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Before you book your next vacation, follow these travel tips to save money!
A new report from the travel booking platform Hopper reveals some of the best ways to save money on your upcoming trips.
And now is a great time to book your next trip, as airfares to popular destinations like Mexico and Central America are down almost 10% from 2023.
Here are the top five ways to save money on travel right now.
1. Fly on cheaper days
There’s a common travel hack that it’s cheaper to book flights on Tuesdays… but that’s not the case! It doesn’t matter what day you are book your flight, but which day you travel is actually important.
And it’s true that flights are cheaper on weekdays!
According to Hopper, flying on a weekday is cheaper than flying on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. You can save as much as 15% on airline tickets by choosing a weekday departure!
For most destinations, the cheapest days to fly are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
If you can make it work with your schedule, a departure on one of these days can save you a significant amount of money on airfare.
2. Travel during cheaper months
Just as there are cheaper days to travel, there are also cheaper months to travel. Airfare, hotels, rental cars and more are usually cheaper if you travel during off-peak months.
The cheapest months to visit many popular destinations are January, February, September and October.
Traveling to Mexico, the Caribbean, or warm U.S. destinations in January and February is a great way to avoid high spring break prices (and crowds).
Likewise, you can avoid the summer peak prices and crowds in many popular European destinations such as France, Italy and Greece by traveling in September and October instead.
3. Avoid weekend bonuses
As we mentioned above, flying on weekends is more expensive… and so are hotel stays on weekends!
In fact, most places charge a “weekend premium” for hotels on Friday and Saturday nights.
Prices on these evenings are 20% to 23% higher than on weekday evenings.
Visitors to Las Vegas pay a whopping amount 96% premium for weekend stays, and this is also high 76% for Chicago and 60% for Miami. It’s the same story when you travel abroad: weekend stays in London bring a… 25% premium, and that’s it 22% for Paris.
If you can pull off a midweek stay, you’ll likely save a lot of money on hotel costs.
4. Book at the right time
According to Hopper, you should start monitoring prices for domestic flights 3-4 months in advance. The best booking period is 1-2 months in advance, but don’t wait too long; prices can skyrocket 3 weeks before your departure date!
For international flights, you may want to start monitoring airline tickets even earlier (about 7-8 months in advance). For Asia to Oceania flights, the primary booking window is 5-7 months in advance, while you can book 3-6 months in advance. time for all other regions.
You can use a tool like Hopper’s Price Watch or Google Flights alerts to monitor specific dates and routes for changes in airfare.
5. Consider destination dupes
Destination dupes are one of the biggest travel trends for 2024.
As the name suggests, these dupes are comparable (and usually significantly cheaper) alternatives to popular but expensive destinations.
Based on Hopper’s data, Portugal is a big loser for many European destinations, with airline tickets typically hundreds of dollars cheaper than flights to London, Paris or Barcelona.
Additionally, travelers should consider Caribbean destinations such as Puerto Rico or the Bahamas over more expensive destinations such as Turks and Caicos or St. Lucia.
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This article originally appeared on TravelOffPath.com
