Vacasa’s 2022 Holiday and Winter Travel Trends

The most wonderful time of the year is fast approaching, and that means long-awaited trips to spend the holidays with friends and family or personal getaways to bury one’s (mistle)toes in the sand. Regardless of the vacation motivation, experts agree that we should brace for a busy travel season.

According to a new survey Vacasa conducted with Allison + Partners Research, 53% of U.S. residents plan to travel during the upcoming winter season, while 20% remain unsure of their travel plans.¹ That’s similar to how many people were planning a winter vacation last year, though there’s plenty new to expect in this season’s travel forecast—especially when it comes to the holidays.

Ninety one percent of winter travelers say that the rise of travel costs has impacted their upcoming winter and/or holiday travel plans in some way, whether that means booking travel well in advance to save money (33%), adjusting travel days to get the lowest price (27%), or meeting family/friends at a half-way point (22%).

With that in mind, we bundled up the top takeaways on where, how and how often people plan to vacation as the chill rolls in.

Winter is Coming

• 53% of U.S. residents plan to travel during the upcoming winter season (December 2022 through February 2023), with 40% of people planning to travel over the holidays specifically.
• People aren’t waiting until the last minute: 71% of winter travelers have already booked their holiday travel, winter (non-holiday) trip, or both.
• While quick getaways are the single most popular type of vacation this winter—with 67% of travelers planning two weekend trips, on average—71% of travelers will be enjoying a trip that’s for a week or even longer.²
• But those longer trips may not all be vacation days: approximately 3 in 5 travelers (59%) plan on working remotely over the holidays in order to extend their trip(s). And that’s particularly true for parents (65% vs. 37% non-parents).

How Far They’ll Go

• 75% of travelers plan to stay and play within the United States this winter. And, for those taking a domestic trip, 31% are traveling more than 1,000 miles away from home—nearly a 10% jump from our 2022 Fall Travel Trends, which reported 22% planning to travel that same distance.
• Though some people will opt for both road trips and air travel this season (if taking multiple trips), driving has the slight advantage: 57% of travelers intend to drive to a winter destination, while 55% plan to fly—that’s up 11% from those who were flying to their destination in fall 2022 (44%).²
• While travelers are most likely to flock to a warm-weather getaway this upcoming season (39%)—who can blame them?—one-third are leaning into winter with a trip to a snowy destination (32%), while 29% are planning a mix of both on separate trips.

Seasonal Savings

• 91% of winter travelers say that the rise of travel costs has impacted their upcoming winter and/or holiday travel plans in some way.
• Most often, consumers are booking their travel well in advance to save money (33%), planning on spending less when they get to their destination (33%), and redeeming rewards points to reduce the cost of their flight and/or accommodations (28%). A quarter of travelers are even planning to celebrate major holidays earlier or later to avoid pricing surges (25%).
• However, compared to last season, fewer individuals say they aren’t traveling because they’re waiting for gas prices to go down (13% winter 2022 vs. 27% fall 2022).

Looking Ahead

• New Year, new vacations: 40% of U.S. travelers anticipate traveling more frequently overall in 2023 than they did in 2022, with nearly 3 in 5 Millennials and Gen Z (58%) and nearly half of parents (46%) saying so.
• For one-third of U.S. consumers, spring travel plans are typically in the works four or more months out (34%), while 39% of Americans typically don’t start planning their spring travel until three months out or less.