travel tools apps

35 BEST TRAVEL PLANNING TOOLS AND APPS

Travel planning tools and apps are critical for a great trip. Knowing how to plan a trip will help you pull it off seamlessly.

First, put yourself in a “plan to travel mindset.” Next, research the best travel planning tools you can find to help you plan a trip that will be truly memorable.

From logging on to Google Maps to get directions anywhere to using booking.com for hotel bookings and rental cars to knowing where to go for cheap flights. It pays to have the best apps and travel tools to ensure your best trip.

Here are some of the best travel planning tools and apps we’ve identified, contributed by frequent travelers to help you with your travel plans for your next trip. Most are available in the App store.

Best Travel Planning Tools and Apps

Table of Contents

Plan your foreign currency needs

One of my favorite travel planning tools is XE Currency .  With this app, you plug in an amount in whatever currency you want converted, then select the currency you want to convert to and voila! It’s the best way to organize your foreign currency.

Say you think you’ll need abut US$100 every day while you’re in Spain. Insert US$100 into XE and select Euros. This is a great tool for verifying the amount of money you need from an ATM abroad, converting restaurant bills, and so much more. 

It helps you keep a grasp on your spending while you travel.  Quotes are live and, it converts all currencies and, being an app, its ready when you are.

XE Currency Converter also has a handy tool to assist you in keeping tract of your business expenses. Just fill it out as you go along and print out/ submit when you’re done.  It’s like having a private assistant. One of the best travel planning tools.

This travel planning tool will save you money and time and give you peace of mind. It’s one of the most useful tools I use regularly to plan travel.

Euros for planning your trip

Talek blogs at Travels with Talek   

Quickly identify best camping sites

Simply download the app, and search the area you want to camp. You select an area of the country (big or small!), national park or not, set your filters, and browse the campsites.

There’s something for every type of outdoorsy traveler: glamping, KOAs, national parks, and even dispersed camping in national forests.

The filters are great for finding spots to fit your preferences, as you can search by price (I often use it to find free camping), rating, hike-in vs car camping, and much more. 

The Dyrt is so fun and addicting to play around with, I’ve planned dozens of dream camping trips with it. A cool feature is the downloadable topo map option.

This allows you to find and plan travel to your campsite in those off-the-beaten-path areas where you might not have cell service.  One of the best travel planning tools for the outdoor lover.

Moab campsite found with The Dyrt

Kaisa blogs at Glam Granola Travel

Save your itinerary and tips to Google Sheets

Easy and free to use, Google Sheets, is the Google equivalent of Excel.

When planning a trip, we tend to use many sources to gather information, which can sometimes mean anything we’ve found has the possibility of being lost or forgotten about.

So inputting all of the information discovered into one sheet makes it simple to access and plan your travel itineraries.

If you’re going on the trip with others, you can also share the sheet and work on it together to help plan the trip of a lifetime!

Creating new sheets for every adventure I go on, I use the same layout each time, and it’s simple to create a new one for every trip you go on. I tend to split the sheet into three tabs; itinerary, things to do/see and sources.

Available as an app, it’s helpful on the go as you’re able to access the sheet wherever you are in the world, even if you have no WiFi.

If you couldn’t fit something into one of the days, for example, you can move your itinerary round, to ensure you’ve seen everything you wanted on your trip! How’s that for cool travel planning tools?

Kim blogs at The Adventure to Me

Shoot for cheaper airline tickets

The cost of your flight is pretty much guaranteed to be one of the most expensive parts of any trip abroad.

Having the free app Hopper up my sleeve has been a life-saver every time I’ve been planning a trip to South America , the region that I cover as a guidebook author and blogger.

Hopper works like a charm. It’s one of my favorite travel planning tools. All you need to do is plug in the dates you intend to fly (or you can set up a few different options if they’re yet to be fixed) and it’ll tell you when it predicts flight tickets will be at their cheapest.

It does this by looking through years of historical flight pricing data and using this to determine whether buying now, three months in advance or even just three weeks out is likely to be the kindest to your pocket and score you the cheapest flight.

Sure, it can be a little bit of a gamble as it’s using historic data, not a crystal ball.

However, it has personally helped me score extraordinarily cheap flights to Easter Island, as well as some pretty sweet deals between the UK and Colombia, so it’s one of the travel planning tools that I now use on each and every trip. It’s a great travel planning app.

Steph blogs at Worldly Adventurer.com

Map your city

One of the best travel planning tools for detailing a city break is the Citymapper App.

I use it almost every day for getting around my home town of London, but it’s equally useful for finding the easiest, quickest, cheapest or fastest way around in any one of 41 cities around the world, including Paris, Berlin, Rome, Istanbul, Vancouver, Tokyo, Sydney, Mexico City and Singapore and other popular destinations.

The app is so brilliant because it merges information on every available type of transport in that city.

Not sure if it’s quicker to get the bus, train, taxi or walk? Citymapper will give you every alternative and show you all possible routes so you can decide.

It tells you how much each type of transport costs and includes helpful hacks, like which exit to take from the station or where to stand on the platform.

It’s also connected into real-time travel updates so it will tell you how long you have to wait for the next bus or if your service is disrupted.

The best part is that you don’t have to BE in that city to use it. Just click the settings button and you can easily switch cities, allowing you to plan your trip in precise detail before you even get on the plane.

App for trip planning

Bella blogs at Passportandpixels

Staying loyal to a specific booking app pays off

For example, Hotels.com, a booking platform (which also comes with an app) where you can find accommodations all over the world offers a program that allows its customers to get a free night after 10 stays.

What’s great is that the value of your free night is based on the average price of 10 properties where you stayed, so if you stay at more expensive accommodations, your free night will cover the price of mid-range-to-expensive accommodation.

Likewise, if you stay at less expensive hotels, the value of your free night will be lower, and you might have to pay the difference if you want to use your free night for a stay at a more expensive property.

In addition, users also collect points which can boost their status over time and provide better prices on many accommodations. The app tells you about your status based on your bookings and overall history.

You should especially follow this advice if you are doing a road trip along the West Coast USA and need to watch your travel expenses.

However, it’s not just Hotels.com that rewards loyal customers. Many other platforms such as Booking.com offer free nights and perks for those users who stay with them for a while.

Plan your hotel room

Daria blogs at The Discovery Nut

Use an itinerary planning app

GPSmyCity is an app that features self-guided city walks in 1,000+ cities worldwide – from Voodoo tours in New Orleans to the  best things to do in Moscow . Of course, this essential tool also provides travel inspiration.

The app includes detailed tour route maps and powerful navigation features, to guide you from one sight to the next. You can follow GPSmyCity’s expert guides or take their suggestions and create your own custom walking tours.

It’s a great way to plan and explore all of the best tourist attractions on your own and at your own pace. Another awesome thing about this app…you have the option to “upgrade” any walking tour and download it, so it will work offline.

No internet connection, no cellular data, no problem! (It costs $1.99 per tour to upgrade, or you can get a yearly subscription for $12.99 for unlimited upgrades.) This way you can access offline maps and offers a user-friendly interface.

I, personally, love this because any time we are on a trip and trying to navigate…finding a data connection can be tricky. Plus, having GPS running in the background drains your battery life, big time.

But these are problems you won’t have to worry about with GPSmyCity!

Best travel planning tips GPSMyCity

Lindsey blogs at Have Clothes Will Travel

Compare flight prices with search engines

One of the most important things about traveling is finding the best flights possible.

The definition of a “good” flight really depends on your travel preferences. Some people want long layovers to skip out of the airport and do some quick explorations of the city.

While others just want to get there as fast as possible. But something we can all agree on is we want cheap flights!

The best way to do this is with online flight search programs like the popular Skyscanner ( https://www.skyscanner.nl/ ) and the less known flight finder from the popular Youtube channel Yestheory ( https://travel.yestheory.com/flights/ ).

By using both these websites you are able to find the absolute best and cheapest flights for your dates and destinations.

One great feature includes making multi-route plans like flying Amsterdam, to Singapore to Bali to Amsterdam.

Plus, you can see the prices per month and use this to find the absolute best time to fly.

Be sure to use these websites for planning your your leisure or business trip and enjoy great flights that make people look at you in shock when you state how much they were!

Samantha blogs at Samseesworld 

Score free resources

The free version of Touring Plans is great to use to plan out your family’s  Magic Kingdom  itinerary  as it is customizable to your needs. You can input things like the rides and attractions you’d like to visit and your desired break times.

It will also make suggestions about the best way to minimize wait times when it comes to the rides. The best thing about it though is that you can get an updated plan if you make changes to it throughout the day.

Websites and apps like these are very helpful, especially those with free versions, and should be used to make your trip planning easier – especially those travelling with young families.

Best travel planning tool to visit Disney

Plan your train journeys

The Man in Seat 61 ( www.seat61.com ) offers a comprehensive guide on train travel around Europe and other continents and is an excellent travel planning tool.

The website was created by an independent traveler who shares information, his experience, as well as gives advice on best train routes all around the world.

If you plan on having a trip with a train anywhere, this is your best option for go-to travel resource, hands down.

You can find various information about timetables, prices, train station and the best train options for you depending on the country you plan on going to.

It goes as far as providing photos of different train cabins or even vending machines for train tickets at particular stations.

Also, you can get detailed instructions on how to book train tickets and where to find official vendors.

It is so detailed that yo most likely won’t even need to check any other resource page for the information you’re looking at.

Train from Kandy to Ella

Organize a hassle free-by-day itinerary

My all-time favorite app to use while traveling is Sygic Travel.

It’s completely free to use, and I actually stumbled upon it while trying to plan out my last-minute itinerary while I was visiting Vienna last spring! What’s so great about Sygic

Travel is that it will literally plan your whole day of travel for you. So, all you have to do is have a set plan of everything you want to do and see, and the app will do the rest!

An account is absolutely free to make. Once you make an account, you tell the app everything you want to do, and then you will get an itinerary that will reorganize your day in a way so you spend the least amount of time on transportation.

In addition, the app will give you directions from place to place, and you can let the app know whether you’d like to walk, use public transportation, or drive. It has saved my butt when I’ve been on a time crunch many times, and I can’t recommend it enough!

Use a guidebook as a journal

jounal to record your travel planning tools

As much as I love technology to help with some travel planning tasks, I’m also old school. I LOVE travel books from Lonely Planet.

They are always my first stop when I’m planning a trip. They do have a decent website, however, I prefer the physicals guide books as these become working documents.

I start on their itineraries page, and them write notes and draw stars on other places I want to add into my own itinerary.

Throughout the book I highlight anything I think is really important as well as cover the pages with other helpful information I have found on notes.

Sometimes I will get a tip-off from a local or another traveler and rather than just write it on my phone, I find it much easier to write it on the margins of the location or note it on the map.

Another advantage is that the book doubles as a travel journal and travel guide. You always know what you did on what date. Here’s a tip. Put tickets in the relevant pages.

My shelves are full of old Lonely Planet guidebooks which also serve as a great mementos of my trips.

Becki blogs at Meet me in Departures

Plan around your travel highlights

Planning a trip is fun, but sometimes it can be stressful as well. What do I need to pack? What area should I stay? What are the main attractions I have to see in this city?

One of the best travel planning tools that has helped me seamlessly plan my trips is an app called Visit A City . The best part about the app is that it’s completely free to use. Visit A City features over 7000 detonations.

Just type in the destination you’re going to and you’ll be given an option of popular attractions in the city, day tours and trips you can take from that destination, things to do in that city, walking and biking tours, and customized itineraries.

My favorite feature about this app is that you can tell it how many days you plan on being in that city and it will create a custom suggested itinerary of the things to do and see for you.

You can even create your own itinerary based on their suggestions on the app as well.

All in all, Visit A City app helps you create a personal travel guide that’s packed with valuable information right on your phone.

Disha blags at Disha Discovers

Get from point A to point B many different ways

One of the most useful travel planning apps I have come across is Rome2Rio .

The app lets you find routes to some of the most remote places.

The app has additional local bus, train and ferry route details that even google maps doesn’t know about. With direct links to timetables of local transports, the app really lets you plan for the off-the-beaten path hidden gems.

Say you want to go from Havana to Hanoi, New York City to New Delhi or anywhere else. 

This cool little app will not only show you all the transportation options and alternative routes, it’ll tell you the itineraries, the cost and even the seasonality!  Just plug in the trip origin and destination and see all the different ways to get there.

Many times I’ve saved tons of cash by finding an alternative airport to fly into then taking local transportation to my final destination. 

Or, I found that I can get somewhere by a different option like a ferry making the trip that much more fun. I’ve even use the app to help me identify a brand new destination to visit that I would not have thought of before.

How cool is that!? This is definitely one of my favorite travel planning apps.

Merryl blogs at Merryl’s Travels and Tricks

Planning your trip ahead of time can make all the difference between a hectic, stressful trip and a relaxing, fun-filled vacation. That’s where mobile travel apps come in.

We asked our fellow travel bloggers what their recommendations for the best travel apps for Europe, Asia, and the Americas are. Here’s what they had to say.

The Best Travel Apps for Europe, Asia, and the Americas

Find the perfect venue.

Drinkspal is the perfect mobile app for anyone visiting a new town and looking for the perfect venue.

You can filter down on what you’re specifically looking for, so it could be a pub that has WiFi within a 5 mile radius, but then you can further filter to find ones that are dog friendly, sell bottles of prosecco at under £15, sells Thai food and has a beer garden.

While many apps or sites list the different venues in a city you might visit, none have successfully allowed you to filter down until you reach the perfect option.

But the best little addition is the drink deals and highlighted bars that are offering happy hour, meaning you can pick the bar in your area that will save your pennies, meaning your money can go towards the important things in life, such as activities and experiences.

Obviously, this is a completely free app and doesn’t take up a huge amount of space on the phone.

travel tools apps

Tom Bourlet blogs at Spaghetti Traveller .

Complete immigration forms on line

U.S. Customs and Border Protection created the Mobile Passport app so that passengers can complete immigration forms on their smartphone and use a shorter line when they arrive in the United States.

You will love the time that it will save you! It’s similar to the Global Entry program but it is free! Unfortunately, only US Citizens and visitors from Canada can use the app at select airports and ports, but they are looking to expand the program.

You can download the app and set up your profile before you travel.

Once you land, answer the standard questions inside the app. After you have WiFi or data on your phone, submit your answers.

Within a few seconds, you will receive a receipt with a barcode that is valid for four hours. Once in the immigration hall, find the designated mobile passport line.

When it is your turn, show your passport and the barcode to the customs officer. It’s that simple!

Mobile Passport - Best Travel Apps

Anisa blogs at Two Traveling Texans .

This travel search engine is available in the form of an app making finding cheap flights on the go pretty simple. All you have to do is entire your dates and destination and all the work is done for you.

The app isn’t unique to searching for just flights as you can use the app for hotels and rental cars. What I like about the app is the ability to search to anywhere from your chosen destination should you need some travel inspiration.

There is also the option to search by month, which comes in handy when doing some travel planning.

If you do know your exact travel dates however, the app’s easy interface makes it easy to see all pricing and flight details brought up from the search.

Skyscanner is one of the best tools to help you get great travel deals by finding the best routes, best flights and best time to score your best travel experience.

The app also provides recommendations for last-minute trips with pricing for a variety of destinations. Skyscanner is free to download.

travel tools apps

Rai blogs at A Rai of Light .

Get accurate directions quickly

The best travel app that I love using is Google Maps. I’ve used it all over Europe and North America and think it’s the most reliable directions app.

My favourite and most used feature of Google Maps is the directions functionality.

Just input the address of wherever you want to go and it will give you directions in multiple formats: walking, cycling, driving, public transit and rideshare (if available).

The directions are different depending on your mode of transportation and are super easy to follow.

Google Maps is also great for planning a route and we use it this way all the time for planning our motorcycling trips.

You can add multiple destinations and stops in between and Google will tell you how many kilometers are between each stop as well as the elevation change. Very handy on a motorcycle!

I’ve even used Google Maps offline when traveling, which is great if you don’t want to use cellular data or don’t have an internet connection.

Download a map ahead of time and you’ll be able to use a map and track your location without using cellular data.

Google Maps - Best Travel App

Lesley blogs at Freedom56 Travel .

Adam Groffman blogs at Travels of Adam .

Keep your expenses in check on the road

Our recommendation for the best travel app for Europe, Asia, and the Americas is the travel budget app – Trail Wallet. It was created by travel bloggers Never Ending Voyage several years ago.

As bloggers on the road continuously, it is important for us to keep to a budget. Our first year we used an Excel spreadsheet and to be honest it was time consuming.

Trail Wallet has simplified our life on the road whilst keeping our expenses in check. We create a trip, which for us is a year, add in our daily budget, the categories and the currencies we will be using.

As soon as we have an expenditure we enter the cost into the app, into the category, add the amount, and press save and away we go.

The app calculates our daily spend, what is remaining, our average spend and our total for the trip. We can even add a note, e.g., the restaurant we had lunch in.

We can even view our expenditure in a graph. The app cheekily gives us a reminder if we blow the budget for the day.

Trail Wallet has been a time saver for us. It is available as a download from iTunes and is suitable for iPhones and iPads.

travel tools apps

Jane Dempster-Smith blogs at To Travel Too .

Listen to music on the go

In general, music is an essential part of my life. I like to listen to music in the background to match my mood and to motivate me to get things done.

When I first started using the Spotify app, I got hooked because it solved different problems for me. First, it’s pretty easy to create playlists and categorize my music accordingly.

Second, I have access to my music library with all my devices, and everything gets synchronized no matter if I’m using Android or iOS.

Third, Spotify offers me several ways to discover new music and keep growing my library, such as a personalized playlist created just for me or by showing me my friend’s public playlists.

Also, as you’ve probably already guessed, I pay for a Premium subscription so I get some extra perks, like no ads. Plus, I’m able to listen to my music offline as well.

The two playlists I always have on my phone are my Roadtrip and Running ones. The first one has songs that are fun to listen to while on a ride, and the second is mostly upbeat pumping music to drive my pace while jogging.

Also, sometimes when I travel, I search for music that relates to a destination to enhance my travel experience and even give me some insight into the local culture.

Spotify

Bianca blogs at Nomad Biba .

Converse in any language

Google Translate has been an absolute lifesaver on my travels and is my top recommendation for the best travel apps for Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

While I try to learn a few words or phrases in the local language of the country I’m visiting, there are situations that come up that just can’t be solved with “delicious” or “thank you very much”.

With Google Translate, you can type in the phrase you’d like to say in English (or your native language), and it will translate it into the language of your choice.

Say you want to be sure the meal you ordered is vegetarian, or you want to know what time the next bus arrives.

You can choose to either have your phrase spoken so the person you’re interacting with can hear it, or you can show them the translated text.

My husband and I have used this to flag down a local man in Vietnam and tell him, “Our motorbike has a flat tire,” to which he helped us back to his home where he fixed the tire and his wife served us noodle soup.

Sometimes you have the opposite problem: You want to know what something in another language means.

Perhaps you’re reading a menu and you want to know exactly what you’re ordering.

You can either type in what you see, or you can use the photo-to-text feature. Simply snap a shot of the text in question, highlight it, and it will be translated for you.

This is especially helpful when you’re traveling in a country, like Thailand, where the alphabet is totally different from what you’re used to and typing it would be extremely difficult.

One thing I’d recommend is when you’re planning a trip, be sure to download the language package for the country you’re visiting ahead of time.

That way, you can use the app even if you don’t have cell service or Wifi (aka you’re on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere and desperately need directions!).

travel tools apps

Katie Diederichs blogs at Two Wandering Soles .

Plan trips and share details with others

Sometimes the most useful things are free and right front of us. One such thing is the Apple Notes app. It’s my favorite app for planning my trips. I start it with a list of blogs to read. Gradually I build it up to have all the information in one place, including:

  • Airline, car and hotel booking numbers, timing and other notes.
  • Lists of things to see and places of visit
  • Restaurant recommendations

During the course of my planning, I shortlist the categories and end up with an itinerary, which I refer to during the entire trip.

Some of my favorite features are:

  • The ability to share the notes doc with everyone on the trip so we can all use it simultaneously.
  • Notes is easily accessible and everyone with an iPhone has the Notes app at their fingertips – no need to install or learn a new app.
  • The app is simple to use and has all the features I’ll ever need in my planning – tables, pictures, formatting etc.
  • Notes syncs to iCloud when a connection is available. All the notes are available on all my devices, seamlessly. It doesn’t need WiFi. It always just works online or offline.

It really makes staying organized when I travel a snap!

travel tools apps

Jyoti blogs at Story at Every Corner .

Convert currency on the go

GlobeConvert is a fantastic little app for travel. When you’re moving through multiple countries it can be hard to keep up with exchange rates.

In Southeast Asia one day we were in Cambodia using US Dollars, the next in Vietnam where it was nearly 30,000 Dong to the Pound! That takes a lot of working out.

A conversion app like this shouldn’t be that noticeable. It needs to do its job and nothing more.

For this, GlobeConvert is fantastic. It’s really fast, has large touchscreen buttons which make it easy to use and resets with one touch (quick tip, hold down the backspace key to reset all digits rather than tapping multiple times).

Importantly, it also doesn’t need to use data. You can refresh the exchange rates when you have a WiFi connection, and after that it will work without using expensive roaming charges.

You can add favourite currencies if you’re traveling to a lot of different countries and quickly swap the exchange rate between your home country and others.

It seems quite a boring app to recommend, but once you’ve used it you’ll see exactly why I won’t use a different one ever again.

travel tools apps

Ben Reeve blogs at The Sabbatical Guide .

Hail a cab in China (there’s an English version)

If you are traveling to China, then you need to download the Didi app. In short, Didi is the Chinese version of Uber/ Lyft, and it’s the most popular ride-sharing app in China.

Similar to Uber/ Lyft, you can use Didi to book different types of cars and services. The major difference is that Didi also calls taxis for you in addition to regular drivers and some services provide a premium service.

Without Didi it’s virtually impossible to flag down a taxi on the streets in China now.

Once you download the Didi App (there is an English version) you can register with your non-Chinese phone number or Wechat, another very important app in China that’s similar to WhatsApp but much more.

There are four different categories on Didi, Luxe, Express, Premier and Taxi.

Taxi is pretty self-explanatory and actual fare is charged by meter. Luxe is when you want to schedule your ride with a luxury car and suited driver and it’s best for business purposes.

Express is similar to regular Uber and under Express there is “Express Pool” like Uber Pool, Express (like regular Uber/Lyft) and “Select”, which has newer cars and more experienced drivers.

Premier is a service with professional drivers and drivers with 5 stars and hence more expensive. Payment with Didi is simple, you can add a foreign credit card or simply use cash.

Most Chinese people use Ali pay or WeChat Payment but as a traveler, you may not have those set up, so cash or credit card works better.

travel tools apps

Serena blogs at Serena Lenses .

T ranslate in China and elsewhere

Baidu Translate is a real lifesaver during your trip to China and is my recommendation for one of the best travel apps for Europe, Asia, or the Americas.

You don’t have to be worried about the language if you download this app before your trip. It’s a voice translation app that works for text-to-text translation.

There are many other popular languages you can translate from English by using this app. Baidu Translate is approved in China, so there’s no chance to be blocked.

You can download it for free on your iPhone or any Android phone. I loved most the voice translation feature of this app. Just turn on the speaker before speaking in English, and it will accurately translate in Chinese and vice versa.

This app also supports camera translation and can translate the text from the image. However, all features are only accessible when you’re online.

Baidu Translate doesn’t work in an offline mode; you must have a good Internet connection when using this most useful and best voice translation app based in China.

travel tools apps

Nafisa Habib blogs at My Own Way to Travel .

Count your daily steps and stay motivated

Everyone likes getting something for nothing, am I right? My current favourite travel app is the Sweatcoin app. Sweatcoin converts your daily outdoor steps into currency, which can then be traded in for goods, services and gift cards.

The reason I love this app for traveling is because that’s when I walk the most. Whether you are out exploring a city on foot or hiking in the mountains, every step you do is a little piece of gold.

To start earning things for steps you would be doing anyway download the Sweatcoin app and create an account. The app will run in the background on your phone and use your phones GPS signal to track your steps. You don’t need to have mobile roaming turned on.

5,000 daily steps become 5.00 coins, 10,000 become 10.00 and so on. There are different monthly subscriptions that enable you to convert more steps per day.

Each subscription charges you a varying amount of coins each month (all made from your own steps – no real money is involved).

This app is a great app to motivate you to move even when you are at home and why not start earning something from your steps.

travel tools apps

Erin blogs at Curiously Erin .

Plan your road trips

There’s nothing better than a good road trip.

Stock up on the snacks. Put together an awesome playlist. Gather a couple of friends, or go it solo, and hit the open road.

The key to a successful road trip is the planning, which makes Roadtrippers the perfect companion, especially since it’s web AND mobile friendly!

You don’t have to think about how to fit everything in because Roadtrippers takes all of your bucket list locations and creates the best possible route between them.

A huge bonus is the app also estimates how many miles you can expect to drive, AND about how much money you’ll spend on gas.

These are two factors that are very important when it comes to budgeting out a road trip, and two things you don’t need to worry as much about thanks to Roadtrippers.

Once you’ve planned out your trip you can then save it, share it with friends, and even edit it on the go if you have any last minute changes!

An additional perk, and probably one of the best features in my opinion, is the ability to find “hidden treasures” along your route, all thanks to the phone navigation synching which can help you find things in your own city, or in the locations you travel through, that you didn’t even know existed!

Best Travel Apps

Lindsey Messenger blogs at Seven Day Weekender .

Get customer reviews before you commit

We’re full-time RV travelers and are always looking for tools that can help make our road trips easier to plan. One of my favorite apps is TripAdvisor. I love that I can use it on my phone or laptop to accomplish more than one task.

The first thing I use it for is to find campgrounds.

TripAdvisor has such a large collection of reviews that I always feel confident in the location before we show up.

Another terrific feature of the reviews functionality is that visitors can post their own photos.

This way you see what a resort looked like last week, not when it was first opened.

TripAdvisor also has a feature that allows you to message other users if you have questions on their reviews. I’ve actually used the feature a few times and have almost always received an answer.

Finally, TripAdvisor is great once we’ve arrived at a destination to help us find great activities and restaurants.

The other users always provide helpful tips for visiting different destinations.

I also really appreciate how the restaurants are sorted by type of food and price so I can find those that best fit our needs at the time.

TripAdvisor - Best Travel Apps for Europe and Asia

Julie Chickery blogs at Chickery’s Travels .

One app that we always use on our trips and suggest everyone download is Maps.me. Maps.me is a free app that provides offline maps to users of Android, iOS, and Blackberry.

When we install the app, no map comes with it, but we only have to select the region and the country we want and download it. Being able to use all the maps information without needing to have mobile data is the biggest advantage of Maps.me.

And, it’s a crucial advantage if you don’t have a local sim card and with the steep prices of roaming data.

With Maps.me you can search and navigate to hotels, attractions, streets or whatever you are looking for.

One thing that I really like about Maps.me is how easy it is to search hotels within the app. The maps show the hotels that are on booking.com and gives information about rating and pricing.

This is great if you arrive at a town without a hotel booked.

Another thing Maps.me excels at (I believe it’s even better than Google Maps) is navigation on foot.

Maps.me has an incredible amount of trails marked and a remarkable detail, even in very remote locations.

When doing a hiking trail, I prefer to use maps.me, even if I have mobile data because it usually has the trail marked while google maps sometimes doesn’t.

travel tools apps

Jorge and Claudia Bastos blog at Travel Drafts .

Find off-the-beaten-path locations to include in your itinerary

Here is yet another Maps.me recommendation.

Whether I’m planning a trip from home or while I’m already on the road, my number one travel tool is the free app Maps.me.

As you probably already guessed, Maps.me is an app that provides a map. It’s comparable to Google Maps. Except, Maps.me is much more accurate when it comes to biking and hiking trails and navigating in lesser developed countries in general.

Seriously, anything from small street vendors, hidden waterfalls, local supermarkets, and unknown gas stations are marked on Maps.me. Are you looking for off-the-beaten-path hikes, deserted beaches, or viewpoints?

I guarantee you can find them on this app. I even use Maps.me to navigate hikes that normally require guides! How’s that for one of the coolest travel planning tools!

When I’m planning a trip I always mark all the places I would like to visit on the map to get a general idea of how far apart they are.

Next, I use Maps.me to make a rough itinerary, and lastly, I use Maps.me to navigate to all my destination without using data!

Because the best part about Maps.me is that you can download the map of your destination and use all of Maps.me’s features when you’re offline, making Maps.me the perfect app for both planning your trip and for navigating during your trip!

Lara blogs at Bothe Feet on the Road

Organize your multi-city trips

Organizing a multi-city, multi-country trip can become really stressful really quickly.

I used to rely on emails, individual apps, and even printouts to try to keep everything organized, but inevitably things would get overlooked, or I’d be missing a crucial bit of information along the way.

Just before our last large overseas trip to the US and New Zealand, I heard about Tripit and it was an absolute game-changer!

We were organizing things at the last minute and it could have been a really complicated job – but Tripit made it easy. As soon as you book anything – accommodation, flights, car, etc. – all you need to do is forward your confirmation email to Tripit and all the information uploads into the app automatically. Magic!

You can enter things manually too if you prefer, but when booking multiple flights, places to stay and cars, it was incredibly useful to just flick an email through and everything would be input automatically.

Having all the information in one place also helped spot any gaps in our itinerary – like nights that still needed to be booked! And having all our booking references and flight times in one place while we were traveling was a real godsend.

You can even access it while offline! I still use the Tripit app now, even when booking short breaks, as it becomes a handy reference point of your past travels too!

best travel apps for europe

Nadine Maffire blogs at Le Long Weekend .

Stay vegan while traveling

As a vegan world traveler, HappyCow is the app that I use the most when planning where I am going to eat during my travels. HappyCow is a global directory of vegan restaurants, vegetarian restaurants, and restaurants with vegan options all over the world.

It’s crowd-sourced, which means that users are adding new entries, photos and restaurant reviews every single day.

The HappyCow website has been around for nearly 20 years, but recently it has grown exponentially, thanks to the increased interest in veganism and plant-based eating.

And of course, now that there’s an app version, it’s even more convenient to use.

During the trip planning phase, one of the first things I do is take a look at HappyCow to see what kind of dining options there are in my destination.

But even if I don’t have time to do much pre-trip research, the app makes it really easy to find veggie food on the go.

Just click the “show everything nearby” button, and you’ll instantly see all the dining options that are closest to your current location, along with photos, user reviews and opening hours.

Even if you don’t identify as vegan or vegetarian, HappyCow is a great way to discover healthy alternatives to the fast food that it’s so easy to fall back on when traveling.

travel tools apps

Wendy Werneth blogs at The Nomadic Vegan .

Locate vegetarian options beforehand

More Happy Cow raves! If you are a vegan or vegetarian traveller, then you might already know it’s not always easy to find hearty food.

The HappyCow app flags all the local vegan and vegetarian restaurants, along with places with great options and is one of the best travel planning tools for vegetarians.

Users can leave reviews to flag issues and give advice – for example, ‘ask for the veggie burger without mayo to make it vegan’, ‘best place for dairy-free ice cream’ and directions to hidden food stalls.

You can easily search for places in order of which is closest to your location and review the ratings, before bringing your restaurant of choice up on the map.

In challenging countries, this can save hours of researching meal times beforehand. This has been a lifesaver for me, particularly in countries known for their meaty diets.

For example, when travelling in Tokyo I discovered a whole network of amazing, vegan Buddhist restaurants through this app which I’d have never have found on foot.

Cassie blogs at Cassiethehag

I discovered Evernote about 5 years ago and fell in love with it instantly.

Evernote is a note-taking app with a free version and premium version with more functions and abilities. I like this app mostly because it’s simple and easy to use.

That’s the most important thing for me. I’m able to quickly bring up the app, jot down notes, and have all my notes sync across all my devices.

So something I type at home on my Evernote desktop app will show up on my phone when I’m out shopping or traveling.

Another big thing I love about Evernote is its ability to create folders for notes and be able to easily move them around when needed.

For example, when I travel to several cities/countries at a time, I like to create a new folder for each country, and within each folder, I can create separate notes that contain itinerary info, things to-do list, and a journal where I can document my trip!

Evernote is integral to keeping me organized while I’m traveling. If you have the premium version, you’re also able to upload pdf files, photos, itineraries, etc.

I can’t do without it in life! There are many note-taking apps nowadays but if you’re looking for simple and effective, Evernote is all that!

travel tools apps

Jason blogs at Mint Habits .

Did we miss any? Let us know what your recommendations are for the best travel planning tools and apps.

travel tools apps

If you’re looking for more travel tips, you might like this post:

  • Travel Safety Tips You Need to Know

Here is a list of great reference books on travel planning tools and apps. Real time and money savers.

Travel Planner Checklist

BTW, if you are getting ready for your trip, make sure to take advantage of these useful,  money-saving links  to book your trip:

  • Research and  book your flight  with  Skyscanner . I have found them to be the best because they list all airlines including the budget ones. You are always sure of having researched all options.
  • For  car rental around the world, Discover Cars has flexible pickup and drop-off options, I recommend   Discover Cars .
  • Book your accommodation  with  Booking.com . I find they have a wide selection and a nice, user-friendly, transparent website.
  • Protect your trip  and, more importantly, protect yourself with travel insurance. I use  Travelinsurance.com  and have been very happy with them.
  • Looking for a  small group tour  to unforgettable destinations with top professionals?  Intrepid Trave l is your choice.
  • For more  general tours  to any destination or attraction,  book with   Viator . Check them out.
  • Need a visa?   Get your visa  for all countries with   Passport Visa Exp ress.
  • Looking for a cool walking tour to explore a city? My favorite walking tours are offered by Take Walks.
  • Food and drink tours are the best way to enjoy a city. And Devour Tours are my favorite.
  • Looking for a good VPN to protect your security, privacy and freedom online while traveling? Nordvpn is your best option.

I personally use, and can recommend, all the companies listed here and elsewhere on my blog. By booking through these sites, the small commission we earn – at no cost to you – helps us maintain this site so we can continue to offer our readers valuable travel tips and advice.

Want more travel planning tools and tips? Check out these handy guides or this post on travel apps for your international trips .

Talek Nantes

Talek Nantes

7 thoughts on “35 best travel planning tools and apps”.

travel tools apps

Thank you for reading!

travel tools apps

what a great list. Would also like to add ATM Fee Saver mobile app – it gives a list of ATMs in foreign countries with no fees or lower fees than others along with withdrawal limits etc., found it quite helpful while travelling. worth to add it to your list!

Thanks. I’m always learning looking for new tips.

travel tools apps

Awesome Post… Like it.

travel tools apps

Great post! I would perhaps add https://holiwise.com/ – they help you find travel destinations based on your preferences.

Thanks for the tip and for reading.

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30 essential travel apps every traveler needs before their next trip

Lori Zaino

When it comes to planning and taking a vacation, travelers rely on their phones now more than ever.

Travel apps are a source of inspiration and are extremely useful for booking and managing logistics — even making restaurant reservations or finding a great fitness class wherever in the world you're flying next.

From apps that help with everything from day-of hotel bookings and last-minute flight changes to those that serve as guidebooks and foreign-language dictionaries, travel is infinitely easier thanks to technology.

Apps can help you navigate a new city, make currency conversions, pack a perfect suitcase and even provide on-the-ground local expertise. Whatever you need when you hit the road, there's an app for that.

We've rounded up the most-loved apps here at TPG. Some may be obvious, and others more obscure, but either way, get ready to download.

Best apps for researching and booking trips

In addition to the apps for the airlines you fly most frequently and your favorite hotel brands, these apps can help you save money on flights and accommodations.

travel tools apps

Hopper has changed in recent years from just offering a price prediction tool for flights to being a true online travel agency. The app helps travelers find the cheapest flights, hotels and rental cars.

Of course, Hopper also still offers its signature price prediction technology to help you plan out when to book, as well as travel protection options and a price freeze to help you lock in the lowest possible price on hotels and flights.

travel tools apps

Kiwi is used mainly to book flights, but it also helps you book hotels (using its partnership with Booking.com) and car rentals (using its partnership with RentalCars.com).

Some of the app's most interesting features include the "Deals" section, which pulls in discounted flights, and the "Travel hacks" section, which includes options for hidden city ticketing, throwaway ticketing (making one-way flights more affordable) and free price alerts.

Hotel Tonight

travel tools apps

A dream for last-minute travelers, Hotel Tonight ( now owned by Airbnb ) lets you book stays for the same evening up to a few months in advance in thousands of cities worldwide. Available hotel rooms are categorized into sections like basic, luxe, hip, charming and solid, so you can select what works for your vibe. Take advantage of the daily drop feature, where you swipe to find a personalized deal with a special price only valid for 15 minutes after unlocked.

At TPG, we love a good loyalty program, and HT Perks, the app's nine-level reward program, is extensive. Not unlike a video game, you "level up" by reaching specific spending thresholds on the app, and you'll gain access to perks like discounts, VIP customer support and credits. Also, your levels never expire, so you can only continue to move up.

travel tools apps

To book home rentals instead of hotels, use the Airbnb app. After entering your destination and dates, you can filter results based on the home type, price, requisite amenities and more. If you find something you like, you can book directly through the app.

The app is ideal for managing your trips while on the road — you can access all your bookings under the "Trips" tab, where you can view your reservation (and the address or directions), contact the host or change your reservation. Once you have a booking, you can also explore and book local experiences in your destination, such as wine tastings, kayak tours, hikes, shows and concerts.

travel tools apps

We can't talk about travel apps without mentioning the TPG App. Use it to track your credit card, airline and hotel points balances; earn points and miles efficiently through using the right credit card ; and research how many points or miles you'll need to book your dream getaway. You can even curate your own news feed so you see the news and advice that matters most to you first.

The TPG App is available for download on iOS . Android users can join the waitlist here .

Related: The TPG App has arrived — here's why you should download it now

Best apps for organizing a trip

From keeping all your documents in order to perfectly packing your suitcase without forgetting a thing, these are the best apps for organizing travel plans.

travel tools apps

TripIt declutters your itineraries and documents by keeping them organized in one place. You can set your reservations to automatically send to TripIt, which lets you view travel confirmations, flight itineraries, tickets, hotel and Airbnb booking information, rental car reservations, ferry tickets and driving directions without ever leaving the app.

TripIt also makes it simple to share your trip plans with whoever picks you up from the airport or train station or anyone else who may need to coordinate with you. TripIt Pro subscriptions cost $49 per year and include extras like real-time flight alerts, security wait times, baggage claim information and updates on your loyalty reward programs.

Roadtrippers

travel tools apps

Perfect for organizing that epic road trip you've always wanted to take, Roadtrippers plans out your driving route and lets you book hotels and activities along the way. The app is especially useful for finding interesting and off-the-beaten-path roadside attractions, cool restaurants and can't-miss landmarks you can bookmark.

A Roadtrippers Premium membership includes offline maps, live traffic information, overnight RV parking and more for $59.99 per year. For those looking to only venture on a few road trips per year, the app also offers a Pro ($49.99 per year) and Basic ($35.99 per year) membership.

travel tools apps

PackPoint takes all the stress out of packing . The app shows you what to bring based on the length of your trip, the weather in your destination and any activities you're planning along the way. If you have access to laundry facilities at your destination, PackPoint even allows you to account for washing your clothes and wearing them multiple times.

Just download and install the app, type in the city you're visiting and plug in your travel details. So, stop waiting until the day before your trip — or the hours before you have to leave for the airport — and start packing now.

Best apps for navigating the airport and flights

Track flights, navigate airports and find airport lounges with these apps.

LoungeBuddy

travel tools apps

LoungeBuddy offers access to premium airport lounges around the world, regardless of the airline or class you're flying. When you create a trip in the app and type in the credit cards you currently hold, it will tell you which lounges you have access to based on the airports you'll be transiting through and how to purchase access if you don't already have it.

You can purchase access on the day you're traveling or up to two months in advance if you're the plan-ahead type. If you prefer to search by lounge or lounge program, the app will tell you exactly what is needed to use them.

Priority Pass

travel tools apps

Priority Pass offers access to more than 1,300 lounges worldwide and provides meal vouchers at select airport restaurants across the world for an annual fee starting at $99.

Several cards, including The Platinum Card® from American Express , the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card and the Chase Sapphire Reserve , offer Priority Pass memberships for all cardholders (enrollment required). Otherwise, you'll have to pay an annual fee to be a member and, depending on your membership tier, a fee to enter each lounge on top of the annual fee.

To use the Priority Pass app, enter the name or code of the airport you're in, and Priority Pass will pull up the lounges or restaurants that you have access to, including photos, hours, amenities and specific location information. For more information on the Priority Pass Program and how to gain lounge access, click here . Enrollment is required for select benefits.

Related: The best credit cards for Priority Pass lounge access

FlightAware

travel tools apps

The FlightAware app allows you to track flights online, see a live map of a flight and check on delays, cancellations and gate changes. This app is especially helpful if you have a tight connection or want to track your flight.

It's also useful when picking up friends and family at the airport, as you can track their flight and see updated landing times or delays. AvGeeks will enjoy digging into flight statistics, flight maps and community aviation discussions on the app.

Best apps to use during your flight

Timeshifter.

travel tools apps

What better way to cure jet lag than with an app? Timeshifter actually helps you avoid jet lag long before your flight takes off and also offers inflight and post-flight suggestions. The app relies on neuroscience research about sleep and circadian rhythms to provide personalized recommendations, taking into consideration your age, gender and normal sleep patterns — as well as specifics about your trip and travel plans. Timeshifter maps out when you should avoid or seek light, take a nap or try to stay awake. It even tells you if you should consider supplementing with melatonin or caffeine.

Your first jet lag plan is free, then $9.99 per plan, or you can enjoy unlimited plans for a year for $24.99.

travel tools apps

Flying can cause anxiety — or provide a welcome relief from constant contact with our digital devices. Either way, use travel as an opportunity to relax, meditate or listen to soothing sounds that will lull you to sleep or a deep, relaxed state. Or, perhaps, you'll simply find it helps pass the time during a long flight.

Calm offers meditations on topics such as self-awareness, calming anxiety, breathing, lowering stress levels and happiness, among others. The app also has music options for focusing, relaxing and sleeping, as well as stories for adults and content for kids.

A limited selection of meditations and music is available for free (which you can download to use when you're offline or in flight). The premium version of the app costs $14.99 per month or $69.99 annually.

travel tools apps

OK, so Netflix isn't really a travel app, but it can be a lifesaver during a long flight on an aircraft without seatback inflight entertainment or at the airport during an unexpected flight delay or boring layover. If you have a Netflix account, the app allows you to download your favorite shows onto your device to watch offline.

Just make sure to download your shows while connected to Wi-Fi before flying and check them again preflight to make sure they haven't expired (you can usually renew any expired downloads, but you must be connected to Wi-Fi or data to do so). Monthly prices vary depending on the plan.

Another app that's not really a travel app, Spotify can still be incredibly useful during tedious travel moments — just pop in those noise-canceling headphones and listen to your favorite music, meditations, podcasts and more.

The app's Premium plans (prices vary) allow you to download all your content offline on your phone, so you'll have it during long flights or when you don't have data or Wi-Fi access. Whether you want to take a morning jog in Bali to your favorite tunes or pass the time with a podcast on the metro in Barcelona, Spotify has it all.

Best apps to use in your destination

From exchanging money and sightseeing to communicating and knowing all the local tips and tricks, you don't want to land in a foreign city for the first time without these key apps.

XE Currency Converter

travel tools apps

The XE Currency Converter app quickly provides live, up-to-the-minute currency rates, then allows you to store and view them even when you're offline. You'll never need to wonder if you're really getting a good deal in another country if you have this app.

Google Translate

travel tools apps

Google Translate is a translation app that allows you to do it all — translate into more than 100 languages by typing, access 59 languages offline, translate via photo, translate bilingual conversations and even use the handwriting tool to translate.

The app is simple to use, too, with icons at the top you can click on to draw, take a photo, speak or type.

travel tools apps

Not quite sure how much to tip when traveling internationally? GlobeTips will advise you on how to tip appropriately in more than 200 countries. It also offers a tip calculator for easy math. Globe also has apps for currency conversion, unit conversion and more that may be useful for travelers.

Related: The ultimate guide to tipping while traveling

travel tools apps

For travelers globe-trotting with friends and family members or simply splitting the cost between groups, Tricount calculates shared costs and splits bills so you don't have to think twice about who owes what. Just enter your trip and currency and invite your travel mates to join your trip.

Each time someone pays for something, you enter the amount in Tricount, and the app splits everything up. You can also snap and store photos of receipts in the app. At the end of your trip, it will show the balances of who owes who what, making it easy to settle up.

Metric Conversions

travel tools apps

Never be baffled by Celsius temperatures or suitcase weight in kilograms again with the Metric Conversions app . Whether you're measuring flour to cook at your Airbnb, figuring out distances for your Europe road trip or deciding whether to take a sweatshirt with you during your walking tour of the Great Wall of China, this app has you covered with easy conversions in volume, weight, temperature, area and more.

Google Maps

travel tools apps

Google Maps is essential when visiting a new city (or even for getting around your hometown). You can map locations, get directions (walking, driving, public transportation, ride-hailing services and beyond) and see how crowded your subway will be in select cities .

You can make restaurant reservations, save your favorite spots and read and write reviews of attractions, eateries, shops and more. Make sure to download specific city or area maps ahead of time for offline access if you know you'll be without internet at your destination. For obvious reasons, the app works best when your GPS is turned on.

travel tools apps

WhatsApp is a handy messaging service for travelers abroad as it uses an internet connection to avoid SMS fees.

It works like most other messaging apps: You start by creating an account, then add your friends and family members to contact and voila! You're able to call, video chat and send messages, images, voice memos, gifs and files just as you would in, say, iMessage (but with Android users too). You can also download WhatsApp on your Windows or Mac computer.

Best apps for planning activities

Traveling is about more than just getting from point A to point B. If you're looking for activities to add to your itinerary, check out these apps.

travel tools apps

Meetup is an app designed for interacting with locals and other travelers who have mutual interests or shared hobbies. Whether you're traveling or at home, take what you love and do more of it with Meetup.

The app shows you groups that are formed around particular interests in your city, including yoga, photography, cooking, wine tasting, hiking, cinema and other activities. You can join groups to get updates on particular events you may want to participate in. The app can even help with networking, as there are many groups dedicated to business and technology. You might even be able to join a coworking group. Travelers with kids can participate in family-friendly meetups, and it's a great way for solo travelers to make friends and connect with others.

travel tools apps

TheFork is one of the most useful resources for making restaurant reservations in Europe. Similar to OpenTable or Resy, the app lets you browse different restaurants by category and make reservations. TheFork features more than 60,000 restaurants in cities like London, Madrid and Geneva, as well as spots outside of Europe like Sydney, Australia.

The biggest perk is that many restaurant reservations come with discounts — in some cases, you can get up to 50% off your meal just by reserving a table through TheFork. Since we here at TPG are always down for earning rewards, make sure to monitor your YUMS — TheFork's reward system. You'll earn YUMS with each reservation, and when you hit 1,000, you receive a discount on your bill. Foodie travelers should also consider downloading these apps , too.

travel tools apps

Happy Cow helps vegan and vegetarian eaters locate more than 180,000 restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, farmers markets and grocery stores in over 180 countries around the world. The app allows you to filter by not only vegan and vegetarian but also gluten-free and cuisine types. You can also read reviews and get recipes on the app as well.

The app does cost $3.99, but it's a one-time expense.

TripAdvisor

Besides reading reviews of restaurants, hotels and attractions, you can book almost anything on TripAdvisor, from vacation rentals and restaurant reservations to tours and tickets.

The app has grown to include almost all things travel, allowing you to search by destination or interest (like the outdoors, food and drink, family or by the water, for example), which can give you inspiration for a trip or help you get your activities, meals and accommodations organized before traveling or on the fly.

With over 400,000 curated trails, AllTrails can help you find the hike or walk perfect for you and your group. It's not just mountain trails — AllTrails offers city walks, too, like easy meanders through the Marais district in Paris or peaceful strolls through Bangkok's Lumpini Park in Thailand.

See photos, updated weather predictions and key information about each route and connect with other travelers through reviews and forums. Access to AllTrails+ is $35.99 per year, which offers perks like offline maps and wrong turn alerts.

Best apps for staying safe

Use these apps to stay safe when traveling.

Smart Traveler

travel tools apps

Smart Traveler is a free service that offers tips and information specifically for U.S. travelers. You can see what visas and vaccines you'll need before traveling and where to find help if you need it during your trip.

Register your trip on the app, which gives your information to local embassies and consulates in your destination. If there's any kind of disaster or tragedy, the local embassy can contact you to see if you need help.

TripWhistle

travel tools apps

Another app dedicated to keeping you safe, TripWhistle maps your location and allows you to easily text or send your GPS coordinates or location. It also provides emergency numbers for firefighters, medical personnel and police in nearly 200 countries. After all, 911 is only for U.S.-based emergencies: Each country has its own specific emergency number.

Yes, Uber (or any local ride-hailing service app) is convenient, but it may also keep you safe. Using this app when traveling means you'll never get stuck wandering around in an unfamiliar area late at night or have to deal with unscrupulous taxi drivers trying to scam you. Uber also has in-app safety features such as an emergency assistance button which will allow you to call local emergency services right in the app.

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41 Insanely Helpful Travel Planning Tools and Apps

Due to the global pandemic, travel looks different right now depending on where you're going from/to. Please check for travel restrictions and adhere to all local guidelines before planning a trip to any destination you may read about on this site.  Please note: this post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something by clicking the links, I will get a small compensation, at no extra cost to you.

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Traveling can be overwhelming. Whether it’s the planning process up front, figuring out the details when you’re actually in your destination, or even settling the finances after the fact. Luckily, there’s an app for that! Turns out the saying is true, and even when it comes to all the nitty gritty details of travel planning, there really is an app for everything. These are the best travel planning tools to help make the process easier and put the power of organization at your fingertips!

If you're looking for help planning a trip, consult these insanely helpful travel apps including ones that help you find cheap flights and accommodation, apps that help find camping sites, apps with the best maps, and more!

Best Apps for Finding Flights

1. skyscanner.

Airfare is usually the culprit for the most expensive part of a trip. Luckily, there are a number of useful travel apps that can help you find cheap flights.

SkyScanner is one of the absolute best free resources for this! On their app, select the “Explore” tab at the bottom, input your home airport, and set the destination to “Everywhere”. For the date of travel, you can select the Whole Month, Cheapest Month, or Anytime to get the most flexibility.

Now SkyScanner brings up all the destinations that are cheapest to travel to! Just like that.

If you select a Destination from the list, it will show you a rundown of the cheapest travel dates and costs.

Once you find a cheap flight, I do recommend booking directly through the airline or through your travel credit card portal. Sometimes SkyScanner will direct you to some shady websites for booking and they often have poor ratings. Avoid them if you can!

Recommended by me (Alanna) from this blog (Periodic Adventures)

SkyScanner is extremely good at finding the best cheap flights if you have no time frame or destination in mind you can search flights anywhere anytime.

Hopper is a great, free app if you know your travel destination and a ballpark of (or exact) dates. It watches flight prices for you then notifies you when the lowest prices come up. It can also predict when the lowest fare will arise.

You can set up notifications so you don’t miss the deal!

Hopper is also helpful because it shows a color-coded calendar that displays the best priced days in green with the highest priced days in red. This helps give you ranges of dates that are lower priced than others.

This helpful tool is great if you’re traveling on a budget .

one of the best travel apps is Hopper for cheap flight alerts

Apps to Find Accommodation

3. booking.com.

The app from Booking.com is definitely one of the best and most useful apps for traveling. With it, you will find the best accommodations all over the world.

The great thing is, the app is completely free and on top of that, has a great Genius (loyalty) program. That pays off if you travel often! The more often you book accommodations, the better the discounts, and there are often free upgrades and sometimes a free breakfast is included in the room rates.

Under “bookings” you’ll find all your bookings summarized. Very handy if you are planning a round trip, for example, or want to check the past bookings.

In addition to the practical accommodation search, you can also find a search function for car rentals. There is also a booking program for taxis (eg pick up from the airport, or from the ferry) and you can now even book excursions and entrance tickets. In principle, you have almost everything you need to organize a trip in one app – it doesn’t get much more practical than that!

Recommended by PlacesofJuma

stay in beautiful hotels like this through Booking dot com

One of the best free apps that you should be using for all of your travel planning is Airbnb. Airbnb is a well-known and popular free app that provides travelers the opportunity to book unique accommodations around the world. The online platform connects people who want to list or rent their property for short-term use. 

How it works is you search the app by filtering your results with your desired dates and destination. From there, you can browse the selection of accommodations and select the one that is the best fit for you.

Airbnb is ideal for a group of people traveling together. Depending on the type of Airbnb, it typically can be cheaper than hotels, especially for a large group splitting the costs. It also is beneficial for longer stays since you usually have access to a kitchen and have more space than a hotel room. 

Another feature Airbnb offers is experiences. They provide memorable activities hosted by a local tour guide in the destination you are visiting, such as a street food tour in Sicily, Italy. On the tour, you explore the local markets and taste the delicious and authentic Sicilian cuisine as you discover the magical streets of Palermo.  

Airbnb has been a reliable and incredible resource for travel planning over the last ten years. It helps you plan an epic vacation by finding those hidden gem accommodations and booking a one-of-a-kind local experience.

Recommended by Alisha from  Travel Today Work Tomorrow 

Airbnb has more than just lodging. Did you know you could book experiences like a food tour?

5. HostelWorld

If you are looking to book the perfect hostel while travelling , then one app you should always have on your phone is Hostelworld . With this free app , you can find a huge selection of hostels all around the world, keep track of all hostels and countries you have stayed in, and there is even a function to chat to travelers staying at the same accommodation as you beforehand. 

Especially as a solo traveler, it is a great idea to book your hostels with Hostelworld, as you can find a lot of information about what to expect at the hostel. You can find out if there are social common areas, see which activities the hostel is offering, and filter hostels based on your preferences to find the best hostel for you. 

Hostelworld makes it very convenient to book your next hostel on the go and keep track of all your booking information in one place. Most hostels also offer free cancellation, so it is easy to cancel them as well if your travel plans change unexpectedly.

Recommended by Becky from Beckspore Travel

hostel room with four beds, two side by side and two in a bunk bed

Maps Apps so You’re Never Lost

The app Maps.Me is free to use for iOS, Android and BlackBerry users and serves as a GPS navigation app that every traveler should have installed on their phone. It includes worldwide maps and is the perfect open-source alternative to Google Maps and Apple Maps. Once downloaded on your phone, there is no need for an internet connection, and you never have to worry about saving mobile data during your travels again. There is also the possibility to save your favorite locations within the app and to share them with other people.

Another amazing feature of Maps.Me is the great amount of predesigned travel guides you can find within the app. Whether you are traveling in the city or wanting to explore the outdoors, Maps.Me provides numerous travel guides for your specific destination and routes. To sum it up, the offline usage, appealing design, and user-friendliness make Maps.Me an absolute must-have on every trip.

Recommended by Carolin from  happywhenabroad

Maps.Me is a great travel tool to find your way around destinations

7. Google Maps

While it may seem basic, Google Maps is inarguably one of the most helpful (and free! ) travel planning apps. Most people think of Google Maps primarily as a GPS tool to navigate between destinations, but it’s so much more than that. You can search for and compare prices at gas stations or pick the coffee shop with the absolute best reviews on your route.

Given its integration with the public transit systems of countless cities around the globe, from Rome to Tokyo, you can effortlessly figure out how to get around, whether or not you have a car.

Another handy tool is the ability to save or “pin” destinations within the app, which can be super helpful whether you’re trying to save cool hikes around your hometown or plan out the best stops along a road trip to the Utah national parks . Plus, if you’re headed someplace with spotty cell service, there’s even a way to download maps so you can access them- and a ton of information, like businesses’ opening hours- while you’re offline.

Whether you’re headed to the streets of Bangkok or going on an epic road trip through the United States, Google Maps is every traveler’s best friend.

Recommended by Jessica from Uprooted Traveler

Las vegas itinerary map on Google Maps so you know where you're going even offline

Apps to Stay on Top of Your Travel Budget

8. travelspend.

TravelSpend is the handiest and easiest app to use for recording all of your travel expenditure. All you have to do is plug in how much you spent in the local currency and the app does the rest by translating the expenditure into your home currency. The app also allows you to categorise your spending so you can keep track of what you’re spending your money on. 

However, the best feature is its ability to set an overall budget for a specific length of time. The app will then work out your average expenditure per day to prevent you from going over budget. 

Whilst the basic version of the app is free, a premium version is available for £15.99 for the year or £1.33 per month . This will allow you to edit multiple documents/trips and eliminate ads (amongst other benefits) which the free version does not. However, there are constantly offers of up to 50% so it’s definitely worth keeping an eye out for these deals. 

Overall, this app is an absolutely god-send and allows you to keep track of all your spending no matter where you are in the world.

Recommended by Alex and Leah from Alex and Leah on Tour

Managing your budget while traveling is made easier with the Travel Spend app.

9. XE Currency Converter

One of the most useful and free apps that you’ll (almost) always use when you’re planning a trip is a currency converter. 

Because especially in the planning phase, you are not familiar with the new currency yet.

An accommodation of, let’s say 2.319.000 Vietnamese Dong per night, doesn’t mean anything yet.

Can you afford that? Is it expensive? Or is it really cheap?

Sure, you can look up the exchange rate yourself, and you’ll find that one US dollar equals 23,190 Vietnamese Dong (meaning that your accommodation will cost 100 US dollars a night). But it’s so much easier if an app just does the calculation for you.

One of the most popular converter Apps is XE Currency Converter. It not only converts the number you put in straight away, but it also shows the exchange rates of the past. And this is information which you can use as soon as you arrive at your destination. When there is a good exchange rate with your home currency, it might be time to hit the ATM again and withdraw a large bulk.

Recommended by Lara from The Best Travel Gifts

Convert your currency with ease using the XE Currency Converter app

Wise (previously called Transferwise) is a free app available on iOS and Android. Through the Wise app you can access a multicurrency travel card that can be loaded with multiple currencies and used around the world.

The app is particularly good for travelers who are visiting several different countries on their trips as it avoids the need to get cash out in different currencies. You can add the Wise card to your digital wallet and use Apply Pay or equivalent to purchase things while travelling. This means you don’t need to carry an extra physical card or cash so it’s great for security. However, you can order a physical card if you prefer to have that option too.

You can load up the card via bank transfer, Apple Pay, Google Pay or a range of other methods and the conversion rates at Wise are usually much lower than the rates at major banks or travel exchange companies. Wise is ideal for expats as you can use the app to transfer between bank accounts in different currencies for low fees.

Recommended by Kate from Kate Abroad

11. SplitWise

Planning a group trip can be incredibly difficult as is, so when it comes to splitting the cost, it can get confusing. But don’t worry, there is an app for that!

SplitWise makes splitting any bill incredibly easy! When I planned my family vacation to Disney World , I used it to figure out how much each family group owed and how much individuals owed.

To use the free app , you’ll need to add the people in your group and each expense. For each expense you can select who it was paid by and how you want to split the expense.

For this you can split equally between each person, split by exact amounts (if different people owe different amounts of the expense), split by percentages, split by shares (if you need to split by family or by night), and split by adjustment if certain people owe more than others.

Overall, this is such a useful app when you’re traveling in a group!

Split up your group trip budget easily with the free Splitwise app

Useful Apps for Road Trips and Camping

12. roadtrippers.

If you are thinking about taking a road trip, one of the best travel planning apps you can invest in, is  Roadtrippers . Specifically designed to help you plan a road trip anywhere in the world, the Roadtrippers app will assist you with routes, accommodations, restaurants, attractions, gas, and so much more.

And whether you are creating your own road trip routes, or using one of the app’s pre-made trip guides, planning your adventure couldn’t be easier. You can even collaborate with other users to create joint itineraries when creating your trip!

And the advantages of using this app don’t end in the planning stages. While you are on the road, Roadtrippers will give you live traffic or road closure updates, estimate your arrival time, and suggest new routes if needed.

Unfortunately, the free version of this app no longer gives you enough waypoints to really create a decent road trip. The free version , however, will allow you to take the app for a ‘test drive’ and see if it’s the right fit for you.

If you decide to take the plunge, the $29.99 per year subscription fee for Roadtrippers Plus will give you full access to all the app’s great features. If you love road trips, then this app is definitely worth the small fee.

Recommended by Marianne from Pasta Pretzels and Passports

Screenshot of Roadtrippers app with multiple stops across the Western US.

13. GasBuddy

GasBuddy is a free travel app used to find the cheapest gas prices in your area or along a travel route.

The app uses your location to find the closest gas stations and then displays the prices of each one. You can search for specific types of gas, such as regular, premium, or diesel. The app also has a feature that allows you to see the prices of gas stations nearby on a map, and you can even enter your destination and see prices along your route.

GasBuddy is an excellent tool for finding the cheapest gas prices, and it makes route planning convenient if you’re taking a road trip or traveling in an RV. You can even refer to the app for gas station reviews when selecting where to fill up.

In addition, GasBuddy offers its Pay with GasBuddy program. It’s also a good way to save on fuel costs because you can apply for a debit card that links to your checking account, which allows you to save up to 25 cents per gallon at participating gas stations.

The app is available for free on iOS and Android devices and is the perfect tool for saving money at the pump.

Recommended by Morgan from The Home That Roams

Gas prices in Los Angeles as shown by the GasBuddy app

14. iOverlander

iOverlander is a must-have app for anyone taking a road trip or  driving abroad . It is an extensive, crowd-sourced database of places to stay and gas stations as well as border crossings on international itineraries. From wild-camping and unofficial car-camping spots to campgrounds and quality hotels, it offers more information than any other resource that tries to compete with it. 

The best part is that  iOverlander   is free to use . It does ask for donations though, so anyone who finds it helpful should consider giving even a small amount to help the site stay running. 

There is an iOverlander app. However, it is a bit limited. Most of the helpful information is on their website, which is pretty mobile-friendly. This can be cumbersome if you’re accessing it while driving. Instead, it’s best to do research on the site ahead of time or have a passenger do research while the driver focuses on the road.

Recommended by Brodi from Our Off Beat Life

15. Park4Night

Van lifers, campers, and road trippers: the next time you’re looking for a safe spot to catch some Z’s, consult Park4Night to find the best hidden gems. 

Pop open the map feature to browse the best overnight spots near you and check out its reviews (often featuring photos from past campers) to make sure the location fits your vibe. Filter your search by free or paid spots, parking lots or nature escapes, rest and picnic areas, campgrounds, accommodations, day-to-night parking, off-road spots, and whether or not you require services like water, power, toilets, etc. The app also allows you to organize the list by distance, creation date, locality, country, number of comments, and their rating. If you stumble upon a sweet spot, add it to the app for other users to enjoy too! 

If you’re venturing off-grid, consider upgrading to the paid option to unlock advanced features like their off-line mode, which allows you to download maps and use the app without an internet connection. You’ll also get a satellite map option, advanced search filters, no advertisements, and more.

Recommended by Eva from Wander in Raw

inside of a van shown through a window with the ocean in the background

16. Campermate

The Campermate app should be at the top of your camping checklist   if you are visiting New Zealand and Australia and are taking a road trip, camping or campervanning.  It is completely free to download and is packed with useful features.

If you are camping or driving a motorhome, you can find freedom campsites (free), local campgrounds, dumpsites, showers, access to water etc. You can even find good campervan day parking and filter by the type of campsite you are looking for. It is extremely easy to use and the search by map feature is fast and simple.

Even if you are just taking a road trip, the app is super handy.  You can find public toilets, fuel stations, rubbish bins, playgrounds, EV charging stations and even road warnings.  

It also has a great community where you can review and comment on the locations, for example if a dump station is often full, or a campsite is noisy, providing great extra information to make your road trip decisions.

Written by Jennifer Parkes from Backyard Travel Family: Active Family Travel Specialists in New Zealand

Recommended by Jennifer Parkes from Backyard Travel Family

screengrab of campermate app for finding campground, accommodation, and more things to do

17. WikiCamps

Wikicamps is an essential travel planning app for campers or campervanners.  The app is available for different regions, each technically with its own paid app .

Separate Wikicamps apps can be found for the USA, Canada, UK, New Zealand, and Australia, with the cost ranging from $1.99-4.99 .

It is an invaluable tool when  campervanning New Zealand , or on a US road trip, for example. It can help you discover free places for boon docking safely or find a campsite with full facilities if you’re in desperate need for a shower! As it has the option to work offline, you can research on the go without having to worry about cell service.

In addition to helping you find both paid and free campsites, it’ll also help you discover places you can find water taps, points of interest, cell service, showers, dump sites and more. As the content is user-generated, it provides one of the largest databases of camp-related amenities and it is regularly updated. You can read real-person reviews on each site, helping you to plan your travels effectively and find plenty of hidden-gems along the way.

Recommended by Sophie and Adam from We Dream of Travel

RV or campervan driving around the corner toward the camera in lush green mountain road on cloudy day

18. Campendium

Campendium is a helpful app for RVers and tent campers alike. It is most commonly used for finding campsites (both free and paid) but there are a lot of extra helpful features in the app as well. There is both a free and paid version . 

The free version of Campendium allows you to search for campsites with filters for price, distance and reviews. It primarily shows public land, RV parks, parking lots that allow overnight parking, and dump stations. Each campsite shows the amenities provided, the cost, and has detailed reviews from other campers letting you know everything about the location…both the good and the bad. 

The paid version which is available with a Roadpass Pro account provides extra features like smoke map overlays, cell coverage overlays, cell service reports, hiking trails, and more. It c osts $49.00/year but does have a 7-day free trial. 

If you are looking for  amazing boondocking locations  or just need a helpful app to find the best campsites, Campendium is an excellent option. 

Recommended by Janae from Adventures with TuckNae

truck hauling an RV parked in a forest clearing with yellow and green aspens behind

19. The Dyrt

This is a very helpful app for road tripping and hiking. “The Dyrt,” as it’s called, is a camping app with thousands of campgrounds in the United States for tents, RVs, trailers, glamping, and more.

One of the most handy features of this app is the map and filter of all nearby campgrounds, making it easy to find somewhere to stay in the area where you’re traveling. It also has lots of campground pictures and reviews from other travelers, as well as a bunch of info and details about each campground’s amenities like showers, picnic tables, trash disposal, cell phone reception, WiFi, and more.

The  Dyrt app is free , but there’s also a paid version for $35.99 per year . The main difference in the paid version is a trip planner and offline search, plus discounts at more than a thousand campgrounds across the United States. If you’re not sure about the paid version, they also offer a 7 day free trial so you can check it out before buying!

Recommended by David & Intan at  The World Travel Guy

Apps for the Outdoors

20. alltrails.

AllTrails is a hiking app that has various features that help you get the most out of your outdoor adventures! The app helps you discover new hiking trails, find information about trails, read reviews of trails, track your outdoor activities, and stay safe while in the outdoors. 

The best part about AllTrails is that it’s community based. Through the app you’re able to connect with other outdoor enthusiasts and share your experiences. This is a fantastic feature because it means you can access real-time information. For example, reading through the recent reviews will provide you feedback about the trail as well as helpful info about its current conditions. 

Another great feature of AllTrails is how easy the app makes it to find trails that are near you. When traveling, the app will show you trails that are close to your location, so you’re able to discover trails that you otherwise may not have known about. 

The free version of AllTrails is totally sufficient for most people. The paid version, AllTrails Pro, costs $29.99 per year . It’s ideal for people who spend time outdoors regularly, especially in regions that are remote, because AllTrails Pro provides many offline features.

Recommended by Erin from Pina Travels

hiking trail on a rocky coastal path

Related read → How to plan foolproof hiking itineraries

21. Recreation.gov

Do you love spending time outdoors and taking trips in nature? If so, you’ll definitely want to check out the recreation.gov app to help you plan adventures on federally managed land in the U.S! This app is great for finding information about national parks, national forests, lakes, rivers, and other federally managed recreational areas. It’s really easy to use and can help you plan your next outdoor adventure.

You can use the recreation.gov app to find  camping in National Parks . You can also apply for permits and lotteries or buy tickets for tours. This handy app makes trip planning a breeze – you can book campsites, apply for backcountry permits, and more in no time.

So, if you love recreating on federal lands in the U.S., this app will help you plan fantastic outdoor adventures.

Plus, the app is totally free to download and easy to use. Get started planning your next adventure today— download the recreation.gov app!

Recommended by Ashlee from The Happiness Function

view of desert rocks framed by a Joshua Tree with other desert plants like yuccas to the right side and other Joshua trees in the distance on a sunny blue sky day

22. National Park Service

If you love exploring the  US National Parks , you absolutely need to download the NPS app! With this app you’ll have access to information about all the National Parks, National Monuments, and National Historic sites! There are more than 400 sites on the app, and it’s all completely FREE !  Its free to download the app, and there are no in-app purchases either! 

You can use the app in three different ways.  The first way is if you know where you want to go already.  Just type in the name of the Park, and all of the information will pop up. From this screen, you can see what the hours are, the fees and any important notifications like closures or permits. You can also see what there is to do at that park, such as hikes, or drives, and what services are offered there.  

The other way to use the app, is if you are exploring somewhere new, and just want to see if there are any sites nearby that may interest you.  You can open the app, turn on your location and ask the app to find parks near you.  This is a fun way to find National Park Hidden Gems when you are traveling! 

The final way to use the NPS app is to use it to learn more about the parks, plan trips and keep track of which parks you have visited. There are areas to add personal lists, like favorites, or places you want to visit. You can also watch webcams from different parks to help you learn more about them.  

The best feature of the app, and what makes it a must have, is the ability to download information.  Most often, while in a National Park, you will not have good cell service or wifi.  The NPS app lets you download all of the information you’ll need so you have access to it even when you don’t have service.  You will be able to locate hiking trails, services, visitors centers, and maps even when you don’t have service.  This is so much easier than taking screen shots of different things you need, and then trying to find them all later! 

Recommended by Chantelle from Flannels or Flip Flops

National Park Service app highlighting White Sands National Park in New Mexico

The Komoot maps, outdoor navigation, GPS tracking and trail & route guide helps you discover off the beaten path destinations and prevents you from potentially dangerous mistakes when traveling in Nature.

Komoot is a freemium model and you’ll get 1 free region to download to your phone so you can navigate even without mobile service.  With mobile service you can use all regions.

The user interface is phenomenal and you can also publish your routes to its social network to stay up to date with your friends’ adventures. 

It includes routes for hiking, bike touring, mountain biking, road cycling and running.  

If you want to download more regions they are $3.99 each or $29.99 for the entire world .  If you want full access to plan multi day bike or hiking trips, it costs $59.99 per year and it will also include the maps of the entire world. 

Recommended by Morgan Fielder from Crave the Planet

Man at the summit of a mountain with lots of green lush mountians in front of him

24. Tide Times

Going on a coastal journey of any sort, understanding your tide times is an absolute must! Many beaches can be impassable at high tide, or natural phenomena you’ve driven out of your way to see only possible to view when its low tide or vice versa. Whether you’re camping and on foot, making road-tripping stops, or seeking out the day’s biggest swell, My Tide Times is a simple but invaluable daily planning app for travelers.

The great part is, My Tide Times App is free and easy to use . With location services on it will automatically display the tide times at your nearest coastal location, or you can search over 30 countries using 9000 weather stations.

The app allows you complete control whether you use feet or meters, kilometers or miles, and 12 or 24-hour clock, as well as the ability to change the underlying map and contrast if you’re hard of sight.

Tide Times is great not just for the current day’s information but up to 2 months in advance if you’re a true planner! You additional get sunrise and sunset times along with moon information and swells to completely capture the most important points of every day while you travel.

Recommended by Family Road Trip

rocky beach from the Pacific Northwest with forest bordering the coast

25. My Aurora Forecasts and Alerts

If you are planning to visit Norway or  Iceland during winter  to see some of the best Northern Lights, make sure to download this app. My Aurora Forecast & Alerts is perfect not only for professional Aurora watchers but also for those who would love to see this natural phenomenon for the first time.

This free app is simple to use and will notify you when there is a huge chance of seeing the Northern Lights in your current location. You can also check the long-term forecast to see which days are the best to watch the sky at night. 

In the My Aurora Forecast & Alerts app, you will see a few diagrams showing cloud coverage, solar wind, density, etc. It also shows the best Northern Light locations in real-time, so if you are planning a spontaneous trip to see Aurora Borealis, look no further than My Aurora Forecast & Alerts.

Recommended by Paulina from ukeveryday

aurora borealis in Iceland with green lights above cabins in the snowy mountains

Reliable Transportation Apps

26. citymapper.

When traveling to a new city, navigating the public transportation system can be daunting. However, there are now many apps that can help make transportation planning easier. One of the most popular is Citymapper.

Citymapper is a popular transportation planning app that is available for cities around the world. It provides information on public transportation options, including bus, train, and subway routes and schedules. Citymapper also offers walking directions to help users get to their destinations.

If you’re planning a trip to a new or unfamiliar city, consider downloading Citymapper. The app is free to download and use , and it is available for iOS and Android devices.

To use the app, simply enter your destination and the app will show you the best routes to take, with a recommended route. You can also view information on transit times such as when the bus or train will arrive, how much it’ll cost, and how long it’ll take you to get to your destination.

One con to the Citymapper app is that it’s only set up for medium to large cities mostly in Europe and the United States. So before you go, double-check that Citymapper has the information for your destination city for easy traveling and creating memorable experiences .

Recommended by Pafoua from Her Wanderful World

portugal train station

27. Ridesharing apps around the world

An essential part of travelling is getting around the place you are visiting.  For some destinations public transport or walking is suitable, but there’s no doubt you’ll find a time when you need to book a taxi or private driver.

In some destinations you can simply wave down a taxi, but in many places taxis can be less frequent, not to mention dishonest. Ridesharing apps remove the stress of negotiating and finding a driver by handling the entire process on your phone.

Ridesharing apps vary in prices and uptake all around the world.  Regions like Southeast Asia will be a lot cheaper with rides costing as low as $1 in places like Cambodia.

The global market leader in ridesharing apps is of course Uber .  Having this app installed on your phone is a must regardless of where you’re heading as it’s the most widely used app.  This should be the first app you check wherever you are.

Lyft is the main competitor to Uber and works in pretty much the same way, however, coverage is limited to only North America.

Grab is the market-leader in Southeast Asia and is a great alternative to Uber.  Being tailored to this region means you can also order food, scooter rides / rentals and hire a driver by the hour within the app. This makes getting to  activities in Singapore , Vietnam or Indonesia incredibly simple with Grab.

Gojek is Grab’s largest competitor in Southeast Asia and offers comparable services – it’s worth having both installed if you’re in this region.

Finally, Bolt is a major player in the ridesharing space throughout Africa and Europe .

Recommended by Delilah from Our Travel Mix

travel tools apps

28. Rome2Rio

Rome2Rio is an essential travel planning app for helping you determine the best way to get from point A to point B for your schedule and budget.   It’s a huge time saver when doing travel planning.  Plus, it’s free !

Let’s say that you want to travel from London to  Paris .  You just enter your origin and destination cities and your desired travel date into the app.  Then Rome2Rio works its magic and provides you with a comprehensive list of all of your transit options. 

In this example, Rome2Rio came up with eleven different ways to get to Paris—everything from trains, to flights, to rideshare, to driving and using the car ferry.  The app lists the travel time and cost ranges for each option.  It also flags a recommended option (in this case, the train) and the cheapest option (in this case, the bus).

Once you’ve selected your preferred method of transit, drill down to learn more details (for example, to view the train schedules).  Continue to drill down and you will be transferred through to a sister site (Omio, Expedia, blablacar), where you can purchase your tickets.

Recommended by Lisa Garrett of Waves and Cobblestones

Rome2Rio app

Related read >> 4 day Paris itinerary

29. Wanderu

Wanderu  is the easiest one-stop shop to find, compare, and book cheap bus or train tickets anywhere in the US and Europe. It’s the perfect, free app for planning cheap transportation between cities in advance, but also comes in handy when plans change unexpectedly. Instead of paying an arm and a leg for a last-minute flight, you can purchase a bus or plane ticket for a fraction of the price.

All the big names in ground travel, including Greyhound, Amtrak, MegaBus, VIA Rail Canada, and so many more partner with Wanderu to help make buying tickets simple. With so many different carriers, you’ll find that most routes have a variety of different schedules, amenities, and, most importantly, prices. When you book through Wanderu, you’ll get your ticket via the carrier’s website with the best possible price and no additional fees. 

Wanderu can also help find car rentals and cheap hotel rooms once you’ve got your trip.

All in all, Wanderu is the best app for last-minute adventures or planning your next trip on a budget. 

Recommended by Rachel from Bucket List Places

travel tools apps

Essential Communication Tools for Traveling

Yolla is an app that I accidentally stumbled upon when I was frustrated in a foreign country and I have used it many times since then. It’s an app that helps you call a local number to any country for a lot more affordable price than using roaming services or calling from your local sim card in your current location.

It saved me so much money when I had to call my bank when my bank card was blocked in France. I was able to call airlines to fix my travel booking during the height of the pandemic.

After installing the free app , you can add credits using your bank cards or PayPal. Depending on the payment method, you can top up from $5, $10, and up without other extra fees and it doesn’t expire. Once it’s ready, simply type in the number you are calling including the country code. You have to be connected to the internet to use the app.

Recommended by Elizabeth of Three Week Traveller

31. Polar Steps

Family and friends, you gotta love ’em. And you do! But when travelling away from your loved ones it can be overwhelming attempting to keep everyone updated on your adventures. You want to share the fun things you’re doing and the magical places you are going, but when do you have the time? You are focusing on your adventure!

Enter Polar Steps, the best free travelling app for keeping the important people in your life apprised of your adventures, without having to inform them one by one!

Sure, social media can do the same, but not everyone’s grandmother or best friend is online anymore. By sharing your unique link, your friends can view the travels and photos you post in the app without being required to sign in to the app, have a Facebook account, or wade through any other information paywalls.

It also has a range of privacy settings, so you can limit who can see your link and whether they can see your future plans or just where you’ve visited so far. You are in full control of the information you share!

The added trip planning features and local guide info make Polar Steps one of the best travelling apps to take with you, wherever you go.

Recommended by Shev from Shev Strolls

travel tools apps

32. Google Translate

One of the best travel apps is Google Translate. It’s extremely helpful when traveling to a country where you don’t speak the native language. Google Translate covers more than 50 languages, which is great for international travel.

Google Translate is a free app and you should definitely download it prior to leaving on your trip. When traveling internationally to a place where you don’t speak the language, learning a few key phrases are helpful. For everything else, there’s Google Translate.

The app can help you communicate directly from person to person by listening and translating via voice. You can also take photos in the app and it automatically downloads to your preferred language. This is helpful for street signs, menus and more!

Whether you’re enjoying the  best beaches in Manuel Antonio , Costa Rica, exploring the famous shrines in Kyoto, Japan or marveling at the incredible coast in Cinque Terre, Italy, you’ll want Google Translate on your phone!

Recommended by Nikki from She Saves She Travels

Cessarea in Israel ruins with a sign in front in Hebrew and English

33. WhatsApp

WhatsApp is the go to communication app for millions around the world. What sets it apart is that it sends texts and makes calls solely through WiFi. This means you don’t need to worry about SIM cards or an international data plan when communicating between countries.

Another perk of WhatsApp is that it is fully encrypted so not even the app itself can see your messages. You can send your location securely through the chat as well as photos, videos, and voice messages.

The best part is that WhatsApp is completely free !

This app was essential for my Birthright group trip to Israel and I’ve used it to communicate with my family who were traveling in India and Thailand at the same time!

Other Helpful Travel Tools and Apps to Add to Your Arsenal

34. find me gluten free.

For some this may not be the most popular or important travel planning app you’ll read about in this list, but for those travelers with food sensitivities, it definitely is. The most critical and important part of travel planning for those with food sensitivities like celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity is, w here can we eat?

While some destinations clearly cater to food allergies and sensitivites (like   Topolino’s Character Breakfast at the Riviera Resort in Walt Disney World), it can be hard to know which places will be food allergy friendly. The Find Me Gluten Free app helps take the guesswork out of choosing celiac friendly restaurant locations.

They have both a free and a paid (premium) version . The premium subscription is $19.99 USD per year which allows for no ads, specialty filters, and more. The great thing about this app is that it’s mainly being used by a community of other celiac or gluten sensitive people. With this the reviews have more value and tackle pertinent questions. So, be sure to download this app. 

Recommended by Dr. Rachel from TheRxForTravel.com

if you have dietary restrictions, Find Me Gluten Free is an essential travel tool for you

35. Day One

Day One is an easy-to-use journal app. First created in 2011, this iOS app is also available for Android phone users on Google Play. Day One is a free app with a subscription for additional features called Day One Premium ($34.99/yr) . You can use it with iPhones (free version) and sync with iPads, Macs and Apple Watches (premium version). 

The best things about this app are its simplicity and versatility. You can write a long journal each day or simply take a photo with a short, descriptive sentence. 

The premium version bumps it up a notch. You can use the automatic location and weather logging, create multiple journals, incorporate video clips, add sounds, and use tags to categorize journal entries creating a powerful search tool. 

Day One Premium also provides unlimited encrypted storage to ensure all data and entries are kept private and secure. You can save or export your journal in a PDF file or order a printed book of all your journal entries (for an extra fee).

Start writing and add a photo from your camera roll. It’s as simple as that. You can easily revisit the journey via timeline, media grid, or calendar view.

Recommended by Megan from Time.Travel.Trek.

travel tools apps

36. Get Your Guide

Get your Guide  is a fabulous traveling app that allows you to book day trips and excursions online. This means no more visiting an agent and negotiating the price and terms. You also don’t have to wait till you reach your destination, you can plan and pre-book before your trip.

Get your Guide is particularly helpful with  destinations in Europe  and North America, but also covers other popular tourist places around the globe. Apart from excursions, you can also book specialized guided tours by locals (e.g. food tours), airport transfers, admission tickets to attractions, and hop-on hop-off bus tickets. From browsing to booking, the whole user experience of the app is fluid and effortless.

Similar to TripAdvisor, in Get Your Guide you can see ratings and reviews for the tours, so even if you don’t book with the app, you will still get helpful insights to help you plan.

The app is available for free in the play store and the apple app store, you only have to pay for booking the tours.

Recommended by Vidyut from Triplyzer

Gumbo in a small bowl with a dollop of potato salad on top with chives and to the right of the saucer, a silver spoon

37. TripCase

TripCase is a fantastic free app that is intended to take the pressure off organizing your next trip! This app is available on both iOS and Android and it helps organize all your travel details into one location.

Forget searching through your email account for your hotel confirmation or looking up your flight status on Google, TripCase manages all these details for you.

With TripCase, as soon as you book your flights, hotels or transportation, you can forward the confirmation email to [email protected] from the email linked to your account. The intelligent app then pulls your travel details into your account and consolidates these bookings into their corresponding trips.

In TripCase you can review your trip’s upcoming itinerary and easily ensure accommodation and transportation are booked for each leg of your trip by reviewing the ‘timeline view’ which provides a high-level overview of which activities or transportation you have booked on which date.

One of the best features is the flight status updates. The app will track your upcoming flight, letting you know which terminal and gate the departure is from and will send out notifications if there is a change to your flight.

This app is so handy in organizing all the small details of your upcoming trip that it is a must-have for all travel lovers!

Recommended by Roxanne from Wild About BC

travel planning app shown on phone with passport, vintage camera, and mock on the table too

38. PackPoint

Figuring out what to pack for your destination is always a challenge but packing just got a lot easier with PackPoint. PackPoint is a free mobile travel planning app for iPhones and Androids. 

The simple interface makes it user-friendly to create a custom packing list based on a multitude of factors, including the weather forecast of your destination, trip length, activities you’ll be doing, and even whether or not you will be doing laundry.

What makes PackPoint so helpful is the detail in which it can generate your custom packing list. Once you tap Begin Packing, you’ll have a complete packing list that takes into account all the variables you’ve inputted about your trip!

You can continue to customize the list by adding your own items or deleting suggestions provided by the app that don’t fit your personal needs, helping you maximize space in your suitcase . And you can stay organized by checking each item off within the app as you pack! 

To customize your trip even more and have access to integrations with the apps Tripit and Evernote, you can pay $2.99 for PackPoint Premium .

Recommended by Michela from She Goes the Distance

travel tools apps

A helpful app that most travelers probably overlook is a period tracker app. While ‘time of the month’ apps tend to be used by those looking to track their ovulation calendar to help aid pregnancy, these apps can also be used by people who want to know when their period is due, so they can plan accordingly.

Women’s health apps, such as Flo, provide various options to track menstruation, predict cycles, and record symptoms. This allows you to get to know your body a little bit better.

Knowing when to expect symptoms such as cramps and tenderness can help you plan comfortable trips. In addition, some travelers may prefer to avoid certain activities while on their period, so they will find the predictions helpful.

For example, if you use a menstrual cup and are working out the best time to do a multi-day  East Coast road trip  in an RV with no running water, you might consider the road trip outside of your period window. 

Flo, and other health apps, are available on IOS and Android and tend to have a free tier with adverts and a premium option to remove ads. Flo has a 1-month subscription for $9.99, 3-month subscription for $19.99, 6-month subscription for $39.99, 1-year subscription for $49.99. 

Recommended by Amanda from Hey! East Coast USA

travel tools apps

40. Wanderlog

The Wanderlog app is a fantastic app that allows you to cut down on the various travel apps you’re currently using by being a conclusive app. It manages your itinerary, lodging, flight overview, and route management to ensure you’re saving time on transportation.

This app is also great because you can see top-tier guides and itineraries related to the place you’re visiting; this is essential to make sure you’re not missing out on any crucial and unique excursions.

Another noteworthy helpful point is this app recommends places to explore, optimal routes, and highly rated restaurants of various styles.

Wanderlog is a free app that can be used for most of the planning portion. However, you’ll be missing out on valuable features such as using the app while offline, real-time flight deal notifications, optimization of travel routes, and importing of lodging, flights, and rentals via your Gmail. Access to these premium features will cost $49.99 annually and is well worth the price due to the well-rounded features that allow you to eliminate using multiple sources. All in all, this travel app is a must-have for planning your next trip. 

P.S. Make sure to tag a friend in your planning as it allows tripmates to be added.

Recommended by Sierra and Yesenia from The Sisters Who Voyage

travel tools apps

41. Theme park apps

how to set wait time alerts for Hagrids Motorbike Adventure

If you’re planning to visit a theme park during your travels you should absolutely add the park’s app to your phone before your trip.

For example, the Walt Disney World app allows you to manage your group’s plans, reserve Genie+, schedule dining reservations, and more!

You can even download the Play Disney Parks app to have interactive experiences around Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge (Batuu).

Another great perk of these apps is ride wait time monitoring.

When I visited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando , I found it very helpful to set wait time notification so if the wait time for specific rides dropped below a certain time, the app would let me know. No more waiting in long lines, when the wait time will be shorter later!

travel tools apps

Looking for more planning resources?

  • How to plan a trip with a step-by-step walkthrough
  • Tips for finding the best things to do on your vacation
  • Useful tips for traveling cheap
  • Ideas for how to travel as a college student
  • How to plan out your vacation budget using Microsoft Excel
  • Walkthrough on how to plan a local trip

woman looking at a Georgia magazine with lots of guides to Athens and Georgia strewn about in front of her

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Click here for more than 40 super helpful and top recommended travel apps according to travel bloggers from around the world

My Travel Essentials

  • Travel Insurance  – Going on an international trip? Don’t forget travel and medical insurance with SafetyWing .
  • Travel Card  – If you’re new to travel hacking, fear not! My favorite card for beginners gives you $750 in rewards when you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months, plus lounge access, 10x points on hotel bookings, and free TSA pre-check!
  • Get Your Guide  – Check out Get Your Guide for a one-stop-shop for booking travel activities.
  • Booking.com  – This is my favorite hotel search aggregator, specifically for reading reviews. On Booking.com , the reviews can be searched for keywords like WiFi, breakfast, pool, amenities, etc.! So helpful!
  • Anti-pickpocket bag – Worried about having your valuables swiped? PacSafe makes the best travel bags with zippers and straps that lock and with mesh steel enforced fabric.
  • Give the Gift of Travel  – This is the perfect gift for travelers in your life! Tinggly allows you to gift experiences around the world, perfect for birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries.
  • Staycation Idea  – Check out Resort Pass , which gives you day passes to resorts so you can use their pool, spa, and fitness center, a great staycation idea!

hands outstretched holding a purple and gold chocolate frog candy tin in the left hand and trading cards with Honeydukes Sweet shop in the background

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Alanna Koritzke

Recent PhD graduate and hyper-planner of Periodic Adventures, my goal is to share travel inspiration, budget tips, detailed guides, and fun travel stories!

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travel tools apps

I definitely need to check out some of these apps. Do you also have a find Veggie/Vegan restaurants app?

travel tools apps

I’ve heard good things about HappyCow for finding vegan spots, but it does cost $3.99 to download. Probably worth it though!

travel tools apps

Fabulous post! I’m familiar with many of them and was delighted to find some new ones I didn’t know about before.

I’m glad to hear that Heather!

travel tools apps

Such a helpfull post, thank you for sharing it. I know some of these apps, but I found out that there are some other apps I have to download!

I’m glad to hear that! happy to help!

travel tools apps

what a great list! Would also recommend ATM Fee Saver – it helps find fee free and lower fee ATms abroad along with withdrawal limits for foreign card holders, use it quite a bit, helps in saving up on those costs! Worth adding to your list!

Ooh yes, great addition! That’s certainly helpful!

travel tools apps

Caroline Smith

Your blog is not just a guide; it’s a travel companion. The practical tips and advice make it clear you’ve been there and done that. I appreciate the insider insights that will undoubtedly enhance my travel experience.

I’m so glad to hear that!

travel tools apps

These are great examples! I would also like to introduce https://holiwise.com/ which helps you find travel destinations based on your preferences, finding the next adventure has never been easier 🙂

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Helpful Apps and Websites for Travel

Written by Dan

Updated on March 21st, 2024

A tin can with a map on it next to a window.

Here are some new ideas for the best and most useful websites, apps, tools and services that make your life easier during travel. Our top travel apps are subscriptions, free services and crowd-sourced data apps that provide cool travel hacks.

This article may contain affiliate links. We earn a small commissions when you purchase via those links — and it's free for you. It's only us (Becca & Dan) working on this website, so we value your support! Read our privacy policy and learn more about us .

Table of contents

  • The best insurance: World Nomads Travel
  • Priority Pass Airport Lounge Access
  • The best travel VPN: ExpressVPN
  • Venmo (or PayPal)
  • Free ATM Debit Card like Fidelity or Schwab
  • Currency Exchange by XE.com & XE App
  • Clarity Money
  • YouTube Premium
  • Prime Video
  • Google Flights
  • Secret Flying
  • Going (formally Scott’s Cheap Flights)
  • Chase Ultimate Rewards
  • City Mapper
  • Google Maps

MyFitnessPal

  • Google Translate
  • How to book hostels on the go: Hostelworld

Booking.com

  • Google Photos
  • Adobe Lightroom
  • Amazon Photos

Worldtimebuddy

  • Traveling Mailbox
  • OOTD: the Office of the Day App
  • Authentic Jobs
  • Hacker News: Who’s Hiring?
  • BBC en Español

Traveling is hard. Really hard (OK, sometimes). Before apps existed, we used to do it ourselves with paper, pen, fold-out maps and notes scribbled on paper.

Luckily, times have changed, and now apps can do so much that there’s nearly always “an app for that” (where did that saying come from?).

Are you planning to travel as a digital nomad or do something specialized like gluten-free travel ? There are apps that can help you do things like pin down specialty food, coworking spaces , mapping, communication and more.

As we describe in our story of how we dated long distance through travel , apps played a huge part in our relationship… and still do!

Apps can also help you do things on the go. You can look up live exchange rates as a travel money hack , try to save money while traveling by using photos as your souvenirs and even learn a new language for travel with some helpful — and fun — new apps.

Let’s see the apps that have helped us most and the ones we are currently using.

Useful Travel Apps for Convenience and Travel Hacks

Google Fi is one of my top-recommended services that you can get if you’re interested in traveling. Whether or not you’re about to go on a short trip or a long trip, Google Fi can help you. Actually, if you want an awesome cell phone plan for home, Google Fi works for you as well.

If you are already sold on Google Fi. You can sign up using this link !

The most useful feature of Google Fi is the ability to use the same phone and the same phone number in most countries. Every time I land in a new country, I take out my phone and I have service right away, with Google Fi. There’s no need for me to find local SIM cards or struggle to find WiFi.

When I’m not traveling full-time, I have a cellphone plan as part of a family plan, at home in the US. I keep that phone around when I’m home because there is more data attached to that plan. During these times, when I am not traveling, I pause my Google Fi plan and it saves me a little bit of money.

I used my Google Fi phone plan to tether local data when I was working from a small cabin in Argentina and needed to check something for work. The data can get expensive because you pay for your usage. The good news is that if you use a lot of data, Google caps how much you’ll pay. You’ll never be surprised with a $300 phone bill.

Now that Google is rolling out other phones to use with Google Fi (before now, it was only Google phones that you could use!), there’s no reason to not try it out for your next trip. It even works in most off-the-beaten-path destinations that you might be considering.

A woman is taking a picture of her phone with a red case.

The best insurance: World Nomads Travel

Travel insurance is important to have when you’re on the road, whether for a short trip or during long-term travel. Outside of the United States, you can pay out-of-pocket for some medical expenses and it can equal the amount of a standard doctor co-pay; however, if there’s ever an emergency, hospital visits or emergency evacuation can be expensive.

Luckily, World Nomads is a well-trusted and an amazing travel insurance provider.

Outside of health coverage, World Nomads helps cover other travel-related struggles, like lost baggage, theft and injury.

Priority Pass Airport Lounge Access

Becca and I wouldn’t know what to do in an airport without Priority Pass . We intentionally show up to airports early in order to get to the Priority Pass lounge, whenever we have a travel day. We’re lucky enough to have received Priority Pass through our credit card, Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Every airport lounge is different, depending on where in the world it might be located or depending on which airline or company runs it. Airport lounges give you a nice place to sit and relax before your flight.

Some airport or airline lounges offer nap rooms, showers, full meals, drinks, WiFi and so much more. We’ve been to a lounge in Hong Kong that has a noodle bar!

Some airport lounges aren’t as luxurious as others, and might offer simple snacks and drinks, like nuts and water. We’re not luxury travelers, but our Priority Pass membership is one of our main luxuries that we have come to love.

If you’re interested in trying Priority Pass , you can take a look at the stand-alone version of membership, or check out the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card, which includes a membership in the annual fee.

A plane flying in a clear blue sky.

The best travel VPN: ExpressVPN

A VPN is a good tool to have if you’re visiting websites that aren’t encrypted (HTTP only) or if you’re in a country where there are firewalls that block many websites (like China). You can also use a VPN to get benefits, like spoofing your location and watching location-specific shows online.

I use my VPN for two major reasons:

  • YouTube Premium is the only content that I watch. I don’t subscribe to Netflix, Hulu or any other service. Some countries don’t allow downloading YouTube videos, so you can download videos using a VPN!
  • Some websites restrict functionality if you’re not located in your home country (for example, music sites, banking sites and some others). For those cases, I’ll connect to a VPN in order to proceed with my task.

Try ExpressVPN!

The Best Apps for Money Hacks While Traveling

Venmo (or paypal).

Venmo and PayPal are two useful ways for paying friends while you’re traveling. Consider the typical situation of when you go out to eat: the bill is huge and the server is unable to split the bill.

If you’re traveling in a country and you only have big currency or no cash at all, it’s typical for someone to either cover you so that you can pay him or her back later, or pay for the entire bill.

Venmo and PayPal are the standard ways to pay a monetary amount from your bank account to other people’s bank accounts. It’s important to mention that Venmo is only supported in the USA. If you try and get Venmo in another country, you’ll probably run into issues. I suggest getting Venmo before you leave, if you don’t already have an account.

Free ATM Debit Card like Fidelity or Schwab

Ready for my travel money hack ?

I use two bank accounts as my primary checking accounts when I travel. I have a checking account with Fidelity and Charles Schwab . These bank accounts don’t charge an ATM fee when you withdraw money. This is useful for taking out smaller amounts of money whenever I want to. I avoid trying to optimize each visit to an ATM and it eliminates this type of stress.

I automatically deposit a small amount of money into these two checking accounts every month. I do this so that I never have to worry about empty checking accounts!

I should mention that both of these accounts reimburse ATM fees 30 days after a fee is charged. So, while my ATM receipt shows that I got charged a foreign bank fee, this fee gets reimbursed by the bank within about a month. No pain here!

Currency Exchange by XE.com & XE App

I’ve used Currency by XE.com in the past, but Becca actually uses this currency service a lot (it’s free to use!).

You can track how your home currency is doing compared to the currency in the country where you are traveling. I usually use Google, so I’d input, for example, “200 COP to USD.” From here, I get the conversion for what 200 COP equals in USD. This is a great money and budgeting hack while on the go.

Another trick is to remember the simple math to convert a currency. For example, the Peruvian Sol is always approximately three per 1 USD. So, I try to remember which values equate to which values in my home currency.

Another example is the Colombian Peso. To convert Colombian Pesos to United States Dollars, you divide by 3000. This won’t give you exact results, but it will give you a good ballpark and you’ll start to understand the value of what things cost, instead of always using your phone’s calculator or free XE.com app.

Clarity Money

Becca uses the Clarity Money app to track expenses and manage a budget. Clarity is an app with a nice interface that can help you clearly see what you’ve spent and which categories it falls into.

The best feature it has is that it has an easy search function to, for example, see what you’ve spent at [X store] over [X period of time]. That’s a cool way to see if you’ve spent excessively on shopping or non-necessities and that you need to slow down.

It can also help you budget and be sure you’re setting aside money in different types of buckets for certain goals (like travel, of course).

Mint is another money-tracking app that puts all your accounts together (if you give permission to link them) and you can see things like how much you’re saving over time and your net spend or gain over a month, for example.

When you open Mint, you can see your recent transactions (if you link your credit cards) and you can double-check the categorizations that have come up. In this way, you can see how much you’ve spent on “Restaurants” in the month of June, to give an example.

The best thing about Mint is that it sometimes notifies me if I’ve gotten charged a fee by a bank, before the bank even does. This has helped shift finances when I get back to a laptop, or notify and inform my bank I’d like to arrange a time to discuss.

Using Honey can help you save money when you buy anything online. It’s a browser extension that runs in the background and automatically applies coupon codes and notifies you when there is a deal or a sale. Super cool!

Entertainment Apps for Travelers (TV, videos, music, etc.)

Youtube premium.

I mentioned above that I watch a lot of YouTube videos . YouTube Premium enables ad-less playback of videos and supports downloading videos to your phone. Before a long flight, I’ll usually download some interesting videos to watch (sometimes I do this from the Priority Pass lounge).

I use YouTube instead of Netflix and I’ve never had any issues nor do I ever feel like I’m missing out on anything.

Netflix is great to have when you take long flights or have a rainy day where ever you are. You can download videos onto your phone when you don’t have access to the internet or cell service.

We’ve totally been on long bus rides in Colombia with nothing to do for 8 hours. If you’re traveling internationally, you can use a VPN to spoof your location to another region.

If you’re into new movies, a subscription to STARZ can help you be the first one of your friends to see what’s out.

If you get tired of the shows on Netflix, you can try Hulu ! Hulu will have different programming than some of the other streaming services. If you watch a lot of TV/shows/movies, check out Hulu.

Prime Video

Prime Video is great if you already pay for Amazon Prime. It’s great because it’s free. You don’t have to pay for Prime Video if you already pay for Amazon Prime . Check it out to see if you like the show and movie selection.

Keep an eye out for Prime Day to get the best Amazon Prime deals for travelers !

Spotify helps me get through repetitive tasks while I’m working. I’ll usually have Spotify open throughout my day of work. I’ll download a few songs to my phone and I will use that playlist when I go running or want to listen to music on a flight.

Do yourself a favor and get some bluetooth headphones like AirPods .

Best Apps for Travel Hacks During Flights and Transport

You can book a plane ticket or train ticket, or, you can do a lot of fun research beforehand to make sure you’re getting the best price, best connecting flight , best flight time and best airport.

Why not check out these apps and websites for flights and travel hacks while you’re on the go, or planning a trip? A single app can change a whole travel experience.

Before a flight, I’ll check my seat selection with SeatGuru . It will tell you things like, “the seat doesn’t recline.” Fun fact — I almost never recline my seat. I’m a good person to sit behind! These tips don’t work for every single airline and flight path, but they can save you from an uncomfortable experience.

Google Flights

When I do my flight research, I like to search via Google Flights . The search is fast and the site is really simple and easy to use. There’s not much of an upsell to rent a car or stay in a hotel, like with some other booking sites. Google Flights is a good way to get a benchmark of flights before you choose where or when to go.

Remember that if you’re aiming to use up an airline voucher , this has to be done through the airline website itself. Don’t worry though, because Google will always take you there when you click into a flight.

Secret Flying

Secret Flying is completely free and claims it will find you the cheapest deals online. This includes mistake fares or errors fares, and how to find these types of flight deals that come from mistakes made that are not yet corrected.

To browse error fares, head to the “Error Fares” section of the website, but the key is to get these fares while they’re hot and before they expire (or get corrected by the flight company or airline).

Going (formally Scott’s Cheap Flights)

Going is a membership-based website where by subscribing, the company claims you can save around $550 on average.

To get 20% off your first year of a Premium subscription to Going, use our exclusive code: HALFHALF20 , when purchasing.

You’ll get email alerts about cheap flights that depart from your favorite airports, and the flight deals you receive are vetted by Scott’s vetted flight experts. Two million people around the world use Going and many say that they’re able to take trips three times a year, for the price of one. This is cool to consider if you plan to fly frequently.

So, are you ready to have a new way to save money on flights and airfare? Sign up for Going here.

Rome2Rio was originally a very useful and popular website among the backpacker crowd, and now it’s an app. Rome2Rio shows you every mode of transport to get you from one city to another, or one place to another. In the app, you can see the prices and you can book transport if it’s in a service that exists online.

Up there with the legacy fame in the way that Rome2Rio has been an indispensable website for travelers over the years, Seat61 seems to be the original train travel hack website.

With a new focus on train travel as the eco-friendly and sustainable alternative to airplane travel, Seat61 helps you travel affordably by train (or ferry) in places where ‘you thought flying was the only option.’ Cool!

Kiwi.com is an excellent service if you want to get a general idea of how much it costs to fly to a certain region. I’ve used Kiwi to help determine how much it costs to go to Europe from New York City, for example. Most flight-booking engines give you price from city to city. Kiwi enables you to find the cheapest flight to “somewhere” South America from Chicago, for example.

Priceline can help you find the best deals for hotels, flights car rentals and vacation packages. It’s best to shop around when you’re pricing out your travel logistics. Priceline is a great tool to allow you to see prices from various vendors.

Chase Ultimate Rewards

I mentioned above that I use my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card to get Priority Pass .

The same credit card gives miles per every dollar spent. Those miles start to add up when you buy things that qualify as purchases in travel, food and other expense categories. You can redeem those miles for travel services like flights, cars and hotels.

You can also transfer those points to travel or airline partners, like United and JetBlue. Using Chase Ultimate Rewards has been helpful in saving money when taking long flights. I’ve used my points to book flights all the way from Europe to New York, and from New York to Vietnam .

Travel cards like the Chase Sapphire (and Freedom) credit cards are the best way to start travel hacking . You can really get hooked. Once you start accruing miles and points, you’ll never travel without thinking, “How many points will this flight cost me?” again.

Best and Most Useful Map, Transport and Location Apps

I like Maps.ME as an alternative mapping app. The app’s main focus is offline mobile maps, so this combo is perfect for getting to your destination without using any data.

I’ve found that the maps and directions are better in Maps.ME than in any other map app - the directions are easier to follow, in my opinion. Despite this helpful feature, I still find myself using Google Maps because it’s what I’m used to.

Maps.ME helped out during my hike in Iceland . One of my friends had the app installed and used it to find a hot spring in the middle of nowhere. Well, the hot spring was well-known, but it was an adventure for us to get there!

Maps.ME does a better job helping you get through trails and other places that don’t have roads.

Don’t fall into the same trap that I did! Give Maps.ME a try.

City Mapper

I’ve used City Mapper in the past when I was visiting London. The Tube stations and reliability was better than any other map app at the time. All of my friends in London used it and recommended that I use it, too.

Google Maps doesn’t always have to be the go-to mapping app. Sometimes a city has a general preference for another app based on what features it can offer.

Moovit is a popular app in Israel .

When I was in Israel, Google Maps had trouble with GPS and determining where addresses were in relation to where I was. Moovit fixed that problem! It made walking around and getting directions much easier.

Moovit “knows” everything about the buses in Israel, specifically. If you want to go anywhere in Israel by public transit, download Moovit in order to get there in the best way!

During my travels in South America, Uber has been one of the only taxi apps that I can use. Uber is much safer than regular taxis, specifically in Latin America.

Taking Uber is also easier if you’re not as comfortable speaking a language other than your own. Uber allows you to set your pickup and drop-off location, and everything else is taken care of.

A yellow taxi parked on a street.

I’ve heard from locals in Mexico and Colombia that using Uber has helped them go out at night and get to otherwise geographically-challenging locations. This means that the app has changed people’s lives, for the better!

When Lyft is available, I prefer to use Lyft. What can I say — I have a soft spot for pink mustaches.

Lyft, Uber and other ride-sharing apps generally do the same thing. They allow you to set your location and easily get to your destination. When I was in San Francisco, Lyft was often used in place of public transportation. A Lyft ride can be about the same cost as a one of their public transportation methods.

Also, in San Francisco, there are special Lyft programs for people that take Lyft to work. There’s a specific route that you can jump into with other passengers. This helps keep the cost down, and you can rely on the route in order to get to work efficiently. Seems more eco-friendly, right?

A man driving a car with a cell phone in his hand.

Taxify tends to exist in cities that do not typically have Lyft or Uber available. This isn’t always true, but I’ve found this to be the case most of the time.

I mainly have used Taxify in European cities. The same strategy for having a safe and easy ride is true here. The difference with Taxify is that regular cabs can use the app. This is because Taxify isn’t necessarily a “ride-sharing app” like Lyft and Uber are.

Grab is the equivalent of Uber in places like Vietnam . The difference is that you can pay by credit (set up the credit option from your home country before you leave, to be safe) or cash, upon the completion of the ride.

Google Maps

Google Maps is the most common app for getting around. It handles walking, biking, driving and public transportation options. I like to use Google Maps to create stars and labels for some of the places that I frequently visit. This makes it easier to get back to those locations easily.

One of my favorite features is the ease of download of offline maps. Downloading offline maps is helpful in saving data if you’re using Google Maps outside of WiFi. Also, if you don’t have any data, you can still use maps when you’ve downloaded the data.

I’ve been using Swarm since before it was Swarm. Swarm used to be a part of Foursquare by way of “Foursquare Check-ins.” They broke it off into a new app that creates a gamification layer to visiting new places. These places can be cafes, bars, hotels, cities, airports and more. You get stickers and points for the places that you check in to.

Your friends can also see where you visited and where you currently are, if they use the Swarm app as well.

My favorite feature is to be able to look at where I’ve been in the past. If you ask me, what’s that cool restaurant that you visited in Belgrade? I’ll be able to search through my Swarm history and tell you the name and location of the restaurant. I checked, and the restaurant that I was thinking about is called Smokvica .

A woman is holding up a smartphone with a map on it.

Best Apps for Health for Digital Nomads and Travelers

We like to focus on health when we travel. During long-term travel, you may go through spurts of a high interest in health and activity, counteracted by periods of when you don’t care so much. Not everyone’s interested in health, but some people define their lives and progress by it.

Google Health now has metrics like active minutes per day, miles or km walked in a day, heart health and more.

The app tracks ‘Heart Points’ and ‘Move Minutes’ to help show how much activity you’ve had in a day, and then shows a bar graph of your steps over a week. This can be cool to see if for example you walked 7 miles a day like we did, in Barcelona, Spain .

This app is also on Google Play Store .

If you’re interested in what you consume in a day, MyFitnessPal helps you track calories and consumption activity through an app that helps total these metrics. It can be really interesting and can give some clarity to your habits.

If you’ve been indulging in lots of pizza and pasta in Italy, excessive empanadas in Colombia or too many bowls of pho in Vietnam, you might start with a resolution to get more fit and drop some pounds while traveling for a while.

WeightDrop helps track your weight, if you have a scale nearby. You can see over time how your weight changes, if you like to measure your progress in that way. This is not for everyone, but can be an interesting thing to track over a year.

Best Apps for International Communication While Traveling

Communicating across oceans used to cost a ton of money or take a while. Now, you’ve got either instant communication, or asynchronous communication , and there are tons of ways to do both.

If you’re going to be abroad and out of your home country, why not try a few different ways to communicate with friends and family back home, and with travelers you meet along the way?

Google Translate

English is becoming spoken and understood in many different cities and countries all over the world. I’m really grateful that English is my first language.

Whenever I am in a new place where people do not understand English, I try to learn my hellos, goodbyes and thank yous in the local language. I’ll usually have Google Translate open on my phone to help translate words from another language that I am not familiar with.

My favorite feature about Google Translate is its ability to translate text from an image. A perfect application of this is in translating a menu. You can take a picture of the text on a menu and then you can understand it!

A street sign with a bicycle on it.

WhatsApp has been forever useful in communicating with everyone. I use it every day to talk with friends and family, but I have also used it to communicate with locals that I meet.

It’s a universal text message application that almost everyone around the world uses. WhatsApp is incredible!

It’s amazing that once you leave the USA, many people use this instead of iMessage or regular text messaging.

Slack is how I keep in touch with more professional contacts. I am a member of several Slack communities that all offer different things.

Slack by itself is nothing. You need an invite from a specific group, organization or company to make something out of Slack. You’re able to join as many communities as you want, after you get that invite.

The workspaces and Slack communities that I belong to help me find work, stay in touch with other travelers, talk about photography and so much more.

Most meetings that you take for interviews and work calls with be on Zoom . A fun tip for Zoom, is to explore within the video settings and remove your background. Instead of superimposing a background of a beach, you may actually be at a beach.

Krisp can block out background noises for you and the person on the other end of the call. This is great if you are in a noisy cafe or airport.

Best Apps for Booking Accommodations While Traveling

If you want more information about how we book accommodations, feel free to check out our article that we wrote about finding accommodations .

A bed with a blue comforter.

Airbnb has been helpful when booking places to stay for a trip. Airbnb has one of the better filtering systems out there. You can choose a place to stay based on a number of different options. Do you want a kitchen? Do you want a single home? Do you a queen-sized bed? Cool. Airbnb can be how you find an optimal place to stay, whether that place is an apartment, a house, a room in a hostel or room in a guesthouse.

VRBO is a great tool when you’re looking for something more like a vacation. You’ll find some of the best vacation rentals when you’re looking to get away. You can also use this to connect with home-owners if you’re interested in doing any long terms stays somewhere.

How to book hostels on the go: Hostelworld

I use Hostelworld to get an idea of where the cool neighborhoods are in a city. This is sort of a flawed system because sometimes the hostels are in the party part of town. This is usually true in Europe, but it’s helpful in Central and South America, because hostels are usually also located in the safest parts of a city.

We also use Hostelworld to find out which cities in a country are best to stay in. Hostelworld helped a whole bunch when we went to Colombia, Argentina and Portugal.

I’ll use Booking.com if Hostelworld and Airbnb do not return quality results. When I was in Patagonia, I noticed that Booking.com had way better options than AirBnb did. Hostelworld and hostels were not as popular for the smaller towns. Booking.com helped us a lot in the coasts of Portugal during our road trip, and in Sri Lanka, where hostels are not yet a huge thing.

Trying to decide between all the types of accommodations? Check our guide for Hostels vs. Airbnb vs. Hotels .

Productivity and Data Management For Travelers On the Go

If you’re a digital nomad or remote worker on the go and you’re looking for travel apps to make your work life easier, check out these suggestions.

Dropbox is great for a professional setting. You can use it to collaborate with others by sharing files and keeping shared assets organized. I use Dropbox for sharing files with clients and keeping my own files organized and backed up. By the way, if you use this link to sign up for Dropbox, you’ll get 500MB of storage for free!

For traveling, I like to use Dropbox to keep a copy of important documents, like a copy of my passport and other banking records. It makes finding these items really easy if you’re like me and can’t remember your passport number. You can quickly open Dropbox and browse toward the location in which you’ve saved those documents.

I’ve been using 1Password for almost five years. I have over 400 logins saved. It’s incredible that I’ve even logged into 400 different websites. Nevertheless, each one of those websites uses a different password.

Because every website has a different password, if that website’s data were ever compromised, my password that the hacker would get is basically useless for logging into any other account that I have.

1Password is essentially a flexible database. You can store whatever you want inside of 1Password. At a high level, it’s a secure vault that can keep varied types of information. You can store credit card information, phone numbers, lists and more.

Storing your credit cards and other information is a good idea if your wallet ever gets lost or stolen. Having a record of your credit card numbers is incredibly useful if you need to call a bank and report the card as lost or stolen.

Over the years, I’ve bounced around using a few different to-do apps. I used Teuxdeux for a few years before switching to Todoist . The reason that I switched was because I wanted to have more control over my to-do items. I use to-do lists to plan my day and Todoist provides a lot of functionality.

When you’re traveling, you can plan on-the-fly itineraries of your trip using Todoist. Let’s say that you want to visit 10 interesting sites in total. You can spread them out throughout your stay and use a simple to-do app to track your progress or plan.

In my case, Trello is sort of like Todoist, except that it’s for more long-term, non-time-sensitive information. I put big ideas into Trello along with long-term goals.

You can use Trello to plan a list of things that require feedback from other people, and you can plan lists of items that include images and other attachments. Imagine that you’re planning to take a three-month trip. What are all of the steps that you need to take in order to leave? It’s different for everyone, but planning the steps in an app like Trello can help make that process easier.

Backblaze is my favorite product to talk about. Most days, I forget that I have it running in the background. It keeps all of my data safe and gives me peace of mind that I’ll never lose a file or a photo.

If you take a lot of travel photos or do a lot of writing when you travel, making sure that your data is backed up, especially if you’re saving everything to an external hard drive, is an important part of traveling. It’s easy to lose a hard drive or damage a hard drive. Backblaze has a simple interface that backs up all of your data in the background.

Big white coffee mug next to a MacBook Pro on a wooden table desk in a coworking space

Best Apps for Photography for Travelers on the Go

Google photos.

Google Photos is an incredible tool for organizing, viewing and storing your photos. If you have an Android phone, like a Google Pixel or something else, photos automatically backup to Google Photos. iPhones require you to download the app before using the service.

My favorite uses for Google Photos are the search and the assistant. Being able to search for locations is so useful. I can search for something like, “Jamaica,” and easily find photos from my trip to Jamaica back in 2012. Even though I didn’t geo-tag those photos or even have cell data, Google can predict that I was there based on other factors and show me those photos.

Google Photos has an assistant that shows you cool information. It can make GIFs from your photo bursts and can make a collage of photos based on similar other ones. If you have a large volume of photos like I do, this type of information is fun to look back at!

As a tip, Google Photos is crucial to have for working out storage on your phone. Even if your iCloud is enabled, you might find that your photos have “filled up” your phone storage. If that happened to you recently, fix your iPhone’s photo storage with these tips.

A woman is taking a picture on her cell phone.

Adobe Lightroom

Lightroom is my preferred tool for editing photos. Without a computer, I can take photos from my camera, edit them on Lightroom Mobile and then share them on social media. I don’t typically do this, but sometimes I do.

Lightroom is a good way to catalog all of the photos that you take when you travel. Lightroom CC has a similar search process to Google Photos. You can search for generic terms like “dog” and get a bunch of dog photos.

Woman holding a Google Pixel 2

Amazon Photos

Amazon photos won’t let edit your photos, but you can use the service to help backup and view your photos. It comes free with Prime. Amazon Prime will also be useful if you want to watch Prime Video.

Virtual Remote Work and Digital Nomad Apps

The apps below make work possible when you’re away from home, or when your home is ‘away’ from home all the time.

Working remotely is a big part of how I am able to travel for long periods at a time. At any time when I need to sign a contract, DocHub can help. You can have your signature ready to go and you can easily drop it on a line that requires your signature. You can than export that document as a PDF and send it off to where it needs to go. So cool!

A big part of travel is understanding how to deal with time zones. It’s currently 10:45 pm here in Mexico, but in New York City, it’s 11:45 pm. In Dubai, it’s 8:45 am. Good morning, everyone!

When you have to set up a meeting with someone in another time zone or figure out what time it is back home, Worldtimebuddy can help. You can add a few different cities and easily see an overlap of what time it is everywhere.

A clock on the side of a building.

Traveling Mailbox

When I was traveling full-time, I used Traveling Mailbox on a weekly basis - this service allowed me to receive physical mail while I was traveling. In the past, I sent mail to my parents’ house or let it pile up in the location where I was staying.

The Traveling Mailbox service was especially useful because I run my own business. I often get sent mail that is associated with my business, and I’m able to see a physical scan of my mail items online.

This has been helpful in permitting me to not rely on others to collect my physical mail.

A man driving a mail truck on a street.

OOTD: the Office of the Day App

This app knows where you are (if you give it your location), and it’ll find you a place to work, as recommended by other digital nomads .

Depending on where you are, you can search (for example) for a place to work in Los Angeles, or Bangkok, Thailand. Each entry comes with ratings for features like WiFi, outlets, ability to make/take phone calls, credit card usage and outdoor space.

Recommend it to a friend, as it gets better as more people use it!

Remote Work Job Boards for Digital Nomads

For a more comprehensive list of work from home websites , check out our full list on remote jobs!

RemoteOK is one of the more popular job sites for finding remote work. It has a simple interface for browsing and searching for different remote jobs. All of the jobs are remote, so there isn’t any remote or location filter like you’d see on other job sites.

Most of the jobs on this site are developer-focused, but you will find jobs for marketing, customer service and a few other types of industries.

A laptop sitting on a wooden table.

Every year or two, I give Upwork a shot. I am curious as to which types of jobs you can apply for and which skills are in demand. It takes a lot of time for someone to become popular on the Upwork platform. You’ll get rewarded for the work that you do and how often you get hired.

I personally haven’t had too much success with Upwork. Most of the proposals that I submit as a developer often go unnoticed because there is a lot of competition. If you’re looking for work, give Upwork a try and let me know how it goes!

I’m on Fiverr . There, I said it. It took me a long time to create a gig and give the platform a shot because Fiverr has a reputation that I didn’t want to be associated with. However, times have changed and I’ve found the platform to be interesting.

There is a lot of competition for certain types of jobs or gigs, but it’s fun to play with the market and AB-test various different gigs to get a sense for what is popular.

The more and more that I played with Fiverr, the more I realized that you get rewarded for using the site more. The more your gigs get ordered, the more you appear in the search results. Depending on many 5-star ratings you have, the more you will rank higher for high-competition gigs. It makes sense: Fiverr wants to reward quality people because the company takes a cut of your income, per job.

Authentic Jobs

Authentic Jobs has been a place where I’ve searched for jobs for so many years. I can’t remember the first time that I heard about Authentic Jobs, but it’s been there with me for a few different career hires.

Authentic Jobs has a filter for remote positions. My favorite filter is actually displaying types of roles, like part-time, full-time and contract roles. There aren’t too many positions listed, but the ones that are listed are usually high-quality. The jobs that are posted are mostly design and development jobs.

For my entire career, I never took LinkedIn seriously. Until recently, my tag line was, “Hire me for pizza advice.” I mean, you can totally still hire me for pizza advice. When you visit my LinkedIn profile now, it paints a more professional picture. There’s a time to be playful, but I started to realize that LinkedIn wasn’t the place for that.

You can share your professional knowledge about travel through LinkedIn. After traveling with Remote Year, I realized that sharing specific travel-related advice on LinkedIn is an effective way to find a new travel community and a way to attract readers to your content.

Hacker News: Who’s Hiring?

I’ll admit that my consumption of Hacker News articles has dropped off significantly. I’ll still vouch for the quality that their monthly job posting has. The best part about this job board is that it’s crowd-validated. The posts get up-voted, so the most popular and interesting job posts bubble to the top.

If there’s a really obvious question about the posting, someone probably answered it in the thread below the post. There’s no filter for remote jobs because it’s a text-only service. However, good ole’ CMD + F “remote” always returns a few interesting positions to check out.

A woman typing on a laptop while sitting at a table.

Helping You Work Remotely

Even if you think you have remote work down to a science, it’s never too late to add a new work hack to your work and travel life. While we list lots of tips for working remotely on our website, check out the tools that make it work for us below.

When I was living in New York City, I started working remotely from my neighborhood on days with bad weather. After doing this during a few snow storms, I quickly realized how effective I could be by not going into an office. I started working from home more frequently because of the productivity benefits that I saw.

I quickly got bored working from my living room. I started to look for more cafes to work from near my apartment in Park Slope. After stumbling on a few cafes with bad WiFi and limited power outlets, I found Workfrom .

Workfrom has crowd-sourced a global network of cafes that share helpful stats like how many power outlets exist, how fast the WiFi is and if the cafe has good food or coffee. I added a few of my favorite neighborhood stats to the Park Slope map!

Interior of a cozy cafe, with white quartz tables and blue and teal wooden chairs next to a wooden bar

I like how simple Nomad List is. It gives you a generalization for how it is to travel to and live in a city that might be really far away. If you’re going to Hanoi , you can see criteria about how safe it is there, how the internet is there and other helpful stats like air quality.

While it’s an average of a lot of different data points, you can get a good idea about what it’s like to be there.

If you subscribe to Nomad List, you can enter in all of the places that you’ve been to and also connect with other travelers with the Nomad List Slack community.

News Apps: How to stay in touch with what’s going on

Usually when we’re traveling, Becca refreshes the NYTimes app every morning. It pre-loads, at least in summary form, so if we’re on a train or bus without WiFi for the rest of the day, she can still skim through headlines in each section and get briefed on what’s going on.

There’s nothing worse than being out of the loop. With phones, apps and WiFi, you can now stay connected anywhere (even when you don’t feel like it - ugh!).

Also free, but with no limits on articles per month like the NYTimes app, the CNN app has tons of articles. It doesn’t pre-load as well, so expect to use it only when connected to WiFi.

BBC en Español

Maybe you read the BBC in English, but Becca reads it in Spanish. If you don’t read Spanish, and you’re not looking for a way to practice Spanish, what we do suggest is getting a news app in the language you ARE trying to learn. This helps with word recognition and key words, even if you skim for only a few minutes per day.

Apple News is one of the default apps that comes with the iPhone. It creates an aggregation of top stories drawn from many news sources, so you get variation. You can also choose which ‘beats’ you’d like to see, from travel to science to fashion.

Apps for selling stuff and downsizing before travel

When we decided to travel for 10 months on a remote work digital nomad trip , we sold all our furniture. And got rid of a lot of clothes (that we could have made money on if we had just taken the time to sell it all).

We also got rid of things like coffeemakers, bikes, electronics… you name it. We had to downsize, and because we had just decided to go on Remote Year , we had to do it fast.

It’s too bad that we didn’t discover Poshmark until we saw ads for it on the subway after we got back from our trip. The way we started selling on Poshmark was because we went through our belongings after getting back from our trip, and realized we (awkwardly) hadn’t missed some of it. So we started posting listings for our name-brand items on Poshmark.

Poshmark is an app that lets you create listings with photos and details for clothes, shoes, bags, accessories and jewelry. It’s mostly for people who want to buy (and sell) name-brand things at a discount if it’s gently used. We had the most luck with Poshmark after returning from travel, but that’s because we didn’t know about it beforehand.

We recommend Poshmark if you have a lot of name-brand or luxury items you can part with, and you’re downsizing your wardrobe before setting off on the road for a while.

Mercari is like Poshmark but it’s for “anything.” You can sell electronics, bags, luggage, household items and more, in a type of marketplace where buyers can barter. You can also set your settings to ‘eat up’ the mailing fee, or charge it to the buyer. There’s lots of options. We haven’t had luck on it yet, but we’re trying to get rid of a few things we’re done using.

While not an app (yet?), Craigslist was a way we sold our furniture before we ended our lease in order to travel-long term. We also used the ‘Free’ section to get rid of things we couldn’t sell and didn’t want to have when we returned (like the coffeemaker mentioned above!).

Craigslist works by setting up listings, adding photos and locations, and then waiting for buyers to contact you via email. Because we sold furniture over Craigslist, and the world is a big place, we recommend meeting buyers in public places if you can, if the item is small. If you’re selling furniture or something large, have someone else in your home with you when the buyer comes for pickup.

Best apps for learning a language for travel

Did you ever want to learn a new language for your trip ? We often do, and we often have picked up some basics in a very new language while traveling. We know how to say ‘carrot’ in Vietnamese, ‘thank you’ in Lithuanian and ‘tap water’ in Portuguese. These can be super important!

Drops came as a surprise, and we found it while looking up ways to learn some Vietnamese on the plane ride over to Hanoi . Drops is like a swipe-right swipe-left app, but with simple words in another language.

This makes learning a new language really fun!

Looking to learn a new language for your upcoming trip? Try Duo Lingo , which is a fun way to brush up on basics for a language or learn a new one.

As you’ll find in our article about tips for learning languages , there are lots of ways to learn languages, but doing it on the go is easy. With an app like Duo Lingo, you can get some vocab in during a flight, bus ride or taxi ride.

Pleco is the #1 easy dictionary for English-Chinese and Chines-English. It’s great for when you’re in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore. It’s like a dictionary made fun again.

Mondly is a free app that comes in lots of languages. We downloaded it for some languages to learn before we went on trips!

We hope these apps helped improve your travel experience. Now that you’re ready to go, check out our checklist for what to do before going on a trip .

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7 Useful Apps Every Traveler Should Know About

By Harrison Pierce

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All products featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Technology continues to make travel easier for millions of people around the globe. New apps offer travelers fresh ways to research a destination, connect with fellow globetrotters, communicate with locals, and track their flights. As a full-time digital nomad , I’ve learned the importance of having the right tools at your disposal when on the road.

Over the past few years, I’ve visited dozens of countries, flown hundreds of thousands of miles, and tested countless apps to find the ones that prove to be the most helpful. And while tools like Meetup, Google Maps, Google Translate, currency converters, and vacation rental , airline, and hotel–specific apps are in fact indispensable on most trips, I find that many of the best travel apps are still undiscovered by my fellow travelers.

Below, seven travel apps that make life on the go markedly easier (and more fun), from real-time flight trackers to photo-sharing gems—all of these apps are free, but some have paid pro versions worth considering. Don’t think these apps are only for full-time travelers—they prove useful for every type of traveler, whether you're in a brand-new destination or back for a return visit.

Discover the best apps for travelers:

Apps for flying, apps for exploring, apps for photo sharing.

Image may contain: Aircraft, Airliner, Airplane, Transportation, Vehicle, and Flight

My favorite app on this list is Flighty, a must-have for any frequent flier . The free version is fantastic, but I recommend splurging for the premium version, which gives you even more useful information and comes at a reasonable cost of $48 per year. The functionality it provides more than justifies the price.

The free version allows you to input all future flights plus past journeys you've taken within the last year. It provides updated information if any schedule changes occur to upcoming flights and allows you to track all the miles you’ve flown in one place.

The other main benefit is that it allows you to share your flight information with friends and family members who are also on Flighty. They will receive real-time updates about your flight without you having to text them. My parents love to make sure I’m safe so they appreciate getting detailed information about my travels—even while I’m in the air.

Image may contain: Gun, Weapon, Shooting, and Spiral

Flightradar24 is a favorite app among fellow aviation geeks. It lets you track almost any aircraft you see in the air throughout the day or night. You can track your own flight, a friend's flight, or any plane you see in real-time. It shares plenty of cool data, like the altitude, speed, arrival and departure airports and times, and tail number.

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There are tons of eSIM apps on the market, but Airalo is probably my favorite, with digital SIM cards available for dozens of countries. I find it to be the most reliable and offers the best data packages. It can be a little pricey, but it is the best option if you’re only taking short trips. Holafly is another eSIM app that offers unlimited data and works well, but I find the app to be much more glitchy than Airalo and would recommend using the desktop version.

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This one is for the planner of the group. Wanderlog merges the best of a bunch of different apps into one. Imagine an app that lets you plan a trip with ease: collaborate with friends as if you’re on Google Docs, manage expense tracking like Splitwise, and have a central place for your reservations, checklists, and more. Tripit is a similar travel planner app, so you can download both and get a feel for which interface you like better.

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Been allows you to track the countries you’ve visited and make a wish list of places you can’t wait to cross off your travel bucket list . It gives you information like the percentage of the globe you’ve been to and shows you a world map of your trips. It’s always fun to add in a new country whenever I reach my destination.

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This app was introduced to me by fellow nomads I met at a cafe in Montevideo, Uruguay . It automatically tracks your route across the world, allowing you to quickly upload pictures throughout your travels that can be viewed by anyone who has access to your profile. It’s an excellent way to share important moments with loved ones without needing to send photos to each person individually. Users can also create easily accessible guides filled with up-to-date information to help you plan your own trip.

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Steller is another app that a friend recently introduced me to, and I’ve quickly fallen in love with it. It uses a combination of AI and user experiences to help you plan trips around the globe. From recommendations of things to see, like the Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires or the Royal Palace of Naples, to full guidebooks created by users, you can get inspired, book experiences, and discover hidden gems within this app.

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The 9 Best Travel Apps

A woman traveling in Europe with a smartphone

These days, everyone travels with a smartphone. Beyond the ability to take endless selfies and keep in touch with family back home, they provide us with a never-ending stream of tools and apps to help us plan our travels and deal with any hiccups we encounter on the road.

Unfortunately, while there’s no shortage of travel apps, most of them are terrible.

To help you avoid downloading (and maybe even paying for) apps that aren’t worth your time, I’ve compiled a list of my favorite travel apps. These apps will save you time, money, and help you make the most of your travels. They’re the apps I think every traveler should have on their phone before they leave home.

Table of Contents

1. GetYourGuide

2. loungebuddy, 3. hostelworld, 4. skyscanner, 6. xe currency converter, 7. google translate, 8. happycow, 9. gasbuddy.

A screenshot of the Get Your Guide homepage

Whether you’re in the planning stages and looking for things to fill out your upcoming itinerary or you’re already in a new country and want something to do later that day, GetYourGuide can help. I’ve used them a bunch and always have a great time!

Loungebuddy logo for the travel app

LoungeBuddy takes the pain out of the process. After entering your credit card, airline status, and lounge memberships, the app tells you which lounges you can access at any given airport. It makes even the longest layover tolerable so you can relax and enjoy your travels. And if you don’t have status, you can book lounge access directly through the app. It’s easy to use, and free to download.  

Hostelworld travel website homepage screenshot

You can also use the app to see who else is staying at the hostel. You can join a group chat for the hostel and connect with travelers to make plans before you arrive. In short, it’s a must-download app for backpackers and solo travelers. The app is free to download.  

A Skyscanner homepage screenshot

The best feature of the app, however, is the ability to search for flights to everywhere . You simply input your departure airport and the dates you want to travel, and it will bring up all the potential options — from cheapest to most expensive — so you can browse for ideas without needing to check each one manually.

If you want to save money on flights, this app is a must. The app is free too.  

TripIt screenshot of the website's homepage

The basic version is free while the pro version is $49 USD per year.  

The XE currency app homepage

If you have to stay on budget (and don’t want to get ripped off), download this app. It’s free.  

The Google Translate app homepage, a popular travel app

The app can read out your text too so you can hear how it is properly pronounced, and you can also use your camera to take photos of text that it can translate too (which is helpful if you need to read ingredients while shopping, for example). The app is free.  

The homepage of the GasBuddy travel app

The app is free but for $9.99 USD per month, you can upgrade to premium, which saves you 20 cents a gallon (up to 50 gallons) and provides 24/7 roadside assistance.

While it’s important to not spend your entire trip on your phone or social media, there are times when using your smartphone can easily improve the quality of your trip, keep you safe, and save you money. By downloading the apps above, you’ll be able to have a much smoother trip, giving you more time, energy, and money to invest in your next adventure.  

Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner . It’s my favorite search engine because it searches websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is being left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld . If you want to stay somewhere other than a hostel, use Booking.com as it consistently returns the cheapest rates for guesthouses and hotels.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

  • SafetyWing (best for everyone)
  • Insure My Trip (for those 70 and over)
  • Medjet (for additional evacuation coverage)

Want to Travel for Free? Travel credit cards allow you to earn points that can be redeemed for free flights and accommodation — all without any extra spending. Check out my guide to picking the right card and my current favorites to get started and see the latest best deals.

Need Help Finding Activities for Your Trip? Get Your Guide is a huge online marketplace where you can find cool walking tours, fun excursions, skip-the-line tickets, private guides, and more.

Ready to Book Your Trip? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel. I list all the ones I use when I travel. They are the best in class and you can’t go wrong using them on your trip.

Got a comment on this article? Join the conversation on Facebook , Instagram , or Twitter and share your thoughts!

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links above may be affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I earn a commission if you make a purchase. I recommend only products and companies I use and the income goes to keeping the site community supported and ad free.

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The 9 Best Travel Planner Apps of 2024

Proper planning prevents poor purchasing. Get ready for your trip the right way!

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Planning the perfect trip can be almost overwhelming enough to take the fun out of what should be an exciting experience. Thankfully, many travel planning apps are available to help you organize your next getaway, right down to the smallest detail.

Best for Predicting Lowest Flight and Hotel Prices: Hopper

The Watch feature sends push notifications about good deals when it's time to commit.

Some fairly large airlines aren't included in Hopper's analysis.

Hopper's proprietary algorithm tries to predict where flight and lodging prices are headed shortly, letting you wait until the right moment to spring into action and book your trip at the lowest price. The app analyzes billions of prices per day and claims to predict what the cheapest one will be with a 95% accuracy rate.

Download For:

Best Overall Trip Planner: Kayak

The Explore feature helps you decide on a destination, suggesting getaways all over the globe based on your maximum budget.

Doesn't always show all available flights on a specific route, potentially causing you to miss out on the best deal.

One of the top all-in-one apps for setting up a trip, Kayak searches hundreds of travel sites instantly to provide multiple deals on a flight, hotel, or rental car in the same location. Kayak also organizes everything in one place and includes up-to-date details on security wait times, along with airport terminal maps.

The app also measures your luggage using your phone's camera, informing you of potential fees and carry-on rules for most airlines.

Best for Helping You Remember the Essentials: Packing Pro

An impressive group of sample packing lists provides a good starting point if you don't want to make your own.

In-app purchases are inappropriate for an app you purchased.

Packing Pro is well worth the $2.99 if stuffing your suitcases isn't your favorite pre-trip activity. The app creates customizable packing lists considering essential factors like the trip duration, destination, expected weather conditions, food preferences, and more. Packing Pro's robust item catalog ensures that even the most unique dietary or religious restrictions are satisfied.

Best for Car or RV Trips: Roadtrippers

The hidden gems that can be discovered with this app.

GPS coordination isn't as good as it is in apps like Waze.

If dealing with long lines at the airport isn't your idea of fun, then Roadtrippers may be the app for you. Whether you're hitting the highway or off-roading, enter your starting and destination points and let Roadtrippers provide everything you need.

From campsites and outdoor attractions to unique adventures that are off the beaten path, this app is the perfect companion for planning an excursion, no matter if your mode of transportation is a small-sized rental car or a giant RV.

An optional yearly subscription unlocks advanced features, including live traffic monitoring and different map styles.

Best for Finding Bargain Flights: Skiplagged

Frequent travelers can save a significant amount of money.

Airline baggage fee policies can be murky, so read the fine print before booking.

By showing fares to connecting cities that are sometimes cheaper than a direct flight to that city, Skiplagged lets you book flights where you stay at the layover location (your destination) rather than continuing with the connecting flight. When it works, you spend less to reach your desired destination. Skiplagged also lets you book last-minute hotel deals.

Best for Avoiding Hidden Fees: Skyscanner

Offers protection to ensure car rental providers don't overcharge for fuel.

In rare instances, flight prices shown in the app are outdated.

Skyscanner should be included in some of the bigger all-in-one planning and booking apps. Offering reliable price alerts, integrated frequent flyer miles, and no additional or hidden fees like you might find elsewhere, Skyscanner usually follows through on its promises and is easy to navigate.

Best Itinerary Planner: Sygic Travel

If you don't want a planned itinerary, Sygic is useful for finding nearby attractions on-the-fly.

Access to Sygic's offline maps requires a paid upgrade to the Premium version.

Sygic Travel lets you plan a detailed itinerary for each day of your trip before you leave home, down to the last detail, like walking distances between attractions.

With over 50 million places included, many with 360-degree videos that make you feel like you're there, the app's smart search filters help you narrow things down to the perfect daily schedule. Collaborative city guides provide an easy-to-use snapshot of the most popular locales around the globe.

Best for Customer Reviews: TripAdvisor

The forums are a great resource for getting specific travel-related questions answered quickly.

Default rankings don't always correlate with customer reviews, so you often need to take a deeper dive to discover the best value.

A stalwart in the travel industry, TripAdvisor isn't unique in providing a one-stop-shop for booking good deals on flights, hotels, and restaurants for your upcoming trip, though it does a dependable job of each. The app sets itself apart with its customer feedback on airlines, lodging, food, and activities. By offering over 500 million opinions from real travelers who've been there and done that, TripAdvisor helps you make informed planning decisions based on others' past experiences.

Best for Organizing Confirmations and Reservations: TripIt

Send information manually, forward confirmation emails, or have the app automatically fetch itineraries from your inbox.

The default notification setting is for an annoying number of alerts.

When you plan a trip, it's not uncommon to receive multiple confirmation emails and itineraries from airlines, hotels, rental car companies, or other sources. Keeping all these details organized can be a hassle.

TripIt solves this problem by taking all your scattered information and organizing it into an easy-to-use main itinerary. This basic functionality is free of charge, while an annual subscription provides the ability to upgrade your seat on upcoming flights and track reward miles, among other perks.

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The 17 Best Travel Apps to Help You Make the Most of Your Travels

After using hundreds—maybe even thousands—of travel apps, I’ve figured out a workflow that’s simple and straightforward. It uses the fewest number of travel apps possible and it will help you to stay on top of where you’re going and what’s happening around you.

The 17 Best Travel Apps to Help You Make the Most of Your Travels

Traveling can be a complicated endeavor.

From keeping track of bookings and finding local sights, to currency conversions and translations, staying on top of what’s going on, where you’re going, and what you’re supposed to be doing can be tricky.

Especially with a constant onslaught of new travel apps, it can be hard to cut through the noise and figure out which are not only the best travel apps but the easiest to use.

After five years of travel on six different continents , and hundreds of tools and travel apps later (maybe even thousands), I’ve trimmed the fat, uninstalled the apps that claim to be the best (but aren’t), and learned what the best travel apps truly are—the ones that are tried and true, and have withheld the test of time.

These travel apps will help you to stay organized and on top of where you’re going and what’s happening around you.

The Best Travel Apps for Booking Flights

Booking a flight is the first step to any trip, and though most people will only check the major sites like Expedia, Priceline, and Travelocity, it’s well worth doing your due diligence, especially for the sake of saving money.

What’s often even more important, though, is user experience. Some apps are clunky and confusing and don’t make finding and booking flights very easy.

There are a lot of booking apps, but I steer clear of most of them, usually relying on my core group of three. With these travel apps, I know that 90% of the time, I’m finding the best deal on flights.

Skyscanner is one of the best travel apps for booking flights

Skyscanner lets you search from city to city, and from country to country, to find the best deals on flights. Got some free time, want a getaway, but not too concerned about where you go? Use the flexible search to search for flights from a particular destination to anywhere.

As well as being able to search for specific dates, you can check the prices across a whole month. Skyscanner can find some of the best deals by combining carriers for different legs of a journey. This may mean, however, that you need to book separate flights, use a travel agency, and/or collect your bags and check-in again between flights.

momondo is another one of the best travel apps for booking flights

Momondo is similar to Skyscanner, in that it compares numerous airlines and travel agencies on a variety of routes to get you from A to B. There is also the option to search for flights to anywhere, and you can opt to also search for airports near your original choice (if a final destination is specified).

Google Flights

Google Flights doesn't have a mobile app but it has a great mobile interface

Google Flights is another top comparison site for flight tickets. As well as performing basic searches, it also offers a wide range of features to make planning your travels easy. If you’re not yet ready to commit to making a booking, you can monitor different flights.

You can get notifications when prices are likely to increase on a particular route, letting you get in there and book a flight before the price jumps. You can see prices across a region, be shows which flight combinations offer the best value for money (taking into account layovers and so on) and can automatically see alternatives, such as date or time changes, that will give you a saving.

Google Flights doesn’t have a downloadable mobile app but the website does have a fantastic mobile interface, which is just as good.

The Best Travel Apps for Booking Accommodation

I’m a terrible planner, so when it comes to accommodation, I don’t often book in advance. Depending on the type of accommodation I’m looking for, I use one of the following options:

Booking.com

Booking.com has one of the best mobile apps for finding accommodation when traveling

Booking.com has properties to suit most budgets and travel styles, with accommodations located all around the world. There are numerous filters, allowing you to find exactly what you’re looking for. Some properties do not require a deposit or advance payment, with flexible cancellation terms. Do check, however, as the booking terms are not the same for all. If you become a member there are more potential savings to be made.

Hostelworld

Hostelworld is the best app for finding hostels around the world

A top choice for budget travelers, Hostelworld is ideal for finding beds in dorm rooms. If you love the social aspect of staying in a hostel, but prefer to have some privacy at bedtime, you can also search for private rooms in hostels.

HotelTonight

If you’re taking an impromptu trip or have left booking a place to stay to quite late in the day, HotelTonight is great for finding last-minute deals. No property wants empty rooms for a night, so unsold rooms are advertised, often with savings, on Hotel Tonight. While there may not be so many options to choose between, you can be assured that any listings are at top-notch places. All participant accommodations are screened by HotelTonight. You can search for somewhere to stay in a variety of global cities, searching as far as a week in advance.

Airbnb search via application

If you’re traveling in a larger group, want a home-away-from-home feeling, or are planning a longer stay, Airbnb could be just what you are looking for. It connects private property owners with travelers.

While some hotels and guesthouses use the service to advertise rooms, many of the listings are for regular houses and apartments. They may not be available all of the time; people can make places available when they aren’t actually using them themselves. It’s also, therefore, a great way for home-owning travelers to make some money by renting their own place out when they are on the road. Properties may be vacant or you may share with the owner.

A wide range of facilities may be available; each listing is unique. Airbnb offers an alternative to staying in a traditional accommodation when traveling. There are often discounts for longer stays too.

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The Best Travel App for Tracking Bookings

TripIt

Using confirmation emails to keep track of booking times, dates, and directions is nearly impossible. Having information in one centralized place in a travel app can make an itinerary much easier to understand. I always use  TripIt  for an at-a-glance view of all upcoming bookings, including flights, accommodation, and transportation.

Depending on who you’re flying with, use the airline’s native app during the check-in process (or Wallet on iOS) to keep track of boarding times and gate changes. Using third-party travel apps for flight and gate tracking can sometimes be cumbersome and they’re not always up to date. That being said, TripIt is usually on the ball!

The Best Travel App for Tracking Rewards Points

Awardwallet.

Best Travel Apps

Staying on top of points, rewards, and miles can be daunting, too, especially with the plethora of rewards programs out there nowadays. Though not a perfect system, AwardWallet is the most comprehensive way to view all your rewards balances in one spot. Their web interface is a little clunky, but their mobile app is pretty great.

The Best Apps to Use While You're Actually Traveling

The first set of apps I recommend for daily use come from Google. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as Google Travel (yet?), but they do have a suite of tools which are perfect when you’re traveling. And they all work seamlessly with one another.

Best Travel Apps

The original Google app is the first one I check when I arrive in a new city, and usually every morning. They have smart “cards” that dynamically update with various types of location-based information, including local weather, local attractions and photo spots, currency conversions, time back home, updates from your favorite sports teams, and more.

Google Maps

Best Travel Apps

When I find a new place that I want to remember, I switch over to Google Maps and save the location. I also make sure to save the location of my accommodation, local bus or train stations, and other points of interest. Google places a star on each place that you save, so one look at your map shows you where everything you need is located.

Google Maps has also proven to be very accurate when it comes to public transportation schedules. From New York to Melbourne to Athens, Google Maps has proven to be a reliable and up-to-date tool for finding subway and bus stops and knowing what lines are running, and to where.

Google Translate

Best Travel Apps

If I’m having a particularly hard time communicating with locals, Google Translate has become a staple in my app toolkit. With their recent acquisition of WordLens, not only can you translate words and phrases, but you can automatically translate a sign, box label, or menu by taking a photo of it.

Best Travel Apps

Finding local places to eat and go out is never a problem using the crowdsourced Foursquare app. It finds where you are and recommends restaurants, cafes, and nightlife based on your preferences. So, if I like sandwiches and whiskey (which I do), it automatically shows me the best sandwich shops and whiskey bars in my new city, and provides me with tips for what to order when I get there.

Trail Wallet

Trail Wallet, Best Travel Apps

The only way I’ve been able to keep track of my expenses in places like Thailand is by using the Trail Wallet app. I set a daily and monthly budget and categorically keep track of my expenses throughout the day. It allows me to manage multiple currencies and switch between them seamlessly, automatically updating to my home currency based on the current conversion rate. I can also see what my major expenses are in list form or in a pie chart, and make adjustments to my spending habits based on my track record.

XE Currency

XE Currency

XE Currency provides the most up-to-date and accurate conversion rates. I always check XE before exchanging cash (which I try not to do because exchange booths generally provide the worst rates). It also shows conversion charts so you can keep on top of exchange rates and cash in by withdrawing a larger amount when a currency from an upcoming location drops.

Travel Apps for Keeping Records of Travel Documents

Best Travel Apps

Before going anywhere, take a picture of your important documents and keep scanned copies of your passport and health insurance policies in a folder in Dropbox .

Best Travel Apps

Whenever you find an interesting piece of information about an upcoming destination, paste it into Evernote , alongside the rest of your notes and information that you keep on hand. Evernote allows you to clip emails and web pages so you can hold onto copies of flight tickets, itineraries, visas, directions, or anything else that matters.

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Travel App FAQs

What is the best travel app to use.

Booking.com is our recommended travel app. It’s easy to use and lets you reserve flights, hotels, rental cars, and more around the globe.

Which app is best for travel bookings?

If you want an app for travel bookings, Booking.com is our top choice.

What is the most downloaded travel app?

Google Maps is the most downloaded travel app, followed by Uber and then Booking.com.

What is the best app to make an itinerary for travel?

The best apps for travel itineraries include Booking.com, Expedia, and Priceline.

What travel app has the best deals?

Priceline has one of the best apps out there for finding deals on flights, accommodations, and rental cars.

Jeremy Scott Foster

Jeremy Scott Foster

This is a great list and we use most of these apps too. Thanks for including Trail Wallet and I’m glad you’ve found it useful!

Of course! Trail Wallet is one of my favorite apps! 🙂

Great list of travel apps. Some of them I was using already, but at least I discovered a few new apps that will be very useful while travelling. Evernote will come in handy among others 🙂

Great! I’m glad you found some new ones. I don’t know what I’d do without Evernote. It helps me keep both my travels and my life organized!

I tried TripIt once and it was a good thing to have – but only because I had a lot of connections (from trains, through coaches, taxis and planes) during my trip so it helped me to keep the record of my journey. Otherwise I don´t use any apps (sometimes google maps but rarely when I am actually on road). But I think I am an exception because I´m not a friend with my smartphone! 😀 I will definitely use Dropbox on my travels out of Europe but so far I haven´t felt the need…thanks for the useful tips anyway 🙂

Google Maps is great when you’re on the road, because it shows you exactly where you are! I never get lost, all thanks to Google 🙂

Simply Decalre is an app to help you organize your receipts for customs declarations, it has real time currency, many other features like snapping a picture for your records. We have used it on the last couple of foreign trips, and it just makes life a whole lot easier. Simple to use. Another great app for your readers.

Fantastic resource man! Ive spent a good chunk of time traveling and I’m always looking for ways to make life on the road easier. Cheers!

That said, I have some thoughts with regards to the prolific use of tech on the road that I thought I’d share. Tech, as wonderful and as convenient as it is, has the ability to withdraw you from the present moment of travel, and all the exciting lessons on offer.

The world is becoming smaller, tech is largely to thank for this, and I appreciate that people nowadays feel the compulsive desire to ‘stay connected’ to current events, homeland, relationships etc. (or sometimes to gloat to those who decided not to join in on the adventure – not recommended). I think for many travelers, especially the younger generation, clinging to tech and searching for the nearest free WiFi is an attempt to bring familiarity with them on their journey. Connection with their familiar life back home provides a level of comfort and security – knowing that people back home care, are informed, and are supporting your ‘crazy’ decisions along the way (even if in reality, they aren’t).

Speaking from experience, this connection to familiarity is useful when you reach a low spot on your travel journey (which all of us will at some point), and it is also a hinderance when it comes to building authentic, genuine connections with the place, the people, and the culture you find yourself amongst.

It is truly a pet annoyance of mine to see people clinging to their smartphones, huddling around the nearest free WiFi zone, and checking facebook / instagram / twitter updates, when there is a wondrous world of activity happening right in front of them.

Tech makes life on the road easier, yes. But it takes away the intimacy of connection with people, places, and cultures that encompass travel. I’m not saying tech is taboo, however I feel that it’s use in the travel society is becoming so prevalent that good old face-to-face relationships are becoming endangered, and a forgotten shade of the travel canvas.

Maybe if people had a better appreciation of self, were more certain of their destiny, and were courageous enough to embrace a new world without the constant desire to cling to their beliefs back home, we would see more genuine connections on the road?

Just some thoughts. Indeed, your apps may in fact reduce the need to be constantly on our smartphones attempting to track the necessities of life. I’ll let you know on that one!

Jason Townsend – www.kickstartacause.com

Thanks so much for your insightful comment. I believe that, in today’s world, with the advent of technology, the most important thing we can do is limit it. I do rely on technology on a daily basis, especially since I work and travel at the same time, but yes, finding the right balance can be hard.

To frame things differently, perhaps staying connected to home allows people who wouldn’t otherwise go travel to feel more comfortable going out into the world. And sometimes, especially when we are constantly surrounded by new people and places, it can be nice to have something comfortable to lean back on.

I think we’re on the same page here. Technology is extremely accessible, and too much of a good thing can definitely be bad. As for me, I make efforts, whenever I can, to put the phone down and just enjoy 🙂

Great reframe Jeremy. That’s an excellent point.I can relate to this in my early traveller days…

Enjoyment comes from the simplest things. Life happens outside the ‘idiot box’ (a.k.a television) 😉

Jason Townsend

I would add diveadvisor to that list for Scuba Diver centric travellers.

It shows you articles on best places to dive, list of dive centres by country etc.

Also, airbnb imo should definitely be on there.

Otherwise cool list 🙂

Oh cool! I hadn’t heard of DiveAdvisor. Going to check it out 🙂

Although Jason rightly pointed out the hindrance that staying connected brings, I do enjoy its conveniences and the help that comes from the apps you listed. In fact, I just re-downloaded the Google App to take advantage of the cards. I forgot how awesome they were and appreciate you mentioning them.

One thing I’d like to add is instagram, and its usefulness when traveling. One time, my wife and I were in Gyeongju in Korea and drunkenly doing a photo search of instagram to see if there was anything we could see one night. This really beautiful pagoda came up and after piecing together enough pigeon Korean to ask a person about it, off we were to a previously unknown place.

Other than that, I like using instagram to see the perspectives that others are employing when taking shots of famous places. Just thought I’d that but besides that, this is a wonderful list. I actually played on the Google app for about ten minutes after reading this, haha. Thanks for sharing, Eric!

I do love Instagram, and these days, especially with the more enhanced location features, it’s increasingly more easy to find people and places nearby. I read an article recently about whether the recent advance in technology has stripped travel of its magic, and though I do think it has to an extent, I also really appreciate the conveniences that it provides.

But ultimately, it’s up to the user to decide how much they use it, and how much they want to get out of the real world vs. the online world.

I agree that keeping track of awards programs/points can be a pain. I am definitely going to look into the AwardWallet. The Foursquare also looks interesting.Thanks for the great tips/suggestions.

I was so optimistic when I saw this list just when I was trying to find how to get to my closest train station in Yongin, but alas, google maps tells me I can’t walk to either one when I walked to the furthest one, has none of the major landmarks I recognize to help orient me, and has no transit directions for the new train line here.

2gis was a GREAT app for this kind of thing, but other than randomly Santiago, Chile, 2 cities in Italy and 1 in Czech Republic, they’re ALL Russian cities. So disheartening!

Great list. Hopefully this can be great for us! Cheers and Thanks for this.

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travel tools apps

The Ultimate List of Travel Apps & Tools for Nomads

Updated: Jan 24, 2023 • by Thomas K. Running

As more and more people decide to become location-independent we are finally seeing a lot of tools, apps and gear making it easier to manage and excel at a life on the road.

Having moved around and traveled a lot over the past seven years, over time I have found, tested, and even helped make some of the best tools out there for digital nomads and long-term travelers.

A couple years ago I started collecting and curating my top picks in a range of categories. What they all have in common is that they will greatly simplify and improve your life, business, relationships or happiness.

This list is a living document, so if know another useful tool or resource that I should include, please let me know (if you’re logged in, you can use the live chat).

This article kept getting longer and longer, nearing the volume of a mid-length e-book. So I decided to split it up in multiple parts that will be published over the next few months. To be notified of the next parts, make sure you’re subscribed to Nomad Gate .

Part One: Travel

Nomads tend to travel a lot. Perhaps not as much as some hardcore business travelers, but more than almost anyone else. Personally I step on a plane somewhere between 50 and a 100 times every year.

And traveling can be painful. Especially if you do several medium-term moves throughout a year. It’s not just the physical travel that causes “pain,” but also planning the travel and getting to know your new “home town”.

In this chapter of the series, I’m bringing you the best tools and services to simplify pre-travel planning , the actual act of traveling , and the post-arrival research and discovery .

Pre-travel planning

Before you ever set foot in the airport, you have to sort out a few things:

  • Choose your destination
  • Book flights and accommodation
  • Apply for visas, if required
  • Make sure you have valid travel and health insurance coverage

Let’s go through the steps one by one.

Choosing your destination

Nomad list (free to search, community features $30/mo, $99/yr, $150 lifetime).

The de facto nomad home page. Pieter Levels has created an immensely useful directory of popular nomads destinations. You can filter for all sorts of things, such as cost of living, climate, internet speeds and LGBT safety.

It’s the perfect discovery site, especially for people that somehow work remotely.

Teleport Cities (Free)

Teleport Cities is also a powerful search tool to find “your best city to live and work”. That might on the surface sound a lot like Nomad List, but there are some core differences.

Although you can select “working remotely” in your preferences, Teleport Cities can take into account how your income might change by moving to a new city, if you decide to find a job locally. It can also take into account levels of personal and corporate taxation, how well established the startup and venture capital scenes are, quality of healthcare and education, and hundreds of other variables.

All in all, I think the two products are very complementary. Nomad List has a stronger focus on “ live ” and Teleport Cities also focus on “ work ”. Nomad List is perfect for short to medium term stays (less than three months), while Teleport Cities is good for medium to longer term stays (more than 3 months). I personally use both when deciding on my upcoming destinations.

A little bit less traditional way of scoping out your next destinations is to look at a foreign exchange rate map. Select the currency you are making most of your income in, and see which currencies have become cheaper or more expensive of late.

Why pay full price for a country when you can get it on sale? It’s like Groupon for countries.

Is Norway on your bucket list, but you think it’s too expensive to visit? Are you mostly earning US dollars? Right now Norway is on sale! It’s 30% cheaper than just a few years ago, thanks to a weakened currency. It’s still not cheap, but a much better deal than it normally is.

Booking flights and accommodation

Google flights.

Over the last couple years, Google has built what is perhaps the world’s best search engine for flights. It has a very clean and intuitive interface. It’s based on the tech behind ITA Matrix, a product Google acquired to build Google Flights .

Instead of overwhelming you with options, it will highlight the best few options according to your preferences, and even suggest slightly different travel dates or airports if it can save you a significant chunk of cash. It is also very snappy, and shows tickets other engines does not show. For example, if you can only get a fare by calling the airline directly, Google Flights will tell you how to do so. It also factors in the fees for ordering over the phone. If you’re not sure where to go, it will show you a map with the prices to different destinations.

It’s powerful, easy to use, and currently where I start any flight search.

Let’s not forget the most powerful publicly available flight search, Matrix by ITA Software . It’s what powers the above mentioned Google Flights. But unlike Google’s flight search, Matrix allows you to fine-tune everything. Want to geek out with advanced routing codes, force certain layovers, or look at a ton of different airports at one time? Matrix has got you covered.

The main drawback of Matrix is that you cannot actually book the flights through them. They won’t send you to a partner site to buy tickets either. After finding the perfect flights, you will have to manually find the flights again using Google Flights, Orbitz, or the airline’s website.

If price is your number one concern, then Kiwi.com (formerly Skypicker) is your friend. While most online travel agents will only show itineraries where all flights are on the same carrier, alliance or at least partner airlines, Kiwi doesn’t limit its search in that way. Instead they use smart algorithms to find the cheapest way from A to B, even if that means flying two competing airlines on separate tickets.

You can actually save a lot of money this way but it comes at the cost of flexibility. All flights booked through Kiwi are non-refundable. Changes might be possible for a fee. But if you just want the cheapest possible flights, Kiwi is the way to go.

The product also has a lot of features for flexible travelers. For example you can use radius search both for departure and arrival airport, as well as being as flexible as you’d like for departure dates and so forth.

The main issue I have with Kiwi is that their airline filter is not always available. Do you really want to subject yourself to the torture that is Ryanair or Spirit? I know I don’t. But currently you can’t filter out those itineraries for multi-city searches or searches using a more flexible destination or departure location (like radius search or entire countries).

If you are both quite flexible (as many of us nomads are) and value cheap flight, then PanFlights is for you. It’s especially helpful when planning a multi-destination trip. When planning such trips, the order of the destinations and exact dates are often not so important. Often you just have a vague idea of what places you’d like to include in your itinerary, and some approximate start and end dates.

PanFlights makes it easy to find potential journeys within the constraints you set. Just input the cities or areas (it supports radius search) you’d like to visit, and the minimum length at each destination (or specific dates if that’s needed). Try the “Optimized tour” search, and experiment with clicking the “stopover” and “customize” buttons on the result page for smart stopover suggestions. It has a slight learning curve, but makes up for it by a large margin in usefulness.

For complex itineraries it relies on Kiwi.com’s data and offers, which is a good thing as that is already Kiwi’s strengths. But PanFlights takes it even further.

Together with Momondo , Skyscanner is sometimes able to find some significantly cheaper fares than their competitors. It might not be the most user-friendly of the bunch, but I usually check the price on Skyscanner after finding flights I like on a different site.

Just note that many of the online travel agents featured on Skyscanner add lots and lots of fees for using most credit and even debit cards, making changes or selecting seats (on top of airline fees), and so on. Personally I prefer booking directly with airlines, unless I save at least $50-100 or more and know there’s just a very slim chance I need to make any changes.

Note : Jen from Skyscanner reached out to me to let me know that every travel agent featured in their results will need to at least provide one free payment option, which usually is the most popular card in the country.

Expert Flyer ($5 to $10 per month)

When ITA Matrix doesn’t do it for you anymore, you know you’ve become a travel geek. The logical next step is Expert Flyer. I’ve personally used it to choose transatlantic flights where I was likely to get upgraded to business class (and it worked!). And for many airlines it’s the best place to search for award availability. You can even set up alerts. Not only for award tickets but even when your favorite seat opens up. Or if there’s an aircraft change.

There’s a 5-day trial with no credit card required , so feel free to give it a try. If you decide to subscribe, it’s $5 or $10 per month. It can be well worth it if you fly a lot.

Skiplagged is one of the most innovative flight search engines. So innovative, in fact, that United Airlines sued them. What made them deserving of a lawsuit? Well, they help you find “hidden city” tickets. Say you are going from New York to Paris, and a one-way ticket is $800. Skiplagged might be able to find a ticket from New York to Dublin for $550, but with a layover in Paris. Buy the ticket to Dublin, but just get off in Paris. $250 saved just like that. Don’t try this if you have checked in luggage, but if you travel light it can save you some dough.

Hopper (Free to use, $5 per booking)

While the options above will help you find the cheapest flights available right now , Hopper will actually tell you when to book to get the best deal. Just enter your destination and preferred dates, then leave it to Hopper. The app will not only monitor the price of the itinerary, but also give you advice along the lines of “your flight price will probably increase with $70 or more on or around March 20” or “the current price is $450, but you can likely save about $125 if you wait”.

It’s really useful when you know roughly when and where you want to go. I wish there would be some more flexibility built in (e.g. allowing a date range rather than specific dates), but even without that it is likely to save you some money and provide some additional assurance that you’re booking at the right time.

A final limitation is that Hopper relies on sufficient historical price data being available for a particular route in order to provide accurate predictions, meaning that less frequented routes will have limited or no helpful information. It will definitely be helpful for San Francisco to New York or London, probably less so for Riga to Chiang Mai.

This website is great for finding cheap tickets on multiple low cost carriers. It offers lots of customization options and work with over 100 LCCs and over 1000 airports. There’s no need to enter exact travel dates, which makes it easy to find good deals if you’re a bit flexible.

The one big drawback I’ve found is that it only works with LCCs, no full-service carriers will show up in the results. Personally I prefer flying full-service, and only fly LCCs when that’s by far the most convenient option. Still, this is a great website to check in addition to e.g. Google Flights.

Thanks to Nomad Gate member Ivan-Lazar Bundalo for this tip!

This is a unique take on the good old travel hack of adding a stopover (stop of more than 24 hours) to both save a few bucks and at the same time get to experience a “bonus” city that you wouldn’t otherwise have visited.

Start by entering your travel dates and destination, then you have the option of adding a layover of X number of days in a specific city. An approximate savings amount (or additional cost) is also shown.

What the product is currently missing is added flexibility, both in terms of dates and destinations. But it definitely has potential, so give it a try!

Flightfox (From $49)

A few years ago, Flightfox turned flight booking on its head. You would describe your perfect trip and a bunch of “flight hackers” (both professionals and more amateurish) would compete to find the lowest price for that specific itinerary. The winner would receive a bounty set by the traveler.

That didn’t last forever, probably due to the extra friction of turning your simple flight booking into a call for tender with all the overhead that entails. After a while, they pivoted to only have really great flight hackers on the platform. And it’s no longer a competition between experts to find the best itinerary. You now pay a fixed price depending on the complexity of your trip, and work with an assigned expert to find the best itinerary for your needs. If you use their “beat my price” service, you will only pay the “search fee” if they can save you more money compared to what you found on your own.

Flystein (From $29)

Some people might enjoy planning their flights, and that’s fine. But it gets repetitive rather quickly when moving around all the time. Flystein is a younger startup, doing very similar things to Flightfox.

They are comparatively cheaper, however. Flystein’s pricing starts at $29 for a one-way domestic trip and $49 for a return or international trip. Flightfox starts at $49. Both services charge more for added complexity, but Flightfox is consistently a bit more expensive. E.g. the additional fee for finding a ticket using your frequent flier miles is $74 with Flightfox, versus $30 for Flystein.

Personally, I’ve used Flystein a handful times, usually by using their “beat my price” system, where you don’t pay anything unless they beat the price you found on your own by more than their service fee. About half the time they have been able to find better flights for me than what I found myself (sometimes using obscure techniques such as the mythical “fuel dump”), and half the time I’ve found equally good flights on my own. In the latter cases I of course didn’t pay them any fee.

A limitation of both Flightfox and Flystein is that, unlike Hopper, they won’t tell you when to book your flights, and the deals they find might not stick around for long—so you should only reach out to them once you’re ready to pull the trigger.

Flightconnections.com

H/T to Paul Stefan Bohm for sharing this useful tool with me. With Flightconnections.com you can find the best routes between any airports in the world. Wonder how you can get to Timor-Leste from Berlin? Well, with a couple clicks you will know.

You might even find a cheaper route by splitting the journey up between multiple airlines.

I am not sure how often they update their database of flight connections. There have been times where I’ve found a connection not listed there elsewhere, or failed to find a connection they claimed existed. But it is still a great starting point for further research, so give it a try!

Flight deal sites and newsletters

One of the best ways to come by good deals on flights is to subscribe to various flight deal sites and mailing lists.

Here are some of the best, covering large parts of the globe.

They generally come in two varieties, paid/freemium and affiliate-based. Since the affiliate based sites earn commissions when you book through them some of them seem to publish a lot of fares—even if the deals are only okay , not great . Personally I like the paid/freemium sites better. They tend to share better deals that last longer (due to fewer people trying to get the same tickets).

Jack’s Flight Club (Europe & US*—Freemium)

*Jack has local newsletters for the UK 🇬🇧, Ireland 🇮🇪, Germany 🇩🇪 Netherlands 🇳🇱 Belgium 🇧🇪 Denmark 🇩🇰 Norway 🇳🇴 & Sweden 🇸🇪. Now also from Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, & Washington D.C. in the US 🇺🇸

JFC has only been around for a couple of years, but Jack and his team regularly finds some great deals. I recently booked an around the world trip they found on the fantastic airlines Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand for just over $1000!

The premium subscription is £39/€39/$49 per year and will give you access to about four times as many deals as the free newsletter, plus it allows you to select exactly which airports you want deals from.

Give the free newsletter a try today , then upgrade to Premium once you realize how much you can save.

Scott’s Cheap Flights (US only*—Freemium)

The premium subscription is $49 per year and will give you access to three times as many deals as the free newsletters.

As a paid subscriber you can also pick exactly what airports you want to receive deals for, making sure you only get deals that are relevant for you.

HolidayPirates / Urlaubspiraten (Germany, Austria, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US—Free)

This is a very popular free site in Germany (I have friends there who use it a lot), and in the last few years they have also expanded to lots of other countries: Austria, France, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the United States.

In addition to flight deals, they also feature a lot of flight + hotel packages. These are generally for shorter stays (a few days to a week or two), so not ideal for most nomads.

I Want That Flight (Australia—Free)

A decent curated newsletter featuring great flight deals from Australia. They also offer flight and hotel search. Not as active as some of the other newsletters on this list.

I’m pretty sure (the paid) Australian newsletter from Scott will get you more deals, but since this one’s free it doesn’t really hurt to try.

The Flight Deal / Fare Deal Alert (US—Free)

The Flight Deal and Fare Deal Alert are sister flight deal curation sites, providing a near identical service, but for a different selection of cities. The sites are even more useful for non-nomadic people that are mostly based near one particular US airport, since the deals are organized based on departure airport. Also, the deals are almost exclusively return flights.

Can someone please build The Nomad Deal, featuring super cheap one-way flights around the world? TheNomadDeal.com is available. Just sayin’.

Still, even with their shortcomings from a nomad perspective, both sites can be useful if you’re traveling near or in the US. For example, if I’m staying in San Francisco for a couple months, I’ll set up an IFTTT recipe that will text me when they post new deals departing from SFO (they provide RSS feeds per city!) to destinations that I’m interested in. Return flight to Panama for $200? Sounds like a cool weekend trip to me.

Book directly with an airline

As a digital nomad, I would assume that you enjoy flexibility and value for money. If that’s the case, I would recommend looking closer at a handful of airlines the next time you’re planning a trip.

Check out the best airlines for nomads and long-term travelers .

Accommodation:

As a nomad, renting a furnished apartment is a must. And Airbnb is the most comprehensive listing and booking site for short to medium term apartment rentals in the world. Prices tend to be a little higher than what you could find in the local rental market due to their service fees and target market. But not having to learn the ins and outs of the rental market in a city where you’ll only stay for a month or three is totally worth it in most cases.

You can also get heavily discounted prices by booking monthly or sometimes even weekly. And it also doesn’t hurt to negotiate a bit on the price, especially if you are staying for a while.

(Written from a hammock on the rooftop terrace of my Airbnb rental in Medelliín.)

Booking.com

If you are booking more traditional accommodations, i.e. hotels, hostels or holiday apartments, Booking.com should be your first stop. They have by far the most inventory worldwide, and hotels listed on the site are not allowed to sell rooms at a lower price elsewhere. They are being sued in a few countries over this practice, but it does generally give you the best deal as a consumer.

It’s not only their low prices that make them a good place to book your hotel stays. Unlike many other OTAs they actually have useful and user-friendly apps. And the website is good too.

In addition to Booking.com I usually check Trivago for hotel prices. It’s quick and easy to do a sanity check, to make sure I’m not overpaying. They compare the prices of all major (and not so major) booking sites. In the past I’ve saved around 30% by doing a quick search on Trivago. It primarily features hotels, but there are also some hostels and similar on there.

Couchsurfing (Free)

The best things in life are free… Right? Well, Couchsurfing is pretty cool. And free. You probably know CS already, but let me briefly explain how it works for those who don’t. It’s a platform where people invite other people into their homes, for free. But forget about the “free” part. The reason why I really enjoy Couchsurfing is the people you meet. And their local knowledge. If your goal is to experience the local culture, Couchsurfing is a lot better than staying in hotels or hostels.

Then again, most CS hosts would be reluctant to host someone for more than a few days, so it’s better for short stays. And from a financial perspective I would rather pay $15–20 for a hostel, guest house or Airbnb than spending hours contacting CS hosts over and over again. But when I have a couple days to experience a city, it is well worth the effort.

You can also use the Couchsurfing platform to find locals to hang out with (without staying with them), and even join local meet-ups.

TrustedHousesitters.com ($119 per year)

Housesitting is another way to travel for “free”, while staying in comfortable apartments, villas, or all sorts of other homes. Usually a housesit involves taking care of the owner’s pet(s) while they are away. Dog and cats are the most common, but in some cases it seems to be a small farm that needs taking care of. Personally I do housesitting not primarily to save on rent, but rather because I love dogs. But having a dog as a nomad would be really challenging. So I housesit instead. So far I’ve taken care of a terrier in a beautiful West Berlin apartment, and some amazing chihuahuas in a lovely house with panorama view over the San Francisco Bay Area.

There is a handful of pretty decent housesitting platforms out there, and they are all paid. You pay for access to the platform, not for the actual house sit. And it makes sense to spend a few dollars on a membership. The paywall contributes to keeping bad apples away, increasing the overall trust on the platform.

TrustedHousesitters.com is probably the best housesitting platform, primarily because it has the largest and most active user base. It has some nice features, like email notifications when a housesit opens up in a country you’re interested in. Like other platforms, most listings are in North America and Europe.

If you sign up via my referral link you get 20% off your membership fee!

If you are traveling in South-East Asia, you should be using Agoda. They have established direct relationships for more hotels, hostels and guest houses than any other booking site in the area.

You can save some serious cash by booking hotels, rental cars and flight tickets via Hotwire. Their Hot Rate® Hotel, Car, and Flight bookings work a quite different from what you might be used to. E.g. for Hot Rate® Hotels you can see the star rating, the neighborhood, the list of amenities, the retail price, the Tripadvisor rating, and the percentage of Hotwire users that recommend the particular hotel. What you cannot see is the exact location or name of the hotel.

Personally I’ve used Hotwire for a minivan we rented for Burning Man, which turned out to be ridiculously cheap. You might also have success with Priceline, which has a similar concept.

Co-living spaces and retreats

There are now more and more co-living, co-working and retreats tailored to digital nomads and remote workers. I am currently writing an article comparing the best ones. It should be ready in the next few weeks. Make sure to join Nomad Gate to be notified when it is published.

Make sure you have the right visa

For a while I relied primarily on Wikivoyage for visa information when traveling. But after I nearly made a huge blunder when traveling to Myanmar a few years ago I always check 2–3 sources to be safe.

Wikipedia’s Visa Requirement pages

I have found Wikipedia’s Visa Requirement pages to be very accurate and easy to use. It’s super quick to get an overview over how many days you can stay in a country visa-free.

You should look for a Wikipedia article named “Visa requirements for [INSERT YOUR NATIONALITY] citizens”. You can find the link to the relevant page for your nationality here .

Timatic / TravelDoc

In addition to Wikipedia, I also check either TravelDoc or Timatic.

Timatic is normally an expensive yearly subscription aimed at airlines and travel agents, but it is also provided for free to the public by the IATA Travel Centre . This is the same database most airlines use when they decide to let you board or not, so it is very accurate.

Another player in this space is TravelDoc , which is also used by a lot of airlines. Their UI is a bit better than Timatic, and you can even add a multi-city trip with all your stops and layovers, and they will tell you what visas you need to get.

VisaHQ is another user-friendly option and has the information you need at a glance. For residents of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, UAE, India, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland and Singapore they can also help you with the visa process for a fee.

Note: I’ve heard some not so great feedback on their customer service level and pricing, so due your due diligence prior to using them for your visa application.

Verify your travel and health insurance coverage

Much can be said about insurance, particularly travel and health insurance . Most people should have some sort of health insurance with coverage in the countries where they live and travel. By setting a high deductible you get fairly affordable coverage for worst case scenarios, but for more inexpensive treatment you’ll normally be better off by paying out of pocket instead of relying on insurance.

I have a lot more to say about global primary health insurance , as well as travel and accident insurance . In fact I’m currently writing an in-depth article on the topic, so make sure to join Nomad Gate to be notified when it is ready.

Getting there…with your sanity intact

Planning and booking your travel is one thing, but many people find the actual act of traveling much more stressful.

I’m luckily not one of those people, in large part thanks to the apps and services I use to stay organized and up to date.

TripIt (Free / $49 per year for Pro)

The app used and loved by nearly all serious travelers. If you have yet to try it out, your life is about to change!

By forwarding your confirmation emails to TripIt ( [email protected] ), all your flights, hotels, train rides, restaurant bookings, tours and more will be automatically organized for your trips. Or you can give TripIt access to your inbox, and it will detect whenever you get booking confirmations, and organize it all in your trip itinerary.

Their pro version can also be well worth it. I’ve been using it now for the better part of a decade. And although the extra perks aren’t that significant, the Pro features have saved my ass more than once. The check-in notifications 24 hours before a flight, especially.

“Holy shit, I’m flying across the world tomorrow. How could I forget??” –Me, on multiple occasions

For example, I was on my way out for the second dive of the day outside Maafushi in the Maldives when I get a check-in notification. In my mind I thought my flight was 48 hours later, but I had mixed up the days. And as all divers know, you cannot fly until after at least 24 hours have passed since your last dive. And even longer if you have done multiple dives. You can literally die. Rescheduling one flight wouldn’t have been a big deal. But I actually had four flights the next day, on mostly separate tickets, and mostly different airlines. Thank you TripIt for saving my butt. Or at least a significant chunk of money.

Other pro features include real-time alerts, alternate flight search (in case of delays, missed connections), seat tracker, point tracker, flight refund alerts (e.g. if a price you booked dropped in price by more than the change fee), extra sharing features, as well as VIP benefits with a range of partners. Currently those benefits include $25 Lounge Buddy credit and 4 months free CLEAR membership. In the past it has included Hertz #1 Club Gold and Regus Gold memberships.

Priority Pass ($99-$399/year, or free with credit cards)

If you fly a lot—especially if you don’t have status with Star Alliance, One World, or Sky Team—you need Priority Pass.

Nothing has changed travel as much for me as discovering airport lounges. My old self would absolutely dread the idea of having a five hour layover at some random airport. Now I seek out mid to long layovers—as long as I have lounge access, that is.

Lounges of course vary a lot from airport to airport, and lounge to lounge. But some things are generally quite similar.

Most lounges include:

  • Fast, free wifi
  • Buffet with free food and beverages (usually including alcoholic beverages, although sometimes only beer & wine)
  • Comfortable seating with lots of outlets to charge all your devices
  • Printer/scanner/copier
  • TVs, newspapers, magazines
  • Comfortable desks for working—often also with some PCs/Macs in case you don’t have your laptop with you

Although not universal, many lounges also offer:

  • On demand, made to order food and drinks
  • Spa and massage facilities (sometimes paid)
  • Meeting rooms (sometimes paid)
  • Resting rooms (small private rooms to rest when on long layovers)
  • Lockers with charging points inside
  • Outdoor terrace, occasionally with smoking area

Pretty sweet, right?

Priority Pass is the world’s largest network of lounges, and a membership will give you access to more than 1000 lounges worldwide.

One option is to buy a membership outright, but many times it will be more affordable to get a membership included in a credit card.

If you buy your membership directly from Priority Pass, you’ll pay $99 per year and $27 per visit and guest. The top tier costs $399 per year and will give you unlimited visits for free, but you’ll still pay $27 per guest.

But personally I prefer the credit card route. I currently have unlimited visits for free, even including unlimited number of guests, courtesy of my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card . To me the Priority Pass perk alone is worth the price of card (effectively $150 per year after the $300 travel credit). That’s what I call a steal!

LoungeBuddy (Free)

If I have sold you on the benefit of airport lounges, you also need this app.

The first step is to enter any lounge memberships (like Priority Pass), credit cards, and frequent flier statuses you have.

Then LoungeBuddy can pull your flight plans from TripIt (or you can enter it manually), and you can easily see which lounges you have free or paid access to, where they are, what they offer, when they are open, and reviews from other users.

You can also purchase access to over 200 lounges through the app if you don’t already have complimentary access.

If I have multiple layover options when booking flights I’ll also use LoungeBuddy to help me decide where to have my connection, based on the lounges I would have access to there.

Best Onward Ticket (From $12 per trip)

Planning sucks. Spontaneity is king. Sadly, many countries require you to have an onward ticket booked before they will let you pass immigration. Actually, airlines will often deny you boarding without one.

So what’s the solution? Well, people are using different tactics:

  • Hope for the best … but you might end up having to buy an expensive ticket at the airport or be denied boarding.
  • Book a 100% refundable flight … which is often expensive, and will block funds in your account for a while.
  • Book a cheap flight that you might or might not use … but often plans change and it’s not worth paying the change fees.
  • Print a fake ticket … easy enough to do and it might work. But if they decide to check the validity of your ticket (which is really easy to do), you’re in trouble.
  • Use Best Onward Ticket … they will issue a ticket that stays valid for at least 48 hours. Then they will cancel it. Peace of mind and more flexibility, starting at only $12.

FlightTrack (Free/$4.99)

This is by far my favorite flight tracking app. It’s so good in fact that Tripit cut off their API access, as they felt it competed with some of their Pro features. I don’t use this app as often now that they lost the possibility to automatically fetch my flights from Tripit. But I still use it whenever I am picking someone up from an airport, or if I have a longer trip with layovers, etc.

Update: The developer was acquired by Expedia a while back and they recently decided to shut down the app. I’m still looking for a good alternative, so let me know if you find anything that’s both good and affordable. I’ve seen some people recommend the My Flights app, but it’s a bit pricy for the paid versions, and it’s iOS/web only.

TripMode ($7.99)

Occasionally, especially on long-haul flights, you might have quite a limited data allowance when connecting to the onboard WiFi. Caps of 20 MB or so are not uncommon.

But what often happens when you connect your laptop to the WiFi, all sorts of applications start using data in the background. New emails might be downloaded. Dropbox or Google Drive might start syncing changes. And then POOF ! In less than a minute, the data allowance you spent $20 on is gone before you can even load Gmail or Facebook.

Well, that’s where TripMode comes in. It’s a nifty little app for Mac and Windows that lives in the menu bar and allows you to choose which applications can access the internet. Simply toggle the applications you need to use, and the rest will be blocked for as long TripMode is running.

This can come in handy when you’re sharing your phone’s internet connection with your Mac as well, so your data plan isn’t used up by all sorts of background tasks that can wait until you’re on a regular WiFi network.

You can also save different “profiles” based on the network you’re connecting to, so you won’t have to select which apps to use every time you connect to your phone’s hotspot. The profiles can also enforce selected data caps, with the possibility to set different caps for each profile.

In other words, TripMode will pay for itself in a short time.

OpenFlights.org (Free, or donate up to $50 per year)

One of the potential side-effects of Digital Nomad life is increased affection towards air travel. And in severe cases you might even feel an urge to log all your flights, and show them off on a map for the world to see. That’s what OpenFlights does. And it connects to Tripit so it’s pain and hassle free to keep your flight list up to date. I won’t blame you if you get a little turned on by playing with all those stats. I know I do .

If you want an even nicer map, you can import your OF flights to myFlightradar24 .

Pana Concierge ($99 per month)

Update: Pana is no longer offering their concierge service

Some people enjoy spending hours and hours researching flights, accommodation, or local bus schedules in the mountains of Montenegro. I prefer to hand those task over to Pana (previously called Native), my trusty travel concierge. That leaves me with more time to explore my current location.

You can also have your concierge check in for flights, deal with any delays, rebooking, and other issues that might pop up during a trip.

They offer a 7-day free trial, then it’s $25 $99 per month. It’s not the cheapest service, but it’s still a pretty good deal for frequent travelers with more money than time. I personally cancelled my account when they increased their pricing, but it might be worth it to you.

SkyGuru (~$4.99 per flight)

Many of us have some kind of fear of flying. Even though I take around 100 flights yearly, I still have moments during flight when (I completely irrationally) get a very uneasy feeling.

One app that I initially tested out just for fun, but has actually nearly rid me of any hint of fear when flying, is SkyGuru.

Throughout the flight the app will tell you if and when you can expect turbulence, and explain what the sounds the plane makes and other sensations you’re experiencing actually are and why it’s not anything to be worried about.

There are reviews on the App Store where users say the app has completely changed their life. So if you’re an anxious flyer or just want to learn more about how airplanes work, I recommend giving the app a try!

SkyGuru is currently only available on iOS now available on both iOS and Android. Although the “Pro” version costs $19.99 (iOS only) there’s a light version of the app that you can download for free and instead pay $3.99 per flight with full features.

Update: I was contacted by a representative from SkyGuru who told me the Pro version won’t be updated any longer (but will still work), so if you want access to the newest features it’s best to get the Lite version and purchase individual flights or flight packs.

Offline entertainment apps

For me, one of the best ways of spending my time in the air is to read or listen to audio content. Sometimes I listen to podcasts, sometimes to audiobooks ( Audible , Hoopla ). Other times I’m catching up on articles I’ve saved for later in Pocket (which are available offline, and you can even listen to them).

Whatever you prefer, just make sure to have your content downloaded offline before departure.

On Arrival: Getting to know a new city

When you move from city to city, country to country, many times every year, it really helps having a good routine for how to get to know your new location. If you follow the tips in this section you’ll be up and running and productive in no time!

Wikivoyage (Free)

Wikipedia meets Lonely Planet. It’s the best and most comprehensive collaborative online travel guide.

Whenever I visit a new city I always consult Wikivoyage to find the best ways of getting into the city from the airport and get a general overview over the city. You can download articles as PDFs or even build and download your own custom guide book. I usually do this and read through the PDF while I’m on the plane to get an idea of what there is to do and see in the city I’m about to visit.

Attaché (Free)

If you prefer travel guides in a video format, Attaché is a good option. As they say, it’s the travel show that will get you “in, out, and around some of the world’s greatest cities” in 10-20 minutes. In a typical episode you’ll learn how to get to and from the airport, get around the city, and get a few highlights of what to do, where to eat and drink.

Prepaid Data Sim Wikia (Free)

When staying in a country for a while it’s usually best to get a cheap local prepaid SIM card with plenty of data rather than roaming on your home SIM card.

This website will tell you everything your need to know to get the best prepaid SIM card to suit your needs: Plans & prices, where to buy, ID requirements (if any), etc. It’s all there.

Foursquare (Free)

While most tourists seem to rely on TripAdvisor for finding things to see, do, eat and drink, my preferred way is using Foursquare.

It’s niche enough to not be gamed by most establishments, large enough to have great recommendations in most cities worldwide.

I’ve never had a bad experience at a place rated at least 8.0 or higher on Foursquare.

Swarm (Free)

Another app from Foursquare, centered around checking in to places. What’s the point of that, you may ask?

I think it’s great for keeping track of your travels and finding the names of places you’ve visited and loved when your friends ask you for recommendations down the line. Or when you go back and try to retrace your steps.

As a bonus you can choose to be notified when your Swarm friends “ check in ” in the same city as you. I’ve met up with many friends that happened to be in the same city as me this way. If it wasn’t for Swarm I would have never known they were even on the same continent.

Untappd (Free)

While Foursquare and Swarm help you discover and keep track of amazing places, Untappd does the same for beer.

You check in and rate the beers you drink, and can even use the app to discover bars nearby that have beer you like or want to try.

Vivino (Free)

If wine is more your thing, then Vivino is a similar app centered around tracking, rating, and discovering great wine.

They even have a marketplace that will help you find fantastic wines at a reasonable price that can be delivered to your doorstep.

Meetup.com (Free)

When arriving in a new city, it’s always a challenge to meet likeminded people. One reliable place to start is Meetup.com. You’ll find groups of people centered around various interests, lifestyles, professions, and other general social or expat groups.

Facebook Groups (Free)

More often than not there are some quite active Facebook groups organizing meetups and facilitating connections with likeminded people in whatever city or country you find yourself in. You’ll have to start searching to find what you’re looking for. Try phrases like “ Expats in X ”, “ Nomads in X ”, “ X social ”, “ Meetup X ”, “ [your interest] X ”.

Teleport Ask A Local (Free)

It’s not everything that’s easy to find an answer to on Google, especially if you’re getting to know a new city and keep running into language and other cultural barriers.

What if you had a knowledgeable local you could ask for advice?

With Ask A Local you’ll have access to hundreds or even thousands in each of over 250 cities worldwide. Just select your city, ask your question, and wait for the answers to roll in.

And did I mention it’s all for free?

WHA by Work Hard Anywhere (Free)

When landing in a new city, a frequent challenge is to find a good place to work from. Of course, you could work from your apartment or hotel room, but where is the fun in that?

If you want to get out, get a great cup of Joe, and maybe even meet some people—then coffee shops and coworking spaces are your friends.

The best app for finding places to work from that I’ve found is WHA by Work Hard Anywhere. The only drawback is that it’s iOS only (at least for now). An Android version has been “in the works” for the last couple years—so I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for it.

There are a few alternatives that work on web as well as mobile, such as Workfrom and Café Wifi . They work best in larger cities, but can be worth checking out in addition to WHA.

Atlas Obscura (Free)

Tired of following the flow of tourists all flocking to the same handful sights? Atlas Obscura is here to save the day. It’s a collaborative project for discovering and sharing hidden spots and curious places around the world.

This is the first of many…

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47 Best Travel Apps of 2024 – For better Deals, Tracking and even Souvenirs

Andrew Bell - Hostel Expert on Hostelgeeks.com

It’s a new year and a new decade! And whether you are planning a road trip across the US, backpacking through Southeast Asia, or hitchhiking around Europe, there are tons of useful apps that will help you maximize every aspect of your trip.

So take a look at our exhaustive list of all kinds of travel apps.

All will help you out when it comes to finding out where to eat, where to stay, managing your trips, meeting up with people, et cetera et cetera.

There are too many apps out there to make a truly exhaustive list. However, we’ve managed to put together one based on experience and usefulness that hopefully covers anything you may need during your wandering.

Shortcut to the Best Travel Apps (Update 2024)

Google maps, donkey republic, bird/lime scooters.

  • Fog of World

Transferwise

Xe currency converter, 4. language, google translate, 5. accommodation, hostelworld, booking.com, hotel tonight, 6. meeting people, couchsurfing, airbnb experience, 7. communication, facebook messenger, flight aware, 9. hiking/nature, 10. planning your trip, onward ticket, worldpackers.

  • Road Trippers

Visit a City

11. Photo and Video Edit

Now that you have seen the list, let’s take a deeper look into it in this part of the guide.

Introduction about Apps

This list : This list features a big pile of the best travel apps out there.

We use them personally, and we recommend them 100%. We will try to keep this post for the coolest travel apps always updated. (Last updated March 2024.)

Popularity : Most likely any app is used in different parts of the world. Even the world-famous WhatsApp is well known over the Western world like Europe, Australia, and the US, but in South East Asia they use a different app called LINE, for instance. So bare this in mind.

For some destinations, you may want to download an extra app so you can use the restaurant’s scene in Paris or the museums in London. Keep an eye open!

Paid vs Free : Some travel apps or actually in general apps are free while others are paid. We think it is worth it to pay a few $ on an app when it has proved itself useful.

In-App purchase : There is a third way how apps make their money. It is with so-called “in-app purchases”.

This means while you have the application open, you can buy additional app features. This is very common for games, for instance.

On the other hand, you can deactivate in-app purchases in your settings. This way you are safe and you will never buy anything accidentally.

Android vs iOs : There is basically two types of Smartphone, the iPhones with iOs and all the others are Android.

Now, both systems have their very own app-shop. It happens that you can download a specific app in one store, but not the other. This is because the developers have to program two completely separated apps.

List of the Best Travel Apps

Just keep scrolling and you will find out more about the best travel apps you might need in your next trip. We also added videos to the applications, sharing how they work.

Happy reading!

No matter where you are traveling, you’ll definitely be needing some maps and transportation apps to help you get around.

Here are some of the best.

By far the most useful and universal way of getting around all over the world is through Google Maps .

Google’s maps are reliable, detailed, and give you excellent dining out suggestions and landmarks for sightseeing.  You can also use Google Maps for transportation around whatever city you’re visiting.

You can toggle between bus, train, walking and driving route options when you’re trying to get from A to B.  The “explore nearby” option is great for discovering cool cafes and shops, and they have weekly updated suggestions for where to eat and drink nearby.

Offline Mode : Also, you can download a map or a route for accurate offline use if you’re data-deficient.

Note: Just be careful relying too much on Google Maps if you’re driving in certain countries.  I’ve found it a bit unreliable for driving directions in places like Turkey, for instance.  Sometimes local map apps can be more helpful.

Google Maps

Moovit is a great app specifically built for public transportation within cities.

Offered in over 3,000 cities around the world, Moovit makes it super easy to get from A to B within a city.  It gives you multiple transportation options, wait times for buses, ferries, trains, and even Uber and scooters.

It shows accurate travel times, it’s great for locating bus stops in an unfamiliar city, and it has a map feature that shows you a big-picture view of your urban transport options.

Note: Unfortunately, there are no offline maps with Moovit. So you’ll either need data or plan your trip ahead of time with Wifi.

Moovit

This one is known already, right?! When you’re traveling around Europe or the US/Canada, then Uber is a reliable and easy option for getting around.

Although a bit more expensive than public transport, Uber is still very easy to use and doesn’t require as much effort or even knowing the language. A good option for a late-night rides back to your hostel if you’ve wandered too far and had a bit too much to drink.

Note: In some countries Uber and Grab work better than others. Uber in Spain is not as useful. In destinations like Chiang Mai Uber and Grab are fantastic.

Uber App

BlaBla Car is a good app for those of us trying to travel medium to long distances for very cheap.

It’s a ride-sharing app that lets you input a possible destination and see who’s driving there.  A good option for hitchhikers who may need a break from thumbing or drivers who want to find some people in order to share gas costs.

Note: One drawback of Blabla Car is that it can be a bit unreliable. You’re never 100 percent sure whether you’ll find anyone going where you are at the spur of the moment, so best not to rely too much on this app.

Another con is their customer service. We have experienced their customer service as not very helpful.

Blablacar App

Another great app for people renting a car or road tripping is Waze .

Although Google Maps works perfectly well, Waze is especially good when it comes to live traffic updates and finding cheap gas along your route. This is super useful.

We also love to user Discover Car Rentals for rent a car abroad.

Note: Waze also offers a carpool app that could come in handy for getting to the airport or train station.

Waze App

Donkey Republic is a bike-sharing app that I’ve had a lot of fun with around Europe.

Offered in bike-heavy cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam, these orange bikes are easy to spot, affordable and usually in really good condition.

With the app, you can see on the map where the available bikes are located, then just walk up, use your phone to scan the barcode to unlock it by paying with a credit card, and peddle away for as long as you want.  When you’re finished, just drop the bike near a drop point.

Note: The only problem here is that you’ll need data/wifi to unlock the bike.

Donkey Republic App

Scooters are everywhere in LA. So much so that it’s pretty annoying!

And while scooter traffic and scooter litter (piles of scooters on street corners) definitely need to be managed as part of this new fad, Lime Scooters it’s certainly a convenient and fun way to get around in a city.

Just be careful about riding them. It would be best to take them for a spin somewhere less congested if it’s your first time riding one.

Note: Like Donkey Republic, you scan the barcode on the scooter to unlock it and pay by the hour.  Unlike the Donkey Republic, you can jettison the scooter wherever you want, which can lead to the aforementioned scooter litter.

Fog of World (map your way)

Let’s start with the most awesome travel app ever – sorry, we really love this application!

Fog of World is a super cool app that lets you track your travel routes as a kind of game. You remove the fog on your map as you physically travel the world. It features excellently detailed maps, badges and game-like features that encourage more and more travel.

It’s kind of like Pokemon Go, but for backpackers.

Note: The only problem with this one is it costs around 15 dollars, but for those of you with a bit of disposable income and a kick in the butt that’ll get you traveling more, this app could be for you.

Where again was that beautiful and delicious restaurant we went to in Menorca?

With Fog of World, you can tell your friends exactly where you’ve been, and where some places are located on a map. Stop guessing, no “ Maybe here ”, or even worse you do not remember at all – with Fog Of World, you can check simply and quickly where you have been. The app is tracking your route, so afterward you can see exactly where you have been.

Cool feature : The App counts the km² you traveled and shows you what percentage you have seen from mother earth. Also, the application gives you some badges for discovering new things – well, ok…

Although this marketing stuff is just for fun, the initial idea of tracking your travel route is a great tool for flashpackers.

Fog of World Travel App for the iPhone

Food apps are great for discovering places to eat wherever you are.  A lot of them can be location-specific though, so it can be useful to check out apps for whichever city you happen to be in.

That said though, here are some apps that are useful all over the place.

Foursquare is one of the best apps for finding food and bar options in cities around the world.  It’s like a more detailed version of Google Maps’ “explore nearby” option.

You can join communities of foodies who share similar tastes, you can make lists of places you’ve been and want to go, and the tips and suggestions are very helpful.

In-app links to directions are also quite helpful for getting to that dive bar or hole-in-the-wall, a cash-only restaurant that you discovered.

This way you can find more local places when traveling to big touristy destinations such as Paris , or London .

Foursquare App

The Fork is a great app for finding restaurants and making reservations around Europe, although the app is expanding, and now offers service in Australia and Brazil.

The Fork is perfect for foodies looking for local suggestions around Europe.  A cool feature is the Chef Suggestion option, which gives you trusted reviews from the people who know food best.

Note: The app also has discount options for selected restaurants.

The Fork App

Available in over 180 countries, Happy Cow is an app that helps vegans find the best vegan options wherever they are.

You can save places to view offline if you’re data-deficient, share spots that offer vegan, vegetarian or gluten-free options, and use the interactive map that allows you to see what’s nearby.

Note: The app isn’t free, unfortunately, but its $2 purchase price certainly won’t break the bank.

Happy Cow App

Previously called Urbanspoon in the USA, Australia, and Canada. Zomato is available in tons of counties, including more obscure locations for the more adventurous, like Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Indonesia, Turkey, Lebanon, and Chile.

You can search for restaurants, view menus and reviews, and even order food online for delivery in India, UAE or Lebanon.

It’s a truly international food app that is available in places where a lot of food apps aren’t.

Zomato App

Whether you need to split up a bar tab with your buddies, exchange currency or make an international transfer, there’s an app for that.

Here are a few of the best apps when it comes to handling your money while you travel.

The Cash App is a great way to send and receive money while you travel.  You can send money to your friends for free, and it offers discounts at different stores and restaurants.  You are also able to buy and sell Bitcoin, as well as play the stock market a bit if you’re so inclined.  The cash app is a trusted and secure app.

Note: The only problem is that it only works in the US and the UK.

Transferwise is a great app for sending and receiving money in different currencies around the world.

They do charge a fee, but it’s usually much lower than going transferring directly between banks.  It’s a great option if you’re low cash in local currency and need to transfer your dollars or euros into Thai baht or Turkish lira, and helps you avoid super high charges from ATMs.

The app is very easy to use and the converted money will usually be available in a few hours.  The only rub here though is that not all currencies are covered.

For example, you can convert dollars to the Turkish lira, but you can convert lira back to dollars.

Transferwise App

Splitwise is a great app to keep track of who owes who on group trips.

I used it on a trip across Scandinavia a few years back, and it was perfect for seeing who paid for what and made it super easy to balance out the costs of the trip between the four of us. It supports over 100 currencies, and if you all live in the same country you can pay each other directly through the app.

This is also the ultimate app for hostel travelers. This way everybody can participate and you know exactly who paid what – and who owes money.

Note: Unfortunately, it doesn’t support international transfers, but it is still a great app for the more monetarily egalitarian group travelers.

SplitWise App

This app is great for finding out the exchange rates in whatever country you’re traveling in.

XE Currency Converter allows international travelers to convert money and send it across borders quickly and easily.  The exchange rates are usually very competitive, and the app is easy to use.

You can also choose to get alerts about exchange rate changes, so you can keep track of when the right time to exchange your currency is so that you’re maximizing your money.

XE Converter App

It’s always a good idea to learn a bit of the language spoken in whatever country you’re traveling in, so here are a few of the best apps when it comes to learning a language beforehand or communicating while you’re abroad.

Tried and true, Google Translate gives you the ability to translate into just about every language.  You can speak into it or type a word you need, as well as take photos of a menu option or road sign and get an instant translation.

You can add an offline dictionary that you can access sans-data for translation in a pinch in places with limited cell service.

Note: One downfall with Google Translate is that is doesn’t work well with full sentences; the grammar will be clunky and it doesn’t do well with colloquialisms and phrases.

Google Translate

Duolingo offers an easy and addictive way to learn a language on your phone.  It has a great interface, with step-by-step learning goals that are practical and super useful for learning everyday phrases, vocabulary, and grammar in over 30 languages.

The in-app goals and hot-streak feature give you some added motivation to keep a daily learning streak going which will help keep you engaged and consistent in your language learning.

Note: The other great thing?  It’s free!

Babbel has developed a great app that features short, effective lessons, practice with reading, writing and speaking, and excellent speech-recognition that helps you more effectively practice your pronunciation.

While you don’t have as many language options to choose from as Duolingo, with only 13 languages offered, the courses they do offer are more in-depth and extensive than Duolingo.

You can start off with a free trial, but after that, you’ll have to pay for a subscription.

Babbel App

This app is perfect for the traveler who may just be passing through a country or city for a bit and needs some essential phrases to help her get by.

TripLingo offers useful phrases and slang in over 100 countries, over 2,000 phrases in 13 languages, and an instant voice translator in over 42 languages.

It has flashcards and quizzes to help you retain phrases you come upon in your travels, and even a tip calculator and currency converter!  It’s a super useful app that will help you out a lot wherever you find yourself during your travels.

TripLingo App

Want to find the cheapest places to stay during your travels?

Here are a few apps that offer great deals, easy ways to compare hostels and hotels, and user-friendly interfaces that make finding one fast and easy.

Hostelworld is a great app that compares cheap hostels all over the world.

You can easily filter your searches by price and location, and see where each hostel is on a map so you can make sure it’s in a convenient location.  The reviews are usually pretty accurate and reliable, and they even offer travel guides for destinations all over the world.

We wrote a big review on the Hostelworld App here .

Note: Another nice thing about Hostelworld is that you can just pay a small deposit to reserve a room or bed if your travel plans are uncertain.

The Brand New Hostelworld App features

A great option for comparing prices of both hotels and hostels, Booking.com is another great app that lets you filter your search preferences and shows you an option on its in-app map so that you can easily compare your options and see where they are.

Booking.com gives you lots of variety when it comes to the types of accommodation options available as well, and you get free cancellations in most rooms that you book.

Booking.com

Airbnb is a great app for really experiencing the local vibe of a place.

There are lots of super cool apartments for daily or weekly rent, and you can save some money by booking a room in a shared apartment, which has the extra benefit of maybe meeting some cool people and experiencing more what a city has to offer with local tips and insights.

Airbnb hosts also sometimes offer guidebooks that guests can access when they book a room, with suggestions of places to go and restaurants to eat at and stuff like that, which is a pretty useful feature.

The best "Central" Airbnb in Paris, part of our full guide to the best Airbnbs in Paris, France

Hotel tonight offers great deals on last-minute bookings by finding empty rooms that are available on short notice.  But it’s also great for more long term bookings.

It has simple categories that make searching for a hostel or hotel easy and has lots of filtering options that help narrow your search.

Note: Hotel Tonight also has a perks program that’ll give you discounts the more you book through their app, which can definitely add up if you’re a frequent traveler.

HotelTonight App

Traveling alone?  Traveling with some friends but still want to get out and meet some people?

There are a lot of apps out there that’ll help you meet people, whether you’re looking for group events like bar crawls or sightseeing tours, want to hook up, or just want to find someone with similar interests to experience the city with.

Couchsurfing kills two birds with one stone.  You’ll get a free place to stay and probably meet cool, open-minded people to hang out with.

Set up a profile, make it interesting, and then see what options you have on the in-app map.  You can check out your prospective host’s profile and see if they seem like a good match, see their availability, and then send them a message to get the ball rolling.

I’ve used this app to great effect over the years, and have met lots of cool people and saved money at the same time.

Couchsurfing App

The Meetup app is a great way to find local groups filled with people who are interested in similar things.

There are lots of different categories, like hiking, photography, food/drink, new in town, and sightseeing, to name just a few.  For those of you who want to meet people in a new city, but don’t want the sexual tension of a Tinder or Bumble, the Meetup app is a good option.

The Meetup App

Speaking of sexual tension, Tinder . Although your humble writer has been out of the dating game for years now, he is still aware of the benefits and drawbacks of using this app to meet people in a new city.

Swipe away, friends.

Read : How to have sex in hostels – and how not

Tinder App

Bumble is a bit tamer than Tinder.  It features options for dates, friendships, and networking, so you have more than just the casual hook-ups offered on Tinder.

Also, the dating portion of the app is always initiated by the women.  If you match with someone, it’s the woman that gets to make the first move, which can definitely eliminate some of the creepiness associated with testosterone-driven dating sites.

Bumble App

A fairly new addition to Airbnb , Airbnb experience allows you to check out different events and get-togethers happening in the city you’re visiting.

It’s a cool way to get out of your comfort zone a bit, and because it’s connected to Airbnb, you can be sure that it’s safe and verified.

Foodie Experience Barcelona - Cooking Class with Locals!

No matter where you are, here are some invaluable messaging apps that will help you keep in touch with family, friends, and coworkers.

Whatsapp offers secure messaging, audio calls and video calls all over the world.  It’s a great app that gives you the peace of mind of knowing that your data is secure.

It also helps cut down on phone bills and is a great option to make calls or chat with your friends no matter where you happen to be.

Note: Whatsapp is generally not used as much in the United States or Southeast Asia, but is popular just about anywhere else.

Whatsapp

Speaking of Southeast Asia, Line is a super popular messaging app in countries like Thailand and Malaysia.

It has lots of different emojis and stickers, which is pretty entertaining for someone only used to your standard iMessage or Whatsapp emojis.  So if you’re traveling around Southeast Asia it could be helpful to check out Line.

Line App

Another tried and true app that helps you keep in touch with people no matter where you are.  Skype ’s video quality is better than Whatsapp’s, facetime’s or facebook’s, and the messaging and voice calls are also reliable and easy to use.

Skype is a great addition to your app collection whether you’re traveling or not.

Skype App

A great way to keep in touch with your Facebook friends no matter where you are, Facebook’s messenger app connects you with all your friends and allows you to share photos and memes simply and easily.

Just don’t care too much about your data sovereignty.

Finding affordable flights is a huge part of traveling on a budget.  A good flight-finding app can sometimes save you hundreds of dollars.

Additionally, it’s always smart to use flight alerts and look at certain days where flights may be cheaper.  Airline prices can vary drastically due to airport taxes in different countries, so it’s good to be aware of this as well.

Skyscanner is a great app for comparing prices across airlines and booking agencies.

For travelers with a bit more flexibility, choose the “whole month” option in the search bar and look at a calendar that’ll show you the various prices each day.  This allows you to choose the dates that’ll be the cheapest by fiddling with departure and return dates.

Here is our big review on Skyscanner .

Or if you’re super flexible, click on the “cheapest month” in the search bar and find the absolute lowest prices anywhere in the world.

Much like Skyscanner, Kayak allows you to compare flight prices between hundreds of airlines and travel companies.

Unlike Skyscanner, Kayak also lets you compare rental cars and hotels, and you can bundle them all easily and effectively which makes it a great one-stop choice for planning your next trip.

Kayak also offers deals and discounts through the app and allows you to organize everything in one place.

Note: The price alert notification is a nice way to keep up to date about any price changes so you can make sure you’re getting the best deal possible.

Kayak App

FlightAware is a great app for tracking flights in real-time, which will definitely come in handy if you have some skin-of-your-teeth connecting flights or want to have to pick your friend up at the airport.

Note: The radar map is just generally interesting to look at if you want to get some perspective on the sheer numbers of flight traffic around the world.

For travelers who love the outdoors, there are some pretty cool apps that’ll help you out when it comes to finding hiking trails, checking out the topography of your surroundings, and identifying plant life.

And while these kinds of apps may seem a bit contradictory to the whole point of getting out into nature, they still allow you to plan a hike or check out the terrain before you stuff your phone into your bag and forget it for a while.

Gaia GPS started as a backpacking app but has now expanded to include things like day hiking, camping, hunting mountain biking, and backcountry skiing and mountaineering.

It allows you to view topography, save routes for offline use, and use its discover tab to find nearby hiking trails.

Note: Hardcore hikers can pay 20 bucks for the premium subscription and have access to a whole mess of cool features.

Gais GPS App

PlantSnap is a cool little free app that allows you to identify all kinds of plant life.

And while it’s maybe better to put your phone away and just enjoy nature, it can also be fun to occasionally take it out and see what type of mushroom that is.

The app also has a community feature that lets you connect with other tree heads and share your photos with people from all over the world.

AllTrails is a bit more user-friendly than Gaia GPS, with over 100,000 trail maps all over the world.  It works through crowdsourcing, so photos, routes, and reviews are all submitted by other users.

This makes it possible to find some more out-of-the-way, obscure trails that you may not be aware of otherwise.

Alltrails App

Ok, technically this app is not about hiking. However, we use it in a way to find spots we have not explored it.

GeoCaching is an outdoor game for geeks and nerds, hunting small containers from all over the world, happening right now around you and wherever you are going – this might be a decent summary.

This simple and at the same time brilliant game offers big value for travelers looking for undiscovered spots and hidden gems.

Geocaching in Amsterdam

While a lot of us really enjoy spur-of-the-moment, spontaneous adventures where we end up somewhere we couldn’t ever have expected, it can also pay to plan ahead.

Here are a couple of trip-planning apps that are great for just that.

Did you know, some countries require proof of onward travel? Meaning, when entering the country you need to show proof that you are leaving the country again before your visa expires.

Onward Ticket is your absolute go-to for finding an affordable and genuine onward flight ticket, for just $12!

Always check in advance if you require an outbound ticket and avoid being turned away at the airport.

We wrote a detailed guide and review of Onward Ticket and why you need it.

Find below our video for you. It shows the easy steps to get your proof of onward travel.

Would you like to work and travel? Worldpackers isa collaborative community that connects you with hosts worldwide, where you can stay in exchanging your skills for accommodation.

You can find volunteering opportunities around the world; from Guatemala to Australia. You can apply for different programs and work type such as

  • organic farms
  • content creation
  • animal sanctuaries

We wrote a big guide on volunteering at hostels here . The job opportunities are almost unlimited.

There is an annual fee with Worldpackers, starting at $39/per full year – a very fair deal. The 3 packages are:

  • Apply to and contact all of our hosts
  • Count on our support team and WP Insurance
  • Contribute to the community and earn money with WP Programs.
  • All benefits of the Solo Trips Plan above
  • Access to the Academy track: Planning and budgeting for travel
  • Access to the Academy track: Make a living while traveling as a lifestyle
  • Invite and connect your accounts to apply together to volunteer opportunities that accept couples or friends.

Read our full guide on Worldpackers .

https://youtu.be/Ore60EKL5G4

Worldpackers App

Polar Steps

Easily Track your travels with Polar Steps .

This tiny little app lets you write your own online journal with many interactive features. You can instantly upload your photos, add location and so much more.

And the best part: After your travels, you can create your own travel book with all your photos and notes you took during your travels.

This is absolutely beautiful and many travelers we meet have been using this app.

Polarsteps Travel App

Tripit helps streamline all your reservations—hotels, car rentals, bus tickets, flights, or any other plans you make—into one easy to access itinerary.  It’s a great tool to help keep you organized and avoid forgetting anything last minute.

Definitely great for those of us who are constantly forgetting which email has the barcode scanner that is your bus ticket as you scramble to get to the station before you miss it.

Roadtrippers

For those of you planning a road trip in the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand, Roadtrippers is a must-have app that allows you to plan an epic road trip.

Plan a route and check out campsites, cool diners, roadside attractions, national parks and lots of other awesome spots along the way.

Note: The app is free, but if you upgrade to pro you can plan up to 150 possible waypoints as opposed to 7 with the free version.

Roadtrippers App

Visit a City gives you access to over 1,000 travel guides in cities all over the world.  The great thing about this app is that it can be used offline, so you don’t have to worry about data.

The guides featured in the app include all the must-see attractions in whatever city you’re in, as well as pre-made itineraries.

11. Photo and Video Editing

When travelling the world, you will come across incredible places. Nowadays you can impressive and unreal photos with your phone itself. This itself is no secret anymore.

Yet, you need some cool apps to add a little bit of spice to them. Here are our favorite photo and video editing apps.

Instasize (for Video and Photo)

A little secret App is Instasize . You can instantly make your photos look better with 130 free photo filters. Enhance your image with editing tools including contrast, exposure, saturation, and clarity. Very handy is the build-in feature to resize the photo to fit any social networks like Instagram, TikTok and as well Snapchat.

Also, you can edit your videos. This is however a Premium Feature only.

Good to know : The app is available for iOs and Android .

Below I add a great tutorial on how instasize works.

Lightroom by Adobe

Second on the list is the famous Lightroom Adobe . Other than the Lightroom for your computer, the Lightroom App is actually free; most people do not know this and skip this app from the start….and that includes me, actually.

Lightroom is a powerful App that lets you edit your photos within a few clicks. You have a few presets included.

Good to know : Many bloggers and influencer sell amazing presets for Lightroom as well.

Peter McKinnon made this useful video on how to edit like an absolute pro.

Summary of our Favourite Travel Apps

There are many awesome travel apps out there, making the travel life easier. We will try to keep this article updated. A good travel app does not have to cost any money. Yet, some are really worth it as they really help you to ave money, take cool photos and simply make your life easier.

Do you have your own favorite travel app? Then come on and write it down in the comments.

We are 100% Independent: Some links on Hostelgeeks are so-called affiliate links. If you decide to book through these links, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you . Your support allows us to keep producing high-quality, independent content free of influence from hostels or external advertisers. Learn more here . 🙏

✏️ Read our Editorial Guidelines

I have a free travel app for your list. The name is Open Borders and it has info about covid entry restrictions and quarantines for all countries.

Thanks for adding this. Do you have a link to this app? Cheers, Matt

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16 Best Travel Planner Apps for planning a trip in 2023

Simplify your travel plans and with the best trip planning app for travelers..

travel tools apps

Best Travel planner apps to plan a trip easily

Looking for the best travel planner app to plan a trip but don’t know where to start? With so many options out there, choosing the right trip planner app can be overwhelming. That’s why we’ve taken the guesswork out of it and have gathered up the very best available apps to make your vacation planning smoother than ever!

From budgeting and organizing your itinerary, to booking flights and finding locally recommended attractions, we’ve found the perfect trip planner app for any traveler.

What is a travel planner app and how do they work?

Trip planning apps or travel planner apps are great tools for travelers to use to make their trips easier, stress-free, and more organized. These handy applications allow users to create overall trip plans, detailed itineraries, and search for activities during the excursion. From finding the best flight prices, or hotel deals to discovering points of interest in a destination city or country, tripping planner apps provide a variety of services for travelers. You can also use these apps to plan a road.

Nowadays, most travel planner apps also have features that make trip plans automatically sync with your social networks and offer access to other travelers’ experiences with different locations around the world. They can even provide historical information about any place you may be visiting! Below we will go over some of the best trip planner apps.

What is the best travel planner app?

1. google trips – great for planning a trip from start to finish.

When planning a trip, Google Trips is one of the best trip-planning apps available. It can help you stay organized by giving you access to all your reservation and travel information in one place so it’s easy to find what you need.

You can plan your whole trip from start to finish with activities and guided tours personalized for you and choose from suggested itineraries curated by local experts. Since all of your details are in one spot, you don’t have to worry about lugging around printed documents or paper tickets – just open up the app when needed and go!

2. TripIt – helps you organize all your plans in one place

TripIt is one of the best trip planner apps available for those looking to make their travel plans a breeze. This app lets you organize all of your travel plans in one convenient place, including reservations, trip itinerary, and essential documents like passports or confirmation pages.

It will help you plan your entire trip. It even has features to help make your trips go more smoothly by giving you access to flight statuses, train timetables and more. You can easily check up on your travel details at any time or even share them with friends and family! With TripIt, organizing your trips has become simpler than ever before.

3. Trip advisor – find great hotels, restaurants, and things to do near you

Planning your next trip can be made much simpler with Trip advisor – the best travel planner app. It reveals the top rated hotels, restaurants and attractions near you, so that no matter what kind of travel adventure you seek, Trip advisor will help you find it all.

With this powerful, intuitive trip planning app, you know all the best spots to stay and dine anywhere in the world. Plus with things to do conveniently collected in one place, a whole world of exploration awaits. Whatever your plans are – business or leisure – let Trip advisor be your go-to travel companion!

3. Kayak – compare prices on flights and hotels easily

Planning a trip can often be incredibly stressful, but with apps like Kayak, the experience is much more straightforward. With Kayak’s user-friendly interface, it’s easy to compare flights and hotels so you can always get the best deal.

Whether you’re looking for somewhere within your budget or fancy splurging on something special, Kayak makes it effortless to plan out your trip.

It’s quickly become one of the best trip planner apps out there, allowing travelers of all kinds to swiftly find their perfect holiday destinations while getting great deals in the process.

4. Skyscanner – search hundreds of airlines for the best deals

Skyscanner is an ideal trip planner app for anyone looking for the best flight deals. This convenient app allows you to explore hundreds of airlines and find the perfect itinerary for your next adventure.

Whether you’re planning a simple weekend getaway or a lengthy global journey, Skyscanner can help make it easier than ever to organize your detailed itinerary, car rentals and search for flights that meet your budget and preferences.

All you have to do is enter your destination, dates, and other details, and in seconds you’ll be presented with countless options. So take advantage of this easy-to-use travel planner today, and make booking your next vacation as stress-free as possible.

5. Hopper – get notified when it’s the best time to book a flight

If you’re planning a trip and want to find the best possible deal on a flight, Hopper is the perfect travel planner app for you.

As one of the best trip planner apps available, its features are particularly useful when it comes to finding the right deals.

Hopper notifies users when it’s the best time to book a flight so that they can get their desired results from their trip planning.

With options to track price changes and suggest cheaper alternatives, this travel app will enable you to track expenses, to book smarter and save more money for your dream vacation.

6. Wanderlog Trip planner app – Trip Planning Made Easier

Wanderlog travel planner app is one the best available travel itinerary apps. This popular travel planner app offers travelers an easy and user-friendly way to organize their vacation plans.

With Wanderlog Trip, you can keep track of flights rental car, and accommodation, create itineraries for your trip plan for each day of your trip plans offline on your journey.

you can also track of travel expenses and make notes about activities or other important trip details – all in one convenient location. It also has a built-in currency converter to help you stay on top of costs while abroad.

Wander Log integrates with popular travel websites like Expedia and Kayak to make sure you get the best available prices on flights, hotels and more.

Planning a trip with friends? Make it easy with this helpful app! Invite your tripmates by sharing a link to the itinerary or simply add their email address. It’s like Google Docs but for travel planning, allowing everyone to collaborate in real-time.

Set permissions to let people edit or just view your plans, and stay organized by accessing flights, hotels and attractions all in one app.

Import flight and hotel confirmations directly into your itinerary by forwarding emails, or save time by simply connecting your Gmail account. With features like these, Wander Log Trip App can make any trip easier and more enjoyable than ever before.

5. Pack Point Travel app – Makes packing an easy task

With more and more people venturing around the world, many travelers have quickly realized this also entails a level of planning and organization before departing. One app, Pack point, can make pre-trip packing a breeze.

By utilizing a user’s destination and length of stay, Pack point formulates personalized packing suggestions that include all necessary items for the upcoming journey.

And on top of these suggestions, the app also grants access to weather forecasts at the vacation spot while furnishing an editable checklist so there is no chance of leaving something behind.

With Pack point taking care of details such as what type of attire works best in certain locations, travelers can focus more on the adventure aspect versus stressing about what should be brought along.

So what are you waiting for? Make use of one of the most popular travel planning apps and start packing!

6. The Freeform Travel planning app – Get Inspired to Travel

Whether it’s a dream vacation in the Caribbean or a spur-of-the moment camping trip in the woods, it can be tricky to find the perfect place to travel. With The Freeform app, you’ll never be stuck for ideas again.

This intuitive, easy-to-use travel planning app connects users with relevant travel experts and unique destinations around the world.

Let yourself be inspired by user ratings, vibrant photo galleries and engaging videos that cater specifically to your needs.

Plan a fantastic vacation without all the effort—and take advantage of exclusive discounts when you book through The Freeform!

7. Roadtrippers – Best Road trip planning app

Roadtrippers is an app created to change the way you plan your road trips. It is designed to be a comprehensive and user-friendly road that takes the hassle out of planning your next road trip.

Quickly find the best road trips across the country, and customize any trip with drag-and-drop tools. You can easily see all attractions located along any route, including historic sites, roadside oddities, eateries, lodging, local culture and more.

Each browsable layer is interactive, so you can easily view what attractions are located near each other or plot multiple stops for your excursions. With Roadtrippers you can start planning custom road trips today!

8. Road trip Planner App

Exploring the open road just got better with Road Trip App! It’s the perfect travel companion for anyone planning a road trip – whether you’re going on an a cross-country adventure or just want to get away for the weekend.

This app offers detailed features, user-friendly visuals and turn-by-turn navigation to help plan trips quickly and easily. You can plot destinations on maps to get an overview of your journey.

Create multiple stops along the way, find scenic spots, attractions and other points of interest, and share your route with friends and family—all in one place! Road Trip Planner is one of the best trip planning apps for road a trip

9. Roadie Road trip and RV

. Roadie is the best trip planner app out there to help make your road trip tri[ adventure. It makes route and group travel planning simpler, faster and more interactive than ever before.

With reliable online and offline maps both, the ability to save points of interests in an organized list, and a search function for tourist attractions such, hiking trails and national parks. This app ensures that all of your needs for the perfect road trip are taken care of. Start your engines and hit the open road with confidence knowing you have Roadie on board guiding you through your epic journey!

10. Hotel Tonight – Last Minute Hotel Deals

Planning for a trip can be stressful – there are so many different elements to juggle and keep track of! But with Hotel Tonight, the task just got a lot easier. This app is designed to make last minute hotel deals more accessible and convenient than ever before.

With its fast booking process and seamless integration into your travel itinerary, you can book quality accommodation up to seven days in advance as well as score exclusive discounts. So stop stressing about where you’re going to stay on your next getaway and let Hotel Tonight take care of it for you!

11. Polarsteps – Keep Track of Your Journeys

Polarsteps is a trip planning app that lets you easily stay organized and on-track while travelling around the world. Whether you’re on a road trip or visiting multiple countries, this app provides the perfect platform to document and keep track of your journey.

Allowing you to share your experiences with friends and family along the way. It allows you to create interactive maps, share photos, plan trips and even calculate the distance traveled. With Polar Steps, every step is just a little bit easier, making it one of the best travel planning apps available today.

12. Rome2 Rio – Best Trip planner app for Complex Trips

Rome 2 Rio is a trip planning that helps managing all the moving parts of an upcoming trip plan anywhere in the world. Tour any destination around the world or cities in the united states. Not only can Rome2Rio provide the best route options for whatever mode of transportation. – buses, trains, flights, driving – but they also give you an exact cost estimation.

By knowing your cost, there are no surprises at checkout time. In addition to calculating your route, Rome2Rio gives detailed information about each stage of your trip duration of your journey and even reviews from other users who have taken the same trip, so you know exactly what to expect. It is great to plan an international trips. When I visited London , Paris , Amsterdam ; it made it easy to plan my multi city European Trip. Start planning with confidence knowing that Rome2Rio has you covered and ready for your next adventure!

13. SYGIC Travel – Best Trip planner app to explore the World

SYGIC Travel is the perfect travel companion for wanderlust seekers, offering a comprehensive set of innovative features to help plan and make the most of every trip.

It takes the hassle out of organizing an itinerary, allowing travelers to easily discover destinations, find places to visit and explore exciting attractions while on the go.

From mapping routes and saving favorite spots, to providing up-to-date information about points of interest and personalized recommendations.

SYGIC Travel provides all the tools needed to plan an amazing journey around the world. Enjoy a stress-free traveling experience with SYGIC Travel as your guide.

14. Google maps

Google Maps is one of the best travel planner apps for any traveler. With a comprehensive maps and accurate navigation, it can help you find your way anywhere in the world. It also provides turn-by-turn directions so that you don’t get lost on the road or in a new city.

Through satellite imagery and street view, you can explore a destination before even visiting it. Most importantly, Google Maps can help you avoid traffic jams and other problems, allowing you to get to your destination faster.

Whether you’re planning your own trip, a road trip or just visiting somewhere nearby, Google Maps is an essential tool for finding your way around and staying safe when on the go.

15. Travel spend-Best budget planning app

Travel Spend is the ultimate trip-planning app. With budgeting tools and helpful visuals, it gives travelers peace of mind by helping them stay within their budgets. Users can set a budget before leaving home and log individual expenses.

It also includes the date, type of purchase, merchant, amount spent and currency used. For an accurate overview of their spending habits. Plus, Travel Spend App also includes instant notifications when certain thresholds are met.

If exceeded so travelers can make quick adjustments without going over-budget. This way it helps travelers stay withing budget.

It is no surprise Travels pend is one of the best travel planning apps for budgeting. Travel Spend is the perfect for any traveler who wants to manage their finances and trip budget on the go!

16. Via Hero- Best Travel planner apps for solo Travelers

If you’re looking for the best travel planning app to help you get the most out of your vacation, look no further than Via Hero. Via Hero connects you to expert local trip planners who will craft a personalized itinerary based on your preferences and needs.

As part of this service, they provide a guidebook with all the essential information and insider knowledge, making it easy to explore the most interesting places. For those who want more support while traveling.

They offer an additional service for only $10 per day where travelers can reach out to that local via text or phone and get helpful advice throughout their journey. This app is also great for solo travelers looking to connect with locals. Use this travel planning app for exploring new cities or just seeking a fun beach vacation. Via Hero works with any trip.

Planning a trip can be overwhelming, but thankfully there are plenty of great apps to help you. From Google Trips, a one-stop shop for all your planning needs, to TripIt, an app that helps keep everything organized.

Skyscanner searches hundreds of airlines for the best deals – there’s an app out there that fits everyone’s needs.

Find best Hotels and restaurants near you with Trip advisor or comparing prices on flights and hotels easily with Kayak.

Use Hopper is a deal finder that notifies you when it’s the best time to make flight bookings – these trip planner apps provide the tools needed to plan a successful trip! So which is your favorite?

Comment below and subscribe to our mailing list to stay up-to-date on more helpful tips and tricks. Happy traveling!

What is the best trip itinerary planner?

Top travel plans apps for for 2023. Hopper flights & hotel bookings. Tripit: Travel Planners. Sygic maps travel planners. Packaging. Skyscanners. Road trips: Travel planning tool. Location Finder website. b.

Is Wanderlog or TripIt better?

Trips to the pros can be incredibly costly. Travel Planner software offers many more free features than ever. So paying 49 for the tripit pro service is expensive. The free version isn’t too bad. Wandering provides a number of advantages free of charge, such as itinerary design and activities suggestions.

Is there an app that will plan a trip for you?

Unlike other travel apps, TripIt organizes travel plans for you regardless of what you booked. Send the confirmation emails to [email protected]. In minutes TripIt creates a detailed itinerary for each of the trips. I travel 100 times a year, and TripIt is my favorite application.

Which map tool is best for trip planning?

Google Maps – Best in easy to navigate directions. The biggest route plan application is Google Maps. Almost anyone can use this program to travel to another city, but they haven’t even discovered it has the ability to plan routes for several stops.

Is Wanderlog worth it?

Wander Log is a travel planner’s favorite application. From solo travelers to groups and from well planned to those that just want to have one place to find out and offer activities. Wander log also offers an excellent interface that can be easily adapted for all your travel needs!

How do I plan a trip with friends app?

Wanderlog is the app that helps travelers plan trips on the fly or by plane, organized access flights and hotel reservations and show them the places to explore. Share a travel guide with others for inspiration before you leave.

travel tools apps

Grace Ashi is the founder and Editor of Metropolitan Girl.

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Let's Roam Explorer

The Best Travel Apps for Planning, Booking, and Enjoying Your Vacation

We’re offering tips on the best travel tools. Use these apps to plan, make reservations, and get the most out of your trip.

travel tools apps

If you’re planning a getaway, you’ve probably thought about downloading some tools to help you figure out how you’ll get to your destination and where you’ll stay. You may even want to find tips on getting around and communicating with locals while you’re there. But if you’ve recently searched the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, you may have noticed that the sheer volume of available apps is a bit overwhelming.

To make things a little easier for our readers, we’ve pooled our resources, and we’re offering info on the very best travel apps. This software will help you plan your itinerary, book your trip, and take advantage of the best deals on the highest-rated transportation and lodging options. We’ve also included some helpful utilities to make your vacation go smoothly.

Happy travels!

The Best Scavenger Hunt App for Travelers

While you’re on the road, it’s sometimes difficult to find your way around new towns. The highly-rated Let’s Roam Scavenger Hunt app is an easy way to explore! With hundreds of app-led scavenger hunts, pub crawls, ghost hunts, and art walks, it’s packed full of fun things to see and do all over the world. Each adventure includes several stops at local landmarks as well as trivia questions and social-media-worthy photo ops. You and your traveling companions can coordinate your efforts to try to top the leaderboard or just relax and have a blast!

Woman Using the Best Travel Apps to Plan a Trip

The Best Travel Apps for Planning a Trip

Use these apps to find cheap flights, plan routes, reserve rental cars, book overnight or long-term stays, keep track of confirmations, or develop the overall itinerary for your next trip. Some also include valuable travel tips and other features!

Accommodations | Accommodations + Transportation | Routes | Itineraries

Finding and Booking Accommodations

· Platforms: Web, Android, and iOS · Free App

Airbnb has become the premier app for finding short and long-term vacation rentals. After a modest beginning, it’s quickly grown to several million properties in nearly 200 countries worldwide. What’s more, it offers a variety, including shared and unusual spaces, to satisfy just about any budget and preference.

Property details typically answer all of the essential questions and booking is simple through its intuitive interface. The integrated chat has translation capabilities and house guides that make it easy to check in, get settled, establish a WiFi/Internet connection, and make yourself at home.

Airbnb also offers suggestions for local experiences, which is a great way to find adventures and hometown favorites. When it comes to booking apps, particularly for those who really want to explore destinations beyond tourist traps, this app is second to none.

Couchsurfing

· Platforms: Android, and iOS · Free App – Currently seeking donations.

If you’re looking for a way to explore new areas without covering the high cost of accommodations or just want to get to know locals on a deeper level, Couchsurfing may be for you. This travel app was born on the notion that “you have friends all over the world, you just haven’t met them yet.”

As the name implies, Couchsurfing is a service that helps people find places to stay—for free. It forges connections between travelers and hosts and, beyond that, organizes events for like-minded people in cities across the globe. Members create profiles explaining their lifestyles, missions, and what’s important to them, and the app does its magic to match up hosts and surfers.

In case you’re not sure about the practicality of a service like this, the Couchsurfing FAQ is full of questions about safety, and explains the measures taken to ensure that users are protected when meeting others through the app.

Dayuse is an amazing service that allows travelers to book a service some people might not even know exists—access to hotel amenities during the day. You can book a hotel room at a steep discount (up to 75% off!) when you need amenities for a short-term stay.

In many cases, users can reserve rooms without a credit card, pay at the hotel, and rest assured knowing they can cancel for free, right up to the last minute. This is a fantastic option if you need to freshen up while on a road trip or a long layover.

HomeToGo provides a metasearch of vacation listings around the world. Find apartments, boats, cabins, castles, hostels, and more from thousands of sites, including many of the others on our list.

Search millions of places to find your one perfect rental. While sites such as Airbnb, Booking.com, HomeAway, and VacationRentals.com directly match travelers with providers, HomeToGo allows you to search many of those sites at once.

The main draw of this app is its massive database, but its filters allow you to weed through all of the options with ease. An interactive map lets you check the listings in proximity to your planned stops. Save your favorites and share them with friends!

HostelWorld

HostelWorld specializes in matching travelers with highly-rated hostels. With a tagline of “Meet the World,” this company focuses on matching adventurers with accommodations and experiences worldwide.

For those who aren’t aware, hostels are social hubs where travelers can find shelter and companionship while exploring new places. Hostels are common places for young, budget-conscious, and free-spirited roamers to bond with like-minded people and catch some sleep.

Headquartered in Dublin, HostelWorld has partnered with hostels in over 175 countries. It’s known as one of the most popular services for backpackers and offers a safe payment gateway. In addition to years of experience, this gives people the confidence to book through HostelWorld rather than reserving space directly through vendors

HotelTonight

HotelTonight specializes in last-minute bookings for unfilled accommodations, matching room seekers with hotels that would otherwise lose money on empty beds. It’s a wonderful service that fills a niche need very well.

Two key features make it even more valuable—HT Escape and GeoRates. HT escape allows anyone to book a quick getaway within driving distance and GeoRates allows hotels to offer bigger discounts for stays that are booked by individuals in particular locations. In other words, the app can detect where bookings originate and offer pricing and availability accordingly.

Vrbo (previously HomeAway)

Founded with the goal of helping travelers rent vacation homes that met or exceeded their expectations, HomeAway gained early success. Now owned by the Expedia Group, it’s been rebranded as Vrbo . Vrbo also incorporated several other vacation rental sites, including VacationRentals.com. Clearly, this is one of the “big players.”

Vrbo only offers standalone spaces, so you won’t find shared options here. Additionally, the options are relatively standard in comparison to apps like Airbnb.

Vrbo is short for “Vacation Rentals By Owner,” so, unlike HomeToGo, it does connect travelers directly with the folks offering the rentals. The company charges a refundable security deposit at booking time but offers a guarantee to help its users book with confidence.

Accommodations and Transportation

Booking.com.

· Platforms: Web, Android, and iOS · Free App Booking.com is one of the highest-rated travel apps available. It allows users to explore tens of millions of places to stay while on a trip. Not just limited to hotels, it offers choices from apartments and homes to unique lodging options.

Filter choices according to price, location, ratings, requirements, and amenities. One of the most beneficial features is that its verified reviews can be filtered. You can essentially book your stay based on how others rated things that are truly important to you.

Booking.com also offers deals on transportation and rental cars. Information and booking for attractions and airport taxis are among its features, making it an all-in-one planning app.

For several years, Expedia has been touted as one of the best travel apps available. It’s one of the OGs when it comes to trip planning. This service works with airlines, hotels, and car rental services to “buy” discounted services and passes the savings on to consumers. So, if there is a hotel not filled to capacity or a flight not fully booked, the empty rooms or seats might show up on Expedia’s search at a much lower rate than one might expect.

Expedia has a wide variety of services, including flights, hotels, vacation rentals, rental cars, cruises, activities, and local attractions. Package deals could get you a deeper discount than individual services. Additional fees are published with prices, so you could plan an entire trip, from start to finish, and know what the bulk of your trip will cost.

What sets Expedia apart from many of the other combination planning apps is that the company offers a competitive best price guarantee and has a beneficial rewards program. Frequent travelers can also reference prior searches across devices, which helps save time when planning and booking.

· Platforms: Android, and iOS · Free App

Hopper is a popular booking app that can predict airfares up to a year in advance and boasts a high level of accuracy (95%). What’s better is that it offers suggestions on whether you should book or wait. In addition to air travel, Hopper helps with hotel reservations and rental car booking services.

Its “Price Freeze” option allows you to hold a flight price for a specific duration. It’s not free, but for some, the small fee may be well worth it. “Trip Protection,” provided by AON, helps travelers to ensure coverage on unexpected travel interruptions and cancellations.

Hopper helps travelers to avoid both fees and frustration. Furthermore, it offers flexible dates and refundable ticket options. Book right from the app and, if a disruption occurs, use its rebooking service to get your trip back on track.

KAYAK is a travel search engine that travelers can use to find options for air travel, accommodations, and rental cars. You can track prices, receive email or phone notifications on deals matching specific criteria, organize info into an editable itinerary, and get suggestions based on preferences and budget.

Unlike some other combination travel apps, KAYAK is not selling anything. KAYAK makes its money in distribution and advertising, not by reselling hotel rooms, airline flights, or other services.

KAYAK is owned by the same corporation as Booking.com—Booking Holdings. You may find similarities between the two, although they are separate entities. Booking.com has maintained more notoriety in Europe while KAYAK is more well-known in the United States.

Kiwi is another combination travel search and booking app. What sets it apart is its technology. Complex algorithms and advanced search and price tracking features make Kiwi a go-to for budget-minded travelers.

Unlike metasearch travel apps, booking can be done directly through this app. Kiwi offers a guarantee to protect you in case of changes or cancellations caused by the carrier but be sure to read the fine print.

One notable specialty of Kiwi is multi-city booking. Using their NOMAD tool, you can enter several spots you’d like to see and Kiwi will give you the least expensive route between them. This is a major draw for roamers!

Ranked as one of the best travel search engines, Momondo excels at finding cheap flights and accommodations. Their apps poll data from hundreds of travel sites, including both major booking sites to websites of individual companies.

In addition to the Android and iOS apps Momondo offers, they have an easy-to-use site with the same functionality. Whichever option you choose, you’re sure to find that their services help to simplify booking your travel methods and accommodations.

Many seasoned explorers swear by Momondo and trust their searches to produce the best deals. Since they have no ties to airlines, hotels, and other direct providers, users appreciate their unbiased results!

Although Roam2Rio offers transportation, hotel reservations, and car hire, this travel app’s claim to fame is route planning . “Discover how to get anywhere by plane, train, bus, ferry & car.” Enter any starting point and destination and you’ll receive details on the various transport methods necessary.

Let’s say you want to start in a small town in New York and head to a particular place in Australia. Enter the starting and ending points, and Rome2Rio will quickly give you a travel itinerary and costs of getting from home to an International airport, as well as all of the flights, trains, and buses necessary to get you to your desired location. In just a few minutes, you can compare prices, times, and routes and plan your trip.

Rome2Rio also offers some booking options, but certain travel will require redirection to partner sites. They have recently updated their booking experience, and it seems that more options for direct booking are currently under development.

Used by nearly 100 million people across the globe, Skyscanner is a travel metasearch tool that advertises “safer, smarter travel.” This app helps travelers find and book the best deals on flights, hotels, and rental cars. Flight alerts are available to help ensure you can take advantage of the best prices.

If you want to get away a weekend but aren’t sure where you want to go, check daily flight and hotel deals or try an “everywhere” search to see what’s available from your departure point. Skyscanner checks prices with over a thousand travel companies and lets you in on the best rates. They promise no hidden fees and publish traveler ratings based on booking experiences and other feedback.

One interesting feature is Skyscanner’s greener choice options. They highlight eco-friendly flights—those that emit less CO2. Feel good about booking transportation that’s better for our planet!

When you book via Skyscanner, you are redirected to partner sites to complete your reservations. Skyscanner makes money through commission and ad revenue but does not directly sell accommodations and travel to consumers.

TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor is one of the biggest and oldest travel apps on the market, which inherently makes it one of the best in terms of data and reach. Since it’s been around for so long and has so many avid users, it has tons of booking options and is quite reliable in terms of reviews and recommendations.

This app is often used as a reference when looking for hotels, restaurants, and attractions and is perfect for those who live by reviews. (It’s kind of like Yelp for travelers.) It’s also a source of up-to-date menus, hours of operation, and other details about listed businesses. Since purveyors often pay for premium listings, you’re likely to find more valid business info here than on other apps that run primarily off user-generated input.

That’s not to say that user input isn’t important. Hundreds of millions of reviews are a major draw. Once you’ve read all the available info and have decided on a hotel, restaurant, tour, or other services, TripAdvisor makes it easy to book through its Viator integration.

TripAdvisor is now owned by the Expedia Group, so you may notice similarities between those two apps/sites. The Expedia Group also owns Hotels.com, Travelocity, Orbitz, CheapTickets, Ebookers, and many other major online travel services. Although each brand is distinct and there are some notable differences in offerings, most have similar features.

Route Planning

CityMapper assists travelers in finding the best or quickest route to any given destination within its supported cities. It offers info on the nearest public transportation—trains, buses, ferries, and more—including arrivals, departures, and pricing.

Updates are pushed frequently (about every minute), so you’ll be kept informed of service disruptions. If your first choice for transportation is delayed or canceled, alternate options are literally right at your fingertips.

Moovit is described as “the #1 Urban Mobility App.” Explore local transit options, including buses, trains, ride services (Uber/Lyft), bikes, scooters, and others. Plan your route and pay for rides with ease.

This app gives you access to arrival and departure times, maps, and real-time updates for services in thousands of cities. Additionally, member-input data helps keep travelers informed. With over 500 million users, you won’t miss a beat!

Roadtrippers

· Platforms: Web, Android, and iOS · Free version available. · Roadtrippers Plus – $29.99 per year

Roadtrippers is the ultimate travel app for road warriors. Enter your desired route into its easy-to-use interface, and it will let you know what you’ll encounter along the way. Find lodging, dining, sightseeing, hiking, and more!

Not only does Roadtrippers point out pitstops, but it also offers fairly detailed info about each, including visitor reviews. By increasing the search radius, you’ll widen its search and might find some incredible spots hiding just a few minutes away!

The ad-free Roadtrippers Plus option offers offline maps, collaboration with friends, live traffic updates, and discounts, as well as the ability to plan longer trips.

Itinerary Development

TripHugger enables easy plotting, and reordering the plans is as easy as dragging and dropping plot points. Additionally, the app makes recommendations on options for your route, including dining and other experiences.

Itineraries are available while on and offline, so you can check your plans anytime. Adjustments made while not connected to the internet are automatically pushed to the itinerary when connectivity is restored.

TripCase helps people to keep track of details and access their travel plans in one place. Add a new trip or manage existing trips easily from your account, and delete or merge existing travel itineraries.

App users can add to an itinerary by forwarding confirmation emails to a central address or by manually entering information. Upcoming and past trips are easily accessible, and so is important information such as airline policies.

In addition to its obvious benefits for travelers, the TripCase features can be equally beneficial to friends, families, and coworkers. Parents especially find comfort in being able to track childrens’ itineraries.

· Platforms: Android and iOS · Free version available. · Pro Version – $48.99 per year

TripIt advertises “an easier trip, every time,” and who doesn’t want that? Similar to TripCase, this app allows you to email travel bookings and confirmation emails to the service. In turn, TripIt quickly creates a master itinerary.

The TripIt service supports flight reservations, train transportation, cruises, hotel stays, car rentals, and more. The itineraries it creates include confirmation numbers, dates, times, and other pertinent info. If you don’t receive a confirmation email from a service, you can still manually add it right from your device.

The pro version sends helpful reminders and alerts you of any last-minute changes. As a bonus, it will help you get to your gate or departure area and offers locations of amenities you’ll pass as you make your way.

Wanderlog offers travelers the ability to plan just about any type of travel, including air or road travel for both individuals and groups. Import reservation data, optimize routes, and get suggestions for places to see along the way. Additionally, you can export places to Google Maps. It provides an easy way to plot (or re-plot) your trip.

Users rave about its ease, even for non-techy-types. At the same time, it’s not so simple that it lacks features. On the contrary, it’s robust enough to craft a pretty detailed itinerary. For those of us who are a little navigationally-impaired, its color-coded maps make it fairly easy to follow.

Aside from developing an itinerary for a planned trip, user-shared data can give you ideas for future trips. Its collaborative features could lead you to stops you might never have known. It’s one of the best travel apps for true wanderers or dreamers!

Female Traveler on a Trail Using a Mobile App

The Best Travel Utility Apps

Once you’ve planned your travel, the following apps serve to address some worries and sticking points that could get in the way of a successful trip. From start to finish, they’ll help you prepare, enjoy a smooth ride, convert funds and measures, stay on budget, communicate, and record your memories.

Preparation | Air Travel Tools | Money | Communication | Other Essentials

Preparation

Trustedhousesitters.

· Platforms: Web, Android, and iOS · Free App · Paid membership required.

As you might have guessed, TrustedHousesitters helps travelers to find people to watch over their homes while they roam. What you might not have imagined is that this site also links travelers and  pet  sitters!

This service draws from a community of trusted, vetted, and insured sitters who will care for your home and companions in exchange for a place to stay. This pet-loving community offers unlimited care and a 24/7 vet line. Member reviews and damage guarantees make the process more failproof. What more could you want for your critters?

Packing Pro

· Platform: iOS · Free App

Made by the list pros at QuinnScape, Packing Pro is a mobile app for creating customized packing lists. The built-in expert assistance will help you to ensure you don’t miss a thing. Catalog unlimited lists and organize your content until your heart’s content. It works for individuals and multi-person packing and can sync between iOS devices connected to your iCloud account.

· Platforms: Android and iOS · Free App

PackPoint is similar to Packing Pro but is available on both Android and iOS devices. This app builds your custom packing lists based on your plans and helps you prepare for any type of weather in the forecast.

Air Travel Tools

Colibra travel buddy.

· Platforms: Android and iOS · Free App · Compensation claims are limited to the European travel market.

Colibra Travel Buddy offers compensation for delayed and canceled flights covered under EU air passenger rights regulation EC 261 . All airlines registered within and operating within the EU are subject to this regulation. 

Using this app, you can book a reservation without depositing any money upfront—you pay only if your flight is completed and less than three hours late. If you prefer to book elsewhere, register your ticket at least 20 minutes before take-off and enjoy peace of mind. Colibra provides monetary compensation when flights fail to meet requirements.

So what’s the catch? When you use the Colibra Travel Buddy, you waive your rights to any individual payout that might otherwise be owed based on European flight directives.

FlightAware

Use FlightAware to get real-time updates, historical and predictive flight data, and alerts on delays, cancellations, gate changes, and more. Avoid surprises and navigate tight connections like a pro. Even if you’re just picking someone up at an airport, this app is worth a download.

Flio is similar to FlightAware but offers fewer flight details and more info on airports. This is the consummate app for those who need updates on estimated security wait times, arrival and departure gate information, baggage claim details, and airport amenities.

LoungeBuddy

· Platform: iOS · Free App · Pay only for lounge benefits.

LoungeBuddy connects flyers with airport lounges worldwide. Arrive early and unwind, treat the friends or family to a cushy layover, or refresh after enduring a redeye flight. This app gives you the “in” at thousands of airports.

TravelSpend

Track your spending while traveling with this money tracker. Stick to your budget and gain valuable insights about your spending. You can also share info with companions, and have an easier time splitting costs.

Don’t worry about exchange rates. TravelSpend lets you add expenses in any currency and will automatically convert amounts to your home currency.

XE Currency Converter

Speaking of currency and exchange rates, XE Currency Converter is one of the best travel apps to keep on hand while exploring internationally. Easily and quickly check exchange rates right from your mobile device.

If you pre-load the currencies for your destinations, you shouldn’t need to worry about connectivity. This tool can store the info so it’s ready for you on-demand.

Communication

· Platforms: Android and iOS · Free App · Duolingo Plus – $6.99 per month.

If you’re headed to a destination that speaks a language you don’t know, take some time to learn it with Duolingo . The app indicates that, according to a recent study, “34 hours of Duolingo are equal to 1 university semester of language courses.”

Duolingo Plus is ad-free and provides offline access, unlimited mistakes, and progress tracking. Currently, you can try this version for free for two weeks.

Google Translate

If you don’t have time to learn a new language before your trip, Google Translate can help! This well-known translation app has come a long way. It now allows you to translate via manual text input, photos, and voice entries.

It can read signs and decipher handwriting. Use it to speak with locals or read a menu. When it comes to language to language translation, there aren’t many situations Google Translate can’t handle.

If you’re worried about being caught without access, download language packs so you’ll be prepared when you’re offline. We can’t think of a reason not to add this to your international travel tool case.

Other Essentials

Skratch is one of the best travel apps for bucket listers. Plot where you want to go, build a map of the places you’ve been, and record memories of your travel experiences. Add photos and videos, and create a timeline of memories. This app will help you track your travel map, see stats, and share your adventures with the world!

If you’re traveling by vehicle through the U.S., Canada, or Australia, this app is for you! With GasBuddy , you can track the lowest gas prices and find stations that offer the amenities you need.

If you’re in the United States, you can take advantage of the GasBuddy card, which allows travelers to pay for orders at participating retailers and redeem rewards for fuel discounts.

Units Plus Converter

One of the trickiest parts of travel is conversion, but Units Plus takes care of that for you. This app can convert area, currency, fuel mileage, measurements, speed, temperature, time, and more!

When you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go! Use Flushd to find the nearest restrooms. But it doesn’t stop there! This app features the ability to find eco-friendly facilities, changing tables, and toilets that meet other personal preferences.

· Platforms: Android and iOS · Free App · Pro Version – $4.99

WiFi Map relies on the power of crowdsourced data to serve the public and its need for speed. It helps people find available WiFi networks so they can stay connected while they travel. Use it to search, or share details and allow others to gain access to your Hotspot.

The built-in speed testing functionality helps you make sure you’ll have sufficient access to get your work done or utilize other apps while you’re on the move.

If you pay for the Pro version, you’ll have access to additional features like secure VPN and offline WiFi maps.

World Time Buddy

Always know what time it is anywhere with World Time Buddy ! This convenient world clock and time zone converter. Its intuitive interface makes it a breeze to use. With a built-in meeting scheduler, WTB is a must for anyone who travels or conducts business across time zones.

Closing Thoughts on Travel Apps

Travel planning is no easy task! We hope this information is useful to you when it comes time to plan your next getaway. As noted, most of these apps are available on both iPhone and Android devices. Better yet, they all have a free version you can test, even if some charge for membership or optional and advanced features.

Don’t forget to download the Let’s Roam scavenger hunt app to keep you occupied during your stay. See the sights, learn interesting facts, and enjoy epic adventures while you roam!

Frequently Asked Questions

The best travel app always depends on what’s most important to a traveler. Wanderlog is perfect for those with wanderlust, while TripCase and TripIt are perfect for those who are more detail-oriented.

There are so many travel apps ! Finding a good one can be overwhelming. Kiwi, Hopper, and Skyscanner are great for finding deals and knowing when to book flights.

When it comes to booking stand-alone, shared, or unique accommodations, Airbnb is a favorite. But HomeToGo is a metasearch that lets you simultaneously search properties listed with several providers.

The best travel apps for road trippers include GasBuddy and, of course, the Roadtrippers app. If you’re traveling in an RV , be sure to reference this RV beginners’ guide .

The Let’s Roam scavenger hunt app will lead you straight to must-see locations in hundreds of cities. Use it to find pub crawls, mural hunts, ghost tours, and traditional scavenger hunts worldwide.

The Let’s Roam scavenger hunt app helps people get to know a city. Find landmarks and get to know the locals wherever you go. Team-building scavenger hunts are also available!

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10 Best Travel TRIP PLANNER APPs To Have in 2024

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In a fast-paced world where the stress of work and school is overwhelming, we all need a break to de-stress our minds. Traveling is one good way to take your mind off of stressful things – a breather. And a scheduled vacation gives you something to look forward to.

Whether it’s a local trip alone, a family holiday, or a getaway with your best friends, it just excites you to wish the day would come faster. 

10 Best Trip Planner Apps in 2024

The freeform app.

  • TripIt: Travel Planner

Hopper – Flight & Hotel Deals

  • Sygic Travel Maps Trip Planner

Roadtrippers: Trip Planner

Tripadvisor, travelspend: track travel expense & trip budget, tripcase – travel organizer app, travel planning apps for your next trip.

travel tools apps

The Freeform app is an endless whiteboard that lets users add information from a variety of websites, photos, videos and files.

Because the boards are kept in iCloud, they can be accessed from any device anytime inspiration hits. While you and your travel companions plan your dream trip, the specifics can be shared with several individuals working together on the same whiteboard, making them an ongoing work in progress.

The Freeform app is free to iPhone users on iOS 16.2, iPad users on 16.2, and Mac users on Ventura MacOS Venture 13.1. 

Download the brand-new app here .

Read our full post: Apple Launches New Travel App Freeform – What to Know

Wanderlog Trip Planner App

wanderlog - best travel planning app

Wanderlog is your all-in-one destination for planning future trips, sharing travel guides, and blogging past trips.

Its trip planning features are incredibly flexible: you can research destinations and activities, organize reservations by connecting your email, and map out a day itinerary with start/end times. You can also add notes and links all throughout.

Everything is stored offline so you can access your itinerary when traveling abroad. For road trips, it calculates the time and distance between places and exports them to Google Maps (and there are no limits to the number of stops you have on a trip!).

Plus, there’s a fun social component: collaborate with friends on itineraries, write your own travel guide, and blog about past trips. Wanderlog is available on the web and on your smartphone, so you can seamlessly plan while at home and on-the-go.

iOS  /  Android

TripIt: Trip Planner App

TripIt - Travel Planning App

If you need any help organizing the dozens of itineraries, TripIt is the app for you. Users simply need to forward your flight, hotel, restaurant, and car rental confirmation emails to [email protected] and the app will create a free master doc for each of your trips. The best thing about this app is that you can get access to your itinerary anywhere, even without an internet connection. 

In addition, the Pro version will find you alternative routes for canceled flights and send out notifications for delayed flights, cancellations, and more from the airlines. 

iOS / Android

travel tools apps

Rome2rio is a versatile travel planning app that simplifies the process of finding and booking travel options. It’s a handy tool for travelers seeking to explore various transportation choices between destinations. Rome2rio offers users a comprehensive view of travel options, including flights, trains, buses, ferries, and even driving directions.

Key features of Rome2rio include:

  • Route Information: The app provides detailed information on different routes, including estimated travel times, costs, and the number of transfers required.
  • Booking Integration: Users can book flights, train tickets, and other transportation options directly through the app, streamlining the booking process.
  • Map Integration: Rome2rio integrates with maps, allowing users to visualize their travel routes and explore nearby attractions.
  • Multi-Modal Travel: It offers options for combining various modes of transportation, making it easy to plan complex journeys.
  • Accurate Pricing: The app provides real-time pricing information, helping users make informed decisions based on their budget.
  • Offline Access: Rome2rio offers offline access to previously searched routes, which can be handy when traveling without a data connection.

best travel websites

Hopper is an amazing trip planner app to have on your phone. The app predicts airfares up to 1 year in advance, with 95% accuracy. It analyzes over billions of flight prices and hotels within the day – telling you whether to book your trip now or wait for just a little longer.

Here’s how it works: Key in your destination and a color-coded calendar will display the cheapest and most expensive date to fly. The app will then recommend you to either book the flight now or sit it out and wait for airfare to get cheaper. Also, you can filter predictions to custom-fit your trip – remove long layovers, extra fees, restrictions, and more. 

And if you worry about missing out the cheap flight bookings, don’t be! Hopper will send you a notification when fares have dropped to its lowest point.

SYGIC Travel Maps Trip Planner

Sygic Travel Maps , the new version of Sygic Trip Planner, is the first travel app to display all of the attractions and places a traveler needs to see and visit on a single map.

Sync your trips with the Sygic Travel app and find hidden gems in all cities you visit. The app boast a large database that allows you to find the best hotels, tourist attractions, museums, restaurants, bars, and stores wherever you go.

This mobile app also let you download offline maps and guides, which come in helpful when traveling to remote locations with poor or non-existing Wi-Fi.

It also has a dedicated section to worldwide places of interest for travel business. Get location information for individual cities, countries, continents, or the entire planet.

The app is available in 18 languages.

iOS / Android iOS

Roadtrippers - Travel Planning Mobile App

Planning on a cross-country road trip ? Roadtrippers is the app for you! Not everyone is fond of waiting long hours at the airport while sitting through your red-eye flight. Hit the road with your friends instead.

Roadtrippers provides everything you need to know on your road trip. Just enter your starting point, destination, and let the app do its work for you! From camping sites to rest stops, outdoor activities, exciting adventures along the way that you didn’t know existed. This app is the perfect buddy for your road trip regardless of your mode of transportation – a sedan, a rental car, or a huge family RV.

travel tools apps

Most of us dream of going to places! But planning an amazing trip to places we have not been to is pretty hard as you don’t know where to stay, what to do, places to eat, and adventures to try. We mostly rely on recommendations, most of which are not even right, that we find online. 

TripAdvisor has over millions of travel recommendations on hotels, top dining spots, must-do experiences, and treasured gems to over 8 million destinations at your perusal. It is an all-in-one app that lets you book tables at restaurants and compares low prices on hotels and flights.

You can also follow friends and travel experts for advice that match your interests, watch videos, and read articles. In return, you can share your experiences, reviews, and helpful guides for other users too!

travel tools apps

Setting up a budget for your trip is easy, however, sticking to it is hard. TravelSpend will help you with that. It starts with entering your budget and expenses over multiple days so you don’t go overboard. The app helps you in sticking to your budget effectively.

Being in another country is not a problem at all: enter your expenses in any currency and the app will automatically convert it to your home currency.

Track your travel expenses whether going on a solo around-the-world trip or backpacking holiday with your best friends. The app allows you to share your trip with your friends and track your expenses together. Pay debts, split bills, and check your balances – all in the app!

travel tools apps

TripCase, a comprehensive travel organizer app, has emerged as a popular choice among travelers seeking a streamlined and efficient way to manage their journey details.

Here’s a breakdown of its key features and functionalities:

Centralized Itinerary Management : TripCase allows users to consolidate all their travel details, including flights, hotels, and car rentals, into a single, easily accessible itinerary.

Real-time Flight Alerts : The app keeps travelers informed with up-to-the-minute notifications on flight statuses, including delays, cancellations, and gate changes.

Itinerary Sharing : TripCase offers a sharing option that enables users to send their travel plans to friends, family, or colleagues.

Travel Directions and Maps : To aid navigation in unfamiliar locations, the app provides directions and maps.

Nearby Recommendations : TripCase offers recommendations for restaurants, attractions, and other services close to the traveler’s location.

Document Storage : For added convenience, the app allows users to store essential travel documents digitally, ensuring that important information like passport details, visas, and insurance policies are readily available.

Customizable Notifications : Users can customize their notification preferences, choosing what types of alerts they receive and how they are notified, tailoring the app to suit individual needs and preferences.

iOS / Android 

Hi, great List. I couldn’t travel without my Apps! I have one App you could check out =) Its called ” ATM Fee Saver” and it gives a list with all ATMs and their fees and limit. I found it super helpful and it really helped me to save some money. Best regards, Charlotte

Thank you for your suggestions! Those apps are very useful and various

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The best trip planner apps to make your travels easier

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Booking a trip can be an exciting yet daunting task. As if booking airfare, hotel, and transportation weren't enough, you also need to consider food, sights, and attractions. As a travel lover myself, I often dread planning and preparing for a trip. Not only do I never have the time, but I often get oversaturated by the vast amount of information found online and the fear of getting scammed. 

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Over the years, I've found the best websites and apps to help smooth out the planning process. These apps help me keep track of all my reservations, send me booking reminders, and guarantee I always find the best prices -- because there is nothing worse than falling for tourist traps or overpriced offerings. 

Whether you are a spontaneous or a nitty-gritty planner traveler, ZDNET has tested and reviewed the best trip planner apps on the market. Our top pick for the best trip planner site and app is Booking.com due to its easy-to-use user interface, extensive booking capabilities, and pricing. However, since not every trip or traveler is the same, we've included several options to help you plan and stay organized during your travels. 

Keep reading to learn more about ZDNET's expert-tested and reviewed trip planner apps. 

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The best trip planner apps of 2023

Booking.com, best overall trip planner.

  • Multiple bookings
  • Great deals
  • Can earn points from bookings and reservations
  • Easy to use
  • No group planning
  • Can't organize bookings per trip

Booking.com features:   Platform: App and website |  Compatibility:  iOS and Android |  Pricing:  Free |  Booking:  Yes |  Group planning:  No

When planning my trips, I always make a stop at the Booking.com app, especially when reserving hotels. I find their user interface visually appealing and easy to use, and that it provides just the right amount of information I need when scrolling through hotel suggestions. Personally, I enjoy that I can add my top picks to my favorites with a quick tap of a heart, glance through reviews, look at cancellation policies, and even find out how far away hotels are from key spots. Through Booking.com, you can also book flights, car rentals, taxis, and city attractions, making it a great all-in-one place to plan and book upcoming weekend getaways or longer vacations. While I have personally never used the car rentals, taxis, or city attractions components of the app, I enjoy knowing that if I ever needed to, I can quickly hop on my phone and glance at the latest offerings. 

My favorite feature when using Booking.com to plan trips is the offers and promotions it displays for users. In the app, when you click your profile, you can see your "Genius" loyalty program status as well as discover the best deals around the world for your specific chosen dates. My only critique of Booking.com is that it does not enable group trip planning or let you organize your bookings per trip. This means if you are planning a trip with a friend, only one person can book and have access to reservations. 

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Best trip planner for organization

  • Synced with e-mail inbox
  • Organizes reservations no matter where you book
  • Works offline
  • Can't make any bookings
  • Need to pay for advanced features
  • UI could use an upgrade

TripIt features:   Platform:  App and website |  Compatibility: iOS and Android | Pricing: Free or $49 per year | Booking: No | Group planning: Yes

In terms of planning a trip, creating an itinerary, and keeping all your information in one place, TripIt is one of the best travel apps to keep yourself organized. When you first create an account, TripIt will sync with your inbox and automatically add all of your upcoming flights and reservations to your account. You can then modify each trip to include as little or as much information as you'd like. As someone who likes to be spontaneous when traveling, I usually only add the essentials: flight information, hotel reservations, and important documents. However, if you like to plan your trips down by the hour, you can also include activities, restaurant reservations, transportation, and more in your trip plan to share with fellow travelers.

As your trip approaches, TripIt will also send you packing reminders, give you COVID-19 travel guidance, and show transportation options. While you can get most of the essential features within the free version of the app (this is the one I use), you can also pay $49 a year to get advanced features such as check-in reminders, real-time flight alerts, point tracking, and even notifications for drops in airfare prices. 

Keep in mind that while TripIt gives you transportation options and finds places near your hotel, you cannot book or make any reservations directly from the app. The app is solely used to organize and keep track of all of your travel plans in one place, no matter where you book them. 

Best AI trip planner

  • Personalized travel itinerary
  • Hotel booking
  • Can modify recommendations
  • Group planning enabled
  • Only available as a website
  • No flight or restaurant booking

Guide features:   Platform: Website  Compatibility: all major browsers |  Pricing:  Free | Booking: Yes, but hotels only | Group Planning: Yes  Generative AI is everyone's favorite buzzword this year, and slowly but surely, it has been making its way across all industries -- including the travel industry. Guide is an innovative AI travel planning tool that creates personalized travel itineraries based on your preferences. (Full disclosure, it's also owned by ZDNET's sister company. It's currently in private beta, but you can join a wait list.) All you need to do is select your destination, the dates, whether you are traveling alone or in a group, your budget, and the types of activities you are looking for, and Guide will do the planning. 

After generating a trip itinerary for you based on your prompt, Guide then lets you modify and customize the itinerary to your liking. I recently used Guide to plan a six-day trip to Austin, Texas, and this was the feature I enjoyed the most, since I had specific restaurants and activities I wanted to incorporate into my trip, but I also needed some additional recommendations. While you can't book flights or restaurant reservations through Guide, you can book and find great hotel deals powered by Expedia on the platform. 

Guide will also give you an overall budget for your trip, a packing list, and a comprehensive list of things to know about your destination -- which may be helpful for some more than others. While my trip to Austin was a solo trip, Guide has a feature where you can invite other fellow travelers to collaborate in planning your trip through Guide's chatbot, GuideBot. This chatbot also works sort of like ChatGPT, where you can ask GuideBot questions about your trip, your destination, or recommendations. Keep in mind you can not ask GuideBot to directly modify your trip for you, and instead need to manually do it yourself -- believe me, I tried. 

Tripadvisor

Best trip planner app for reviews.

  • Countless reviews
  • Used by travelers worldwide
  • Variety of information
  • Booking capabilities
  • Great for local spots
  • Booking is not its strongest feature and you may not always find the best deals
  • Doesn't vet reviews

Tripadvisor  features: Platform:  App and website |  Compatibility:  iOS and Android |  Pricing:  Free |  Booking:  Yes |  Group planning:  No

Reading customer reviews is one of the most important steps when planning a trip. While you shouldn't base all of your decisions on reviews, you should consider past customer experiences to get a feel for the brand and company you are about to trust, or the experience you are going to pay for.  When it comes to travel reviews, Tripadvisor is the best trip planner app to rely on. Since the platform has so many reviews for restaurants, activities, accommodations, and locations all over the world, it is always easy and convenient to log onto the app or website to help you make an educated decision. (However, remember that not all Tripadvisor reviews are legit, since the platform does not independently verify customer postings.) Beyond reviews, TripAdvisor also lets you book hotels, restaurants, things to do, and more while also providing detailed insights into their offerings -- including cancellation policies, ratings, and features. 

Tripadvisor's "Travelers' Choice" best-of list is also a popular part of its platform, allowing visitors to see top-rated destinations, hotels, restaurants, and things to do around the world. With Tripadvisor, you can plan a trip yourself from scratch, hire a trip designer, or get a custom itinerary built by AI. 

Best trip planner app for transportation

  • Great multi-mode travel comparison
  • convenient and seamless transportation booking
  • Multiple currency and language availability
  • Flight deals and suggestions are not the strongest
  • Limited offers depending on the country or city of travel
  • Not the most reliable customer service

Omio features:  Platform:  App and website |  Compatibility:  iOS and Android |  Pricing:  Free |  Booking:  Yes, transportation only |  Group planning:  No

I first discovered Omio when a friend recommended it to me while I was studying abroad in Spain, and ever since I downloaded it, it has become my go-to app for booking the best deals and fares on transportation within Europe. The concept behind Omio is simple: You plug in your departure and arrival location, including the number of people you are traveling with, and add whether you are looking for a one-way or round-trip journey. Omio will then show you the best deals by train, bus, or plane to and from your desired destination, including how much time each option will take you and the number of stops. 

The German-based travel booking site is great at aggregating travel information from multiple sites, allowing you to view all of your transportation options in one place. This is incredibly beneficial when planning trips within Europe since there are several ways you can cross each border and often various languages and regulations to keep in mind. Omio is set in English but has multiple additional languages available, as well as currency options. During my time abroad, I solely used Omio to book all of my transportation, including planning a 17-day trip across seven different European countries. Overall, using Omio was not only convenient and seamless but also helped me save hundreds of dollars by helping me maximize my travel time by switching between flights, trains, and buses. 

However, since returning from Europe, I have not used Omio as much as I thought I would -- maybe because I have a car and take most of my trips by plane. And Omio's flight deals and suggestions are not the strongest compared to Booking.com or Skyscanner's, which heavily focus on flight deals. I have also found they have some limitations depending on the country or city you are traveling in. Be mindful of the deals and tickets you buy through Omio since some tickets are non-refundable, and some customers complain their customer service is not the best -- although I have yet to have any issues with them. 

What is the best trip planner app?

Booking.com gets our vote for the best trip planner app due to its wide selection of accommodations, its points and promotions offerings, and its easy-to-use user interface. Not only does Booking.com help you find the best deals throughout your trip, but it will also help you stay organized throughout your trip by keeping all of your reservations in one place. To determine which trip planner app or combination of trip planners is best for you, check out this comparison chart below. 

Which is the right trip planner app for you?

The best trip planner app ultimately depends on your travel and planning style. If you like booking and planning everything in one place while also earning points and getting great deals, then Booking.com is your top app. However, if you are looking for a place to keep all of your accommodations, reservations, and activity details organized, then TripIt is a better app for you. Check out the following chart to help you find the best trip planner app or a combination of apps for you to plan your next adventure. 

How did we choose these trip planner apps?

To find the best trip planner apps, we drew upon real-life experiences and tested their performance and capabilities during our latest trips. Ultimately, we weighted the following factors when choosing which trip planners to include on our list: 

  • Features: Each app can vary significantly with the features it offers, whether it is solely to book flights and hotels, help you plan your next trip using AI, or help you find the best deals and booking information, each app on this list can help you address several common inconveniences that present themselves while planning that next adventure.  
  • Compatibility: An app is of little use if it does not work with your devices, so we look to see what compatibility each trip-planning app offers and which platforms you can access it from. Personally, I enjoy apps that combine an app and website component since this quickly helps me switch between my wide computer screen and my tiny yet portable iPhone screen. 
  • Customer reviews: We study real customer reviews and ratings to evaluate customer satisfaction and service. This is incredibly important since most times when you travel, you visit an unknown city or country, and you should be mindful of past experiences others have had. 
  • Cost : Most trip planner apps are free, but you may have to upgrade to receive special access to exclusive features or deals. If your app is already free, it means you only have to pay a small amount (often unnoticeable) when you book your accommodations. 

What is a trip planner app?

A trip planner app is an app that provides organizational features for your upcoming trip. It is often free and incorporates trip planning tools, whether you are traveling by ground, water or air.   

How does a trip planner app work?

A trip planner app can incorporate special features, like an itinerary, calendar, reservation and booking hub, and map assistance. Depending on the app you choose, there is even trip-sharing with friends and family to simplify the entire trip planning process.  

How much does a trip planner app cost?

Most trip planner apps are free, but some may offer in-app purchases to upgrade or enhance your experience. Within this list, only Tripit costs money, but only for their advanced features version, which costs $49 a year. However, you can get access to most if not all, trip-planning features, through their free version. 

Are there alternative trip planner apps worth considering?

As I mentioned earlier, trip planning heavily depends on your personal style of travel and preferences. However, whether you like to plan your trips down by the minute or prefer to just have the basics, there are several apps that can optimize your planning. Here are a few apps worth considering that almost made it onto our list: 

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Groups Are A Trip

18 Group Travel Planning Apps That Make Life Easier

Planning a group vacation with a number of different people can be a fun yet challenging endeavor. It requires effective coordination, communication, and savvy budget management. Whether you’re the group leader or just a member of your traveling group, you should check out the best group travel planning apps that will make the process smooth and simple.

Best Travel Apps for a Group Trip - Groups Are A Trip

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Table of Contents

Group Travel Planning Apps to Organize Your Next Trip

There are a variety of mobile apps that are designed to simplify vacation planning and help while you’re traveling on the trip. In this comprehensive guide, we have the top-notch mobile apps that are the very best for group travel planning, whether it involves accommodating different budgets, organizing an unforgettable friend group getaway, or discovering expert tips for the best deal on anything from train tickets to hotel rooms.

1. Wanderlog

​Wanderlog is the ultimate travel companion when you’re planning for a diverse group of friends, each with their own unique budgets and preferences. Whether you have a smaller group or you have a lot of group members in your travel party, this comprehensive travel app empowers every member to contribute their preferences and financial constraints. Hopefully this will ensure a smooth, fun trip for the whole group. 

Wanderlog

From finding budget-friendly hotel choices to meticulously mapping out the best time for spa appointments, Wanderlog covers every aspect of your adventure. It can even create a detailed itinerary to help you get started.

With its seamless integration with Google Maps, you can easily chart your course and discover the hidden gems that will make your group trip the best thing you’ve ever done together.

Wanderlog offers a free version with basic features, but it also has a premium paid subscription plan called “Wanderlog Pro” for advanced features. Download on App Store or Google Play

2. Shared Notes (iPhone)

​ Communication is key when coordinating a group adventure, and Notes on iPhone helps you maintain clear and concise group texts and notes. From hashing out travel dates and sharing to-do lists to keeping track of key things to remember during your journey, this feature keeps the whole group informed and organized.

Shared Notes is a built-in feature on iOS devices, and it’s free to use. All you have to do is create in your Notes app and then select that you want to share.

​ Handling expenses for a large friend group can be a challenge, but Tab simplifies it by helping you keep track of who owes what. This app’s seamless functionality makes sure that everyone enjoys the whole trip without any financial hiccups, allowing your group to focus on the fun of your adventure.

Tab is a free app for  splitting expenses . Download on App Store or Google Play

4. Trip Splitter

The mobile app Trip Splitter is an indispensable tool for meticulous expense management. Its ability to maintain a comprehensive record of spending is particularly valuable when dealing with different budgets and a variety of preferences. 

Whether you’re tracking expenses for a long-term trip or ensuring that everyone contributes their fair share at dinner, this app has got you covered.

Trip Splitter offers a free version with basic features, but it also has a premium paid subscription plan for additional features. Download on App Store or Google Play

5. Splitwise

Managing expenses — even with a large group of people — becomes a breeze with Splitwise . This free travel planning app is designed to create fairness and financial transparency. No one wants to be bogged down with financial worries during a trip, and Splitwise ensures that everyone enjoys their vacation without worrying about budget disparities. 

Splitwise group travel app

It’s a reliable tool for tracking who owes what, making sure your friend group’s budget remains intact throughout your adventure.

Splitwise is a free app for expense splitting and management. Download on App Store or Google Play

6. Facebook Group (FB Group)

​ Creating a private Facebook Group is a great way to facilitate communication about trip plans within your friend group. It’s also one of our favorite platforms to use when  planning a family reunion . This is a versatile platform for discussing everything from the tourist attractions you want to visit to organizing group conversations and answering questions from your fellow travelers.

The platform allows for discussions, event planning, and real-time updates. This is a great free travel app for keeping everyone in the loop.

Creating and using private Facebook Groups is free. Download on App Store or Google Play

7. WhatsApp

​ Using WhatsApp is the perfect way to coordinate a travel-based group chat instead of working your way through texts with everyone’s phone number or email threads when planning. It’s an ideal platform for coordinating plans and sharing arrival times with your friend group. 

Stay connected, share travel ideas when planning, or meet up locations when at your destination. You can make the most of your adventure with this reliable messaging app that ensures everyone is on the same page. This app uses your device’s data or wifi to send the messages, so it doesn’t charge you any international rates. 

WhatsApp is a free messaging app. Download on App Store or Google Play

​GroupMe elevates group messaging with advanced features like event planning and location sharing. It is perfect for keeping everyone informed and connected during your friend group’s journey. Using the app is a simple way to ensure that every member of the group can be a part of the process of working out travel details, and helps you stay connected while traveling.

GroupMe Apple App Store

GroupMe is a free messaging app. Download on App Store or Google Play

​ Streamlining the planning process for your group of friends is effortless with TripIt . This sophisticated app automatically generates a master itinerary that includes hotel bookings, real-time flight alerts, and key things to do during the trip. 

This trip planner app also keeps all of your confirmation numbers for hotel reservations, flight information, and rental cars all in one spot. It’s a must-have tool for ensuring everyone in the group is well-prepared and informed.

TripIt offers both a free version with basic features and a premium paid annual subscription plan called “TripIt Pro” for enhanced features. It’s great for keeping all of the important details in one place. This is one of the best travel planner apps out there. Download on App Store or Google Play

​Band is a fantastic communication hub for friend groups, offering document sharing via Google Docs, creating shared photo albums, and maintaining group chats for discussions.

GroupMe app

This is the best way to keep everyone engaged and informed about the latest developments and ideas throughout the planning process and the journey.

Band is a free communication app. Download on App Store or Google Play

11. Coordle

​ When coordinating activities for groups with varying preferences, Coordle shines by simplifying the process of finding the best time for group activities and excursions and allowing all planning to happen in one centralized app. It ensures a good time for everyone, making it easy to have an unforgettable adventure. 

Coordle offers a free version with basic features, but it also has a premium paid subscription plan for additional features. Download on App Store or Google Play

12. Family Album

​ Preserving cherished memories is easy with Family Album, a private photo-sharing app that lets you create dedicated photo albums to relive the highlights of your adventure with your friend group. Share expert tips and insider knowledge through images and captions that encapsulate your experiences.

Group of people traveling

Family Album offers a free version with basic features, but it also has premium paid subscription plans for more storage and features. Download on App Store or Google Play

13. Shared Photo Albums

​ Capture every moment of your adventure by using Shared Phone Albums, available for use on both iOS and Android devices. Ensure that each member of the friend group contributes their photos to create a complete visual narrative of the experiences from your trip.

This feature is available on iOS and Android devices, and it’s part of the phone’s functionality. It’s one of the best free travel planner apps for organizing your group’s memories.

​Troupe makes decision-making easy within smaller groups by facilitating the process of selecting activities and planning excursions together. It ensures that the travel itinerary aligns with the diverse preferences and expectations of your friend group, guaranteeing a well-rounded adventure that everyone will love.

Troupe offers a free version with basic features, but it also has premium paid subscription plans for additional features. Download on App Store or Google Play

15. Tripline

Tripline introduces a creative quality to your group travel experience by enabling the creation of captivating interactive travel maps. These maps serve as an engaging showcase of your journey’s route and highlights. This makes it easier for your friend group to relive the adventure and share their travel tips with others.

Tripline app

Tripline offers a free version with basic features, but it also has premium paid subscription plans for more advanced features. Download on App Store or Google Play

16. TravelSpend

​TravelSpend is great for streamlining expense management. It simplifies the process of splitting costs among friends or family members with real-time expense tracking, and it converts currencies automatically. TravelSpend empowers group travelers to stay on top of their financial commitments, making it easier for everyone to enjoy the trip without financial stress. 

Thia app also offers analytical data about your spending so that you can track what you’re spending the most (or the least) on. 

TravelSpend is a free app for tracking travel expenses. Download on App Store or Google Play

17. Google Maps

​ Google Maps has a function called My Maps that can be used to create personalized maps for different destinations. It’s a great addition to your next trip with family and/or friends. 

You can drop pins on the best places to visit, separate maps by different cities, pin the must-try restaurants, landmarks, and museums, and navigate to the nearest transportation hubs. Everyone can share this travel map, making it essential to have it on everyone’s phones.

It also works as a typical map app showing the best routes and travel time between destinations. You can also get offline access if you don’t have phone service.

Google Maps is a free application that works on Android and iOS. Download on App Store or Google Play

18. SaveTrip

SaveTrip is another app that can be used by family members to plan trip itineraries together. You could work together on each day, or split your trip days between family members and let everyone plan a day. 

After you have planned your days you can present your ideas to the group. The next step is to vote on things, set a budget, and agree on travel. You can even make a vision board using the notes tool. 

SaveTrip Group planning app

Once you take the trip, you can manage a budget, share costs, and use the integrated Google Maps feature to get around. 

This app is free to download and use. Download on App Store or Google Play

Mastering the art of group travel planning with different budgets and varying preferences can be challenging. With these indispensable mobile apps, it can be an easy experience that allows everyone to relax and have fun. With apps like these, you can be your own travel agent. Use these travel apps to put together a successful trip with all of your friends and family.

From expense management to communication and itinerary planning, these apps cater to every aspect of group getaways. So, gather your favorite people, download one of these great travel tools, and get ready to easily make some amazing travel plans!

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Wander With Alex

Hit the Road with Ease: 10 Helpful Road Trip Planning Apps

Posted: August 6, 2023 | Last updated: August 6, 2023

Whether you need a travel packing list, the cheapest gas price, or a toilet finder, there’s a road trip planner "app for that.”

Road trips are “in” this year. Whether you need a travel packing list, the cheapest gas price, or a toilet finder, there’s “an app for that!” Using a road trip planner app is a convenient way to store all your essential travel plans all in one place. Below we’ll explore ten useful apps that can help you stay organized, budget, and find your way around.

<p><a href="https://roadtrippers.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">Roadtrippers</a> is a robust road trip planner app with many useful features. Not only can you plan out your entire trip, but you can also use the app to navigate. The app allows you to mark your planned stops easily and suggests things for you to do along the way. You can estimate how much you’ll spend on gas, book hotels and tours, and get traffic updates. Roadtrippers Plus has even more features, allowing you to create itineraries and download pre-made trip guides. </p>

1. Roadtrippers (Route Planning)

Roadtrippers is a robust road trip planner app with many useful features. Not only can you plan out your entire trip, but you can also use the app to navigate. The app allows you to mark your planned stops easily and suggests things for you to do along the way. You can estimate how much you’ll spend on gas, book hotels and tours, and get traffic updates. Roadtrippers Plus has even more features, allowing you to create itineraries and download pre-made trip guides.

<p>A road trip <a href="https://wanderwithalex.com/packing-list/">packing list</a> can help you keep track of your belongings before, during, and after travel. It’s the best way to ensure you haven’t forgotten anything essential. But rather than keep track of a paper checklist, why not use an app! <a href="https://www.packpnt.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">PackPoint</a> is a travel packing list app that allows you to create custom packing lists for free. You can categorize your list and even see what the weather is like at your destination. The premium version also allows you to link to your TripIt itinerary! </p>

2. PackPoint (Packing List)

A road trip packing list can help you keep track of your belongings before, during, and after travel. It’s the best way to ensure you haven’t forgotten anything essential. But rather than keep track of a paper checklist, why not use an app? PackPoint is a travel packing list app that allows you to create custom packing lists for free. You can categorize your list and even see what the weather is like at your destination. The premium version also allows you to link to your TripIt itinerary! 

<p><a href="https://www.tripit.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">TripIt</a> is a mobile itinerary app that allows you to compile your road trip or travel plans all in one place. You can send your travel confirmation emails to the app, add things like photos and PDFs, email your itinerary to someone else, and even sync your trip to your calendar. TripIt Pro has additional features such as trip reminders, a rewards program tracker, “go now” reminders, and a host of flight-related tools. If you love itineraries, you’ll love this road trip planner app!</p>

3. TripIt (Itineraries)

TripIt is a mobile itinerary app that allows you to compile your road trip or travel plans all in one place. You can send your travel confirmation emails to the app, add things like photos and PDFs, email your itinerary to someone else, and even sync your trip to your calendar. TripIt Pro has additional features such as trip reminders, a rewards program tracker, “go now” reminders, and a host of flight-related tools. If you love itineraries, you’ll love this road trip planner app!

<p><a href="https://www.waze.com/">Waze</a> is a GPS navigation and live traffic app that helps you get where you need to go. Not only does it help you get to your destination but it allows users to input information such as road hazards, construction sites, and police sightings. </p><p>Another popular feature of the app is its rerouting tool. When the app notices traffic back up ahead, it will notify you of the situation and offer alternative routes. Waze has also added features such as a speedometer, a gas finder, a parking garage/lot finder, and it will even sync with your music and podcast apps. </p>

4. Waze (Traffic & Directions)

Waze is a GPS navigation and live traffic app that helps you get where you need to go. Not only does it help you get to your destination, but it allows users to input information such as road hazards, construction sites, and police sightings.

Another popular feature of the app is its rerouting tool. When the app notices traffic back up ahead, it will notify you of the situation and offer alternative routes. Waze has also added features such as a speedometer, a gas finder, a parking garage/lot finder, and it will even sync with your music and podcast apps.

<p>Suppose you’re directionally changed, like me, using <a href="https://www.google.com/maps" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">Google Maps</a> to get around a new city is a game changer. The app isn’t just for driving navigation and can be used when getting around on foot or by bike. And if your location history has been enabled, the app will even give you destination recommendations based on places you’ve previously visited. In addition, Google Maps will let you share your location and download maps offline if you know you’ll have spotty service. </p>

5. Google Maps (Destination Finder)

Suppose you’re directionally changed, like me. Using Google Maps to get around a new city is a game changer. The app isn’t just for driving navigation and can be used when getting around on foot or by bike. And if your location history has been enabled, the app will even give you destination recommendations based on places you’ve previously visited. In addition, Google Maps will let you share your location and download maps offline if you know you’ll have spotty service.

<p><a href="https://www.gasbuddy.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">GasBuddy</a> is a fuel savings app that uses your location to help you locate cheap gas. You can also sign up for a free Pay with GasBuddy card to save even more at the pump. Here’s how it works. </p><p>Once you receive the card in the mail, you will connect it to your bank account. Next, you’ll use the app to unlock deals. Then, when you are ready to fill up, you use your GasBuddy card instead of your debit card. When you do this, you’ll receive up to 25 cents off per gallon, and if you upgrade to their premium account, you can get up to 40 cents off per gallon. The GasBuddy card works at 95% of gas stations in the U.S.</p><p>Additionally, if you want to <em>save even more</em> on gas, you can participate in their Shop Your Way program. Use the app to shop their retailers, and they will apply more gas discounts to your card. </p>

6. GasBuddy (Best Gas Prices)

GasBuddy is a fuel savings app that uses your location to help you locate cheap gas. You can also sign up for a free Pay with GasBuddy card to save even more at the pump. Here’s how it works.

Once you receive the card in the mail, you will connect it to your bank account. Next, you’ll use the app to unlock deals. Then, when you are ready to fill up, you use your GasBuddy card instead of your debit card. When you do this, you’ll receive up to 25 cents off per gallon, and if you upgrade to their premium account, you can get up to 40 cents off per gallon. The GasBuddy card works at 95% of gas stations in the U.S.

Additionally, if you want to save even more on gas, you can participate in their Shop Your Way program. Use the app to shop for their retailers, and they will apply more gas discounts to your card.

<p>Although comical, the <a href="https://www.jrustonapps.com/apps/flush-toilet-finder" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">Flush</a> restroom finder app is genius! All you have to do is open the app, which will display public restroom options near you. The app also tells you if the bathroom is handicap accessible, if there is a fee, and even lets you know if a key is required. And this app isn’t just for those in the U.S.; it helps you find toilets worldwide! </p>

7. Flush (Toilet Finder)

The Flush restroom finder app is genius! All you have to do is open the app, and it will display public restroom options near you. The app also tells you if the bathroom is handicap accessible, if there is a fee, and even lets you know if a key is required. And this app isn’t just for those in the U.S.; it helps you find toilets worldwide!

<p>The <a href="https://trabeepocket.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">Trabee Pocket</a> app was designed specifically for tracking your spending while traveling. The app allows you to enter pre-trip costs, add on-the-go costs, categorize your purchases, and show you how much you’ve spent via a pie graph. And if you don’t want to hold on to your paper receipt, you can take photos and upload them to the app. When your road trip is over, you can export your expense detail to a PDF or even a CSV file that you can open in Microsoft Excel. This simple-to-use expense tracker is great for <a href="https://wanderwithalex.com/creating-a-travel-budget-template/">budget-conscious</a> road-trippers looking to watch their spending!</p>

8. Trabee Pocket (Budget Tracker)

The Trabee Pocket app was designed specifically for tracking your spending while traveling. The app allows you to enter pre-trip costs, add on-the-go costs, categorize your purchases, and show you how much you’ve spent via a pie graph. And if you don’t want to hold on to your paper receipt, you can take photos and upload them to the app.

When your road trip is over, you can export your expense detail to a PDF or even a CSV file that you can open in Microsoft Excel. This simple-to-use expense tracker is great for budget-conscious road-trippers looking to watch their spending!

<p>If you’re looking for last-minute hotel deals, <a href="https://www.hoteltonight.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">HotelTonight</a> is your app. Perfect for road trips, this app is ideal for those who decide, unplanned, that they want to stay the night in town before moving on to their next destination. So how does it work? </p><p>HotelTonight partners with hotels to help them fill up their unreserved rooms. In return, they can offer deep discounts to get those rooms filled. And although the app advertises last-minute accommodations, you can also book stays up to 100 days in advance. Be careful, though! Because these are great deals, you likely won’t get a refund for a cancellation or the ability to request a different type of room. </p>

9. HotelTonight (Last-Minute Stays)

If you’re looking for last-minute hotel deals, HotelTonight is your app. Perfect for road trips, this app is ideal for those who decide, unplanned, that they want to stay the night in town before moving on to their next destination. So how does it work?

HotelTonight partners with hotels to help them fill up their unreserved rooms. In return, they can offer deep discounts to get those rooms filled. And although the app advertises last-minute accommodations, you can also book stays up to 100 days in advance. Be careful, though! Because these are great deals, you likely won’t get a refund for a cancellation or the ability to request a different type of room.

<p><a href="https://guidealong.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">Guide Along</a>, formerly known as GyPsy Guide, is a GPS-narrated audio tour app that will give you information about your current location. While driving or walking, the app will suggest local tips and tell you about all the things there are to do and see around you. It’s a personal tour guide at your fingertips! The app lets you download and play tours offline if you know you’ll have bad cell service in an area. Imagine the beautiful coastal California scenery of a Big Sur road trip with options for the best places to stop and take it all in!</p>

10. Guide Along (Audio Tours)

Guide Along , formerly known as GyPsy Guide, is a GPS-narrated audio tour app that will give you information about your current location. While driving or walking, the app will suggest local tips and tell you about all the things there are to do and see around you. It’s a personal tour guide at your fingertips! The app lets you download and play tours offline if you know you’ll have bad cell service in an area.

<p>Taking a summer coastal road trip is the perfect way to embrace the sun, sand, and sea. Whether you explore the Pacific Coast’s rugged beauty or the East Coast’s charming beaches, a coastal road trip promises endless adventures. With each mile, you’ll discover hidden gems, breathtaking landscapes, and the laid-back vibes of coastal communities. Enjoy your summer adventures!</p> <p><em>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://wanderwithalex.com/coastal-road-trips/" rel="noreferrer noopener">Wander With Alex</a>. </em></p> <h2 class="simplefeed_msnslideshows_more_article">More Articles From Wander With Alex</h2> <ul>   <li><a href="https://wanderwithalex.com/best-summer-road-trips/">Hit the Road: Discover the 5 Best U.S. Summer Road Trips</a></li>   <li><a href="https://wanderwithalex.com/summer-vacation-spots/">Best Summer Vacation Spots to Beat the Heat and Unwind</a></li>   <li><a href="https://wanderwithalex.com/riviera-maya-mexico/">Experience Luxury, Culture, and Adventure in Riviera Maya</a></li>  </ul>

Final Thoughts

There are tons of road trip planner apps, so be sure to research and find the apps that best fit your needs. It’s always a good idea to test out your apps before your trip so you’re not fumbling around while driving. Enjoy your vacation, and be safe out there!

This article originally appeared on Wander With Alex . Photo Credit: [@scanrail/DepositPhotos]

More Articles From Wander With Alex

  • How to Spot Vacation Rental Scams and How to Avoid Them
  • Vacation Vibes: 13 Travel Tips for a Relaxing and Stress-Free Trip

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Destinations.ai

Destinations.ai

We make it easy to find the perfect travel destination

12 Best AI Travel Tools & Resources to Plan Your Trip

Author: Destinations.ai · Updated on: February 1, 2024

The world of AI solutions is making amazing new things possible in many industries. Emerging trends in the hospitality business are using AI applications to find the best deals to book flights, plan curated itineraries, and navigate to their destinations — all in a convenient self-service portal. In this article, we compared online reviews from hundreds of users to find artificial intelligence travel tools for your next travel and tourism.

Best AI Travel Tools & Resources

1. best artificial intelligence travel tool overall — destinations.ai.

Destination.ai Homepage

Destinations.ai is made to be your all-in-one artificial travel assistant in a way that traditional travel companies can’t match. Regarding the travel industry, this is the artificial intelligence you want at your disposal. It isn’t just a travel assistant — it is a total vacation planner that uses customer preferences and data analysis to generate an AI-designed holiday trip.

You put in your preferences for travel dates, airlines, budget, temperature, scenery, and other travel planning needs, and Destinations.ai generates a custom-made vacation destination just for you. That includes hotel bookings, flight reservations, and tourist destinations in just a few moments.

Regarding personalized experiences and virtual assistants in the travel industry, there is nothing quite like Destinations.ai. This savvy artificial intelligence points to the future of the travel business, showing the endless possibilities of travel and AI. If you want to explore but aren’t sure where to start, Destinations.ai could be an excellent choice.

  • No plan is needed; completely free
  • It only takes a few moments to generate an itinerary
  • Supplemental travel guides to learn more about a location
  • A new tool, so it may have bugs that need to be fixed
  • Few reviews yet available to compare
  • I can plan trips only in the US at the moment

2. ViaTravelers Authentic AI Travel Planner

ViaTravelers Logo

As travelers increasingly look for smarter ways to plan their trips, the  ViaTravelers Travel Itinerary Generator emerges as a notable tool in AI-driven travel planning. This platform utilizes artificial intelligence to craft personalized itineraries, simplifying the travel planning process for its users. If you are GPT Plus member, they also have a custom GPT called ViaTravelers – Ultimate Travel Planner , so you plan your travel on the go.

The AI at ViaTravelers stands out for its ability to select flights and  hotels , among other travel necessities, aligning with a traveler’s preferences and budget. Rather than sifting through myriad options on sites like Kayak or Expedia, this itinerary generator offers a more targeted approach:

  • Preferences Tailoring : Users input what’s important for their trip, such as destinations, budget, and themes.
  • AI Automation : The AI analyzes preferences against vast data to suggest the most suitable travel plans.
  • Personalization : Each itinerary is uniquely generated, tapping into user-specific desires and needs.

ViaTravelers adopts an API similar to that of innovative travel planners, yet it emphasizes authenticity by drawing upon its travel experiences to inform suggestions. This positions the tool as a hybrid between a search engine and a personal travel advisor.

The service also acknowledges the role of AI trip planner tools in streamlining travel planning. By leveraging ChatGPT-like capabilities, it manages to curate personalized travel itineraries seamlessly. Despite these advanced features, ViaTravelers remains impartial, earning commissions on purchases or bookings made through the platform, as is common in the industry. This generator is part of the future of automated travel planning, combining user input with intelligent algorithms for an optimized travel planning experience.

3. Best Tool for Cheap Flight and Hotel Alerts — Mighty Travels

Mighty Travels Premium

Mighty Travels Premium is a travel platform that provides travelers with a vast array of services designed to enhance the travel experience. It offers an interactive interface providing up-to-date information on flight deals, hotel discounts, and rewards programs.

Mighty Travels Premium can be an invaluable tool for frequent travelers looking to optimize their fare costs and mileage usage. Occasional travelers who prefer a more straightforward booking process may not utilize its full benefits.

  • Comprehensive Information: It provides users with extensive flight data, including prices, destinations, airlines, and potential use of miles.
  • Updated Deals: Regularly updated fare deals allow users to find the best price for their desired destination.
  • Travel Using Miles: The platform indicates how users can leverage various loyalty program miles for their travels.
  • Price Comparison: The tool compares the offered and average market prices for each itinerary.
  • Global Destination Coverage: Mighty Travels Premium covers a wide range of destinations across the globe, including minor airports and less popular routes.
  • Overwhelming Data: For new users or infrequent travelers, the volume of information might be overwhelming and hard to process.
  • Premium Feature Accessibility: Some features are only accessible via a premium subscription, which may not be affordable for all users.
  • No Direct Booking: You cannot directly book your tickets through the platform. It serves as a search engine redirecting you to third-party websites for actual booking.
  • Limited Airline Representation: While it does provide options from various airlines, some low-cost carriers are underrepresented or absent in search results.

4. Best Artificial Intelligence Travel Tool For Groups — KAYAK

Kayak Homepage

You may have heard of KAYAK as one of the top travel metasearch engines for hotel rooms, flights, and car rentals. However, this AI-driven site in the travel industry can also help curate the perfect itinerary for your next trip, all with the most basic information.

It also tracks the flights during your travel dates to help you find the best deals. Most notably, KAYAK’s itinerary function can be shared between users, making it ideal for planning a vacation with family members or a big group of friends. Customers can also approve flight alerts to get the best deals to book airlines and travel without breaking the bank!

KAYAK may still be primarily known as a standard booking company in the travel and tourism industry, but it has a bright future. If you are planning a group travel experience or want to share your travel plans with friends, this could be right up your alley.

Pros: 

  • The platform is easy to use and intuitive
  • Multiuser sharing makes it easy to plan group trips
  • Flight alerts offer the chance to get better deals on travel
  • Some reviewers mention information such as travel dates or hotels being changed without their knowledge
  • You will need to be cautious of scams, as scammers have found ways to work with KAYAK

See Related: Most Romantic Places in the World

5. Best Artificial Intelligence Travel Tool For Trips With Multiple Stops — Roamr

Roamr Homepage

Roamr is a newer artificial intelligence tool that lets you complete a travel itinerary in mere seconds with a few basic details, including your budget, travel dates, and where you want to go.

But the most intriguing feature of Roamr is that it makes it possible to plan a trip between several cities in the same area in a way that most travel companies can’t. One example: want to explore both Munich and Prague in one weekend? Roamr will point you toward local train schedules and other info to help you make multiple stops on a single trip.

This is especially helpful in places such as Europe, where you can quickly jump between cities and even countries within a day. If you have a lot of quick stops on a more extended trip, Roamr could be the travel assistant you need.

  • Making an itinerary is super-fast and only requires basic details
  • It helps you plan both international and local travel
  • Made to work with mobile devices
  • Still in its early days, so there may be bugs to smooth out
  • Not a lot of reviews online

6. Best Artificial Intelligence Travel Tool For Business Travel — Amgine

Amgine Homepage

Imagine was designed as HelloGbye, an AI-powered platform with business travel in mind. This tool is intended for people who frequently travel in their line of work and have to deal with the regular hassle of booking flights and hotel rooms. What is more, Amgine isn’t purely AI — it works in a unique human-AI interface that helps the booking process and other travel-related methods go more smoothly and successfully.

Business people face unique challenges when booking travel, especially if their job centers on traveling. Imagine is a travel assistant that takes the stress and struggles out of traveling for work, making the process smoother in a way that is beyond human intelligence or the capacities of most tourism companies. If you travel for work regularly — especially if you often cross borders or fly across the world — Amgine could be just what you need when it comes to AI in travel.

  • Designed with businesspeople in mind
  • It uses a human-AI interface to help the process be smooth and automated but also relevant and helpful
  • Not widely available — customers must request a demo on the website to use

7. Best Artificial Intelligence Travel Tool For Those on a Budget — Expedia

Expedia Homepage

We have all heard of Expedia as a website for booking car rentals, hotel rooms, and other travel needs. However, the popular platform also uses AI to improve its customer experience. Customers start by narrowing their search based on location, budget, travel dates, and other preferences.

Through the artificial intelligence-powered website, Expedia helps you find the cheapest flights and most comfortable hotels with dynamic pricing services. One of the site’s biggest appeals is the helpfulness of the AI chatbot, which can respond promptly to people experiencing travel crises who need to rebook or cancel flights, car rentals, or hotel rooms. If you want to be able to change your travel plans and customize your vacation with a dynamic robot concierge, Expedia could be a perfect choice.

  • It helps you find the best accommodation bookings suited to your needs
  • The helpful chatbot is widely recognized for its machine-learning algorithms and excellent customer experience
  • Travelers can change travel choices as needed, even in an emergency
  • Some customers report being able to find better deals by reaching out to hotel owners or travel agents directly
  • Cancellation policies may be strict

See Related: Best Spring Break Destinations in the US

8. Best Artificial Intelligence Travel Tool For Those Who Need Offline Access — TripIt

TripIt Homepage

TripIt helps you organize your trip in one place by helping you plan ahead and keeping you abreast of minute-by-minute travel changes. These include everything related to trips, from gate changes to flight delays and other information.

The tools allow users to track their trip even while not connected to the internet, making it a valuable platform for those traveling to places that might not have consistent internet access. The Pro offerings will allow you to track live flight updates, fare adjustments, and other changing information.

  • Pro TripIt allows travelers to track live updates regarding their bookings and itinerary.
  • An all-in-one platform keeps you organized.
  • All you have to do is make a booking and select “forward to TripIt” to have it added automatically to your itinerary
  • Offline access to itineraries
  • The free version does not offer access to all features, such as live flight updates

9. Best AI Tool For Those Whose Plans Change — iPlan

iPlan Homepage

Are you the kind of person who prefers not to have a set-in-stone travel itinerary and instead see where your trip takes you? Many customers are! Users can still use AI in travel with a tool like iPlan . This platform adjusts your itinerary automatically as you update it, customizing it as much as you want.

Through some savvy machine learning, iPlan will rewrite your plans in moments. To make it even easier to coordinate while still being spontaneous, you can share the itinerary with other travelers, making it simple to travel with a group of friends or colleagues.

Every person with access can edit the plans, too. This handy tool proves that planning things doesn’t have to take the fun and spontaneity out of travel.

  • Shared edit access makes it easy for group travelers to collaborate
  • Problem-solving AI technology adjusts your itinerary as you edit elements
  • Quick adjustments help travelers adapt in seconds
  • Completely free to users
  • Limited information and customer reviews online

10. Best AI Travel Tool For Exploring a City — Roam Around

Roam Around Homepage

ChatGPT is undoubtedly one of the most well-known AI technologies of today. Roam Around works directly with the platform to assist you with basic travel planning needs.

Performing tasks requires only a small amount of basic information — your destination and the length of your time there. It then produces a tailored itinerary with suggestions for what you should do during your stay.

Roam Around is a pretty essential tool for AI in travel, but this could be helpful for those who don’t know how to formulate sophisticated questions for data processing. On the other hand, some people might find it lacking in terms of tools and filters.

  • Offers basic information about tourist destinations to visit during your stay
  • Works with ChatGPT, a widely-accessible AI tool
  • Basic enough for almost anyone to use it
  • It doesn’t allow you to filter or refine your queries
  • It might not present enough information for many customers’ needs
  • It does not track airlines, flight information, or hotel bookings

See Related: Best Beach Vacations in Europe

11. Best AI Travel Tool For Those Who Want a Unique Experience — Vacay

Vacay Website Chatbot

If you’re looking for something genuinely tailor-made for your travel needs and goals, Vacay is a perfect choice. This AI chatbot partners with ChatGPT to help you figure out the ideal vacation for your needs, including destinations, travel dates, things to do, and more.

This is an excellent option for those who want to take a trip but aren’t sure where to start. Vacay will even provide recommendations for local hotels, restaurants, and entertainment. This means that it has many uses, and consequently, you’ll have to know how to use AI chatbots to refine your search.

  • Helps design customized vacation itinerary
  • Available with suggestions for local hotspots
  • Not well-suited for those who don’t know how to write AI prompts
  • The itinerary must be copy-pasted to notepad, as details aren’t saved

12. Best AI Travel Tool For Non-English Speakers — Skyscanner

Skyscanner Homepage

All these travel tools are great, but you might be out of luck if English isn’t your preferred language. If your travel planning happens in another language, you might have an easier time with an AI assistant like Skyscanner . This Edinburgh-based AI tool offers the chance to make an all-in-one travel plan in one of 30 languages.

To make it even more accessible, you can connect to the AI chatbot through social media, including Facebook messenger and WhatsApp . Start by searching with even the barest details — you don’t have to have a destination if you’re unsure where you want to go. To start, you must type “Anywhere,” and you’ll be directed toward the cheapest flights during your travel period.

  • Available in 30 languages
  • Accessible through social media platforms
  • You can get as detailed or barebones as you like
  • Not operated on a single platform (you’ll be directed to the website to finish your travel booking)

Related Resources

  • Best Destinations in the World
  • How to Find the Perfect Travel Destination
  • How to Use a Vacation Generator to Find a Destination

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Android Police

Google wants to help plan your next trip with new tools in maps and search.

AI itineraries in Search and curated lists in Maps, just in time for summer travel season

  • Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE) will allow you to plan trips with detailed itineraries and suggestions.
  • The update is further bridging the gap between SGE and Google's dedicated Gemini chatbot.
  • Meanwhile, Google Maps is introducing curated lists of must-visit places, simplifying travel planning for users in the US and Canada.

Generative AI has pervaded nearly every aspect of Google’s business , right from Workspace tools to other core pillars of the business like Search and standalone projects like the Gemini chatbot. Although a lot of details still need to be ironed out, Google seems intent on including its Search Generative Experience (SGE) in Search results by default. To ensure users get the most out of this change, this summer, the company is maintaining the steady cadence of improvements with new capabilities coming to SGE and a few handy tweaks to Google Maps.

What is Google Search Labs?

If you haven’t heard, SGE started life as a Google Search Labs experiment in May 2023, and has since become available to billions of users around the world as an opt-in enhancement for the conventional search results page. The AI-generated summary usually collates information from the top links and summarizes it in a digestible format that’s a few paragraphs long. Now, Google is blurring the lines between the capabilities of the Gemini chatbot and SGE, introducing full-fledged itinerary planning support for the latter.

In its announcement, the company says anyone with access to the Search Generative Experience in the US in English can now type in a search query like “plan me a 5-day trip to Los Angeles that’s all about music culture.” The results should include a day-wise list of the places to visit, suitable restaurants, and a brief overview of your options for hotels and flights.

Google says it will pull reviews and photos from Business Profiles of the area you plan to visit along with information from other websites. You can use the quick summary to compare destinations and plan your trip efficiently. If you’re traveling with someone else, SGE also has shortcuts to export the suggestions to Google Docs, Gmail, and Maps, enabling easier sharing or a way to keep the results for later reference.

Lists could make Google Maps more useful

Speaking of Maps, Google also announced a few features to simplify summertime travel in the app. Say, you’re planning that trip to LA, you can just look up the city in Maps and swipe up. The app should display a few lists of must-visit attractions and stores. Google has special restaurant lists including a Trending list updated every week, a Top list for the all-time favorite restaurants, and a Gems list for the unheard-of secret places which you might otherwise miss. Additionally, you will find lists from popular sources like Lonely Planet, The Infatuation, OpenTable, and The New York Times.

Presently, the company is rolling out this feature only for users in the US and Canada, with curated lists available for a little over 40 cities. If it takes off, we hope to see it expand to other regions as well, because integrating advice from Google’s Local Guides community and the abundance of online listicles for popular destinations should be a piece of cake for the company.

Google is also giving Maps users convenient list customization tools when you hit the New list option in the Saved tab. Options include sorting by date added, manual sorting to create a ranked list, and support for linking to content from social media. AI also plays a role here, with photos and reviews summarizing important information about a place you’re looking up.

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Google's AI-powered tools can help you travel and shop smarter

published on March 27, 2024

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  • Google wants to remind you of how it’s AI-powered tools can help you travel and shop this Summer
  • It highlighted its Search Generative Experience, AI image generation for shopping, and more.
  • All these features are available today

travel tools apps

In case you didn’t already know, Google’s apps and services have a lot of AI features under the hood. But the company today published another reminder as to how AI can be useful for shoppers and world travelers this summer season. It highlighted features like generative AI in search, translations with circle to search, and image generation.

The reminders on these cool tools were spread across two blog posts from the search engine giant. One looks at 6 ways to travel smarter , and another looks at personalized shopping .

On the travel front, Google highlights how when you want to explore a new place during your travel, you can opt into the Search Generative Experience , which allows for more natural queries and results in Google Search when planning a trip. For those lost in language translations, there’s Circle to Search, which is available on the Google Pixel 8 phones and the Samsung S24 phones, to help translate whatever is on the screen with a simple press of the home button. Google Lens also has a new multi-search feature backed by AI which gives helpful insights in an AI overview.

travel tools apps

When it comes to shopping meanwhile, you can use AI image generation for shopping , from Search Labs in the Google App, which can help you get photorealistic images of any clothing item you might want to search for. You also can use a virtual try-on tool to see what a clothing item will look like on a real model.

Overall, these are some pretty nice features, but there’s a lot more that Google offers. Recommendations in Maps can show places to go, Customized lists in Maps can help you make an itinerary. You can also enjoy style recommendations when shopping, and see more items from your favorite brands with a simple press of a button.

More about the topics: google

Arif Bacchus

Arif has over seven years of experience in the technology journalism field covering Microsoft, Google, Apple, and other tech giants. Arif is also known for his laptop reviews, how-to guides, and other evergreen content. His work was seen at XDA, Digital Trends, and OnMSFT.

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Refund policies on the largest airlines in the US

travel tools apps

Travellers queue at a Delta Airlines desk at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle airport.

In 2023, almost 196,000 flights from U.S. airports were canceled, and even more were late. 

According to the Department of Transportation, that number represents the lowest rate of scheduled flight cancelations in 10 years. Still, refund policies for flight cancelations, delays, or schedule changes are more important than ever.  

The coronavirus pandemic highlighted airline issues bubbling beneath the surface. Planes were parked or retired in response to low travel demand, leaving them unprepared for the era of revenge travel years later. Pilots were hard to come by, and jet fuel shortages began cropping up. Other staffing shortages, outdated technology and infrastructure, plus surging demand when COVID-19 restrictions eased meant airlines couldn’t meet their schedules without cascading problems. When problems happen, long holds on phone calls, offers for flight credits instead of cash, and a host of other obstacles further add to a frustrating situation.

The Biden-Harris administration is trying to solve the problem, and the Department of Transportation outlines general refund policies for tickets and fees. Foremost among them is the ability of consumers to cancel purchases within 24 hours or hold itineraries for that same period as long as the tickets are purchased at least seven days before a scheduled departure.

To help air travelers sort through the fine print, Airalo compiled a list of the five largest airlines in the United States–using data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics —and researched their refund policies. Airlines were selected based on domestic market share from December 2022 to November 2023.

travel tools apps

Delta Air Lines

A woman checks in for her flight as a family celebrates at a Delta Airlines check-in counter.

Delta Air Lines clearly outlines its steps to cancel refundable and nonrefundable tickets and apply for a refund. Cancellation fees start at $99, though some “main cabin and above” tickets are exempt.

Travelers will be rebooked or credited for future travel if a flight is canceled or delayed for more than two hours. Nonrefundable tickets for flights that have not been canceled or delayed do not qualify, nor do tickets purchased from third parties.

Delta encourages customers to cancel or change tickets if their plans change. Failure to do so prior to departure will result in the cancellation of all remaining flights on the itinerary. Basic economy tickets are not changeable.

travel tools apps

American Airlines

Passengers check-in for their flights on American Airlines at Long Island MacArthur Airport.

American Airlines generally does not refund nonrefundable tickets, but it does make exceptions for death, schedule changes by the airline, and illness if international travel is involved.

An unused or partially used ticket must be canceled before the first stated departure time, or it becomes valueless. The remaining value of the ticket may be used toward purchasing another nonrefundable ticket, though the trip must be completed within a year of the original travel date.

American, per federal guidelines, will refund tickets purchased by credit card within seven business days and tickets purchased by cash or check within 20 days—excluding fare adjustments, international tickets, and tickets purchased in international currencies.

travel tools apps

Southwest Airlines

A Southwest Airlines airplane taxies from a gate at Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

Southwest Airlines “ will consider reasonable requests for reimbursement of meals, hotel stays, and ground transportation to/from the hotel” in the case of cancellations and significant delays within its control, naming mechanical problems and plane swaps as examples.

When Southwest cancels a flight, customers are entitled to ticket, bag fee, and extras refunds, including for nonrefundable fares. When customers cancel, the tickets may or may not be refundable . Depending on the fare, funds from tickets not canceled at least 10 minutes before departure will be credited or forfeited.

Southwest flight credits do not expire, and most can be transferred once between Rapid Rewards members.

travel tools apps

United Airlines

United Airlines planes sit on the runway at Newark Liberty International Airport.

United Airlines customers who book at least a week in advance can change their flights within 24 hours of purchase.

In the case of canceled or significantly delayed flights, travelers are eligible for credits or refunds if the cause is weather, air traffic control, or mechanical problems. Change fees are waived, and you can request a return to your departure city—in addition to your credit or refund—if you’re stuck in a connecting city without available flights.

Customers can also request refunds with documentation of an unplanned event—death, illness, jury duty, or military order. Flexible booking offers unlimited fee-free changes, though fare differences apply. Basic economy tickets can’t be changed.

travel tools apps

Alaska Airlines

An Alaska Airlines plane takes off from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

Alaska Airlines lists several requirements to determine refund or credit eligibility.

The reservation must have been made from its website, call center, or Alaska ticket counter and not contain a “saver” or government fare. It has to be within a year of purchase or, for a partially used ticket, within a year of the original outbound travel date. Group or vacation package bookings, fares that include an unaccompanied minor on another carrier, and tickets not bought with U.S. dollars are also excluded from eligibility.

Nonrefundable tickets that meet these terms can be credited after the initial 24-hour purchase window, plus change fees.

Story editing by Carren Jao. Copy editing by Paris Close. Photo selection by Clarese Moller.

This story originally appeared on Airalo and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.

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