When to book Flight and Accomodations?

I don't think you will save a significant amount of money by booking far in advance, except for this one issue. If you wait too long, like 'til the day before, the best, reasonably-priced places will be full; and you may have to shell out big bucks for inferior accommodations. I use booking.com a lot. One reason is the ease of making changes. Most of their listings do not require deposits and have pretty easy cancellation policies, often just 24 hours advance notice. Why not make some reservations now and modify if and when you need to?
I also happen to think that the notion that you can somehow figure out the BEST time to buy your tickets is mostly mythical. A couple of months ago, a poster on this site announced that he had determined that Thursdays (or was it Tuesdays?) were best. Since we were in the process of setting up a trip, I watched the ticket prices for several weeks. They didn't budge on the day in question (and still haven't). For flying into London in April, though, I think you could wait a bit. Lots of airlines go there. You could set up a price alert on one of the sites like kayak. The common wisdom on this site is to determine a price you can live with and don't look back. One thing you should check, however, is whether doing open-jaw flights, i.e., return from Athens will be more economical than getting back to London for your return home.

Finding the best price for air tickets is a bit like deciding when to sell stocks. You only know after the fact if you should have waited or bought earlier. Here's a bit of gratuitous advice. Don't fret too much over the costs. $50 or $100 on plane tickets is trivial compared to the total price of the trip. It sounds like you're planning a wonderful trip. Focus on what you want to see and do. That's the fun part of planning.

unicornprincess19,

Life if full of compromises.

I will state up front i do my planning ahead of time so i dont waste my time trying to figure it once im there. My time here is free. Over there its costing me $$$ and my vacation time.

If you understand that you may not get a nice place to stay or a location that you want and maybe a good price, then there is no reason you cant "wing it". Same for your plane or train travels. Sometimes it doesnt make a big difference if you show up and buy your ticket that day but sometimes it will. Homework will give you those answers.

Im not sure when those places "summer" vacation starts, but i maybe someone here knows or you will have to do some homework to find out. The issue is that people will be traveling if thats the case.

Also, there is no reason you cant mix up your trip. Plan the first several days or weeks and the rest "wing it". Or, do the planning for the big cities and "wing it" for the back 40.

As far as flights go, you can do some homework now IF you know where you are flying into/out of. Look at prices 3+ months from now and work your way back to a few weeks from now and see how those fairs look to your pocket book and "winging it" urges. I can bet your pocketbook will win out.

If it was me, i would book the places that have a history of filling up fast during the times youre thinking of being there and decide if you want to make reservations or not.

Maybe some of those that "wing it" with train, plane and lodging will chime in and give you their advice.

happy trails.

I don't see how you will save money by booking in advance, unless you are booking less expensive places that may otherwise be booked up closer to the time. I think most places have set fees that don't change with early booking. I have watched and watched airline tickets for months and generally have found the earlier the cheaper. Last year I saw fares in November for our flight in June and hubby said to wait, "they will get cheaper". Nope! I watched them go up and up and finally bought them for about $300 more. As far as hotels/apartments/B& B's...I say the early bird gets the worm. With research you can find great places to stay, and other people also think they are great so they book them, too. Maybe I'm just weird, but I have bought airline tickets 9 months out a couple times and booked my reservations right after that. No regrets and I got what I wanted, and saved $$ with my airfare, too. And yes, I do look after I have bought the flight and I've never had a regret! Hopefully, you have been watching the flights- or start now- to see what the trend is and then if you find it lower, or not moving- grab them and book your rooms....Done!

I know I have been able to stay in some great places.. small, clean, well run , and CHEAP.. but they are all smaller hotels and they book up .. so yes.. in that regard I do think people can save money by booking in advance. I always make sure that the hotels have good cancellation policies.. most do.. beware of buy in advance cheap rates offered by some.. they are almost always completely non refundable though.

I don't believe there is a formula to get the best over seas flights.. I have been flying over for years now and it really seems to be a matter of luck.. just keep fiddling,, know what a fair price is and jump on it when you see it.

One thing I DO know is you can save money by booking your intereuropeon flights and trains well in advance.
We paid the princely sum of 97 euros for two of us.. taxes and luggage fees all in.. to fly from Majorrca to Paris this summer.. and from London to Dublin I think I paid LESS ..

Check out all the intereuropeon airlines.. many times its just as cheap, if not cheaper then train tickets.. especially for longer flights.

Also..Eurostar.. book as soon as your dates are effective.. Eurostar releases their ticket s120 days out and have cheaper tickets available.. but once they sell those out the only ones left cost more.An example is 30 or 40 euros for a one way bought months in advance to 300 or more euros for tickets for next day.

PS Venice is small..I would allot it 3-4 days max and tag some of those days onto other places you have picked that could really use more then 5 -6 days..
Places like London, Paris,( both cities offer so many daytrips out) Rome( colossal and so much to see and maybe see Pompei!).. and Greece( if you plan on visiting an island or two)

Wonderful advice! Thank you all so much! This will be our first time overseas and I am obsessed with finding out as much as I can! Thanks again, and happy travels!

When you book hotels, do check their cancellation policies. In my experience, the discount that some hotels may give for pre-payment are too small to merit a non-refundable commitment. In general, I would start with the air tickets first, then hotels for these big cities. Whether you train or fly between the cities, booking those trains and flights ahead is the best way to get a cheaper fare. By booking ahead, you will have plenty of choices and should not need to worry about a piece of the puzzle not fitting. Eurostar tickets are currently for sale for travel through May 8. For flights from Paris to Venice and Rome to Athens, check www.skyscanner.com. A train ticket from Venice to Rome also offers advance discount starting 3 months out, but since that train route has hourly service, you could leave the plan more flexible.

Flights, international trains, and some domestic trains (particularly, from your list of desired destinations, those in England, France, and Italy), go up in price SUBSTANTIALLY as you get closer to the travel date. And some routes can sell out. So, you definitely want to buy those as soon as your plans are set (remember that the cheapest fares are non-refundable and non-exchangeable - that's why they're cheap).

Hotels and other accommodations don't usually have much, if any, discount for early booking. I agree that there's a kind of saving in that less expensive places that are good values tend to book up first, but for large cities like you mentioned, there are lots of choices in all price ranges, so you won't be stuck. Of course, there are some special situations. For instance, Pensione La Calcina in Venice has been mentioned in guidebooks for several decades as a great value in a great location (Dorsoduro). Therefore, it books up very early. If you have your heart set on staying there, you may indeed need to see when they have a vacancy, then arrange your travel around those dates.

Unless you have your heart set on a specific place to stay, I'd figure out the days you'll be in the various cities, book the flights and trains, then start booking accommodations. As Laura said, double check the cancellation policy of any place, and make sure you understand and agree with it. If you don't, don't book that place - period.

The biggest savings can be achieved by booking train tickets to get the substantial discounts offered 3 months or so in advance. This is especially true for London to Paris, and within Italy on the fast trains. (I assume you will fly from Paris to Venice and the budget airlines are also cheaper if booked ahead).

For example, we saved almost $500 on buying our round-trip train tickets from from Zurich to Milan several months ahead. This helped ease the sting of the $1200 we lost by following the advice of someone here and waiting to buy our plane tickets until the "sweet spot" which was supposedly 2-4 months out.

Watching airfares from fall onward for a flight to Europe the following spring/summer, I have found the best fares, best connections and planes/seats are available now and for the next several weeks. Once the air transport is locked in, accommodations are booked if special or much preferred are part of a known itinerary. Ground transport is typically by train or flights for longer distances and great discounts are offered as noted above by booking in advance.