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Recently, I watched an episode of MTV’s Jersey Shore. Have you seen it? In the show, a group of housemates spent their days drinking, clubbing, partying, arguing, hooking up, and then getting up the next morning to do it all over again. Permanent residents of the region say that the show is giving them a bad name, that there’s much more to the Jersey Shore than what you see in a snippet of summer when the town’s population practically quadruples.

I’ve never been to the Jersey Shore, but I grew up each summer going to the Delaware shore, which isn’t all that far away. The beach I went to was one of those seasonal towns where summer swelled the local population to unprecedented numbers. And I could see how permanent residents might resent that. Suddenly, their highways were crowded, their stores and restaurants jam packed, and their beaches wall to wall with colorful umbrellas and towels, boom-boxes and beer bottles.

These towns often make much of their dollars off the tourist trade, and then enjoy the rest of the year in relative quiet and peace. That’s why I’ve learned to really enjoy visiting these destinations during the off-season. The last time I visited the beach in Delaware, it was early October, and the sun was shining, and the beach was blissfully bare.

A few Decembers ago, I went to Venice, where it was the dead of winter. It rained almost the whole time, but there was something romantic about wandering through nearly empty passageways toward the ancient canals that were spilling over with the rising tides. St. Mark’s Square flooded, and those few tourists who were there were made to walk across on planks, an adventurous, high-spirited procession of people and umbrellas that looked from afar like a circus parade.

I try to make my way to Tahoe every fall, when the leaves are spectacular and the roads are empty. Last year, I arrived in the Florida Keys during hurricane season right after a near-miss and there was not a single person in the pool who wasn’t in our group. And, earlier this year, my friends and I went to Iceland before the winter season was done, when prices were low, and we practically had the famous Blue Lagoon hot springs near Reykjavik all to ourselves.

Now that the holidays are here, everyone around me is leaving town in a great big exodus. San Francisco is emptying out as everyone heads elsewhere. I’m looking forward to having the city to myself.