How far out do you plan vacations?

[anna7602]

We haven't bought tickets or anything yet, but DH and I have already sat down and mapped out where we want to go in February, April and June/July of 2015.

It's mostly because we have to plan around DD's school break schedules, but if we want to cash in miles, it also helps to do that on the earlier side.

[toutsuite]

We like to plan ours in advance though admittedly, we have on more than one occasion planned things last minute, like decided on Thursday to go on a trip on Saturday.     In a weird way, I like this because I feel like it keeps me on my toes and is unpredictable. 

Jetsetter.com is awesome with these kinds of trips, you can get 5 or 4 star hotel deals at great prices for last minute trips.  We have also never had a problem using FF miles for last minute vacations, especially if we are open to traveling on "off" days.  

Most of our longer vacations (10 days or more) we will actually be good and sit down and map out.  

[spankswife]

Between calendar year, school year, and work busy season, I feel like I always have a 12-18 month stretch I plan for. I even have a few randoms for the future - for example I want to take DD to Alaska when she is 10-ish. She is 3 right now

[Deleted]

We planned our next trip about 5 months ahead of time, which is SUPER early for us. Usually we do more like 3 months out. Unfortunately, my work schedule is such that I tend to not know how hectic or free my schedule will be until only a few months ahead (and sometimes even that backfires when deadlines get moved around).

[Susie]

We're starting to research Hawaii now, for either Nov 2014 or Jan 2015. Right now we're trying to narrow down to which 2 islands (of Kauai, Maui, and the Big Island). We probably won't actually book anything until summer or early fall.

[frlcb]

Plan or book? We plan far out, book not so much. We know next Summer, 2015, we will take the kids to japan. And Summer of 2016 I am planning on taking our kids to Europe for 4-6 weeks, with dh joining at the end.

[winnied]

We plan like you do. It's fun for me and sometimes we coordinate with relatives/friends so sooner rather than later is ideal.

[Deleted]

I book far out. I need to block off vacation weeks several months in advance, I can rarely do anything other than a day or two in less than four months notice because of my work. For trips of one week or more, we usually decide on the dates about one year out, then I start watching airfare as soon as it's released. We also tend to do our big annual trip around Christmas/New Years, so things book up and prices go up.

We are already completely booked/paid for December 2014-January 2015, and within the next month or so we will be booked for April 2015. I'm already "thinking" about December 2015.

[Vespasia]

We usually only do one "real" trip a year, in the Fall. I pretty much start planning our next trip the second we return from the previous one. I'm always mentally planning (aka daydreaming) several trips at a time. Money is always our limiting factor so I budget out various destinations and go with the one we can afford.

MH turns 40 in 3 years and I'm already trying to plan a surprise trip. Unfortunately the time of year doesn't work with any of the destinations he would really enjoy. 



I usually start booking about 6 months out. If I want to use booking.com for hotels I may reserve them earlier since places sell out and they usually offer free cancellation.  

[mdgirl]

We both have jobs where only a certain number of people can be on vacation at any time, so we need to at least set dates a decent number of months ahead of time. We rarely ever plan longer than 6 months out, though, unless it's over a holiday or something.

[Champagne Supernova]

It really depends. If it's a long vacation (More than two weeks), we plan and book maybe 3-5 months out.

If it's less than a week or for a long weekend, maybe a month out the most.

[monkeygirl18]

Plan: over a year out. I have a spreadsheet with places we want to go, we pick one, I start planning.

Book: a year out. We just got back from Sandals Whitehouse in Jamaica. As soon as we got home I booked it again for next year.

We only can do one big trip per yeay. The small (weekend/long weekend) ones are fly by the seat of our pants.

[GilliC]

I typically plan about 2 months out, whether it's a few weeks or a long weekend. I'm often scrambling to get things booked by the 1 month mark, when fares and availability become problematic.

[phillyrunner]

I have ideas in my head of what trips we want to do this year, but don't actually book everything until a couple months prior. For instance, I knew around the end of 2013 that we wanted to go to the big island of Hawaii, Peru, Europe a couple times (still not sure where - thinking a long weekend in Barcelona and a week in Croatia), and somewhere in Asia (debating between Japan or Malaysia/Singapore) but all we definitely have booked so far is Hawaii in April and Peru in May. I will probably book the rest of this year's trips (which will all be in the fall) sometime in the summer. 

[sillygoosegirl]

A month or so in advance normally. Though there are places that sometimes I want to go for a year or several before we actually set a date, book tickets, and make it happen.

Even our half-year RTW trip we only started planning about 3-4 months in advance.

[Norticprincess]

Major trips we have a bucket list of things we want to do. Done are in planning stages a few years out, if it is something with limited times, availability, or a specific event. Others have been 6 weeks out international and less for domestic because a deal popped up. So a few key pieces maybe booked farther out. Hotels/flights are usually closer to travel time.

Currently
We have dates set for Australia next Feb, just waiting for United to release the return dates to book flight (miles they seem to have very few of the saver options watching to see when they pop or figuring out if we are buying coach and upgrading with miles) that has been set for time frame since August.

Panama Canal is Sept next year, booked so DH got the cabin he wanted as soon as the date opened.

Tentative for Antarctica in 2016 beginning or end will depend on when my Doc will clear me to go.

2018 Is tentative for Safari Tanzania/Kenya etc. If I'm not allowed to get my yellow fever shot by then, my doc said I would be allowed Egypt or South Africa (Krueger) if my titers are good on my regular vax.

[Deleted]

Um, kind of ridiculously far out. We just booked our plane tix and room for Jamaica in early March of next year. We also want to take the kiddos back to Disney in the fall of that year and I'm kind of annoyed that they don't have their online reservations open that far in advance yet I'm also mentally planning where I want to go for our winter vacay in 2016, lol.

[Wanderista]

I don't typically plan that far in advance. I don't like to wait too long between when I plan to go somewhere and when I actually go. The farthest planning is typically 3-4 months. I've had 1-2 months also be common even for booking flights. I have also done a surprising number of "seat of my pants" flights, though I tend not to think about it. I've either had some reason to need to fly suddenly or suddenly the opportunity arose. So yeah, I've booked a surprising number of flights including internationally within 2 weeks. 

Sometimes I know what airline I'll be using. Other times, it's sort of a matter of, "Ok, what's the best deal right now?" I guess I'm pretty good at putting a trip together quickly even with multiple people/activities. I'm flexible but also decisive. I like a mix of scheduled activities and spontaneous exploring. I do form an itinerary and I usually find time to do basically everything that I want to do. The exception to that is if I'm traveling with a difficult traveling companion (someone who complains a lot and isn't enthusiastic - those kinds of people and I do not get along and we do butt heads, but I travel well with anyone else). 

I often have ideas of various places that I want to go, but as for planning and going on an actual trip? It can be quite quick. If I were going somewhere quite outside of my comfort zone or that required lengthy visa processing, obviously that would take longer, but yeah. Even going to Egypt was decided upon like 3 and a half months before the trip. Croatian hotels were booked probably 3 months in advance, which is necessary for the high busy season. I have not done a trip that was actually planned more than about 4 months in advance since I was an exchange student in middle school.

I'm also someone who tends to pack for my trips the night before a flight. I'm like an automaton about packing at this point. I have a systematic approach that allows me to pack quickly and I basically never forget anything. (I'll get any extra supplies a day or two before I pack).

I'm editing this to add that even though I plan on a shorter time frame, I am very detail-oriented. Believe me, I use SeatGuru to pick my seat; I read lots of hotel reviews and other similar reviews; I read reviews of airline food if I am flying an unfamiliar airline; I do research about the local area and plan daily itineraries for basically every day. I often get a guidebook if it's a really new and unfamiliar area, which I use as a reference point but I don't rely upon exclusively.  I do all kinds of detailed legwork to plan a trip, I just do it in a pretty short time frame. Hehe. 

[SJ]

Not very far in advance. We have lots of ideas of where we'd like to go and what may be next, but we also like to take opportunities as they come up- often to travel with friends or family.

We won't book anything for 2014 until fairly last minute due to baby girl's arrival in July. We'll have to see when she comes, how healthy she/I are, when we feel ok to fly, etc.

[marytini]

Varies. For Italy June 2013, we bought airfare around Easter, I think. Hotels were reserved shortly after. Those are easier to do when it is just a reservation with free cancellation. I'll reserve right away, then keep my my eye out for better deals and cancel if needed.

For our London, Paris, Amsterdam trip sept 2012, we booked airfare like 2 month in advance. Apartments were booked next, then tours etc.

That being said, I researched for MONTHS before hand and stalked kayak daily for airfare trends etc and would have purchased earlier if a good deal popped up.

[anna7602]

Mar 18, 2014 11:06:25 GMT -5 SJ said:

Not very far in advance. We have lots of ideas of where we'd like to go and what may be next, but we also like to take opportunities as they come up- often to travel with friends or family.

We won't book anything for 2014 until fairly last minute due to baby girl's arrival in July. We'll have to see when she comes, how healthy she/I are, when we feel ok to fly, etc.

We front-loaded our 2014 travel because of my summer due date. I don't see anything big happening in the fall. Besides, DD doesn't really have any school breaks then except for Thanksgiving.

[travelingturtle]

I rarely plan or book anything in advance. I have a lot of "plans" but it would be impossible to follow-through with all of them unless I could be in several places at one time. I'm always jealous when people know far in advance though.