Black Friday: travel deals and what the day after Thanksgiving is all about

The term Black Friday comes from the fact that so many people would be on the streets in the day following Thanksgiving that patrolling cops weren’t able to see anything what with the streets being ‘black’ with people shopping. Or so legend has it. Nowadays the word Black Friday conjures up images of flustered looking fathers pushing shopping trolleys filled with plasma screens.

People picking up 49inch TVs for #199 at the Kingston Park Tesco Extra in Newcastle during Black Friday. Image by Yui Mok/PA Wire

Billed as the biggest shopping event of the year, Black Friday is loved and loathed in equal measure. A tradition that started in the US where the Friday after Thanksgiving is a holiday, Black Friday is now a worldwide phenomenon that sees people everywhere in a frenzy for cut-price deals. Although reports suggest that it was off to a slow start in the UK this year, it’s still due to make its first £1 billion today in sales, in spite of the lack of scuffles over expensive items as there were last year. In the US there was a rise of 4% in people shopping on Black Friday, but it also was off to a slow start.

Since this is what we do, here’s a few amazing travel deals for those eager to get buying, but also want to count their pennies.

–  Citalia a luxury Italian holiday company is offering £50 off on holidays of seven nights or more if they’re booked by midnight on Monday 30 November. The holiday consists of a week in Sicily next July, with easyJet flights from Gatwick, transfers, and seven nights’ B&B accommodation at the Hotel Excelsior Palace in Taormina all included for £759pp.

The Sicilian coast Image by Matt Munro/Lonely Planet

– British Airways are offering slashed prices on return flights to New York, Rome, Rio De Janeiro and Venice, as well as one of the airline’s newest routes – San Jose in Costa Rica.

Gondola’s in San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice Image by Matt Munro/Lonely Planet

– Club Med is offering a week in Avoriaz in the French Portes du Soleil for £869pp. It’s an all-inclusive holiday with flights from Gatwick departing on 10 April.

– DFDS is offering major slashed prices on its routes between the UK, Netherlands, and France. A two-berth cabin from Newcastle to Amsterdam costs £39 and you get a free drink. A vehicle is also included in that price.

Famous bench goes missing in Amsterdam. Image by Bert Kaufmann / CC BY-SA 2.0. Image by Bert Kaufmann / CC BY-SA 2.0

–  G Adventures cater to the more intrepid travellers, and for this Black Friday they’re offering £100 off a trip valued at more than £1,000. The offer lasts until 5am on 1 December, using the promo code 16GA100ADV12 and  is valid on trips departing before 30 June 2016.

– Starwood Hotels, one of the world’s largest hotel groups, that includes the brands Sheraton, Westin, Le Meridien, W, St Regis, Four Points and others, is offering up to 25% to 50% on room rates until 6 December.

If you need guidebooks for any of your destinations, check out the Lonely Planet online sale.

And if you really can’t stand the outrageous consumerism of Black Friday and want to curl up in a cardboard box, you should read this from The Guardian.