Expedia has crunched a season's worth of flight and hotel searches into its Winter Travel Outlook, and the numbers point to one clear conclusion: timing your winter trip matters more than most people think. The report compares searches made between July and October for winter breaks against the same window the previous year, giving a decent read on where demand — and prices — are heading.
The savings potential is real. The cheapest days to fly internationally this winter are 4 December and 18 February, both sitting outside the festive crunch. If your dates are flexible, heading away in early December or February can mean significant savings on airfare, according to Expedia spokesperson Melanie Fish. At the other end, 16 and 19 December are the priciest days to fly internationally, and 18–19 December are also expected to be the busiest at airports. If long security queues and packed terminals put you off, book around them.
Hotels follow a similar rhythm. International hotels are at their fullest on 4 and 27 December, while the best-value nights to stay are 7 and 13 January. Avoid 26 December and 13 February if you want a bargain — those are the most expensive nights for accommodation in the season.
As for where people are actually going, the wish list splits neatly into two camps. Paris, New York and Amsterdam lead the most-searched list, followed by Bangkok and Tenerife, with Dubai, Tokyo, the Canary Islands, Barbados and Prague completing the top ten — a familiar mix of winter sun seekers and festive city breakers.
The trending list is more interesting. Exuma in the Bahamas tops it, with searches up 115% year on year. But the next three spots are all cold-weather picks: Quebec City in Canada (+75%), Sweden's Malmö (+45%) and Japan's Hakone (+40%), a mountain town known for its hot springs. Curaçao also rose 40%, while Phu Quoc in Vietnam, Martinique and Poland's Zakopane — a ski and Christmas-market town near the Slovak border — each climbed 30%, alongside Turin in Italy (+20%) and Jamaica's Ocho Rios (+20%).
Fish's summary captures it well: rather than enduring winter, travellers are choosing trips that embrace it — whether that means Caribbean sunshine or mulled wine at a Polish Christmas market.
Why it matters: anyone booking a December or February trip without checking the calendar is likely overpaying. Shifting a flight by a few days — especially avoiding mid-December — is one of the easiest ways to cut costs, and this season's trending destinations offer fresh alternatives to the usual winter-sun circuit. If Exuma, Hakone or Zakopane weren't on your radar, they're now on everyone else's, so booking early makes sense.
Full data via Expedia's Winter Travel Outlook, reported by Euronews Travel.
