How long in advance do you book your holidays to get good deals?

[Octoberholiday]

As the title says, we are stuck to school holidays and travelling has become more expensive; we normally do self catering, rent a car or do a mix of cooking at home and eating out depending on how busy we are. We like to rent good/decent places but not necessarily luxurious. We book everything separate.

How long do people people book? we booked a summer holiday in January and I think it was not too bad; I know had to book an extra week to visit family and ended paying double for the tickets; 4 months in advance and plenty of flights to that place. While we normally pay £500 to £600 for 4 tickets to Europe I know paid £1,000 for 3 people.

Wondering if we need to start planning a year in advance?

We do Eurocamp type holidays, booking everything separately. I found the best deal for last year’s accommodation was a Black Friday deal the previous November. Sign up to all the holiday companies’ mailing lists/Facebook pages etc for codes. Car hire, conversely, I’ve always found gets cheaper if you wait until a month or two before you travel. But it can be worth grabbing an early offer if you see one, and then keep checking - you can usually get a free refund (or small fee) and rebook if you get a better deal later.

I don’t. Booking separately I book the flights early especially for the summer holiday - although there’s often sales so book then and research apartments at my leisure. There are always tons of good places to stay regardless of what the media say about holiday shortages ( every year).
The only time I book early is if there’s something on. Festival, conferences and matches which push up the price. School holidays not so much. People tend to go for the same places every year which makes them well reviewed and very expensive. It honestly doesn’t mean other places are hell holes.

The minute they go live on the EasyJet site, so 9 months or earlier if possible. Our work schedules are related to education so we have our holiday dates up to two years in advance and can plan easily. We are also both from other countries and have parents who need to be visited, so our travel plans are rigorously organised a good year in advance.

1 or 2 months

Thank you for the replies. I think 9 months is a good idea reg the tickets and also to look at sales/black Friday, I always thought there is nothing cheap on school holidays. The flights do get more expensive the closer to the trip, especially in school holidays, we booked for Slovenia for the summer a couple of months ago and paid around £700 for 4 if i look at them now it is nearly £1,400.

In terms of accommodation, I think it depends on the time of the year and the location, quality and price vary a lot. I think we need at least 6 months in advance to book something decent and a at reasonable price. I was looking for Croatia 3 months in advance for the summer and the prices are very high and flats not that great, around £300 per night for a 2 bed flat with air conditioner in the Istria peninsula; a couple of months ago there was more choice

Do you use Skyscanner? If I have a holiday in mind, I set an alert on Skyscanner. The prices can go up and down a bit with flights so I’m not sure there’s a set rule on when best to book unfortunately!