Here are our top insider tips on when to book your vacation.
Cruise Vacations
Cruise lines offer their best prices and bonuses when sailings first open up for sale. This is of course also when the ship has its full inventory of staterooms available. As mid-size and small ships have far fewer staterooms to choose from, book as early as possible. Planning a cruise for an upcoming anniversary or milestone birthday? Let your vision Travel Advisor know and start planning! When the new inventory is released you can book the perfect stateroom.Travelling with a group or even just one other couple? Booking early means you can select staterooms close together – if not side by side.
Multi-Generational Vacations and Groups
As we touched on above, earlier is better for groups. Included in groups are multi-generational vacations. Allow yourself lots of time to plan. Tour companies and cruise lines offer bonuses to groups but only well in advance. When you are booking a group there may be a price reduction. There will also be valuable bonuses. Complimentary seat selection, guaranteed rooms next to each other, reduced deposits, and price guarantees are just some of the perks.
Package Vacations
Insider tips on when to book your vacation when it’s a package holiday. One concern is “what if the price drops after I booked”. This is understandable, no one likes to feel they could have paid less for the same thing! Our partners are sensitive to this and many have come out with Price Guarantee Programs. When applied to your vacation, if the price drops, you are entitled to a refund or future travel credits. You can rest easy knowing you have the best possible price.
We counsel our clients to take advantage of the Early Booking Bonuses that are offered on package vacations. The reality is the best resorts sell out and we want our clients to have the best vacation possible. This doesn’t mean the most expensive resorts but the ones that fit their needs the best. Your vacation time and dollars are too precious to not spend wisely.
Everyone knows someone who got a ridiculous deal booking last minute. This can be an option if you are very flexible. You need to be flexible with dates, destinations and resort types. Small resorts, leading family resorts and couples resorts all fill up early. Destinations such as Aruba, Barbados, Ixtapa and St Lucia have limited flights and sell out quickly. Our feeling is, if the vacation doesn’t fit your needs then it doesn’t matter how good the deal is.
River Cruising
Our number one insider tip on when to book your vacation when you are planning a river cruise is book early! We can’t stress enough how important it is to book a river cruise early. River cruising is incredibly popular and the ships have very limited inventory – there are under 100 cabins per ship! As river cruises are “bucket list” vacations, you don’t want to have to compromise on which ports you will be able to visit.
Solo Travellers
The best time to book a vacation for a solo traveller has a few variations. Today more and more travellers are choosing to travel solo and travel providers are accommodating this choice. Several major cruise lines and river cruise companies are designing solo traveller staterooms when planning their new ships. These staterooms are limited so you need to book as soon as the sailings open for bookings. Active Holiday companies have long been Solo Traveller friendly offer Solo focused departures or room matching programs.
The other great opportunity for solo travellers is when the solo supplement is waived completely or greatly reduced. When these are offered can vary. Some travel providers set aside a limited amount of inventory on each departure for solo travellers. Travel companies occasionally offer solo traveller promotions when a trip is closer to departure. This is a great option if you are flexible and don’t have your heart set on a destination or itinerary. If you are interested in receiving solo travellers promotions please click here to register.