Europe for less: Where, when & how to save on summer travel

Thinking about a European escape this summer? Same. So we crunched the numbers to find the cheapest dates to book a trip (and it turns out the best time to book is rapidly approaching).

According to our data, the week of February 24th is one of the cheapest weeks to book travel to Europe. Yes, sound the alarms. Open the group chats. Stop using group chats and get with KAYAK Trip Huddle. Basically, drop everything. Because it’s time to plan that Eurotrip.

Here’s what we’ve got for the week of February 24th: 

• Iceland has some of the hottest deals for this summer with a median airfare of $536. You could score savings up to 14%.
• Flight prices to Spain have hit a three-year low (you read that right) with a median airfare of $705. If you’ve got your eyes set on Madrid, Seville or Alicante, you can save between 13% and 30%.
• Portugal’s got more than great weather, it’s got great prices, too. Thanks to new routes and low-cost carriers, you could find flight savings of up to 19% to the Azores and Porto.
• Hoping to score a great deal and enjoy a Guinness (or two, or three)? Well, you’ve got the luck of the Irish, because you can save between 8% and 32% to Dublin, Shannon and Cork.

Not ready to book just yet?

If a summer trip to Ibiza, London, Paris or Brussels is more your speed, you’ve got even more time. The prime booking window for these cities is the last two weeks of April.

If your dates are flexible, consider visiting in the fall when crowds have moved on and you can save up to 44%.

Methodology 

All data is based on median airfares conducted on US KAYAK site with travel dates of May 22, 2020 through September 7, 2020 and search dates of August 1, 2019 through January 31, 2020. To compare year over year findings, KAYAK considered travel dates of May 22, 2019 through September 7, 2019 and May 22, 2018 through September 7, 2018 and search dates of August 1, 2018 through January 31, 2019 and August 1, 2017 through January 31, 2018 All data was pulled from KAYAK’s internal database. Prices may vary based on users’ own searches.