Summer will be here soon, do you know what your travel plans are? It’s the time of year when millions of Americans will be going on vacation, which means flights, Airbnbs and hotels may be harder to book the longer you wait.
According to NerdWallet’s Summer 2024 Travel Report, 45% of Americans plan to take a trip involving a hotel stay or flight this summer, spending an average of about $36-hundred. And a fifth of them expect to go into debt to pay for their getaways. But you don’t have to be one of them, if you’re smart about planning.
- If you want to avoid crowds, you may want to steer clear of the places everyone else is going. According to both Expedia’s Summer Outlook and Google Flights, the top U.S. destinations for summer 2024 are New York, Orlando, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Seattle. And the top international destinations are London, Cancun, Rome, Tokyo and Paris, which is hosting the Summer Olympics.
- So where is the best place to travel this summer? That all depends on what you’re looking for in a vacation.
- Pinterest’s Summer 2024 Travel Report finds that adventure, exploring mysterious or uncharted destinations, and rest are what summer travelers are most interested in this year.
Expedia’s travel expert Melanie Fish shares these tips for saving on summer 2024 vacations:
- Bundle your trip. You can get bigger discounts by booking airfare and hotel at the same time.
- Travel midweek or later in the summer, if you can, to save money and save yourself from fighting crowds.
- Fly early in the day to get a better price and a lower chance of cancellations.
- Make those reservations soon. “The sweet spot is now,” Fish says. “We're within that 21- to 60-day pre-travel window to save around 15% on airfare, so now is the time to plan. That means ready, set, but maybe wait until August to actually go.”
Source: USA Today