geetika - I hear you. The stories we can tell:)

<< I think today you should check the car rental first.>>

Macross - the problem with rental cars is not universal. I have been lent a hire car whilst my car is being repaired after someone ran into me in a car park and after all I had read I was amazed to learn that it is being charged out at £19 a day. This is for a large automatic Peugot with 5 doors, an enormous boot and satnav, air con etc etc. [bigger than my car which is being repaired]. When I asked I was told that there is no shortage of hire cars, as the cost indicates.

Annhig, good to know. We rented one in Belgium for Nov and the price was not bad. The states and Canada are crazy expensive right now.

ALWAYS hotels first....airfare first if you really need the absolute best fare...you can always re-do hotel bookings..airlines not so much, and I always have a particular hotel in mind when I travel, or almost always.....

I have always done flights first. With the thinking that there are less options for that than for places to stay in major cities of Europe (which are literally hundreds). Can't speak to private rentals my experience is with hotels.

Thank you for the continued replies. I'm leaning towards flights first. As many have said, there are hundreds of places we could stay. Unless we find our dream place to stay, I think we'll reserve airfare first. As we are planning a summer trip, I cannot even book flights yet. Will keep checking prices, and get serious about airfare about 6 months out. Thanks again.

I almost always book flights first -- Sometimes a tickets to a special event come first and then the flights/accommodations follow. But as mentioned up thread -- I'd wait til the dust settles and things get back to a semblance of 'normal',

I agree janisj. Thanks for the help and support. In July we celebrate our anniversary, my wife's bday and my youngest daughter's bday. Thinking it would be memorable to be able to celebrate on our trip.

Well you might want to see what (if any) cancellation or change penalties the accommodations might charge if you have to change dates because of flight schedules changing. In my experience hotels tend to be more liberal in this regard than airlines, but YMMV.

We booked our flights around our accommodations this week. Still have three hotels to book but glad we have those fab houses reserved. Four bedrooms and four baths are hard to find. One has only 3 but we can manage. Two is minimum with four. We are all on our own for hotels. Maldron or Premier in Glasgow.