Ready, set, jet: Trends and tips for 2025 holiday travel
Are you planning to travel this holiday season? If you need advice on where to go (and how to save money along the way), you’ll want to read our trends and tips for 2025, based on new data from Google Flights.
Discover trending holiday destinations
To kick things off, here are this year’s trending destinations for Thanksgiving travel within the U.S. These are the places that saw the biggest percentage increase in searches on Google Flights, compared to 2024. Mid-sized cities appear to be on the rise when it comes to domestic holiday travel.
For Christmas and New Year’s Eve, we looked at trending international destinations, and warmer locales are dominating this year’s list. It’s no surprise that with colder temperatures on the horizon for many parts of the U.S., travelers are opting for palm trees over fir trees.
Get insights on booking the cheapest flights
Whether you’re visiting family or looking for an overseas getaway, saving money on your holiday travel is always a great feeling. And with Google Flights, there are lots of different ways to find a great deal on airfare, like the new AI-powered Flight Deals tool or long-time favorites like price tracking alerts and the Explore map.
For many travelers, a big question is whether to book flights ASAP or wait to see if prices go down. In fact, searches for “best time to book flights” reached an all-time high in the U.S. this past summer. Usually it’s best to book flights on the early side, especially if your plans aren’t very flexible. But if scoring cheaper airfare is your number one goal, there are two ways you can use historical patterns to your advantage.
First, when you have a specific itinerary in mind, Google Flights can tell you when prices are expected to be lowest for booking your chosen dates and destination. Just look for the “cheapest time to book” insights under the top search results.
The other option is to consider the more generalized guidance from our 2025 insights on the best time to book, which we’ve just updated based on four years of aggregated Google Flights data 1 . For each scenario below, we’re listing out when average prices have been lowest for trips departing from U.S. airports, relative to the departure date.
- Domestic flights: The lowest prices have been 39 days before departure (23-51 days is the low price range).
- International flights: The lowest prices have been 49 days or more before departure. If you’re traveling abroad, don’t delay and book early!
- Thanksgiving: The lowest prices have been 35 days before departure (24-59 days is the low price range). If you want to fly right before or after Thanksgiving, you’ll probably find the cheapest options in October.
- Christmas: The lowest prices have been 51 days before departure (32-73 days is the low price range). So if you plan to travel for Christmas, the best bargains can usually be found when booking anytime mid-October through mid-November.
- Spring break: The lowest prices for trips in March or April have been 43 days before departure (28-61 days is the low price range).
- Summer vacation: The lowest prices for trips in July or August have been 21 days before departure (14-43 days is the low price range).
- Trips to Europe: Similar to the general advice for international travel, the lowest prices for trips to Europe have been 48 days or more before departure, so you probably shouldn’t wait for prices to drop.
- Trips to Mexico or the Caribbean: The lowest prices have been 50 days before departure (26-79 days is the low price range). Unlike Europe and the broader international trend, you might be able to save on travel to Mexico or the Caribbean if you book during the sweet spot.
Want some more tips on how to save? It’s worth knowing that you won’t save much by booking on any particular day of the week. Tuesday has been cheapest, but only 1.3% cheaper than Sunday, the most expensive day.
The cheapest days to travel are still Monday through Wednesday (about 13% cheaper than flying over the weekend). And finally, taking a layover helps you save about 22% on average, versus flying nonstop.
