Look now, book now for holiday travel

If you’d like to travel this fall and winter, here’s where you can expect to get the most bang for your buck.

If you want to travel during the Thanksgiving and winter holidays, you should be buying fares now. While you may be tempted to wait for a sale, don’t expect to find a $200 round-trip, coast-to-coast fare, because holiday dates are typically blacked out during sales. Also, the longer you wait, the fewer seats will be available.

If you see a decent fare, book it. If you’re flexible, check alternative dates for the best rates.

If you want to travel to Europe, this fall and winter will be a good time to go. We’re likely to see the lowest fares of the year for flights after October through the end of March. Travel in January and February may be a tad lower, but not by much.

I expect that we’ll see air and cruise discounts to Canada, the Caribbean and Mexico come January. As of Jan. 8, you’ll be required to have a valid passport when traveling to these destinations by sea or by air. Even though it’s a relatively simple process, it takes about six weeks to process passport applications, and the closer you get to the end of December, the longer the wait may be as the demand goes up.

Fares go down at that time of year, but the passport requirement could put a major dent in air travel because people may be unprepared. It will leave plenty of cheap seats for those smart enough to have a passport.

Even though people have been warned about the new passport requirement, a lot of travelers probably will procrastinate and miss out on cheap fares. For travelers 16 and older, passports cost $97 for first-time applications and $67 for renewals. Since they’re valid for 10 years, the cost averages $10 or less a year, so there’s no reason not to get one.

If you see a great fare this winter and you don’t have a valid passport, you’ll have to pay $60 per passport for expedited service, plus overnight delivery charges. If you have a family of four, you could add more than $240 to your travel costs.

Get your passport now to avoid the rush and to take advantage of cheap fares. See travel.state.gov/passport for details, including requirements and the closest passport acceptance facilities.