Most people plan holidays in roughly the same order. Pick a destination, decide when to go, then start looking for flights.
There is nothing wrong with that approach, but it can make the search surprisingly narrow. Once you have decided that you are going to one particular city, every other part of the trip has to fit around it, even when the flights are inconvenient or the dates are not ideal.
Sometimes it is more interesting to reverse the process.
Start with the journey. Look at where you can fly, when you can leave, how long the trip would take and what destinations fit naturally around those options. You may end up somewhere you had not considered simply because the flight made the idea of going there feel easy.
Start With Where You Can Fly
You do not need to have a destination in mind before opening a flight search.
If you know roughly when you want to travel, Skyscanner’s Everywhere feature lets you search from your departure airport and see destinations available without entering a specific place. Instead of comparing five versions of the same holiday, you can see what else is possible.
That can be particularly useful when you have a general idea of the kind of break you want but no strong preference about where it should happen.
You might want a few days somewhere warm, for example, or a city where you can spend the weekend walking around. The search can become part of the discovery process rather than simply a way of checking the cost of a trip you have already planned.
Let Your Calendar Narrow Things Down
Your dates can tell you a lot about what kind of trip makes sense.
If you only have three days, a destination with a long journey may not be worth the lost time. If you have a full week, you have more room to consider places that require a longer journey or more complicated transfers.
Skyscanner’s Whole Month search can also be useful when your dates are flexible. Looking across a month instead of choosing one departure date immediately can reveal different combinations of destinations and timings.
You may find that moving the trip by two days changes the possibilities considerably.
The Flight Can Shape the Holiday
A flight is not just a way of getting from one airport to another. Its timing can influence what the first and last days of your holiday actually look like.
A morning departure might mean losing part of the previous day. A late arrival could make your first evening little more than a hotel check-in. On the other hand, a well-timed flight can leave you with almost a full afternoon or evening at the destination.
When you browse flights on Skyscanner, compare the departure and arrival times alongside the destination. You are not simply asking which flight is available. You are asking what kind of holiday that flight creates.
Don’t Automatically Choose the Most Familiar Place
When people have limited time, they often return to the same destinations because they already know they work.
There is a good reason for that. Familiar places are easier to navigate and require less research. But if you are open to something different, starting with the flight can break that habit.
A destination you had never seriously considered may suddenly look appealing because it has a convenient schedule, fits your dates and offers the kind of trip you wanted.
The unfamiliar place does not have to be more exciting. It simply has to be interesting enough to make you curious.
Use Price Alerts When You’re Still Deciding
Sometimes you find a destination that looks promising but are not ready to book immediately.
Skyscanner’s Price Alerts can help in this situation by tracking changes on a route you are considering. Instead of repeatedly searching and wondering whether the fare has moved, you can let the alert tell you when there has been a change.
That can be useful when you are comparing several possible trips. You can keep an eye on the options while continuing to think about where you actually want to go.
The alert is information, not a signal that you have to book. The rest of the trip still needs to make sense.
Then Work Backwards From the Airport
Once a flight catches your attention, start asking practical questions.
How long does it take to reach the city from the airport? Where would you stay? Can you get around without spending most of the trip in taxis or transfers? What could you realistically do in the number of days you have?
This is the point where the destination either starts to make sense or falls away.
And that is useful. Finding out that a flight looks attractive but the rest of the trip does not suit you is much better than discovering it after you have booked everything else.
A Flight Can Be the Beginning of the Idea
The interesting thing about planning this way is that it removes some of the pressure to have the perfect destination in mind from the beginning.
You know you want to travel. You know when you can go. You know roughly what sort of holiday you want. From there, the search can show you what fits.
Skyscanner becomes useful not just for comparing flights to a destination you have already chosen, but for exploring what your dates and departure airport make possible in the first place.
Sometimes the holiday you end up taking is not the one you would have planned if you had started with a map. It is the one that appeared when you stopped asking, “Where do I want to go?” and started asking, “Where could I go from here?”
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