Last minute holidays – where to look for them?
You wait until the last moment, the travel agency lowers the price and you fly cheaper. It sounds like a proven way to spend a budget holiday for someone who doesn’t have to plan their trip in advance, but in practice it varies. In high season, for popular destinations and during school holidays, prices do not necessarily drop before the departure date. Sometimes the cheapest will be offers from a travel agency, sometimes you can arrange a flight and hotel yourself, and sometimes a promotion found on a bargain website. So it’s worth learning about the available options.
What exactly is last minute?
Last minute is a trip purchased shortly before the start date of the trip. There is no hard limit, because agencies and comparison websites mark such offers differently. In practice, it may be a departure in a few days, in a week or in two weeks, and in the “super last minute” category, even a departure the next day.
First option: tour comparison sites
The easiest way to start is with large comparison websites of travel agency offers, including: Wakacje.pl, Travelplanet.pl and Fly.pl. These are places that aggregate trips from many operators and allow you to quickly compare the destination, date, hotel, food, departure airport and price.
Wakacje.pl has a separate last minute section and provides access to offers from nearly a hundred operators, including: Ithaca, Rainbow and Grecosa. The website also emphasizes that the trips are offered at the organizers’ price. Travelplanet also presents last minute offers and allows you to compare offers from different travel agencies; the website itself informs about cooperation with nearly 60 Polish and foreign offices. Fly.pl also has a separate category of last minute trips, including holidays and all-inclusive offers.
After finding an interesting offer, it is worth checking it on the tour operator’s website. Be sure to compare not only the price, but also the flight time, length of stay calculated in real hotel days, room type, luggage, transfer and cancellation conditions.
Travel agency websites: Itaka, Rainbow, TUI, Coral Travel, Grecos
After checking the comparison websites, it is worth going directly to the websites of the largest tour operators. The reason is simple: sometimes the price will be the same, but it is easier to check the details of the offer, surcharges, promotion conditions, hotel description, room standard and contact details in case of problems on the organizer’s website.
The direct website of a travel agency is also more convenient if you want to use a discount code, voucher, loyalty program or pay extra for a specific service. This does not mean that it will always be cheaper than in the comparison site. It’s more about verification: whether the offer you see on the aggregator looks the same at the organizer.
Websites with deals: Fly4free, Holiday Pirates, Pepper
If your work mode allows you to travel spontaneously, it is worth following websites and communities with travel opportunities. Fly4free publishes promotions on flights, accommodation and trips. Holiday Pirates work similarly, often showing ready-made ideas for a cheap trip. Pepper is not a travel website in the classic sense, but users regularly post promotions on flights, hotels, trips and luggage there. You just need to observe the appropriate categories or keywords.
Google Flights and Skyscanner, i.e. last minute on your own
Last-minute holidays do not have to involve the offer of a travel agency. In the case of city breaks, shorter trips and destinations with a large number of connections, it is sometimes better to check Google Flights, Skyscanner or directly the airlines’ websites and then choose accommodation separately via Booking, Airbnb, Agoda or the hotel’s website.
This variant gives you more freedom, but also leaves you with more tasks. You have to calculate your own luggage, transfer, insurance, transport to the airport and any local fees. If your flight is delayed or your hotel doesn’t meet your expectations, you usually don’t have one organizer who is responsible for the entire package of attractions.
Price alerts
For last-minute trips, it is also worth using price alerts. Google Flights and Skyscanner allow you to monitor prices for specific routes and price changes. This is especially useful if you have a flexible deadline but a specific direction.
The opposite strategy also works well: instead of entering “Barcelona August 12-19”, check several departure airports, several dates and several destinations. Sometimes the price difference between a flight from Warsaw and Katowice, Poznań or Berlin can be greater than any last minute discount. However, you then need to think about logistics and whether spending the entire day traveling is worth the effort.
Is last minute always profitable?
NO. Last minute is especially profitable when the operator wants to sell the last seats on a plane or hotel. The problem is that the demand for popular dates is so high that there is no reason for large discounts. Then the price may remain the same and the choice of hotels will become worse and worse.
For family holidays, specific holiday dates and trips during the peak season, first minute is often better. Booking in advance gives you a wider choice of rooms, airports and hotels. Last minute is more for people who are willing to accept a compromise: less choice in exchange for a chance at a lower price.
Super last minute: cheap, but with a small margin of error
Super last minute, i.e. a trip in a day, two or a few days, may be the cheapest, but it requires readiness. You need to have a valid passport or ID card, the ability to take leave at any time and be sure that the field of study does not require complicated formalities.
Final Price: Don’t just look at the first result
At the last minute, it is especially easy to fall into the trap of an attractive initial price. After clicking through the first pages of the form, you may find that the full cost of the trip depends on baggage, transfer, food, local fees, insurance, room type and flight hours.
The problem of incomplete or outdated prices really appears in tourism. On April 27, 2026, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection announced a fine of almost PLN 650,000. PLN to Travelplanet.pl for presenting outdated or incomplete tour prices. The office indicated that consumers could see the price, which later increased after moving further in the booking process. The decision is not final yet, but it clearly shows why you need to look at the final price, not just the first screen with the offer.
How to increase your chances of getting a good last minute offer?
Unfortunately, flexibility is the biggest ally here. I write “unfortunately” because I know that not everyone has the privilege of leaving at any time. It also helps to be open to different destinations, taking into account departures from several airports and the possibility of leaving in the middle of the week. It is also good not to limit yourself to one standard of food. Sometimes all inclusive is cheaper than a hotel with breakfast and eating out, and sometimes the other way around.
Let’s also remember that nowadays, last-minute holidays can be a great way to get a cheaper holiday, but they are not a guarantee of a bargain. Tour operators know perfectly well that we look for “last minute” offers, hoping for promotions, and they often mark trips at unremarkable prices. It is best to search in several places at the same time: travel agency comparison sites, directly from operators, on bargain websites, airline applications and flight search engines. Then you have to do the proverbial “mashing”: calculate the full cost and check whether the offer still looks good after adding luggage, transfer, local fees and, of course, what cannot be counted – possible stress and risk.
