At the end of every summer, we like to play a game I call Flight Roulette for the following summer. I begin the search for next year’s flights about 10 months before we plan to travel. By using multiple websites, Google Flights, Kayak, Going.com, and Hopper I search for every major city in any region of the world that we are interested in traveling to. This allows us to find some early and unreal flight deals. Flights can make up the bulk of your family travel budget, and by cutting down this cost, we’ve been able to enjoy longer stays, more luxurious accommodations, but most of all, it’s allowed us to discover areas that weren’t previously on our radar.

Here are some tips on how to plan family travel by using the Flight Roulette, Flight First method.

1. Search for flights early. As I mentioned, I start planning our major family trips 10 months in advance. If you know you have the time off, the early you start searching, the better!
2. Use multiple websites to search for flight deals. I have a lot of luck searching on Kayak, Google Flights, Going, and Hopper.
3. We’ve flown internationally with kids ages 2-11 on many red eye flights and a lay over is not a deal breaker. The kids will sleep when they’re tired wand here they’re tired whether that’s on the plane, in the airport, or on the transfer to your accommodation.
4. It helps to be creative in searching for flights. For example, if you want to fly to the Dolomites in Italy, you could fly into Milan or Venice and drive to your destination.

The best strategy for finding flight deals that I’ve used is Flight Roulette. I search for every airport in every region of the world that we are interested in going to. For example, if we want to visit the Alps, The American West, South America, The UK, Ireland, Beaches of Spain, or Portuguese Islands. Every year, I have found flights to at least one of these places for $400-$800 dollars per person round trip compared to $900-$1200 round trip per person.

The beauty of Flight First Planning and finding a deal rather than choosing a location before your flight is not only finding incredible deals but also finding incredible destinations you may have overlooked.