Cappadocia, Turkey
Have you planned your family vacation travel for this school year yet? Whether you’re looking to do a quick weekend getaway or a 2+ week holiday abroad, it’s rarely ever too early to start planning. Here are a few reasons why it’s important to plan ahead:
Bellagio, Italy
- Greater Availability – The further in advance you research and plan, the more choices you will have, especially for holidays that all schools have off, like Christmas, spring break and pretty much all of summer (especially August). Family-friendly cruises, resorts, theme parks, and tours book up very quickly. Several of my clients learned the hard way that the prime rooms (suites and connecting room options) on spring break Disney Cruises or at Disney Resorts book up a year in advance. So to increase your chances of getting the room categories, connecting room options, destinations and dates YOU want rather than just what’s left over, plan ahead.
- Price Advantages – Oftentimes airlines, tour companies, cruise lines and hotels raise their rates as you get closer to the time of travel. Those of you who may have taken an intro economics course, think back to when you covered supply and demand. The closer you get to your time of travel, the less supply there is in the market, the higher the demand and therefore, the higher the price. You could be saving yourself a lot of money by booking in advance. Plus, cruise lines and tour operators often have early booking specials.
- Travel Arbitrage – Some of the smaller hotels and tour operators don’t issue pricing for the following year until fall of the current year. For example, if you are planning a 2017 spring break trip to China with Imperial Tours (where I worked for over 13 years), 2017 pricing won’t be available until the September or October before. So it behooves you to book no later than mid September 2016, enabling you to receive a 2017 tour for 2016 pricing. As year over year pricing usually increases anywhere from 3-10%, this can mean a nice savings which you can spend on other trip enhancements or souvenirs.
- Promotions – If you know well in advance that you want to go to Costa Rica next summer, we can keep an eye on a particular cruise line or destination that interests you and alert you to any specials or promotions that may come up. This can apply to hotels/resorts, air or tours as well. In one example, I knew over a year in advance that one client was taking her dad to Paris for his 70th birthday. Knowing her budget and where in the city she wanted to stay, 7 months prior to the trip, I was able to offer her the Esprit Saint Germain, a wonderful Parisian boutique hotel that had a “stay 5 nights/pay 4 nights” promotion.
- Individualization – When planning ahead, we have enough time to customize the trip to make it even more special for each family member. If you book a trip last minute, you may only have time to book hotel and air, but if you plan in advance, we have the opportunity to suggest activities to enhance your trip with experiences which your kids will remember for a lifetime. For example, in Rome, we recommended a gladiator lesson and gelato making lesson for a family with 5 and 7 year old boys. For another family, we had time to research 2-year old appropriate playgrounds, museums, and activities near a Montreal hotel for a dad to take his son while the mom is doing a gourmet walking tour with her parents.
- Stress Reduction – When you make arrangements last minute, you worry about whether you’re going to be able to find the rooms or spots that you want. You may realize that your passport expires within 6 months of your trip and that you won’t be able to get it renewed in time (and if you try to leave the country with a soon-to-be expired passport, they may not let you out – I had a client learn that the hard way!). However, when you are able to plan your trip at a leisurely pace, this reduces a lot of pre-holiday stress. Vacations should be a time of relaxation, renewal and discovery, so why start your trip in a state of panic? Plan ahead so that you don’t cause yourself unnecessary anxiety.
Beijing Opera Facepainting
A good way to protect your pre-paid or pre-booked travel investment is to purchase travel insurance, which we always recommend for major trips.You never know what may come up before or during your holiday, so the insurance will give you peace of mind that you are protected, taken care of in a medical emergency, and that you will receive money back if something unexpected occurs. For more on travel insurance and why you should consider buying it, take a look at our previous post 6 Reasons to Buy Travel Insurance.
In sum, planning ahead is always a good idea. For family travel, planning and booking at least 6-12 months in advance is our recommendation. For group events or large family reunions which require a lot of logistics, research and planning, you can even start 12-18 months ahead.
To start planning your next holiday, contact us now at info@journeysunparalleled.com.