How far in advance do you start planning a trip?

[cebuan]

Originally Posted by NDak15

I have years worth of trips thought out. As soon as I take one I start researching another.


I'm this way too. I want to know what I'm getting into so there are few surprises.

Surprises is what I go there for. I am not very interested in going to a place that will nor surprise me. Sadly, I quite often discover that the features I am most eager to see are disappointing, or even worse, I try too hard to convince myself that they are as fulfilling as I had hoped they would be.

I don't even research the weather, and when I went to Addis Ababa (hey, it's in Africa), I had to buy warm clothes. I'm one of very few people who has ever walked through snow in shirt sleeves in an African capital (Maseru). Sikkim is also very cold and un-India-like. Take a jacket to wait in line at the Chile-Argentina immigration post. It's above the snow line most of the year.

I check and see if visas are required and if my charger plug will work, and then I'm good to go.

[myrc60]

My trips consist of going to the beach. I live close enough that I can drive to many. As such, I've been known to book the day before I want to be there.

[jlawrence01]

It depends on the trip.

If the trip is to attend a particular event, I generally book 51 weeks in advance. Quite often, I can get a hotel before they load the much higher "special event rates." For example, I went to the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting a few years back in Omaha and booked a room for $45 instead of $150 per night.

There are a number of locations where you need to book six months in advance just to find a room at a reasonable price - Yosemite, Canadian Rockies, etc.

By the way, if you book a cancelable reservation months in advance and the rates drop later on, you can always cancel it.

[DefiantNJ]

We are now searching for tickets/hotel reservations for our trip in November. We have very specific dates for that week when my son have most of the days off so we have to start looking early.

[Klassyhk]

Originally Posted by evening sun

I start thinking about a year out & I like to have an idea of the trips 2 & 3 years down the road ( international trips) It is all part of the fun for me, dreaming about it & researching the areas. Right now I am trying to decide on whether to visit Utah in May or not.

I start that far out as well. I don't purchase my ticket at that time though because I start to watch the fares. Once I see a drop in the flight or hotel cost, I book at that time which is usually 6-9 months in advance. Recently, I found out that fares are often cheaper within a month of the departure date. Moving forward, I plan to buy my ticket within the 21 day mark of my departure date.

[MadManofBethesda]

Originally Posted by cebuan

I think I'm rather unusual in that respect. I typically suddenly decide I want to go in a certain direction, and spend may be two weeks researching all the prospects, and then book the tickets abut six weeks out. So, from first inception of a destination area, Ill be on the plane within two months.

With freedom to go whenever I please, I can do that, because my travel doesn't have to be shoehorned into a job vacation.

I just returned from a 22-day trip to Southeast Asia, visiting Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Taipei, and Hong Kong. I started thinking about the trip on a Saturday in mid-January; spent Sunday checking airline and hotel sites to see if it would be possible to use FF miles and hotel points for stays; upon determining that it was feasible, asked my wife Sunday night if she wanted to go on this trip; and then finally on Monday, booked the trip. The trip commenced 29 days later on Tuesday, Feb 13th.