Anyone done spontaneous holidays - booking flights/accommodation the day of travel?

[XelaM]

I'm looking to take my teen away for a week or so in June after her GCSEs but I have no idea about exact dates, as she's also planning stuff with friends that may or may not happen and has some sports events that again she may or may not go to, so everything is up in the air. I'm quite excited by the idea of just going somewhere spontaneously - just driving to Europe or going to an airport having booked a random flight and hotel the same day.

Has anyone done this? Does it work out cheaper/more expensive? Is it as fun as it sounds in my head?

Beach ⛱️ pool and guaranteed sun☀️ are the only requirements!

A few days in advance is ok but on the day you’ll pay a premium. It’s £180 to fly to Belfast from Manchester this evening and £14.99 in a few days 😂

That’s just an example. I’m aware that Belfast isn’t known for its beaches 😂

Oh that sounds FANTASTIC!!!!!

I once did it years ago after my last set of university exams. A friend and I had a cafe lunch, then we walked into a travel agent and said 'where can we go for this amount, tomorrow?'.

We went to Tokyo for a week. Remains an absolute highlight for me as I am a planner and quite conservative and I just loved the whole spontaneity of it all.

We did it in April - 6 days before departure so not quite on the day. It was definitely cheaper than 4 weeks before when we’d started properly looking but I suppose it might have gone back up again.

We knew which airport we needed to leave from and had a few destinations we’d have been happy with - was a great holiday!

I’ve booked a few last min holidays including night before and a week or so earlier. Totally fine for simple beach holidays especially for places we’re familiar with. Flights and accom usually cheaper or same price ahead of time; v unlikely it’s better value to be last min.

Id say that there’s a risk of not going is so many things are tentative - surely you can pick five days and lock them in if you both want to prioritise the trip.

Thank you so much everyone! 😀 Took all the comments about it being cheaper a few days before than same day totally in board.

@DeposedPresident Booking Tokyo for a week the day before sounds amazing!! 🤩

Absolutely agree with this, especially with Ryanair. The same day (or within 24 hours) is a complete no no, but less than a week is do-able. I am flying with them on Saturday. On Friday it was £14.99, it is now £24.99, and it will just go up now continuously. It has been £14.99 for at least 7 weeks. Sometimes if you do more than 3 months it is actually dearer. I think it does depend on the airline - I know Ryanair best as that is best served from my airport. You won't get your pick of cheap or best accom last minute, so sometimes you have to balance things out, or book fully cancellable.