When's the best time to book holidays?
Discussion
I'm looking at booking my first big family holiday, we're looking at AI packages primarily around turkey and the Greek islands. Is there a best time to book to get a good deal? Due to kids being 10 & 14 it will have to be in school holidays so I'm not expecting silly cheap but it would be good to get as much as we can for our money
I like to book between in the first 2 weeks of January. Most folks aren't thinking about holidays then, at least not until January pay day. Not saying it's the best time, as I'm working on a small sample size but it's worked for me many times. The week or two before Christmas can work too.
MrBig said:
I like to book between in the first 2 weeks of January. Most folks aren't thinking about holidays then, at least not until January pay day. Not saying it's the best time, as I'm working on a small sample size but it's worked for me many times. The week or two before Christmas can work too.
The month of January, and in particular, the first two weeks of January are the largest booking weeks for holidays.. UK, Europe, USA - all the same. There's still too much change in the market to say when the best time to book is. Book a place you like at a price you're comfortable with and stop thinking about it.
Chucklehead said:
The month of January, and in particular, the first two weeks of January are the largest booking weeks for holidays.. UK, Europe, USA - all the same. There's still too much change in the market to say when the best time to book is. Book a place you like at a price you're comfortable with and stop thinking about it.
Ooh, sorry, I forgot the condescending smiley...
MrBig said:
Chucklehead said:
The month of January, and in particular, the first two weeks of January are the largest booking weeks for holidays.. UK, Europe, USA - all the same. There's still too much change in the market to say when the best time to book is. Book a place you like at a price you're comfortable with and stop thinking about it.
Ooh, sorry, I forgot the condescending smiley...
I don't have kids so am not speaking from experience, only what I see my fami!y and friends tolerate, but I get the impression if you holiday during school breaks then there IS no cheap way of doing it. You just get your pants pulled down and that's that. You are in the max demand zone.
I holiday a lot and of course always travel when the local, and destination kids are at school. When I see the prices on the calendar matrices either side, that occur during school hols, I nearly fall off my chair. Double is the norm,
Certainly outside of school hols,booking in advance as far as you can is usually the cheapest unless you are prepared to take a big risk and do it all literally one week before.
I'm off to Crete next Monday. I booked the flights well in advance, and I booked a villa just last night, half price.
I holiday a lot and of course always travel when the local, and destination kids are at school. When I see the prices on the calendar matrices either side, that occur during school hols, I nearly fall off my chair. Double is the norm,
Certainly outside of school hols,booking in advance as far as you can is usually the cheapest unless you are prepared to take a big risk and do it all literally one week before.
I'm off to Crete next Monday. I booked the flights well in advance, and I booked a villa just last night, half price.
One thing I remember from my childhood is Christmas - piles of holiday brochures arriving to be perused between Xmas and new year. For school holidays I don’t think there’s ever a good time, but for outside school holidays booking the travel early and the accommodation late seems to work. I’ve booked ferries for late 2024 already.
andy43 said:
One thing I remember from my childhood is Christmas - piles of holiday brochures arriving to be perused between Xmas and new year. For school holidays I don’t think there’s ever a good time, but for outside school holidays booking the travel early and the accommodation late seems to work. I’ve booked ferries for late 2024 already.
You've just put another thought in my head. Are there big savings to be had in booking flights, hotels and transfers separately?
Another project said:
andy43 said:
One thing I remember from my childhood is Christmas - piles of holiday brochures arriving to be perused between Xmas and new year. For school holidays I don’t think there’s ever a good time, but for outside school holidays booking the travel early and the accommodation late seems to work. I’ve booked ferries for late 2024 already.
You've just put another thought in my head. Are there big savings to be had in booking flights, hotels and transfers separately?
Case in point. Off to Crete house hunting so booked a basic package with lasminute.com (BIG mistake). 3 weeks before leaving they tell us the hotel is closing for a refurb and offer terrible alternatives. 2 weeks of arguing on live chat and I eventually secure a refund on the accom. I then trawled the net and bagged a a whole villa for a great deal (by bypassing booking.com and going direct to the villa vendor). I'd already sorted the car hire.
Booking it all seperately gives flexibility with which airline and, which flights (times). Booking a car is easy (transfer). Great for us (no kids, no rush)
Booking a package gives "ease of mind", particularly as you then have ATOL protection should the company go bust, plus, if things go wrong then you have someone to help you at the destination.
If you are not travelling in peak time then you can book the optimum flights, THEN, you can sit back and take your time finding the ideal accom. During peak I suppose you could book flights and then not find accom, but it would have to be somewhere very popular!
Flying out to Bangkok on Nov 12th with a return flight 1 month later, and we have ZERO accom booked :-) A bit of a different type of holiday I'll grant you :-)
Just an anecdote in terms of pricing for us last year, this year, next year.
I normally start to look Nov/Dec for next August and prices are normally fairly stable ime - The hotel in Turkey we wanted to go to was cheap enough at that point (more than we paid last year but in the right ballpark). Normally, if you check over a period of a couple of weeks, it goes up and down a bit so it can be worth monitoring the pricing before hitting the buy button.
I thought, it'll come down as surely nobody is going to spend that much on a holiday in a cost of living crisis. just hold your nerve.
It went up by January by >1K !
Then there was an earthquake in Turkey, I thought, well, I know it's not in the same place as the hotel, but surely that'll have an effect on demand for Turkey, plus the cost of living crisis is even worse, prices will have to come down from here. Just hold your nerve.
It went up by another £500 !!
At that point, it didn't really budge and we ended up getting it at £1200 more than we paid the year before i.e. slightly below the peak price I saw, but not by much. Should have bought early last year.
This year, I started looking earlier than normal, and prices seemed even even higher still when I first looked in August but they are now back down to what we paid nearly 2 years ago. i.e. 1K less than we paid for this year.
I normally start to look Nov/Dec for next August and prices are normally fairly stable ime - The hotel in Turkey we wanted to go to was cheap enough at that point (more than we paid last year but in the right ballpark). Normally, if you check over a period of a couple of weeks, it goes up and down a bit so it can be worth monitoring the pricing before hitting the buy button.
I thought, it'll come down as surely nobody is going to spend that much on a holiday in a cost of living crisis. just hold your nerve.
It went up by January by >1K !
Then there was an earthquake in Turkey, I thought, well, I know it's not in the same place as the hotel, but surely that'll have an effect on demand for Turkey, plus the cost of living crisis is even worse, prices will have to come down from here. Just hold your nerve.
It went up by another £500 !!
At that point, it didn't really budge and we ended up getting it at £1200 more than we paid the year before i.e. slightly below the peak price I saw, but not by much. Should have bought early last year.
This year, I started looking earlier than normal, and prices seemed even even higher still when I first looked in August but they are now back down to what we paid nearly 2 years ago. i.e. 1K less than we paid for this year.
My other advice would be to search quite carefully around dates and airports. Same holiday 1 day apart can be vastly different in price.
Another anecdote :
Last year in June half term, we went to Lara Beach in Turkey for a week. The price difference for the "same" holiday, with identical dates, hotel, transfer etc, BUT flying from Newcastle instead of Stansted was >£2K5. !!! (Needless to say we flew from Newcastle despite living 30 mins from STN). No idea why it was so much cheaper as I checked local school term dates and they were the same in Newecaste as Essex!
Another anecdote :
Last year in June half term, we went to Lara Beach in Turkey for a week. The price difference for the "same" holiday, with identical dates, hotel, transfer etc, BUT flying from Newcastle instead of Stansted was >£2K5. !!! (Needless to say we flew from Newcastle despite living 30 mins from STN). No idea why it was so much cheaper as I checked local school term dates and they were the same in Newecaste as Essex!
fat80b said:
My other advice would be to search quite carefully around dates and airports. Same holiday 1 day apart can be vastly different in price.
Another anecdote :
Last year in June half term, we went to Lara Beach in Turkey for a week. The price difference for the "same" holiday, with identical dates, hotel, transfer etc, BUT flying from Newcastle instead of Stansted was >£2K5. !!! (Needless to say we flew from Newcastle despite living 30 mins from STN). No idea why it was so much cheaper as I checked local school term dates and they were the same in Newecaste as Essex!
Yep - Somerset here and I've flown from MAN to get a cheaper skiing holiday.Another anecdote :
Last year in June half term, we went to Lara Beach in Turkey for a week. The price difference for the "same" holiday, with identical dates, hotel, transfer etc, BUT flying from Newcastle instead of Stansted was >£2K5. !!! (Needless to say we flew from Newcastle despite living 30 mins from STN). No idea why it was so much cheaper as I checked local school term dates and they were the same in Newecaste as Essex!
fat80b said:
My other advice would be to search quite carefully around dates and airports. Same holiday 1 day apart can be vastly different in price.
Another anecdote :
Last year in June half term, we went to Lara Beach in Turkey for a week. The price difference for the "same" holiday, with identical dates, hotel, transfer etc, BUT flying from Newcastle instead of Stansted was >£2K5. !!! (Needless to say we flew from Newcastle despite living 30 mins from STN). No idea why it was so much cheaper as I checked local school term dates and they were the same in Newecaste as Essex!
Bloody hell that's a ridiculous price difference Another anecdote :
Last year in June half term, we went to Lara Beach in Turkey for a week. The price difference for the "same" holiday, with identical dates, hotel, transfer etc, BUT flying from Newcastle instead of Stansted was >£2K5. !!! (Needless to say we flew from Newcastle despite living 30 mins from STN). No idea why it was so much cheaper as I checked local school term dates and they were the same in Newecaste as Essex!
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