Here's The Very Best Time To Book Your Summer Vacation If You're Trying To Save Money

Summer is a great time to travel, for obvious reasons. The weather is better. Many offices are more lax about time off. If you have kids, they’re out of school. But there’s one very important element that makes summer not a great time to travel: Cost. Unfortunately, costs are generally higher in the summer months because so many other people want to travel, too. But that doesn’t mean you can’t save on summer travel. And, actually, if you haven’t booked a summer trip yet, you may be in luck.

“Don’t panic if you haven’t booked a summer getaway yet,” Brooke Ferencsik, the senior director of communications for TripAdvisor tells Bustle. “TripAdvisor hotel data shows that booking your room within a month of your summer trip can save you as much as 40 percent compared to peak rates. You can save a bundle on airfare too: Booking your flight three to four weeks in advance of your summer trip can save you up to 58 percent, compared to peak summer airfares.”

Those tips are based on TripAdvisor’s just-released “best time to book” research, which looked at hotel savings when compared with peak rates, based on TripAdvisor data from July 2016 to August 2017. With over 7.5 million accommodations, airlines, attractions, and restaurants on the site and price comparisons with more than 200 hotel booking sites, their data set is pretty solid. They found that across the board you can save around 15 percent if you book within a month of your trip and that for some cities, the savings were even higher. They also found that the average price for a U.S. hotel this summer is $236 per night.

Not surprisingly, the list of the top 10 cities where you can save big if you book within a month of your trip include the two most expensive cities in the country: New York and San Francisco. But it also some includes some surprising cities that you might not have considered visiting before, like Pittsburgh and Minneapolis. Maybe these awesome savings will inspire you to visit somewhere new this summer! Because while everyone should absolutely go to New York City at least once, I’m 100 percent about seeing more of this huge country of ours.