2024 & 2025 Travel Planning Tips

Our 2024 & 2025 travel planning tips will help you smoothly sail through the intricacies of travel as we approach the coming year.

As you are likely acutely aware, travel planning today requires an entirely different thought process than what was needed before the pandemic.

In years past, travel brands would put out their best offers in the first quarter of the year, and folks would book travel for later in the same year.

If that is your modus operandi today, you will be sorely disappointed as your dream vacation may be sold out, or at the very least, wholly picked over with you looking at the leftovers.

Our travel agency already has more business booked in 2024 than in 2023, and we still have three more months to go before the year ends.

So, with the busyness of the industry top of mind, let’s look at some of our best travel planning tips for 2024 & 2025.

Travel Planning Tips for 2024 & 2025

• Book Early – This is perhaps our most important tip. As I mentioned above, the travel industry is very busy. We are seeing unprecedented volumes of new bookings as we approach the fall months, and we’re certainly not the only ones in that boat. In our morning team meetings just last year, we would blow whistles, ring cowbells, and all kinds of silliness when we would reach $1 million in new bookings for the month. Now, a million a month is old hat, and just last month, we booked over $ 1.7 million in new reservations. Folks, please hear me: you must book no less than a year in advance. And in many cases, even that will leave you frustrated as you consider picking through the leftovers.
• Check Your Passports – Do you know when your passport expires? When traveling overseas, you will need at least six months of validity on your passport and at least two blank pages for stamps. According to the State Department’s website, renewing or getting a new passport will take up to 13 weeks. And if you pay an additional $60 to expedite, it will still take 7-9 weeks. To learn more about how to renew or get a new passport, please CLICK HERE.
• Global Entry – If you plan to be a frequent overseas traveler and don’t already have a Global Entry Card, let me encourage you to get one. Getting a Global Entry Card will require a background check and in-person interview at selected airports around the country. However, having this card in your possession will get you through U.S. Customs in a matter of minutes instead of possibly hours. Your Global Entry Card will also suffice for this requirement when the federal government finally imposes the REAL ID standards for all flights. Carol and I have had a Global Entry Card for years and are glad to have it. To learn more, please CLICK HERE. You might also want to look at the Global Entry Enrollment on Arrival program: CLICK HERE. Note: Global Entry is a huge help in getting you through U.S. customs, but currently doesn’t help you at all with other country’s customs regulations.
• The New European Visa Requirement – While the upcoming visitor requirement is not technically a visa, I’m using that language to get your attention, as most international travelers understand what a visa is. The new system for travel in 2025 is more accurately defined as a visa-waiver program. This program was supposed to start in 2024, but France convinced the EU to push off these requirements until after the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Nonetheless, this should be on your radar as it will apply to 2025 travel from the U.S. To learn more, please CLICK HERE.
• Airlines & Airports – The airlines and busy airports continue to be challenging. I wrote this article in April 2023, and the problems are still ongoing. If you haven’t read the article highlighted here, I highly recommend you do. We are constantly looking for ways to improve our client’s air experience, but until the dust settles, there isn’t much we can do.
• Shore Excursions – Cruise line shore excursions have also been a challenge. If we have unhappy clients, it’s generally the airlines or disappointment with shore excursion availability. Please read my recent article on this topic.
• New Travel Options – As I mentioned in this article, expedition cruising is the next travel megatrend. Carol and I have now experienced three expedition cruises: the Galapagos Islands with Silversea Expeditions, the Arctic with Lindblad/National Geographic, and the Great Lakes with Viking Expeditions. Remember those commercials from the late ’80s where William Shatner told us, “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile?” Well, let me say that today’s breed of expedition cruise ships are nothing like your father’s expedition cruise. These ships are modern, small, and luxurious and can take us to places we’ve never dreamed of visiting. You haven’t lived until you’ve shared the same air with a polar bear or a walrus. I am hooked on expedition cruising, and we plan to enjoy many more. Top of the list for me is Iceland, Greenland, the high Canadian Arctic, and even crossing the Northwest Passage one day. Oh, lest I forget, we haven’t been able to get to the Antarctic yet. Therefore, you can expect many more expedition cruise articles from us in the future.

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Additional Reading:

• Our Favorite Ocean Cruise Brands
• Our Favorite River Cruise Brands
• Our Favorite Small Group Tour Brands
• Our Favorite Expedition Cruise Brands

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