We have booked a RS Italy trip for October. Will we get better hotel and flight rates booking this soon, or closer to the trip? We are planning on flying "open jaw" into Venice and departing from Rome.
Posted by
Hendersonville, NC
247 posts
I would start checking rates now. I booked in June for April 11....prices have gone up and down since then but never as low
Posted by
Chicago
2876 posts
As far as airline prices, not even the airlines themselves know the answer to that question. Airlines change their prices constantly due to such things as competitor prices, fuel costs, number of seats sold, etc. My philosophy is that once your travel dates are set, it's best to just go ahead and book your flights. That's because prices will go up and down, but the number of available seats on your travel dates will always go down.
Posted by
Tresana, Highlands Ranch, CO, USA
23626 posts
Tom summed it well. This question is asked all the time and the answer is always the same ---- Who knows? You can look at comparefare.com and get an idea of the past average for that date and route. It is just like the stock market -- buying at the low point is nearly impossible.
Posted by
Sacramento, CA, United States
23 posts
We went to Italy October 2010. October is still considered "high" season. I was planning the trip for over a year. We stayed in small B&B's ranging in price from 80 euros - 130 euros. All were found on TripAdvisor and I emailed the owners directly, got cash or Rick Steves discounts, and was happy with all of them!
We flew from San Francisco on Swiss for $1260 each. I liked leaving SFO at 7:00 p.m, flying NS over the states and the Atlantic to Zurich and arriving in Rome at 7 p.m, going straight to bed, getting a good night's sleep and starting sightseeing feeling fresh the next morning! We also flew out of Venice, but flew Lufthansa (StarAlliance partner) to Frankfurt to SFO. I booked the entire flight over the phone with Swiss because you can't book "open jaw" on their website - and they didn't charge me a booking fee.