Do you book early?

[LilLauraloo]

Just curious when everyone finds the best time to book there summer holiday. I always book after Christmas for June/July but I am seeing travel agents showing 2025 holidays and wondering if it's better to book now for next year

We always book the summer before so, we are going away in may and will book next years in august this year.

Just what works best for us as it means I can spread the payments out

I book early and late. I have a holiday booked for 2026 and two days ago I booked a holiday for less than two weeks time.

Not really unless it’s flights to join others on holiday, eg last year we had an extended family, accommodation was booked for specific dates so we knew we had to book flights for those dates (actually we went out a few days earlier to have a bit of time out there first) but generally we book a few months before we go.
We hate booking holidays with a passion, love them when on them but zero interest in researching, comparing, looking for the best deals etc, just wing it and have flights and accommodation booked in about 15 minutes.

We book flights as soon as they come out, because we always need to travel during school holidays and usually on certain specific dates and routes and it's the only way we can be sure to get what we want.

So, we book early - typically between 8-11 months before we travel.

Depends really. Sometimes book very late minute (maybe a week in advance) or up to a year in advance (I am currently in Australia where I used air miles to pay for the fare but very difficult to book on air miles unless it’s done a year in advance at midnight).

I went to Malaysia in 2022 and I booked that 6 months in advance.

I book our abroad holiday about 11 months in advance, when we gat home from the last one really, as that's when I'm motivated to research and book. Any UK breaks a few months in advance.

We are usually about 9 months in advance.

I prefer to book early so that I have time to save. Plus it gives me something to look forward to.

Booked last week .. go in three weeks. We always book and go.. we are retired.. and look for cheap flights.. book them..then find our accommodation..( use a lot of villas we have stayed in before). Luckily we can do this a few times a year and go for 6 days each time. We find it much cheaper this way.
Our flights to canaries were £ 60 ret .

Booked last September for this coming May. Has already shot up from 4K to 5k - not including any of the room/seat upgrades I booked. Short haul with Tui.

I normally have my annual leave all planned in September for the next year and we start looking around November-January unless we went over Easter, we then book around a year in advance for long haul.

I'm just about to start planning hols for '25.

We look for deals and buy them whenever we see them but I'd say it's roughly 3-4 months before on average.

We're going to Gran Canaria in the May half term, we booked our flights in October and then found our villa. We always find it much cheaper this way, the same flights are currently £200pp more expensive.

We used to just book whenever and many years ago last minute to get the best deals. These days I find the price only seems to go one way, up and up the longer u leave it. We are often going in school holidays.

I find in January they seem to do money off and sales and I often book then for the summer ahead.

Last year I saw a great deal in Jan but cldnt book at it as dh was just about to start a new job. Once he'd been in a few weeks he booked annual leave for the summer and the same holiday was £1500 more expensive!

Caravan holidays I've found it's cheapest to book as soon as dates are available. Some lodges though last minute we've had fab deals (outwith school hols)

If booking separately it's def best to book flights as soon as they are available too.

Before kids always booked late Bev we could be flexible, after kids we have always booked over Christmas for the summer but this year booked a year in advance and it was a bit cheaper. So I think either book early, at least 6 months before or late

Do you know when flights release their early sales? We're thinking of going to Rome in spring next year.

We tend to book when we can get into the mindset of holidays after Christmas, and this year it's been 6 months in advance

usually a couple of months. Booking flights now for May. We're not planners! Blows my mind people can plan a year ahead. We did a Vietnam trip with a month's notice...

It varies airline to airline, so depends who you want to fly with. If you Google you can see when each one releases their flights (it's usually a certain number of days before your return flight date). If you want Easyjet you can sign up for an alerts so they email you to let you know when flights are on sale for certain dates.

I book as early as possible - to ensure best choice of flights and accommodation, to give as much time as possible to save up, to ensure there's space at the cattery, to ensure I don't clash with anyone else's holidays at work, and just to give the Feel Good Factor of having a holiday to look forward to!

I've got everything booked for this year and booked it all between Xmas and now, 4 fairly short trips and one complicated 6 week road trip. No package holidays, no long haul and retired so no school hols to worry about. Almost all accomodation on a free cancellation basis. I do want to book a pre Christmas holiday too but waiting for Easyjet to announce their winter flights.
Have several trips in mind for next year but won't be booking those until much later in the year or early 25.

We don't go abroad every year but if we do we tend to book in the BA January sale if we can, it usually works out cheaper than a lot of the other places if you find a good deal.

It varies. Usually I book 9 months or so in advance. Last year I booked our annual break 6 weeks in advance. We went to Aus in Oct 2022 and I booked that in Feb 2021. We haven't booked anything for this year yet as we're waiting for DH's bonus in April. Booking early does seem to get you the best flight prices though.