What is shoulder season for travel? Often considered the ideal time to take a vacation, the shoulder season is when the crowds have gone home after peak travel season, but the off season hasn’t just yet begun. Prices are lower, hotels are emptier and all around, things have calmed down.

There are many things to love about shoulder season, so let’s take a look at five different ways to maximize these not-quite-off season vacation deals.

1. Search for off-peak award flights

Award flights can be an excellent way to save money on a vacation and shoulder season can be an especially cheap time to fly. Many airlines have moved to an at least semi-dynamic award system, which means costs vary based on demand.

The European shoulder season, for example, occurs in the spring and the fall. Most European vacations tend to happen in the summer, when children are out of school, or in the winter, when Christmas markets pop up around the continent.

A one-way American Airlines award flight from New York-JFK to Paris-CDG in the summer can cost 36,000 miles in economy.

A flight on the same route a few months later, at the beginning of November, drops down to 22,500 miles.

You’ll find this to be true with other airlines, so it always pays to poke around if your travel dates are flexible.

2. Set up a price tracker

Price trackers are helpful for just about everybody but can be especially useful during the shoulder season when prices for flights can drop dramatically.