How far out do you plan vacations?

[Teacher Terry]

We made up a list of where we both want to go for years. Usually we plan big trips a year in advance. The cruise we just came home from we booked a month out because they were so cheap since they were trying to fill the interior rooms. My DH is going back to work for 18-24 months on a contract so that will crimp our style. I also have to consult with my son who is the doggie sitter for our 4 old dogs so we can't be too spontaneous.

 

[Bamaman]

I traveled the U.S. extensively for business, and we're homebodies most of the year since retirement--staying close to home.

We're overseas travelers who like to take two budget trips vs. one luxury trip. And we only travel when the airfares drop dramatically for Spring or Fall travel.

I cannot plan very far ahead because I get obsessive about itinerary, hotels, etc. and spend too much time online. I really do best getting a basic itinerary and getting rooms the first and last stops. With a Chromebook, I can make room reservations as I go along--except in big tourist cities.

 

[Sunset]

......
Same thing: Canada is on my list. When I'll go, I don't know, but very likely a summer. So when a summer rolls around and it fits money/timewise, I'll probably book in april or so.
..

Unless you like Winter sports (skating, downhill skiing, cross-country skiing) , the best time I have found in Canada is June, July, August, Sept. and the best is last week of July, first week of August.

With the Canadian dollar so low, and free Federal Park Admission (not camping, actual admission) this summer is a perfect time to go

 

[Sunset]

I would not book trips 5 years in advance, making a wish list I could see, but no plans. I could be dead or interests change, by then.

Normally for North America we might book as far out as 4 months.

We just did this as we are combing a FL holiday with a cruise afterwards and the cruise price was the same as 2 years ago which we booked as a last minute (1 month out) thought.

I have told DW we need to book Europe Fall trip now, she tends not to plan these things...

 

[gamboolman]

We make detailed / firm plans that include purchase & booking of Hotels & Airline Tickets about 12 months out.

We discuss and argue about trips to take all the time - we enjoy the planning and anticipation very much.

My wife is very good at trip and travel planning - but she has lots of practice !

Next booked trip is to Vegas for March Madness - I think she had it all booked up about 8 or 9 months in advance. Will be much gambooling at the low limit pokerzzzz

 

[Lsbcal]

My husband wants to plan out 5 years (locations and budget)....just curious about others. Obviously things can change due to many factors but he wants a blue print of sorts. Not against this....

One can have a list which is free to change but helps to start the thought process. Doesn't have to be too detailed and could serve one well when meeting a fellow traveler ... "what was the Netherlands like for you? ".

We like to think about upcoming trips at this time of the year. The winter weather and staying indoors more tends to set this in motion.

Planning details depend on the destination and personal issues. DW cannot take cold weather so that limits us to nice weather times. I'm not a fan of landing somewhere without bookings and getting the left overs. The best places at peak season times are often already booked. For an August 2017 Europe trip, we've already booked the (cancellable) places in the Netherlands, Germany and Austria. Since we are fussy about the air travel, we booked that too through Chase Ultimate Rewards.

For international travel, it's not at all clear how many months out to book a flight. On our August flight out of SFO on a 787 the best seats were already booked.

 

[Rosie]

You folks motivated me to check airfares for our now sort-of-annual late autumn trip to western MA. The airfares weren't bad, less than we paid last year, so we pulled the trigger and booked our flights. I'm now surfing VRBO and related sites for places to stay.

 

[Surewhitey]

Doing a camping trip with the fellas in mid-Jan. Bought airfare today.

Major trip of 40 days in Europe a couple years ago. Easier than I thought. Bought airfare before the wedding (Paris, South France & Barcelona (last minute decision)). Bought 10 day cruise after the wedding (leaving Rome). All the other stuff was filler time. Used trains in Italy to get around to 3 other destinations. We planned it 2-3 month before leaving...

Made a nifty spreadsheet for locations & costs to keep it all clear in our heads...

 

[ElizabethT]

We plot out our trips somewhat loosely over a one to four year time frame via Google calendar, nailing down hard details about six months to a year in advance. The reason for doing this is to get big trips onto our calendar as soon as possible in order to ensure they actually happen. We are finding ourselves busier and busier in ER, and if we don't block the time out well in advance, we risk seeing commitments from other activities we are involved in encroach on our travel wish list. We also share our calendar with our children, so they can see when Mom and Dad are available to visit, or to grandchild sit.

We also calendar out reoccurring activities we enjoy doing year after year, which is very helpful in avoiding accidentally plotting a trip in the same time frame as, say, an annual jazz festival we enjoy attending.

Life in ER is full of so many opportunities, we have a hard time keeping them straight at times. A good problem to have I think.

 

[2017ish]

We plot out our trips somewhat loosely over a one to four year time frame via Google calendar .... We also share our calendar with our children, so they can see when Mom and Dad are available to visit, or to grandchild sit.

We also calendar out reoccurring activities we enjoy doing year after year, which is very helpful in avoiding accidentally plotting a trip in the same time frame as, say, an annual jazz festival we enjoy attending.

Life in ER is full of so many opportunities, we have a hard time keeping them straight at times. A good problem to have I think.

These are good ideas. Thanks for sharing!

 

[RockyMtn]

International travel usually at least a year. Where we are right now (Wailea, Hi)...about three months. A hop in the car and head to the west coast trip, about a day. It is all about logistics!

But then again when I was working I would be in the states one day with no plans to travel and next thing I knew I would be on a plane to Latin America that night. Somebody else's logistics and checkbook....not mine.

 

[HadEnuff]

Many years ago I was talking to a colleague pal of mine, who had just come back from a seminar on stress management. He really went because it was in Vail, and he could write off the ski trip.
I asked him if he learned anything regarding stress management, and he said yes, he learned to never come home from a vacation without having the next one planned.
I never figured out if they taught him that in class, or that's what he figured out on his own, on that trip.

Anyway, back to OP's question: pretty much if it's domestic, I make my mental plans about a year in advance, but don't book anything much sooner than a few months. For example, I'm just booking now for a March trip to Florida and Georgia.

International trips I'm typically thinking about 1 or 2 years in advance, and book maybe 6 months in advance. But that was when I was working, so I will likely be more spontaneous than that, as a retiree.

 

[brett]

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.

 

[ElizabethT]

These are good ideas. Thanks for sharing!

Another great usage of Google calendar is that I can drop all of our travel details into it, such as flight info, tour group info, lodging info, etc. By then sharing it, it allows everyone, including me, to have access to all pertinent information anytime it might be needed.

 

[BellBarbara]

Thanks everyone! I used poor terminology. He wants to create a blue print so we have an idea of what is coming up, as we keep pushing things out. We would never make reservations or do too much detailed planning until we were within a year or so.

I like the idea as he can be difficult to nail down (I do most of the detailed planning). The blue print destination could be changed, but if we assign a budget to each trip, we have to keep within that budget if we change. I think it will be great to have the big trips down on paper (africa, Aus/NZ, etc).

Need to check out Google Calendar! That sounds perfect for us.

 

[Lsbcal]

Another great usage of Google calendar is that I can drop all of our travel details into it, such as flight info, tour group info, lodging info, etc. By then sharing it, it allows everyone, including me, to have access to all pertinent information anytime it might be needed.

At least some of this happens with Google's Inbox (gmail). All the confirmations are now being grouped and organized in the Trips section. Pretty neat I think.

 

[NW-Bound]

...On our August flight out of SFO on a 787 the best seats were already booked.

Uh Oh!

My flight to Paris is early May, and last week there were very few seats taken. Better go look again now.

 

[NW-Bound]

Anyway, this is the first time that we planned a trip 6 months in advance. Usually, the fuse was very short from when my wife happened to spot discount airfare. It was a matter of a few weeks.

Well, the last cruise we took was booked almost a year in advance, but that was not the norm.

 

[Lsbcal]

Uh Oh!

My flight to Paris is early May, and last week there were very few seats taken. Better go look again now.

I should qualify my statement. There were some premium seats that were up front with lots of legroom near the galley. Those were the ones that were already booked.

If one is going straight Economy seats, there is still plenty of those.

 

[NW-Bound]

OK.

What I worry about is if the normal Economy seats get all taken, leaving me with Economy Torture seats.

 

[Teacher Terry]

It makes sense to do some advance planning because it is easy to get busy with life and then not go anywhere. Planning is a big part of the fun as well as looking forward to the experience.

 

[pixelville]

Having done airline pleasure standby travel for years, you could say planning was after we boarded a flight. Really you don't know whether you will go back home or end up in London for a few days or maybe Bangkok. Although we typically had our preference list heading to the airport and often ended up going to one of our top choices. But basically for numerous years and trips, we never had a single booking and figured out once we got to a place. Never had a problem except once in Maui where it took us a while before we could find a hotel, but then we had a car.

 

[48Fire]

We really don't plan at all now. We had a couple trips bite the dust due to family emergencies, so we just do things on the fly. ER allows that

 

[Act2]

I think that's great - thinking ahead like that, assuming you can really enjoy the 'here and now' when you do travel. There have been many articles over the years that suggest it is the anticipation of vacation that provides the most enjoyment, often even more than the actual vacation itself. If that's true, thinking ahead like that may maximize the happiness and positive experience of having the freedom to travel a lot.

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

When we're flexible with our yearly international travel plans, our planning is based on when we see seat sales or cruise sales. We'll typically see seat sales about 6-9 months prior to departure date. For cruises, we may book around or within final payment dates.
If we have a specific destination in mind, we'll typically start planning 9-12 months in advance.
For travel within North America, we'll typically plan 3 months or less.

When we start planning for a trip, we start entering notes/data into a Google Sheets spreadsheet on google drive with multiple worksheets:

• Budget worksheet: Transportation Cost (Airfare, regional, local), Accommodations, Food, Activities, Communications, and Miscellaneous
• Planning: Rough sketch what we want to do each day
• Hotel Info (Room type, breakfast included?, cancellation policy, etc)
• Travel Info (Terminal info, luggage info, check-in close times, etc)
• Climate Info for the days we're in town
• Food: Local foods we want to try and the local names
• Shopping: What we want to buy, conversion rates, etc
• Cell phone/prepaid sim options
• URL: Addresses of all the websites that we have come across while doing research.
• Pre-trip Planning Activities: Eg. Visa, immunizations, etc
• Packing List
• Culture: Tipping, common phrases, etc.
• Site per city: A list of sites in each city that might interest us.

We'll also start pinning locations in google maps so they're easier to find.

We just started using Google Trips which consolidates your travel info (eg Reservations) and provides some guidance in terms of things to do. The info can also easily be saved to your phone so it's accessible offline. It will also automatically add info into your Google Calendar.
We're still using TripIt which also consolidates your travel info.