Holiday travel 2025: Top destinations, best times to book and cheapest days to fly
Summer is coming to a close, and the next big trip on most travelers' radars will be planning for the holidays.
With plenty of time to plan and book holiday travel, Google released new insights on Tuesday to help guide people from knowing which destinations are trending on Google Flights to the best times to book.
"It's never too early to start thinking about holiday travel plans. For Thanksgiving, flight prices tend to bottom out in October. And for Christmas, the cheap booking window is around mid-October to mid-November," James Byers, group product manager of Google Search, who leads the Google Flights team, told ABC News.
Echoing the suggestions of many travel experts, Byers reiterated a helpful tip to utilize Google's tracking tool when considering booking.
"If there's somewhere specific you need to be, like visiting a relative on a certain date, my best advice is to plug those details into Google Flights and look for the price insights for your specific trip," Byers said. "We'll let you know if prices are expected to go up or down, so you can decide whether to book now or turn on price-tracking alerts and wait for a better deal to come along."
Check out all the holiday 2025 trends from Google below.
Holiday flight booking insights: Cheapest days to fly
The newly updated analysis is based on four years of data from Google Flights, which helps indicate the potential costs for travelers this holiday season.
Average prices for Thanksgiving trips tend to be lowest 35 days before departure -- versus 45 days in the 2024 analysis.
Average prices for Christmas and New Year's trips tend to be lowest 51 days before departure.
While travelers won't save much by booking on any particular day of the week, Tuesday has historically been the cheapest, but only by 1.3% compared to Sunday, which is the most expensive day.
The cheapest days to travel are still Monday through Wednesday, which are nearly 13% cheaper than flying over the weekend.
Another key to finding savings on holiday travel is to take a layover, which can help people save about 22% on average compared to nonstop flights.
Trending destinations for Thanksgiving travel
Mid-sized cities appear to be on the rise, compared to 2024. The top five domestic destinations include Columbia, South Carolina; Bozeman, Montana; Spokane, Washington; Detroit, Michigan; and Omaha, Nebraska.
Trending destinations for Christmas, New Year's Eve
Travelers opting to head out of the country this holiday season will likely opt for palm trees over fir trees. The top five international getaways, according to Google, include Rio de Janeiro, St. Lucia, Marrakech, Tel Aviv and Curaçao.
