STAMFORD, CONN. - Just in time for the busiest travel months of the year, KAYAK looked within its billions of annual search queries to create its annual Holiday Hacker Guide. The guide is full of data-driven insights and tips from ranking the hottest destinations to ring in the New Year (spoiler alert, it's Guadalajara), the most affordable cities to fly to and the best time to book your winter holiday flights to help travelers plan holiday travel with confidence this year.
The guide features three top ten lists: Wallet-Friendly destinations both near (within North America) and far (international) for those on a budget, Trending New Year's Eve destinations as well as advice on when to book to score the best deals. This year's Guide enhanced "When to Book" section, displays the median airfare you can expect based on selected arrival and departure dates for each winter holiday.
KAYAK's 2017 Holiday Hacker Guide also reveals the following hacks for holiday travel:
- Avoid flying on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. According to historic KAYAK data, this is one of the most expensive departure dates, and when airfare prices skyrocket.
- Make like Santa and fly on Christmas Eve. KAYAK data shows you can score some of the best deals by departing on Christmas Eve (and Christmas Day). If you don't want to travel on the holidays, KAYAK's historical data shows that the sweet spot for scoring the best deal is departing on December 23 and returning on December 26.
- Score a great airfare deal to the Nordic countries. Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen and Reykjavik took the top four spots on the Wallet-Friendly International Flights list, and if you can brave the cold, it's worth it – Stockholm is known for its holiday festivities (check out the Skansen Markets) and this is one of the best times of the year to view the Northern Lights in Oslo.
- Snowbirds can find good deals by flying south. Atlanta and Dallas are among the top Wallet-Friendly North American Flights with median airfares respectively 30% and 27% lower than the median airfare for North America.
- Trendsetters are heading to Guadalajara this New Year's Eve. Mexico's second largest city took the top spot on this year's Trending New Year's Eve list, and even more impressive – it made the list for two consecutive years, seeing a whopping combined increase in interest of 108% since NYE 2015.
