If you submit your vacation days in a targeted manner, you can ideally double your vacation days. From a financial point of view, it can now also be worthwhile to opt for early booking discounts. But when do they apply and when do they end? FOCUS online tells you how to go on holiday cheaply at Easter, Whitsun, in the summer or at Christmas 2023.
Holiday at a bargain price? This is possible in 2023. Early bird offers lure with big discounts. If you book your entire holiday at the beginning of the year, you can ideally save hundreds of euros.
However, there is one big disadvantage. Travelers make long-term commitments. If you want to cancel the trip for personal reasons, this is not always an advantage.
If you don’t take advantage of early bird offers and still want to travel very cheaply, you can wait for the last-minute offers. Then the selection of hotels is not that big anymore.
Basically, tour operators have different deadlines for their early booking discounts. It is best for holidaymakers to compare several providers.
In addition, different situations can arise in the holiday destination. An algae plague in the sea, forest fires, political unrest, epidemics or the corona virus can all affect the holiday price. It is therefore advisable to check the political situation and the relevant travel warnings from the Federal Foreign Office.
In the case of early booking discounts, it is advisable to opt for flex tariffs in order to postpone the trip indefinitely in extreme cases or to cancel it inexpensively.
Are you planning a winter holiday in the Alpine region in January or February? Then make sure you get last-minute offers from January. You can find these online or in travel agencies. Prices usually rise in the last week of January and then only fall from mid-February.
In spring, many people are also drawn to Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos or other Asian regions. If you are also planning a trip to one of these Far Eastern travel destinations, you should now be on the lookout for prices and hotels. For these holiday countries, you should definitely book the trip ten weeks before your desired travel time. Then you can save a lot of money.
Traveling during the Easter holidays? If you travel by bus and train, you will get cheap offers until around mid-February. After that, prices continue to rise. If you want to fly south and relax on the beach in April, you should book your trip by early March at the latest to get the most savings. After this period, only last-minute offers can help.
The same applies to popular German vacation spots such as the Baltic Sea or North Sea coast.
If you are planning a trip during the Whitsun holidays, you should have booked by March 27 at the latest. Before this date there are the cheapest offers, travel agencies confirm unanimously on request.
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In summer, the high season for most holiday countries begins at the end of June and ends in the second week of September. During this time you have to expect higher prices for popular holiday regions such as Spain, Italy, France, Greece, Turkey or Egypt.
It is cheaper if you plan your holiday in mid-September or early October, then you can take advantage of mid-season and post-season prices.
If you travel to Australia or the USA, the following savings periods apply:
Shortly before the year-end sprint again in the autumn holidays? Then take advantage of early booking discounts, which you will find for many popular holiday destinations from June. For trips starting in October, there is a savings period of a good eight weeks. So you should have booked your trip by the beginning of August at the latest. There is a savings booking period for trips in November, which expires at the end of August.
If you are planning to travel by bus, train or train at Christmas, you should book in September and October. The cheapest offers are usually available six weeks before your planned trip.
To ensure that travelers do not have to bear the costs in the event of illness, they should take out travel cancellation insurance. However, this only applies if the illness was unforeseeable when the trip was booked.
If a chronic condition worsens, causing the insured person to want to cancel the trip, the insurance company often does not pay any cancellation costs.
