By coinnews 
00:00 Speaker A
Earlier this year, many Americans were on the fence about whether or not to take that summer trip, but now there’s a rising tide of travelers planning those summer vacations. Here to offer some words of wisdom about financially planning for your next vacay is Yahoo Finance senior columnist Carrie Hannon, and Carrie, you just came back from an early summer trip. So I wish we had this segment and chatted beforehand, but where are we seeing the demand for this travel right now?
00:31 Carrie Hannon
Well, yeah, I mean, the thing is people are planning to spend even more this summer than than last, which is kind of a surprise based on what, you know, what you just mentioned, but the folks at Triple A told me sort of Memorial Day weekend is sort of the bellwether and shows what might be happening and they expect airports to be absolutely packed uh over Memorial Day weekend this coming weekend to places like Orlando, New York City, Vegas. Um, but you know what’s really happening, Ali, is that falling prices. Airfares are at the lowest they’ve been in about four years and gasoline is down. So this is making a whole set of possibilities for people. Um, now road trips are particularly cool this year. Um, for some reason, I can think of a few myself, but you have more control and so that we’re seeing a lot of domestic travel happening. People jumping in the car and planning for a road trip and those gas prices certainly help there. Um, for people going overseas international trips, the big places seem to be Asia, Tokyo in particular, and of course, you know, the big three, you know, going to London, Paris, Rome. Um, and Bangkok is kind of getting interesting again because of the white Lotus series. I think people are intrigued by it. So, uh, hotels are still pricey, but those are kind of the big trends.
02:44 Speaker A
I was going to say must be from uh the white Lotus when it comes to some of that Asia travel demand. So what are some financial travel tips from some of the pros that you’ve been speaking with?
03:01 Carrie Hannon
Yeah, exactly. You know, some of the things are tried and true that we should all always remember, but if you can be flexible, it’s the key, right? If you can travel on midweek uh dates, you can drop airfares by 20%. So this is really something to consider. Um, look for and also traveling early June, those first two weeks of June or the end of August. Otherwise, peak summer is still going to be expensive. Um, that’s important to remember, so if you can shift and if you can do, I mean, the fall season is actually quite good if you have that flexibility. Um, again, you know, plan for um refundable fairs because things happen, right? Now, we know that those are a little bit more expensive, but it does give you that flexibility if the world shifts on you and for whatever reason you need to cancel. Um, I think it’s also important for people to do these price monitors. So if you know where you’re going and what dates you want to go, Hopper has one, Google Flights has one, Kayak, a lot of them, then it dings you when the prices go, the fair goes up or down and they can sort of give you a framework of when you got to get going. Um, another big tip is truly if if you know where you want to go, don’t procrastinate. As I said before, fairs are incredibly low right now. So jump on it. I mean, look where you want to go if it’s international, maybe have a two weeks or something, but really, you know, get going. If you want to go somewhere, these fairs are pretty sweet. I’ve been looking at them myself to go to Paris and I’m like, I got to do it. Um, another thing is we all know, we’ve heard all the headlines that recently about New York Airport, disruptions are part of the game in the airport world right now. So, um, one travel expert I spoke to who I um respect, Haley Berg at at Hopper, she said, you know, trip insurance is something really people should consider this year because these things are happening and it’s worth considering. I feel like I’m talking so fast, but one more thing to tell you, if you don’t want, you can save by not going to that big flashy city like Barcelona and maybe picking something nearby. You get the culture vibe, but it’s not as expensive. Um, and another sort of important thing, Ali, to think about is that um, you know, try if you’re using credit cards, which all of us do when we travel, try to make sure you have one that does not charge foreign transaction fees. That can really surprise you at the end when you get home and have them charge in the local currency. The final thing is follow the road rules. You need to have real ID now uh in the US so that uh it’s real ID is important to have. Um, going overseas and UK, you need an electronic travel authorization uh now and later this year, um in throughout the EU, you’re going to need a travel authorization as well. So these are things that are shifting in the travel world. They’ll just make your life a little bit smoother and you can buckle up and go have some fun.
08:12 Speaker A
All right, some fantastic tips there. Be flexible, don’t procrastinate. Carrie Hannon, thank you so much.
08:22 Carrie Hannon
Thanks, though.