​What's the worst day to have a birthday? According to a recent survey by Interflora, Dec. 16 is the absolute pits. (My daughter will disagree with these findings sooner or later, what with her Dec. 25 birthday and all.)

But what about Feb. 29? If we lived in a more chronologically strict society, Leap Day would be the worst birthday by far. But because it seems unfair to grant Leap Babies one birthday every four years, we acknowledge their arrivals on March 1 and move on. You’re welcome, “Leapies.”

This approach seems merciful enough, but there’s more: This 0.07 per cent of the population gets extra-special treatment where travel deals are concerned. For instance:

• At Jamaica’s luxurious Half Moon resort (pictured above), guests born on Feb. 29 who book a three-night minimum stay will receive a 29-cent (U.S.) stay for the night of Feb. 29 only in any room category, as well as a champagne dinner for two at the newly renovated Sugar Mill Restaurant. (If you're not a Leapie, the Snow.com 96-Hour Sale, which runs from Feb. 23 to 26, offers up to 25 per cent off suites and villas at Half Moon.)
• Washington, D.C.’s boutique Melrose Georgetown Hotel is offering a one-night “Forever Young” package. For $229 (U.S.), “Leapies” get deluxe accommodations and a birthday dinner for two with cake and champagne.

Let's not hold these perks against Leapies. After all, their good fortune is trickling down to the rest of us: 

• The Breezes Bahamas resort is offering 30- to 50-per-cent off select "Super-Inclusive" getaways throughout 2016, so long as you book by Feb. 29. Rates start at $119 (U.S.) a person per night, with complimentary room upgrade during select periods.
• Hawaii's Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort is offering four nights for the price of three when staying through Feb. 29. This "Leap Year special" can be booked now through Feb. 14, 2016, with rates starting at $259 (U.S.) per night.
• Receive up to 50 per cent off lodging at Colorado's Vail ski resort -- including The Arrabelle at Vail Square, A RockResort; The Lodge at Vail, A RockResort; The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Vail; and Austria Haus -- if you book between Feb. 15 and 29 and stay between Feb. 15 and April 10. The aforementioned Snow.com 96-Hour Sale, meanwhile, knocks as much as 55 per cent off stays at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Park City.
• B.C.'s Long Beach Lodge Resort is marking the occasion with a free night stay when you book a minimum three nights that include Monday, Feb. 29 and Tuesday, March 1.
• Book a stay at Utah's DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Park City between Feb. 22 and 29, and receive a $29 (U.S.) discount each night.
• The Amara Cay Resort and Pelican Cove on Islamorada in the Florida Keys are both offering visitors a fourth night free when they book three nights, plus complimentary welcome cocktails. Available for weekday stays until Feb. 29.
• And just because I have a thing for Banff's Sunshine Village: The sublime Sunshine Mountain Lodge -- which I covered back when it opened in 2011 -- is now offering a "Ski Week" package that includes five days of unlimited skiing or riding; five nights of accommodation at Banff’s only ski-in, ski-out hotel; four days of two-hour ski lessons; and a host of nightly perks. Granted, this has nothing whatsoever to do with Leap Day, but starting at $995 (based on double occupancy) it is just too good of a deal to ignore. And it's available to 100-per-cent of us!

GOLD: Besides further cementing the Calgary Flames’ status as the greatest hockey franchise in the history of the universe, the team’s massive OT win in Philadelphia last night has made Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ “Get away for game day” offer all the more relevant. Now, four of Canada’s seven NHL teams are in playoff position, and until April 30 the lodging chain is offering 20 per cent off nightly stays at participating properties across Canada (not to rub it in, but even ones in Toronto, Edmonton and Ottawa). You have to book via the “Get away for game day” page to get the discount, which is sometimes limited to weekends or weekdays. The playoffs, meanwhile, start April 15. Go Flames go!

SILVER: Consider it a late-winter hedge: If you stay at the Ritz-Carlton Montreal (pictured below) and the weather warms up, you’ll get to explore Canada’s most vibrant city in only a sweater (or a Flames jersey, which I recommend). But if the temperature drops, as we all know it will, then the luxurious hotel’s “The Colder the Better” package will save you some cash. Available for all suites with fireplaces, guests automatically save a percentage off room rates based on the below-zero temperature outside at check-in. Minus 25 degrees when you stroll into the lobby? Save 25 per cent. If the mercury dips further, save even more. The package includes herbal teas, hot chocolate, chocolate-flavoured marshmallows and spiced Speculoos cookies in your suite; cocktails and breakfast at the Maison Boulud restaurant; complimentary parking; and a late checkout. It’s available until April 30 and priced from $720 per night based on double occupancy (minus the chilly discount, of course).

BRONZE: It’s worth noting that every deal on this list includes most of Canada’s March Break weeks. But this one does not include the kids – and good thing too. From March 16 to 20, the lovely Ste. Anne’s Spa (pictured below) in the rolling Northumberland Hills east of Toronto is offering 20 per cent off all-inclusive day trips. For $175 a person, you get a $120 spa allowance, a three-course lunch, afternoon tea and use of the various spa facilities. Consider it an adult March Break. Call 1-888-346-6772 to book.

Why am I launching this monthly series on the last weekday in January? No month is more escape-worthy than the one to come — hence the “February blahs” — and here in the Great White North you can choose to embrace winter with a snowy getaway, or escape it in a spa, gallery, aquarium, restaurant and the like. Here, then, are three bargains that cover the spectrum:

Bayview Wildwood Resort, Muskoka
Toronto is blanketed in white this morning, but trust me: Sooner or later, the city will revert to its standard winter brownness. A 90-minute drive north, however, the Muskoka landscape surrounding Bayview Wildwood Resort (pictured) stays snowy all winter long, and is ideal for XC skiing, snowshoeing, skating, tobogganing…in short, all those activities you can’t do when Hogtown turns brown. Bayview Wildwood just launched a two-night “Resort to Fun Winter Weekends” package, which includes two lavish buffet breakfasts and two three-course dinners, resort amenities such as an indoor pool, hot tub, games room and squash courts, live entertainment on Saturday night, and all the equipment and facilities needed for the aforementioned diversions. The damage? As little as $552 (plus tax) for a family of four until Feb. 8, and again from Feb. 20 to March 8.

Scandinave Spa Montreal
The sublime hot-then-cold circuit of pools, saunas and steam rooms offered by the Scandinave chain of spas takes on a decidedly urban feel in Montreal's gorgeous Old Port district, where the indoor facility (pictured below) features bean bag chairs, mood lighting and plenty of glass and chrome. It’s all extremely relaxing — especially when paired with a massage — and until March 26 costs just $39 for the baths and $99 for the baths plus a massage on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Combine this with a midweek special from one of the spa’s 21 lodging partners, and February will melt away in a hurry.

Resorts of the Canadian Rockies
There are some very solid ski deals right now from Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, which owns six mountains across B.C., Alberta and Quebec. At Fernie’s Slopeside Lodge, for instance, guests can get 20 per cent off stays of two nights or more and save 25 per cent on lift tickets. Together, this yields a nightly ski-and-stay rate of $91 per person (plus taxes and based on double occupancy). That price somehow dips slightly, to $87, with a similar deal at Glacier Mountaineer Lodge at Kicking Horse (pictured below), and even further, to $68, at Kimberley’s Polaris Lodge.

As much as I detest Black Friday’s unbridled consumerism — the Wal-Mart riots, the gofers paid to stand in line — I have to admit that there will be some very good travel deals out there tomorrow though “Cyber Monday” (the latter being another contrived consumer opiate that — sigh — also offers some very solid savings). Thankfully, the best-of bargains listed below don’t require you to visit some hellish big-box store, and are all prime examples of the pre-holiday breaks that seem so popular with Canadians. (According to a recent Expedia Canada survey, 40 per cent of us have previously turned to travel to escape the holiday chaos.) And if you pay a gofer to book a trip for you, well, I guess I’m OK with that…    

The Marker Waterfront Resort: For 20 hours starting at 9 a.m. (Eastern Time) on Dec. 1, this upscale Key West hotel (pictured below) will offer 20 rooms for $20 (U.S.). Why? Because the place is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary. How? By calling 1-844-229-8312.

Kicking Horse: Until Dec. 1, this world-class ski resort near Golden, B.C. (pictured above), will offer free lift passes for two in December for any reservations made at the regular daily rate. Or book a three-night stay at Canmore's Solara Resort & Spa (pictured below) or the Grande Rockies Resort, and the third night is free through Dec. 23. Both offers are available through Bellstar Hotels & Resorts.  

HotelTonight: You may be able to snag a hotel room for just $7 if you book with this app tomorrow.

Expedia: Its mobile app will offer a $50 coupon off “Expedia rate” hotels tomorrow.

Shore Hotel: Use the “CYBER” code when booking an oceanview room on Dec. 1, and you’ll get 30 per cent off regular rates at this luxury property (pictured below) near the Santa Monica Pier.

Hotel Contessa: The same goes for this all-suite hotel (pictured below) on the banks of San Antonio's River Walk — book on Dec. 1 with the “CYBER2014” code and knock 30 per cent off the best available rate.