Planning ahead

There is no actual answer to that question. It depends on your travel beliefs, what you want to do, where you want to go, etc.

There are some who book a year out believing that is the best time to get the best prices. Others prefer more last minute scheduling.

For tours and popular local sights where tickets are invovled, it might be a good idea to book further out than closer to the actual travel dates.

It also depends on the time of year you plan to travel. If during the height of tourist season, booking further out is probably advisable. Off season or even shoulder season may not be a crowded.

If you tell us where you want to go and when, we can give you better ideas of things that need to be booked early and those that don't.

What do you mean by firm plans?

I will book a hotel room usually through booking.com several months ahead of my trip, sometimes close to a year but I book with "free" cancellation and keep shopping around.

Same with a cruise. I usually book about a year in advance but can cancel or change my cruise up until four months before sailing.

Airlines I book several months before my trip and that is what i call firm because I book non refundable.

I generally book about three to six months out, particularly for flights - hotels I tend to leave until a month or so before I travel.

There is no actual answer to that question. It depends on your travel beliefs, what you want to do, where you want to go, etc.

THIS

In the past I've started trip planning as soon as 4 1/2 months out, and as far as 10 months out. For myself personally it's all tied to airfares and how I think prices are moving, that's the most significant right up front cost. I usually determine where im going, how im getting there, buy airline tickets and make hotel reservations. For this next trip planning started 10 months out with the airfare purchase, but for some really good prices. I think this year, short planners have seen some sticker shock. Beyond flights and hotel reservations, I sit on everything and don't start the firmest planning or booking activities until the few months or weeks prior to leaving, and local train tickets are purchased a few weeks out or even day of travel (though Eurostar was 6 months out).

Some trains are not available until 3 months out (thinking particularly of Deutsche Bahn). That is when the cheapest prices for those trains are about, and they get more expensive with less time and availability. So trains you can pretty well look at making firm plans 3 months ahead. It is harder to predict with flights - dynamic pricing means there are several factors that affect pricing, but you can start looking 365 days out. Some people get notifications if their flight has a good price, and that works for them. I just haunt Skyscanner, Kayak or Matrix ITA until I can't face bypassing the cheaper airfares and commit. But often I set this in stone several months out. For me everything else flows from the airfare, and I can start planning the rest of the trip from there. I do insurance soon after airfare.

Lavandula

For "popular" things you may need to plan further out. There is a thread here that all of the RS Scandinavia tours are already booked for 2027 for example. Having said that, you can always get a flight or a hotel room, but not always at a price you want to pay.

11-12 months

I book flights about 11 months before, because the prices are usually best then.
I do research on hotels or B&Bs and day tours if we are not on a group tour (most of the time we are on a group tour) no later than 6 months before.

It depends so much on the time of year and the destination and what you will be doing.

Just for buying the flight, in general terms which might be the best we can do, the sweet spot is 2 to 6 months. Other sources will say 3 to 6 months. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/credit-cards/travel-rewards/best-time-to-buy-flights/ I generally buy cross the Atlantic tickets around 3 months out. Maybe closer to 6 months out if it’s holiday or special event trip. You can beat playing the system to death or just buy the ticket when the price is reasonable. The flights within Europe I usually buy as soon as I can because I fly the Discount airlines and they seem to book faster and earlier and 30€ flights can turn into 100€ flights overnight.

Now, if you are a high end Traveler who flies on fully refundable tickets then buy early as you can because you can always trade it in when the price drops. But that not the world I live in.

Hotel rooms, again depends where. Rome or Paris, at least 6 months out. Budapest or Budva or … well the sorts of places I like … 3 months is generally more than enough if there is no holiday or celebration going on.

Guides? I get them 6 moths out if I can. I love a good guide for some things. I don’t want number 2 because number 1 was busy.

But wait, your question was planning, not booking. Some trips I have made firm PLANS for years in advance.

Good point Mr E. There's always plans bubbling. But then there's turning plans into commitments

Yes, planning and purchasing are two separate things. Lol.

I have plans laid out through 2028. But only plane tickets and hotel reservations through June, 2027. (But that said, I still have lodging for November this year I haven’t yet booked).

But I don’t do everything on the same timeframe. And it also heavily depends on where I am going. Not all countries, cities within any given country, or places to visit require the same schedule.

It depends on what is important to you and if anything on the trip is a must-see and the likelihood of it selling out. Using our trip to England next April as an example; big picture planning started more than a year ago but no date in mind. Then my wife decided that she wanted to see the Queen’s Life in Fashion exhibit in London. Tickets are quite popular and so were planning to buy those this week. That will be the first thing we buy. Meanwhile, we're still putting together an itinerary for a 3-4 week trip that will take us into northern England. There's a castle hotel near Hexham we want to stay and we've read that since April is the beginning of wedding season that the castle dates may start filling up (some dates are already fully booked) so we're going to book that soon. The rest of the trip will slowly come together over the next few months and typically we'll have airfare, hotels and any tickets requiring advance booking bought 4-6 months in advance.

We rarely make many firm plans until we are travelling. We make firm plans re flights 2 to 3 months before. If we are hiring a vehicle we usually book that a few weeks before. Occasionally need to prebook some special thing we want to see/do so that requires some planning near that date. Otherwise we mostly just follow our nose. That's probably tricky if you choose high season.

It depends so much on the time of year and the destination and what
you will be doing

Agree with Mr. E. For Oktoberfest, I make plans at least 10 months out and as soon as tent reservation become available. When traveling for Formula One races, as soon as tickets go on sale, which can be 6-8 months out. I only book refundable hotels and refundable for travel credit air travel. I often change my original plans.

When traveling with friends who are still working (I'm retired), I work with them on the travel dates at least 18 months in advance.

It really depends on the destination, where you are going and the time of year. and yeah of course for a firm plan, I usually start about 2–3 months ahead. First I decide which places to visit, then look at flights and find a place to stay. Once those are sorted, I work out the route, get the documents ready and take care of the bookings. The smaller things can be left until a bit later.