How far in advance do you book your travel plans?

We recently booked a cruise for November and I was amazed at how sparse balcony rooms were? I thought I was ahead of the game.

Now I'm booking Paris for October and a few hotels have nothing available! What the hell??

Re: How far in advance do you book your travel plans?

For cruises if you want a good room you always have to book very far in advance.

We are booking next week for our cruise in May 2008. My parents want the top suite and there are only 2 of them also I feel you get the best rates

Re: How far in advance do you book your travel plans?

for my trip to italy, I just booked with a month to spare although a lot of hotels were already booked.

Re: How far in advance do you book your travel plans?

We usually book far in advance (6-9 months before) just b/c I love researching vacations and am always looking for somewhere new to go!

Re: How far in advance do you book your travel plans?

I book my flight far in advance. When I see a special I grab it. I am lazy about booking hotels. I am behind the game for my next trip to Japan and I havent even started to look at hotels.

Re: How far in advance do you book your travel plans?

I just booked last week for our trip for next january

Re: How far in advance do you book your travel plans?

I booked 2 weeks ago for our September cruise. I wanted a guarantee and they were sold out so I had to get cabin assignment. No big deal.

Depends on what you are looking for. Late 2008 cruises are not out yet, but when they do people will go for the best cabins.

I've been looking at things for memorial day weekend and it's either expensive or sold out. It's my own fault, I am in the industry and I should have known better.

But a lot of people do book in advance because they either have to bid for their time off and once they know they have that time off they book or want specific types of rooms and if they book far enough in advance they'll get it.

Re: How far in advance do you book your travel plans?

I usually like to book 6 to 8 months in advance for big trips-- other things, are not so far in advance though.

There are some high-season times-- but Nov is not high cruising season, and I don't think Oct is a busy time for Paris either-- are you trying to book with rewards, i.e. points, miles, etc.? Sometimes there is limited availability when it comes to that.

Re: How far in advance do you book your travel plans?

Minimum of 6 months in advance, even for long weekends.

Taking time off from my job is difficult, so I always have to carefully plan out my trips around my work schedule and my manager's vacation schedule.

Re: How far in advance do you book your travel plans?

at least a year

Re: How far in advance do you book your travel plans?

I try to book our big vacations about a year and then I pay it off.

Re: How far in advance do you book your travel plans?

i like to book very far in advance, that way i know it's settled and i have something concrete to look forward to but dh is a very last minute kind of guy and procrastinates until the last minute. i'm the one that does the booking but of course i have to get his "ok" first and it takes forever before he'll be like "okay, do it". i think that's in part because he hates to fly and doesn't want to think about it! luckily, we're not very picky about our cabins on a cruise (that's our favorite vaca) so we can book last minute and the cabin won't make a difference to us.
we get our work vacation picks for the following year in nov/dec - so as soon as we take our vacation weeks, i like to plan!

Re: How far in advance do you book your travel plans?

Typically 4-6 months in advance for big trips (longer for the HM b/c I was very particular about certain things).