baseball returns to New York City each April. Root for the home teams, the Yankees at Yankee Stadium, the Mets at Shea Stadium, and the minor league teams, the Brooklyn Cyclones and Staten Island Yankees. Take a leisurely cruise around Manhattan island, or a horse-drawn cab ride around Central Park.
Visit the Galapagos Islands to oogle at blue footed boobies, friendly sea lions, gigantic land tortoises and fiery red Sally Lightfoot crabs. This is where Darwin fine-tuned his revolutionary evolutionary theory. Most visitors travel the islands by cruise ship, but you also can stay on one island and make day-trips to others. April and May is considered "low season" -- that means low prices and low crowds
There's still plenty of ski season left, especially on the glacier of Whistler/Blackcomb in British Columbia, where the downhill season remains open until the first weekend in June. The 'ski and tee' season starts before that, when you can golf in the morning and ski or snowboard in the afternoon. The Golf Whistler Passport lets you play one round at each of the resort's four signature courses.
When the snow melts, it means spring runoff, and that means some of the biggest, wildest whitewater in the Western U.S. . Several of western Montana’s rivers, including the Middle Fork of the Flathead, the lower Clark Fork and the Blackfoot, have earned reputations for big waves and whitewater that thrill experienced river runners.
Aah, spring! A great time for your next travel adventure.
Also see cheapest times to travel, Caribbean travel bargains, new passport regulations
