From Travel to Photo – Chapter 1 – Plan for the best time to travel Europe

This is the first chapter of my mini guide on how to plan your travel to Europe. To successfully plan an Europe vacation trip, choosing a right time to fly is as important as choosing a right travel companion. It is the first element of our travel plan to Europe. As what Success Speakers always tell you, “Time is money“. Time is the key to success. I couldn’t agree more. And it applies to travel planning to Europe as well. There are 2 time factors that will deliberately affect your planning to Europe, one is the best time of year for travel in Europe, and the other is the best time to book your flights.

The best time of year to visit Europe

When we first have an intention or interest to visit Europe, we must first decide when we should depart. Of course, the easiest way is to flip through our monthly planner and check when we would be free or when would be our annual break. Unfortunately, more than often enough, we will talk to ourselves, “It seems tight this coming few months, let’s see how it goes next year…”. No way! If you think you wish to visit Europe today, start planning it now! When is the best time to visit Europe? Anytime, depends what you are looking for. Anytime of the year, there are always happy travelers visiting Europe. So first of all, you need to know what made Europe so attractive to you? Sunshine? colourful flowers? Historical architectures? Snow scene? Shopping? Eating?

Europe is a continent with 4 seasons due to its geographical location in Northern hemisphere. Hot Summer in the middle of the year, cold or snowy Winter at the end of the year, and pleasant Spring and golden Autumn in March and September. Weather temperature in any European country in a year can vary as much as 20°c. And this is the decisive factor. Each season has different weather characteristic, and present different scene with different feature. This tight back to your interest in Europe. For instance, Spring has the most pleasant weather which is neither too cold or too warm, and it is the time for flower blooming. If you love to see colourful gardens and mountain with colourful flowers then you should visit Europe in Spring. On one  hand, Winter is the coldest season of the year in Europe and it is time for snowing. If you wish to plan for skiing holidays, Winter would the the best time visiting Europe. On the other hand, Summer is the hottest season with the most sunshine. Most of the travelers love to visit Europe in Summer. Beaches are full with people and access to all attractions are guaranteed to have extreme long queues. If you love people watching and the hot sun, Summer is the best months.

Rainfall in Europe is more complicated and it is the decisive factor for travel photographers. It decides the total hours of sunshine you would hope for your photo taking session. Generally, Spring to early Summer is the driest months and late Summer to early Autumn is the wettest in northern part of Europe, while late Autumn to early Spring is the wettest in southern Europe. However, it also depends on whether the city is bordering ocean. While Berlin experiences extreme cold Winter and hot Summer, Paris experience milder weather in comparison. Eventhough London is further north in Europe, it has much pleasant Summer and rarely snow in Winter, due to its unique geographical location in the UK island. I normally check Yahoo weather for the average weather of European cities and Wikitravel for features and scenes to expect in each season.

Apart from its climate condition in the year, dates for various popular festivals or events can also be the factor in fixing a traveling date for Europe. The most notable event next year is London Summer Olympics Games from 27th July to 12th August 2012. Other festival such as the Keukenhof Tulips festival in March, Munich October Fest in October or the Copenhagen Distortion street party in May can be your main objectives traveling to Europe and can decide your best time to Europe.

So with the combination of its monthly temperature, precipitation and events, you can now decide which month of the year that suit you best to visit Europe. Having said that, unexpected weather do happen in recent years, such as the long snowy winter last year and record high Summer temperature in recent years. We can plan for the best, but should always expect the unexpected.

Once you decide the month of year to visit Europe, you can now check your monthly planner and mark down the weeks that you would be on vacation. If you think next month is the best month of the year to visit Europe, book your flight tickets now! However, if you wish to plan your Europe travel in a frugal way, read on and  I’m here to guide you through.

When is the best time to book your flight to Europe

If you plan to visit Europe in a budget, plan it at least 6 months in advance. This can assure you with a much cheaper trip in all senses. It would be cheaper to book in advance your flight tickets, your hotels, and your intercity trains. The most significant cost difference comes from your flight tickets to Europe. To be safe, book your flight first 1 year in advance. You can always get the cheapest airfare when airlines first open their seats booking, normally 1 year in advance. We are talking about saving of up to 50%! With this saving, you have actually cut down your overall cost of Europe travel by 10%. However, if 1 year in advance is too early or next Summer is the best time for you which is less than 1 year from now, book your flight at least 6 months ahead is your next best bet. Airlines will sometimes have another round of sales 6 months down the road if not many seat were being taken up in the first round, albeit with lesser choices of availability.

Not only flight booking, accommodation will also be cheaper if booked well ahead. If you prefer to go to Europe next Summer, book your hotels or beds as early as you could since occupancy rate are extremely high in this season and rooms are taken up really fast. Hotels and beds pricing are fluctuating. The more people book the hotel, the more expensive it would be. Of course, there is one exception. If the hotel you prefer has plenty of rooms left towards the late minute, they might offer a much cheaper last minute offer! Though bear in mind that good hotels normally will not stay empty up to the last minute. Hotelscombined gives me a general idea of how cheap hotels in Europe could be.

Same applies to intercity trains and flights in Europe. The earlier you book online, the cheaper you would get, the more options of time and availability there are. Check the Raileurope and TGV-europe website regularly to see if your date of traveling is available for booking. Normally, trains are open for booking from as early as 3 months before date.

I will touch on the transportation and accommodation planning in more details in future chapters.

With all these dates in mind, you should now be able to decide when would be the best time for your upcoming Europe trip. Don’t plan it too close from now. Traveling to Europe is travel dream for most of us and we might only be able to do it once in our lifetime. So plan it properly and make it the most memorable trip you can have.

After confirming the date to travel Europe, you have just successfully completed your first step in your travel plan to Europe. The next step is to decide for how long you should travel to Europe. Subscribe my feeds for free updates in this mini guide on how you could plan your Europe travel. Until then, see ya! 🙂 – Travel Feeder, your ultimate guide to Europe travel

About The Author

Cecil Lee

The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.