The ultimate Boxing Day holiday booking guide
January is still the month when most holidays are sold. People are desperate to beat the winter blues and cheer themselves up by booking their summer holiday and tour operators try to tempt them with discounts and special offers. But does that mean it is the best time to book? That is a different question and the answer depends on where and when you want to travel. Here is my guide to what you really do need to be booking now.
What to book now
Family holidays
The choice of packages, hotels and departure airports for any peak season travel will only diminish from now on. So you would be wise to consider making a move to secure holidays you are planning to take during any of the school holidays and half terms in 2024.
Starting with the coming February half term and Easter break: it is already getting late in the day to book either skiing or sun and sand holidays. Pressure is building on airfares. Peak-time departures with easyJet from Geneva to Gatwick on the Saturday of February half term, returning a week later are now £324, while the cheapest Ryanair flights from Manchester to Tenerife South on the same weekends start at £250. Both examples include checked baggage.
Other priorities should be high season weeks for villas in prime locations in summer (and the flights and car hire which go with them – see below). Flights are selling fast for key weekends immediately after schools break up, especially from regional airports and for daytime departures. Some EasyJet flights from Bristol to Majorca, for example, are already over £500 return (July 20 to August 3, including checked luggage). Peak summer dates for longer ferry services are also best booked as soon as possible, especially if you want to travel at the most convenient time to fit in with the rest of your journey.
In this country, you should be looking to book cottages in Cornwall, Devon, Norfolk and all the National Parks during the school holidays now. In particular, do not delay if you want somewhere within walking distance of a beach or if you are looking for a large house suitable for two or more families. These get snapped up early and many are reserved a year or more in advance.
Escorted and specialist tours
Whether you want to walk the Milford Track in New Zealand or the Machu Picchu trail in Peru, you would be wise to think about committing now. Both require a permit and you have to book months ahead to be sure of one. The same is true of the big wildlife events (the wildebeest, whale or polar bear migrations, for example), or destinations with a limited season (such as Antarctica). More culturally-focussed expert-led tours also tend to sell quickly. For example, all four of Martin Randall’s Samarkand & Silk Road tours for 2024 are now sold out, even though the last of those doesn’t depart until October.
Festivals and events
You know the ones: the Venice carnival, Semana Santa in Seville, the Edinburgh Festival, Oktoberfest in Munich, the Day of the Dead in Oaxaca – and all the big music festivals. If any of these are on your bucket list for 2024, you don’t want to wait much longer to book flights, tickets and accommodation.
Spring weekend breaks at peak times
The lowest fares sell out months in advance for any break which involves flying out on a Thursday or Friday night and returning on a Sunday evening, on any weekend in 2024. Start researching now.
Eurostar tickets at any time
With Eurostar tickets it is always best to book as far ahead as possible if you want to find the cheapest fares – they can normally be bought up to nine months in advance. As an example of the potential savings I checked London-Paris returns recently for Friday-Sunday travel (departing 9.31 am, returning 5.12 pm). They were: January 19-21, £203; March 15-17, £168; June 7-9, £148; August 30-September 1, £128.
Long-haul flights for next Christmas and New Year
Big scheduled airlines tend to open their booking windows around a year ahead of travel (355 days in advance for British Airways, for example) so if you are planning a big trip for the festive season in 2024, it definitely pays to get in early, especially for destinations like Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada, where there are particularly high numbers of people travelling to visit friends and relatives.
Cheap last-minute deals to almost anywhere
Of course, you may also be thinking of booking to travel this month: demand for hotels for city breaks is at its lowest and it is easy to find bargain airfares. In particular, if you are thinking about a trip to Paris this year, a winter visit might also be a good plan. The Olympics there in July and August have already pushed prices sky high and will no doubt put more pressure on May and June as people schedule their travel to avoid that peak.
You should find plenty of choice and lower prices for travel to winter sun destinations this month and for those that want a holiday on the slopes, January is looking like a potentially good time to bag a last-minute ski holiday – the early season snow is looking promising and demand is never as high as in February. This year Easter is relatively early (March 31), however, so there are fewer off-peak weeks during March to choose from.
How to book it
Tour operators and packages
From the point of view of financial security, booking a package holiday through a tour operator or a travel agent is always the best move. True, you can protect yourself by paying with a credit card and some – but certainly not all – travel insurance policies include cover for financial failure. But the great advantage of using a tour operator is that they also owe you a duty of care, so if anything goes wrong with the travel or accommodation arrangements they have made for you, they are legally obliged to help.
The problem for consumers is that the definition of what constitutes a package can be very confusing. Examples of arrangements which are likely to be unprotected include buying flight-only tickets from an airline and buying your accommodation through an online agent such as booking.com or airbnb.com. If you are unsure, check out the guidance on the Atol website (caa.co.uk/atol-protection).
If you can’t find a ready-made package which suits your needs, then you can nearly always create one by booking the accommodation and the flight through the same agent at the same time.
Flights
If you do prefer to fix your flights independently, the best way to do so depends on the destination. For short-haul flights to Europe, always book directly with the airline or as part of a package with a conventional travel agent (see above). Never use the website of an online agent – it’s extremely rare for an agent’s price to be lower than the airlines. An online agent will probably charge a hefty premium and if something goes wrong, you may have problems dealing with any cancellation, alterations or other issues.
For long-haul flights on the other hand, it is always worth checking fares and options with a reputable expert travel agent like Trailfinders. That way, you will often pay less, have more choice, and more financial protection.
Car hire
It’s always worth comparing prices, but overall, you will probably get the best rates through brokers, which negotiate the most competitive deals they can with the different big names and local suppliers. Which? rates Zest (zestcarrental.com) as “the standout broker” with Auto Europe (autoeurope.co.uk) rated next most highly. Its specific advice for the Canary Islands is different, however, with specialists autoreisen.com and cicar.com rated exceptionally highly.
Whenever you are travelling, it is normally best to book early – especially for peak dates and especially with a broker which allows you to cancel without penalty. This means that you can commit to a holiday safe in the knowledge that you are locking in a competitive rate, but can get a refund if your plans change. Be wary of offers of deposit-free bookings, however. They can work against you if an unscrupulous hire company could cancel your reservation at a later date because rates have risen. You can avoid this by paying a deposit which locks them into supplying the car at the price you have agreed.
Finally, when making price comparisons, don’t get distracted by the headline prices – be sure you are comparing like with like and have included all the extras in the final price.
