How far out do you plan vacations?

[brett]

We keep our options open when we travel. We will book a hotel for when we arrive and the day prior to departure. Most of the other nights are booked two or three days ahead of time while we are travelling. That way, we can change our plans on the fly. On several extended trips we left home on one way tickets and took care of return air when we knew where/when we would be flying.

Two years ago we ended up in Sicily with no return air. We saw great offer on a Med cruise from Rome to Barcelona. The cruise line had good one way air home. So we grabbed it. Took a discount flight to Rome the next afternoon and boarded the ship the next day. Thanks to the power of the internet.

If we had prebooked everything we could not have done this. Plus, we enjoyed Sicily so much that we decide to stay for an extra week. Again, pre planning may have made this difficult or involved expensive re-routes/cancellations.

 

[Fishingmn]

I have a spreadsheet that lays out places we'd like to go and a rough 2-3 year plan/budget.

I normally plan specifics about 8-12 months out. Our trip to Ireland in May is pretty much figured out - it helped that I planned that far out as I was able to snare frequent flyer tickets at the minimum award level. We are meeting with some friends next month to start hashing out specifics on a 2 week trip to Italy next fall.

We do know we want to do a trip to Hawaii with the kids & their significant others in winter 2018. We'd like to do Spain, Scotland, Prague and Australia within the next 5 years but no specifics beyond that.

 

[audreyh1]

I cannot comment on domestic flights. However, our personal experience (in Canada) is that flights 0-45 days out are often less expensive than flights 90-120 days out.

The best prices we ever had on transpacific and transatlantic flights were 10 and 40 days out respectively.

Domestic prices in the US - about 30 days out unless high season / busy route.

I found an article that says about 60 days out from US has best prices for Europe. That jives with my personal experience except for the occasional big sales.

 

[Danmar]

I try to plan the next 12 months of travel, but only major trips. I'm perfectly capable of just going off for a week or more with only a couple of days notice.

Likewise. We have a set yearly travel budget and usually decide on significant trips over a rolling 12 month horizon. These trips usually involve airline points, so the lead time is necessary. Will often fill in shorter less expensive trips 3-6 months in advance and on occasion will take off somewhere on a few weeks notice. Having said that most of our actual travel (not part of main travel budget) is back and forth to our various homes. This is often done in very short notice.

 

[Lsbcal]

Domestic prices in the US - about 30 days out unless high season / busy route.

I found an article that says about 60 days out from US has best prices for Europe. That jives with my personal experience except for the occasional big sales.

We are a bit fussy about flights as they are 10+ hours to Europe. The flight we want looks like this on Google flights (3 week trip, leave and return on Sundays):
Feb 2017 $1031 ...(about 60 days out)
June 2017 $1218
Aug 2017 $1221

This looks like the premium for booking far out is not high. I would expect summer fares to be higher so is there much of a premium at all? Not sure.

FWIW, we booked this last week at $1184 for an August 2017 flight. It had been somewhat lower a month ago.

 

[Danmar]

Looks like posts 50 and 51 are the two ends of the spectrum?

 

[Lsbcal]

Looks like posts 50 and 51 are the two ends of the spectrum?

Now what we don't know is who is having the most fun. But then this is not a zero sum game. Everyone can be a winner on this one.

 

[brett]

When we are looking for overseas flights we do four things-

-understand the routing options and the airline options

-understand the alternate airports/cities

-understand the pricing and the fare codes/restrictions, by season, and know an attractive fare when we see it

-be prepared to buy tickets as soon as the right price/routing hits (because it may only be there for a very short time)

After we have purchased we don't bother looking any more....secure in the knowledge that there will be those on the plane that paid more than us and those who paid less. If we wait for the lowest fare chances are we will either be staying home or paying full fare.

 

[HMMY]

1 to 2 yrs out for skiing and destination travel since the accommodations we want (8 people) typically book out a year or more in advance.

 

[jonat]

We generally plan about a year out. The one we just returned from was booked 14 months in advance. We already have our two 2017 trips booked and have identified a trip for 2018.

 

[Breedlove]

We traditionally do 2 big trips a year , Amsterdam for the Kings Day and Key West for the Fantasy Fest . We have a group of friends and are adding travel friends every trip . So it is like herding a group of cats . We usually plan 6 months to a year out !

 

[Koogie]

Just finished booking our annual week at a Muskoka cottage for July. This is about as far ahead as we usually go.

Although I am toying with booking us two weeks in Wales in September/October to see family as some of them are not doing to well, health-wise and my wife has been given the go-ahead to start flying again by her neurologist.

 

[gerntz]

Planned this past summer's AK trip in Nov. 14. So 19 months in this case.

 

[Nemo2]

At this moment, (literally), we're looking at the post Puerto Limón, Costa Rica, to Bergen, Norway, cruise......train from Bergen to Oslo is a given, (we'll arrive in Oslo June 11)......now we're winnowing out the next stops for fear of getting overextended.....likely down to Oslo-Krakow-Warsaw-home, (all of which could change in a flash).......it's a lot of work.....even with the internet.

 

[tinlizzy]

I have notebooks full of itineraries and notes for different areas on my bucket list.

 

[unclemick]

The Wife books one year ahead rental by owner spots at Port Aransas, Tx and Fort Meyers,Fl beaches. Otherwise it's pretty loosey goosey.

heh heh heh - I do Tom Tom and other directions but she never met a side road she didn't like so road travel sometimes gets very interesting.