Best time to travel: In which months people actually travel?

When do people actually travel? We analyzed all travel reports according to the month of travel. The surprising result: The travel year is much more evenly distributed than the summer holiday myth suggests—the difference between the busiest and slowest months is only about one and a half times greater.

The distribution throughout the year

July is leading — but not as decisively as expected

With 10.8 percent of all travel reports, July is by far the strongest month for travel, followed by August. Together with September, almost three out of ten reports are written in late summer. December brings up the rear with 7 percent – travel slows down between Christmas preparations and the end of the year.

What's remarkable, however, is how flat the curve is overall: January and February, at 8.1 percent each, are on par with May and June. The reason is the long-haul travel season—while Europe is in its winter slumber, it's high summer in the Southern Hemisphere and the dry season in Southeast Asia. Someone traveling through New Zealand or Thailand in January appears in these statistics just as much as a summer vacationer in July.

Data source: all publicly available travel reports on Vakantio with travel dates, grouped by calendar month (as of August 2026). All figures represent percentages of the total, not absolute numbers.