Some holidays can be booked on a whim two weeks out. Others fall apart if you leave them that long. Condé Nast Traveller UK has pulled together 17 trips it says you should reserve a full year ahead — and the reasoning goes well beyond securing a table.
The core idea is simple: the most sought-after experiences are finite. Think wildlife-tracking camps in East Africa, where the best lodges for migration season fill up many months ahead, or road trips through Greece's Peloponnese, where peak-summer accommodation in smaller towns disappears fast. Book late and you're left with the leftovers: worse rooms, awkward dates and inflated prices. Book early and you get the pick of the lot, plus room to plan seasonal highlights — a festival, a wildlife moment, a route that's only good at a certain time of year.
There's a psychological argument too, and honestly it's the most relatable one. The anticipation of a confirmed trip is its own reward — that small jolt every time you remember you've got something brilliant on the calendar. Booking early means months of that, not weeks.
It also fits where travel is heading. Booking.com's 2027 predictions show 77 per cent of travellers want a holiday that pushes them outside their comfort zone, and 81 per cent would pick a destination based on how they want to feel rather than where it is. Experience-led travel is on the rise, and experience-led trips are exactly the kind that can't be improvised — permits, guides and small-scale operators need lead time.
One useful caveat from the piece itself: planning ahead shouldn't mean over-planning. Leave some slack in the itinerary so you're not stuck executing a schedule past-you wrote for a holiday present-you no longer fancies. Lock in the essentials — flights, key stays, anything with limited capacity — then let the rest breathe.
Who should pay attention? Anyone eyeing a 2027 trip that involves a small lodge, a popular national park, a festival date or a peak-season coastline. If your dream holiday involves a lot of other people wanting the same thing at the same time, treat it like a concert ticket: the earlier you commit, the better your odds and the price. Everyone else can probably still improvise.
