When To Plan Your Family Vacation: A Simple (But Complete) Guide

To Plan or not to Plan? That is the question.

When planning a vacation, you may be thinking: "Well, I don't want to book ahead of time because I'd rather go with the flow and allow for more spontaneity." 

But when you want to guarantee a GREAT vacation, planning well ahead of time is the best way to do it.

Reasons to Plan Ahead:

1. If you're trying to save money on your vacation, booking early is one of the best ways to do it. You have more opportunity for planning and comparing options. By booking far in advance, your choice will be wide open and more competitive pricing may be available. It will give you time to find the best price on airfare, lodging, and activities. It also helps you to take advantage of "prime time" rates, which are generally lower than what you'd expect to pay after a hotel has sold out its room inventory.
2. Time to get/renew passports, and (if traveling internationally) learn a little about the language and culture.
3. If you're planning to go away with friends, this gives everyone time to make sure they sort out the travel dates and time off work.

“OK OK, you’ve convinced me to take the time to plan my trip, but now what?” you ask. 

How far in advance do you need to plan? And when is the best time to start? I've got you covered! Use this handy guide for the best times to start planning your family vacation.

12-18 Months or more ahead:

It’s wise to book your cruise, hotel, and/or vacation packages 12-18 months in advance. Choices and availability are MUCH better when booking the following well ahead of time:

• Seasonal travel: Winter & peak season (depending on your destination)
• National Park lodges & hotels
• Honeymoons (18+ months ahead is recommended)
• Family Reunions
• Cruises
• Safaris
• Group tours for families (due to their limited size, these specialty group tours sell out very quickly)
• Accommodations with great locations (like near Disneyland or Universal Studios. Or maybe you’d like something within walking distance to the port before your cruise)

6-12 Months in advance

For other big and quintessential trips, start planning 6-12 months in advance. 

• Theme Parks (like Disney & Universal) booked at least 9 months in advance often retain the better pricing and are more likely to have more availability for the preferred rooms (those larger rooms and/or rooms closer to transportation and dining). And in the case of Disneyland or Walt Disney World, there are “hot dates” that need to be observed and followed for a magical trip. (Read more about that in an upcoming post – or contact me for all the details if you are planning your Disney trip today). 
• International Travel - Generally, travelers are required to have at least 6 months remaining on their passports before expiry when traveling overseas. This means your passport should be valid at least 6 months beyond your departure date. Additionally, and even more important, every member of your family - including kids (no matter their age) - will need a passport for international travel by air. If your child does not have a passport, apply for one well ahead of your trip as processing takes time. If your child is under 16, you’ll need to apply at a local passport agency in person, and your child is also required to make an appearance. When applying, bring along all necessary supporting documentation to speed up the process. Also inquire about getting your passports expedited. If you need to get a new passport, you can find all the necessary information here.

1-6 Months in Advance

• Yes, you can still have a fantastic vacation with less planning, particularly for shorter vacations (like long weekends). Don’t forget that there are many different things that are considered “travel” – like visiting family in another state or country or even those college visit tours. 

Bottom Line: 

When you want to stay in the best place, in the best location, for the best price, it pays to plan way ahead. The ideal and popular places always fill up early. There are typically good alternatives, but they are often farther away or they cost more.

If you don't yet know where you'll go, let me help you narrow down possible destinations.  Ask about the significant advantages with one option over another and how we can still add spontaneity to your trip. Take advantage of my knowledge and experience. Ask me anything! 

Contact me today to help you get started. 

What Savvy Travelers Need to Know

What Savvy Travelers Need to Know

Marsha Mowers,
Managing Director, Canadian TravelNews.ca, March 2021

Flights are grounded. Borders are closed. Coming back home is quite the ordeal with testing and quarantines.

Travel will eventually come back, and my personal thinking is it’s actually going to bounce back so fast that the industry won’t be able to keep up with demand (but that’s a whole other story coming soon).

Right now, travelers have the upper hand. It’s almost like they’re first time home buyers during a housing collapse. We’ve saved up money during the pandemic and we need to travel. And we want to get out of Dodge the minute it’s safe to do so.

With that in mind, here are my must-do travel tips for anyone even dreaming about a trip right now.

USE A TRAVEL AGENT

I cannot stress this enough. A good agent will literally make the difference in your trip.

You’re not just a number like you would be with an OTA (online travel agent such as Expedia). Your travel agent likely has a very good rapport with the manager on site at your hotel and can easily accommodate special requests – like adding a crib or setting up a room nicely for a proposal.

They’ll also have your back should rules change last minute for some reason – as they did many, many, many times during this pandemic.

Bit of back-story – agents are paid on commission, by the tour operator you book with. For example, if you book a one week all inclusive to Cancun, you pay for your trip and the agent gets a commission from tour operator.

The reason agents have been so upset during this pandemic is because commissions are paid (for the most part) at time of travel. So that trip you booked in August for travel in December? The agent doesn’t get paid until you go. And with the pandemic and all the cancellations, those commissions were lost. All the work agents did for your booking went unpaid, not to mention the income they had counted on was gone.

As a result, you’ll likely see a reasonable service fee moving forward when you deal with an agent. Their expertise is invaluable and paying someone to be your private travel concierge is very savvy and smart.

BOOK NOW

There is no other way to say it. Do not pass go – go directly to book now.

Particularly if you aren’t sure about traveling this coming winter season but definitely will be comfortable traveling Fall/Winter 2022/2023, book now. Rates for Mexico, the Caribbean and Dominican Republic winter season for example, are already starting to rise as people book.

There are a lot of great deals now, but you have to move fast.

It’s basically like riding a wave; know what’s coming and get ready to jump on a deal.

Also comforting is the fact that pretty much every single tour operator, airline and hotel are offering incredible cancellation allowances should travel restrictions change.

DO A MULTI-GENERATIONAL AND / OR CELEBRATION TRIP

Back when I worked in destination marketing, this was an emerging trend. Now?

Multi-family groups are leading the way in terms of booking numbers and are fore-casted to be even stronger into 2022. It makes sense.

We haven’t seen our families. We haven’t been able to relax on a beach somewhere. We haven’t been able to celebrate milestones.

Do it.

Celebrate the 50th birthday with your closest friends in a villa. Have a big celebration for an anniversary.

Heck, just grab your friends, family and go and celebrate the fact that we can. There are also amazing deals with private villas for example, around the world that pre-pandemic were out of many people’s budgets. You can even rent a private jet, which, depending on the number of people traveling and where you’re going, actually is competitive price wise, with the per ticket costs for a commercial airline. Talk about a COVID safety bubble – you and your family and friends take a jet to a villa? How safe and memorable is that?

There are of course so many other options – book a block of rooms at a resort. Rent out a boutique hotel. Whatever your fancy, just do it.

TELL YOUR FRIENDS

Travel shaming is an unfortunate new lexicon in our vocabularies and as per an earlier article, really needs to stop.

Tell your friends what you’re doing. Don’t be scared. Get excited. Know that traveling is among the safest activities you can do (safer than going to the grocery store for example, but I digress).

Get everyone excited. Stop the shame.

The sooner we can all get back to the skies, the better we’ll all be. 

(link to original article: https://canadiantravelnews.ca/2021/03/06/what-savvy-travellers-need-to-know/)