Travel demand is higher than ever, and with demand comes low seat supply and high prices. With inflation rising too, this means that travelers can expect to spend more than usual on their flights this summer.
But what if you’re traveling on a budget? Or simply want to save as much money on your flights as possible?
Kayak.com has introduced a new travel tool called Best Time to Travel that will help travelers to pick the best time to travel.
The tool works by comparing not only flight prices but also crowd levels, predicted weather forecasts, and seasonality to help you get the best possible experience, as well as price, for your next trip.
Here’s everything you need to know about how this tool works and why it is so useful:
How Does The Kayak ‘Best Time To Travel Tool’ Work?
Enter the destination you’d like to fly to, the airport you’d like to depart from, and the duration of your proposed trip. The tool will do the rest.
The tool offers 280,000 routes for travelers to choose from, meaning there’s something for everyone, whether you’re hoping to visit a popular resort or an off-the-beaten-track destination.
You will be given a comprehensive results page telling you the best month to travel and why.
For example, if you’d like to take a 7-day trip from New York to Venice, then Kayak’s advice is that you should take your trip in September.
The tool states: “This is it: you should travel to Venice in September. Why? Because airfare is lower than what you’d usually see, weather will still be good (expect daily temps around 66°F) and it’s likely you won’t see a lot of crowds.”
You can then drill down further to find the best dates within that month.
What makes the Kayak tool unique is the huge number of variables it takes into account when assessing the best time to travel.
As well as sharing the minimum and maximum flight prices by month for your chosen destination, the tool will delve deeper into helping you to determine when you book your flights.
Don’t want to be in a beach resort during the rainy season? Hoping to explore the Mediterranean when crowd levels are low? All of this will be taken into account when providing your ‘Best Time to Travel Recommendation.’
The tool will also provide you with average hotel prices by date, as well as flight prices you would expect.
Once you have used the Kayak Best Time To Travel tool to narrow down the best travel dates for your budget and other needs, you can then use the tool to assess the best day to book your flights and your chosen hotel room when prices are at their lowest.
If you’re not ready to book your trip when you use the tool, you can set up a Price Alert so that Kayak can email you when the prices for your chosen flight or hotel either increase or decrease.
The sheer volume of information the tool provides makes it well worth exploring, even if only for research purposes before you book your next trip.
A Crowded Market For Travel Tools
This isn’t the first travel tool to launch this month.
Skyscanner has also launched a travel tool intended to help savvy travelers to know when to book their flights, ensuring they get the best possible prices. The tool is called the Skyscanner Savings Generator.
The Skyscanner tool focuses purely on the affordability of flights, telling users the cheapest fate to fly to their chosen destination. This means that if you can be flexible with your travel dates, then you’re likely to save some money.
Other popular but more established travel tools include Google Flights and Hopper.
Like the Skyscanner tool, both of these sites focus on finding affordable flights rather than taking the wider-reaching approach to pick the right vacation dates that the Kayak tool does.
The sheer volume of travel tools on the market only shows that people are keen to take their vacation time and start traveling, and high prices aren’t going to deter them.
Travelers are willing to shop around and use whatever tools are available to take to the skies and enjoy the vacation of their dreams.
And the new tool from Kayak.com is a great tool to use to help turn those dreams into a reality.
