online travel sites and apps

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12 Best Apps & Websites for Booking Travel Online

Liz is a collector of grand adventures. She first discovered her passion for meaningful travel wh...

• Travel Apps
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If there’s anything better than traveling, it’s the build up. Daydreaming of the perfect destination, scrolling through unique places to stay, and browsing travel guides for the best hole-in-the-wall restaurants and local must-sees are all opportunities to start wanderlusting before you’ve even packed your bags.

Be honest—how many Airbnb Stays do you have bookmarked?

True, it can be overwhelming to map out the nitty gritty flights, connections, accommodation, and pit stops when there are endless options available, but having something exciting to look forward to is one of the keys to happiness after all.

Lucky for you, there are countless apps and websites to help you with booking travel online, so you don’t have to feel overwhelmed when planning the travel adventure of your dreams.

Whether you’re an Apple or Android fan, you’ll have the time of your life in the lead up to your trip with the best travel booking apps and trip planners around!

What to look for in the best travel booking apps

You’re scrolling the app store wondering, what is the best trip planner app? There are hundreds of apps out there—how do you choose? The struggle is real. The truth is, many of them will be more useless than helpful. So how do you weed out the junk that’s clogging up your phone?

The best travel booking apps have these essential features.

1. They’re available offline.

If you’re traveling overseas, there’s no guarantee that you’ll have easy access to WiFi. Unless you have an international phone plan, a local SIM card, or don’t mind roaming charges, limited WiFi can be a killer if you want to access your travel apps in-country. The best travel booking apps have an offline version, so you can access them anywhere, anytime.

2. They include a booking service.

If you’re looking for the best travel booking app, it will definitely have a booking service included. Whether you’re looking for accommodation options or are wanting to book tickets and tours, the ability to book from the app makes everything easier. Let’s call it your one-stop-shop.

3. They have reviews.

The best way to find authentic experiences is to look for recommendations from other people, whether they’re locals or tourists who have stumbled upon hidden gems. Reviews can really make or break your travel plans. The best travel booking apps will definitely have you covered with experienced travelers’ tips and recommendations.

4. They have a translation function.

When you’re traveling between countries, it can be helpful to have a translation function on your travel apps, so you don’t have to switch between apps to get what you’re looking for. With a translation option, you can move about without language barriers, making travel easy even if you don’t speak the native tongue.

5. They have social media integration.

As simple as it sounds, the time it takes to sign up and register for a new app can be a deciding factor for many. In a world where we want information at our fingertips, it can be a turn off when it takes too much time to create a profile before you can use an app.

The best travel booking apps allow you to link your social media accounts—not only for easy access, but so you can share the highlights of your trip directly to your social accounts!

6. They have a travel planner feature.

We want more than just a place to book a bed for the night. We want an app to help us organize our itineraries, bookmark our favorite travel destinations, create schedules, and make travel easy. If you’re wondering what the best trip planner app is, you’ll know you’ve found it when you can plan your travel all in one place.

READ MORE: How to Plan a Trip When You’re Short on Time—And Cash

What is the best trip planner app 6 top contenders.

Searching for the best travel booking apps around? Here are the top apps to download before your next big trip.

1. LikeALocal

• Why it’s the best: If you’re into hole-in-the-wall restaurants and hidden spots that only the most seasoned travelers frequent, LikeALocal is the best travel booking app for you. With guides, tips, and tricks, all the content is created by true locals who have lived in the destination for years.
• The app allows you to browse destination guides, book tours, and even connect with residents through their Q&A feature—and it’s all available 100% offline.

• Why it’s the best: There’s no better way to settle into a new destination than staying in a local’s home. Airbnb is rising as one of the best travel booking apps for accommodation, offering an excellent in-between for hostels and hotels.
• Whether you want to book individual rooms or entire houses from local residents, there are options to suit most budgets. Through the app, you can easily communicate with your host, making it easy to check-in, out, and get the best tips on local hot spots.
• Available for iOS and Android.

3. HotelTonight

• Why it’s the best: While some travelers plan out every detail before leaving home, others live for spontaneity. Luckily, there’s an app for that, too. HotelTonight helps you find last-minute deals on nearby hotels, making it perfect for spur of the moment holidays or road trips with unplanned stops along the way.
• It’s easy to use, with filter options to help you find the right place to suit your needs, and booking a room for the night is just one click away.

• Why it’s the best: Are you a travel junkie? Love multi-destination travel? If you answered ‘ yes’ and you’re still wondering what the best trip planner app is, look no further than TripIt. All you have to do is forward your travel confirmation details to [email protected], and the app creates a master document for all of your travels so you can stay organized!
• You can access it any time, WiFi or dead zone. Upgrade to their paid version to receive real-time flight alerts, a currency converter, socket requirements for your destination, tipping advice, alternative routes for canceled flights, and even track your reward points.

5. Skyscanner

• Why it’s the best: If you’re looking for flights, Skyscanner is where it’s at! The app gives you access to flights from over 1,200 different sources so you can find the best options out there, whether you’re looking for the cheapest options, the fastest routes, or the most affordable days to fly.
• If you’re in the daydreaming stages and open to new possibilities, Skyscanner also has an “anywhere” option to help you find affordable flights you never knew were possible. You can even set up alerts for price dips to find the best airfare rates around.
• Available for IOS.

6. PackPoint

• Why it’s the best: For some travelers, packing can be the biggest headache when preparing for a trip. PackPoint will keep you organized and do the hard work for you. The app creates a custom packing list based on your gender, travel destination, dates and duration of travel, and the type of trip you’re planning. It even checks the weather for you!
• You can add or remove items to make it more personal and check them off as you go, making the packing experience quick and easy.

6 best travel booking websites

Prefer to sit down in front of a computer to do some brainstorming for your next trip? Then you’re probably wondering what the best travel booking website is. Here’s a round-up of the best places for booking travel online.

1. Tripadvisor

No trip is complete without a visit to Tripadvisor. Whether you’re looking for tours, hotels, transportation, restaurants, or just a little travel inspo, Tripadvisor is one of the best websites for browsing and booking travel online.

You can read reviews, save your favorites, get organized using the map features, and book travel all in one place. This site is a must when planning your next trip.

2. Intrepid

Adventure junkies love Intrepid. With small group tours to more than 100 countries, Intrepid is one of the top tour companies for solo travelers who want an adrenaline rush and connection to like-minded people. While most tours attract young travelers under 30, there is no age limit for tours through Intrepid.

Search for unique, niche experiences, from cycling the Middle East to trekking the world’s tallest mountains. With great deals all year round, you can score discounts of up to 50% and reserve your next tour for as low as $1.

3. Hostelworld

Who doesn’t love a good hostel? Backpackers on a budget can find some of the most affordable accommodation options through Hostelworld. Search for your destination, filter by price range or ratings, and find accommodation descriptions, reviews, and booking policies for hostels in over 170 countries worldwide.

The full-screen interactive map makes it easy to see if the hostel is near where you want to be—whether that’s down the street from night clubs or nature.

4. Couchsurfing

If you want a truly unique travel experience at the absolute lowest cost, why not try couch surfing? Through Couchsurfing, you can connect to locals and stay in their homes for free, saving you money and giving you access to true local experiences.

If you don’t feel comfortable staying in someone’s home, Couchsurfing also has a Hangouts feature for you to use to meet and socialize with other travelers—perfect for solo travelers!

If you’re booking travel online, Momondo is worth a browse. This flight search engine is unique to other sites, showing prices of smaller airlines and travel companies that are often overlooked by other popular search engines.

With Momondo, you can find the best times to fly using their monthly matrix, featuring the best prices and routes, no matter where you want to go. Check out the flight insights page for trends and analytics, which will give you insight into how far in advance you need to book your flights to save the most money.

6. GoAbroad

Last, but certainly not least on the list of best sites for booking travel online, is the one and only GoAbroad (that’s us!). Find your perfect program for meaningful travel abroad, with over 15,000 programs, destinations worldwide, scholarships, and insider tips.

If you want to travel abroad with purpose, GoAbroad can undoubtedly help you discover the program to help you smash your goals and make your wildest dreams come true! You can browse our Travel Resource Hub right now to get a jump start on your travel planning.

Booking travel online is fast and easy!

If you’ve been bitten by the travel bug, there’s really no excuse not to start planning your next getaway. Check out the best travel booking apps and websites to stay organized, score great deals, and quench your wanderlust. Booking travel online has never been easier! You’re just a click away from your next big adventure abroad.

Talk to Our Online Advisor & Get Matched with 5 Travel Programs for FREE

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30 essential travel apps every traveler needs before their next trip

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

7 Useful Apps Every Traveler Should Know About

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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Best travel apps in 2021

Beat the traffic, avoid flight delays and find a place to stay on your next trip

The best travel apps are the ones that take all the stress out of a trip, freeing you up to enjoy the journey. And fortunately, you've got a lot of choices when it comes to finding apps that can help you plan your next getaway. 

You'll find everything from trip planners and itinerary generators to online marketplaces for flights and hotels in both the Play Store and Apple's store for apps. Combine one of the best travel apps with some great travel tech , and your chances for a smooth trip will increase dramatically.

• These are the best Android apps overall
• Get better trip photos with the best Android camera apps

Not sure where to look first? We've found a list of the best travel apps for when you're ready to hit the road again after sticking close to home for more than a year.

1. MyTSA (Free: Android; iOS)

Before you hit the road, make sure you've got MyTSA on your smartphone. The official app of the Transportation Security Administration isn't going to win any beauty contests, but it will let you check wait times at security checkpoints at major airpots. And that can help you plan on how much travel time you need to allow.

The app includes historical wait-time data while also giving you the option of checking crowd-sourced reports of how long security lines are at that moment. The ability to search what you can bring on a plane, get live assistance and find out info on the TSA PreCheck program make this a good app for travelers to keep handy on their smartphone.

Download MyTSA: Android , iOS

2. Expedia (Android, iOS: Free)

If you're a frequent traveller, you need a good all-in-one travel app, and Expedia is a tried-and-true option. You can book every aspect of your trip through Expedia, including hotels, flights and rental cars. The app also lets you bundle deals on travel and lodging, look for cruises, and research things to do when you arrive at your destination. 

If you're looking to stretch your travel budget even farther, Expedia promises exclusive deals for mobile users, with members of Expedia's rewards program enjoying additional perks. 

Download Expedia: Android , iOS

3. Flighty (iOS: Free)

There are flight trackers, and then there's Flighty, an iOS app for people who really want to know the location and arrival time of their plane. The free version of the app gives you basic flight-tracking tools, but pay up for a subscription ($8.99 a month or $49.99 per year), and you get access to more sophisticated features such as push notifications, syncing with TripIt or with calendars, and an assistant to help with your flight connections. 

Flighty also claims to be able to predict flight delays by monitoring inbound planes for 25 hours and monitoring FAA-mandated delays. You can check out the portions of the paid app for free during a 14-day trial.

Download Flighty: iOS

4. Hopper (Android, iOS: Free)

Another app bringing big data and predictive algorithms to the world of air travel is Hopper It uses a massive database of airline prices and historical trends to predict when prices to a destination are likely to be lowest, when they're likely to change, and the best time to buy a ticket for a particular date and destination. 

You can watch flights on specific dates or destinations, and the app will advise you whether it's worth it to buy now or to wait, tell you the dates when it's likely cheapest to fly, estimate changes in price, and notify you of price drops or rises. You can also save your payment details within the app for quick booking.

Download Hopper: Android , iOS

5. iExit (Android, iOS: Free)

If your travel plans involve a lot of driving, iExit works as a handy freeway exit guide, listing nearby highway exits, as well as the kind of businesses and amenities there are nearby. Need to gas up or find some good food or a place to stay for the night? iExit’s search tools come to the rescue, showing you nearby gas stations (with price data powered by GasBuddy), motels, and even deals and discounts from nearby businesses.

Download iExit: Android , iOS

6. Waze (Android; iOS)

Nothing gets a vacation off on the wrong foot like getting stuck in traffic. Waze can't eliminate the traffic, but it can help you get around any jams, especially if you're in an unfamiliar city. 

The navigation app feeds your smartphone real-time traffic information, based on reports from other Waze users. That data includes accidents, speed traps and other hazards that might keep you from getting to your destination in a timely fashion. 

Other features sure to impress travelers include automatic rerouting, cheap gas alerts and the ability to send your ETA to anyone waiting at your final stop.

Download Waze: Android , iOS

7. Skiplagged (Android, iOS: Free)

If you're traveling light and looking to save a few bucks, check out Skiplagged. It's a neat app that can keep your travel costs down by taking advantage of "hidden city flights", where flyers get off at a layover, instead of at the final destination. 

Enter your origin and destination, and Skiplagged will show you the cost of a direct flight, as well as any cheaper "hidden city" flights that have your intended destination as a layover. The caveat? Stick to carry-on luggage, as any checked-in bags will go all the way to the flight's final destination. 

Skiplagged also allows you to book hotels, including last-minute deals and special offers.

Download Skiplagged: Android , iOS

8. Flio (Android, iOS: Free)

Flio aims to be the all-in-one companion app for harried travelers making their way through airports worldwide. An official partner of 300 airports, Flio also has info on thousands more. That lets the app feature terminal maps, a boarding pass scanner, a flight tracker and directions to shuttle buses and booking options for everything from parking to lounge access. 

The app's sheer variety of services and features make it a great addition to the app toolkit of frequent fliers and vacationers alike.

Download Flio: Android , iOS

9. AtYourGate (Android, iOS: Free)

AtYourGate is another helpful airport companion that focuses more about retail opportunities while you're killing time waiting at the airport. If you need food, supplies (like say a phone charger to replace the one you forgot to pack), or last-minute gifts, you can browse the AtYourGate app for nearby shops and restaurants instead of having to wander around the airport. 

AtYourGate users can order food or other items, pay through the app, and even arrange for the item to be delivered to them right at their gate, lounge, or other location. AtYourGate currently operates in a select number of major airports, including JFK, La Guardia, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Portland, San Diego, and Newark.

Download AtYourGate: Android , iOS

10. Mobile Passport (Android, iOS: Free)

Mobile Passport is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection-approved app that helps speed you through lengthy immigration lines. It allows anyone with U.S. or Canadian passports to submit their passport control and customs declarations through the app, replacing paper forms and providing faster processing in a number of major US airports where the Mobile Passport service is supported. 

The app will save you a good amount of time in line, but it’s no reason to leave your physical passport at home. Mobile Passport is a companion app, not a replacement.

Download Mobile Passport: Android , iOS

11. TripIt (Android, iOS: Free)

TripIt promises to cut back on the travel hassle by consolidating your travel plans into a simple, convenient itinerary. Viewable online and synced to your cell phone, you can also share itineraries with your contacts. 

You just link your email account to TripIt, and the service will automatically dig through your inbox for reservation confirmations and other forms. Using that data, TripIt builds an organized itinerary of your flight boarding times, hotel check-ins and more. While TripIt is a free download, a $48.99 annual subscription gets you features like real-time flight alerts and updates on how long airport lines are.

Download TripIt: Android , iOS

12. App In The Air (Android, iOS: Free)

App In The Air is designed to help you through the entire process of your airplane flight, serving as a booking assistant that reminds you of your gate, ETA, check-in requirements, baggage tips, and more. 

The app condenses all of this important information so that it's easy to refer to at a glance, while also providing handy extras. You can view a summary of your airline's baggage rules (or even have an augmented reality overlay that you can use to measure your baggage to see if it will fit for carry-on or overhead guidelines). 

Travelers can integrate the app with TripIt, track loyalty rewards, view airplane amenities and even forward their details to their Apple Watch or Android Wear device. A premium subscription ($29.99 per year) includes real-time flight status updates, automated check-ins, and more.

Download App In The Air: Android , iOS

13. GasBuddy (Android, iOS: Free)

If road trips are more your thing, consider GasBuddy, a mobile app that helps users track down the cheapest gas in their region. Users can tap into their GPS location through their phone, or search by address or zip code to find the nearby gas prices.

As many of the prices are based on user reports, GasBuddy rewards users with points for reporting and updating a station's prices, with points making you eligible for regular raffles of prizes like free gas.

Download GasBuddy: Android , iOS

14. Roadtrippers (Android, iOS: Free)

Another handy travel companion when you hit the road is the aptly named Roadtrippers, a trip planning and itinerary app that lets you plot your next road trip, and helps you discover destinations, attractions, and useful stops along the way. 

With Roadtrippers, you can share your route and schedule with friends and family. The app helps users find everything from diners and dives to hotels, restaurants, national parks, roadside attractions and other scenic points of interest. 

If doing that research on a small phone screen stresses you out, you can plan trips in the Roadtrippers web portal if you prefer, saving locations and stops into a trip plan which you can sync across multiple devices for easy reference.

Download Roadtrippers: Android , iOS

15. PackPoint (Android, iOS: Free)

PackPoint is a travel packing wizard that provides a checklist of travel essentials that you'll need to pack, depending on the nature of your trip. 

Simply create a trip profile with your destination, length of stay and purpose of travel. PackPoint then creates a customized packing and luggage checklist that takes into account whether you're traveling for business or pleasure, the type and amount of clothing to pack based on the weather forecast and other factors. 

The app also comes with a variety of premium features, such as TripIt integration for automatic packing list creation.

Download PackPoint: Android , iOS

16. TripAdvisor (Android, iOS: Free)

TripAdvisor is your crowd-sourced guide to hotels, restaurants and attractions worldwide. The app allows you to browse through plenty of reviews, images and videos featuring various establishments worldwide to get a better idea of what awaits you at your destination. 

You can also access contact details; search for nearby establishments; explore restaurants by food type, price range or rating; check out air fares; and even add to the knowledge base by posting your own reviews, images and entries for the places you visit. There are even some handy "Near Me Now" features to alert you of nearby points of interest once you're on the scene.

Download TripAdvisor: Android , iOS

17. Airbnb (Android, iOS: Free)

Airbnb is a marketplace app that allows users to search for and find unique accommodations across the world, from mom-and-pop B&Bs for a night, to a small apartment for a week, or even a castle for a month. There's no shortage of quirky and unique establishments. Airbnb covers a range of prices in more than 34,000 cities across almost 200 countries, which means the adventurous or flexible traveler has some interesting choices for accommodations on their next trip.

Download Airbnb: Android , iOS

18. Vrbo (Android, iOS: Free)

Vrbo's mobile app is another option for finding places to stay on your next trip. At Vrbo, the emphasis is on vacation rentals, and with 2 million unique places to stay in 190-plus countries, you've got plenty of options. 

Use the Vrbo app to search for vacation homes, plan your trip and book your lodging. The app also gives you access to key booking details — what is the Wi-Fi password at your rental property, anyway? — and lets you share your itinerary with friends and family.

Download Vrbo: Android , iOS

19. Hotel Tonight (Android, iOS: Free)

If you unexpectedly need to look for last minute hotel rooms, check out  HotelTonight. It offers last-minute discounts on vacancies and same-night accommodations from top-rated hotels. Users can search by category and quality such as Basic, Hip or Luxe; view information on nearby hotels; and quickly book accommodations from within the app.

Download HotelTonight: Android , iOS

20. GlobeTips (iOS: Free)

How much should you tip? GlobeTips is a handy app that can tell you how much gratuity is customary wherever you are in the world. In addition to global tipping guides, GlobeTips includes a calculator for automatically calculating the tip, splitting the bill, and handling sales tax.

Download GlobeTips: iOS

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KAYAK: Flights, Hotels & Cars 4+

Plan vacations & book trips.

• #74 in Travel
• 4.8 • 418.8K Ratings

Screenshots

Description.

Meet KAYAK PriceCheck - only available on the app. Simply upload a screenshot of your flight details and KAYAK will search hundreds of sites for a lower price. KAYAK searches hundreds of travel sites to show you your options and let you pick what works best for your trip. Track prices, set a budget, build your itinerary and more. WHAT’S IN OUR APP. • Double check prices, no matter where you found it: KAYAK PriceCheck lets you upload a screenshot of a flight deal from any site, and we’ll search hundreds of sites to see if we can find a better deal. • Get the flight you want: Compare flight options from hundreds of sites then zero in on the best one for you by using our filters. • Hotel rates only on the app: Find mobile-only prices from select hotels. • Car sharing: Search car sharing alongside traditional agencies for more options (and maybe better prices). • Know when prices change: Track search results for your trip and get a notification when prices change. • Search on your budget: Only have $300 to spend? KAYAK Explore will show you your flight options, on any budget. ONLY ON THE KAYAK APP. • Flight tracker: Get alerts when something about your flight changes or track flights so you can see if you’ll make your connection. • Trips offline: All your ticket confirmations and reservations loaded into Trips are accessible regardless of whether or not you have Wifi. • Measure your bag: Direct your camera at your bag or carry on and we’ll let you know if it’s the right size for your flight without incurring a fee. WE LOVE FEEDBACK. Got a question and in need of support? Send us a message at https://www.kayak.com/help and we’ll help you out. MORE ON WHAT KAYAK OFFERS. Find flights, hotels, vacation rentals, rental cars and more - then filter by what matters to you most. Like a pet-friendly boutique hotel with a pool. Or a 4-door sedan with airport pick-up to get you on your way. We bring together great deals from your favorite travel sites in one place. SEARCH HUNDREDS OF FLIGHT SITES AT ONCE. With filtering and flexibility options, you can quickly search and book what works best for your trip. MORE OPTIONS, MORE SAVING. Find mobile-only rates and exclusive deals on the app. Set Price Alerts to know when prices drop on the flights, cars and hotels you’re interested in. CREATE ITINERARIES AS YOU PLAN. Our Trips tool puts all your plans in one place. Get alerted to flight and gate changes, access boarding passes both on- and offline, and share your itinerary with friends – all in one spot. You can sync your inbox or manually add any part of your trip - from tour and restaurant confirmations to notes on things to see. CAR RENTAL DEALS. Search from over 70,000 locations to find the perfect rental car. Book risk-free by filtering for free cancellation policies. GET A HOTEL… OR A HOME. See your accommodation options from major hotel chains and resorts to local boutiques to apartments, cabins, beach homes and more. Filter for free cancellation if you’re worried plans will change. Plan your next trip with KAYAK. Download now to start planning a great trip.

Version 243.0.0

We've been busy paving the runway for your next great escape! We're excited to present the latest version of our app, tuned up and bugs squashed, providing you a smooth and seamless experience.

Ratings and Reviews

418.8K Ratings

A joy to use

Kayak has been a fantastic company to use for anything travel! & has continued to impress me with their fun and very easy to use features. Airline companies often set standard pricing for their flights and the caveat that the normal person is looking for it matching all these flights with their specific needs i.e. layover timeline, # of bags, airline make/model, & flight times. A ‘Good Deal’ is a very generalized term and many other apps use that as their main means of persuasion when in fact it’s clear that sites like Kayak are so good at categorizing exactly what meets your needs and alining airliners to your schedule, like advertised they have a multitude of tools like bag number and layover timeline settings with a accurate representation of what the cost will be regardless if it is two separate companies. If you choose a flight selection that has a 2 hour layover for one airliner and you select ‘book’ the airliners website which it directs you to within the app has that selection already selected. I could go on and on about how easy and secure this app is to use so please give it a try.

Use hopper instead

I’ve used hopper forever as I travel monthly. A friend recommended kayak and I have booked 2 trips with it. The first it rerouted my and added another stop without letting me know on a round trip. The second, which inspired this review was a multi city trip. It messed up my reservation and I spent an hour at the help desi fixing it during check in for the first flight. After this story, it rerouted us for our next stop to have a layover in city in the opposite direction without sharing this information to or giving an indication as to what happened to our initial booking. I then went in to move a flight time after already paying for the insurance, I looked up how to do this on their app and when I hit “change” to see other options it simply DELETED our flight reservation with no notification or prompt warning us. We were not given a refund or other alternatives to switch back in or change flights. If you were wondering they do not have customer service as they say you need to contact the airline for assistance as they are only a third party site. For our flight home it has moved our reservation to the following day when I work and with another timely layover. I genuinely never write reviews but I hope this saves someone the trouble 😊

Developer Response ,

Hi there, Feel free to share screenshots or more information about your booking experience with the provider of your reservation via www.kayak.com/support. We'll gladly take a closer look.

I love this app

I got this app for one plane flight, simple as that. I was planning on deleting it right after because I thought I had no use for it. But then I started to realize that any trips I was planning on taking would show up on this app and would be organized by time and date (because I connected my email). I’m planning on taking an Amtrak to the airport and then back again & accidentally chose the wrong date for the train back, and because Kayak organizes the trips so well, I was able to catch that but if not for this app, that would have been $20 down the bin & a missed class. I honestly love this app because there are no annoying adds that pop up when I’m trying to figure my plans out & it helps me organize everything so well. It also works offline when I’m looking at my already planned trips which will help out a lot when I’m abroad. I don’t use the search tool within the app for hotels cars or flights, but they have that option as well.

App Privacy

The developer, KAYAK , indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

Data Used to Track You

The following data may be used to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies:

• Identifiers

Data Linked to You

The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:

• Financial Info
• Contact Info
• Diagnostics

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Information

English, Arabic, Catalan, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese

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A travel planner for everyone

Organize flights & hotels and map your trips in a free travel app designed for vacation planning & road trips, powered by ai and google maps..

Your itinerary and your map in one view

No more switching between different apps, tabs, and tools to keep track of your travel plans.

What travelers are raving about

Features to replace all your other tools, add places from guides with 1 click, collaborate with friends in real time, import flight and hotel reservations, expense tracking and splitting, checklists for anything, get personalized suggestions, plan like a pro.

Unlock premium features like offline access, unlimited attachments, flight deals, export to Google maps, and much more

Offline access

Unlimited attachments, optimize your route.

4.9 on App Store, 4.7 on Google Play

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24 Best Travel Websites and Apps to Find Deals and Save You Money

Use our guide to the best travel websites and find discounts and deals so you can vacation without breaking the bank.

• Newsletter sign up Newsletter

If you're looking for a cheap vacation , you’ll want to know the best travel websites to use. And if you’re tired of wondering which sites are best for each part of your trip planning, we’ve got you covered.

Here are some of the best travel sites we’ve found to help you bag bargains on airfares, lodging, car rentals and all your other travel needs. Best of all, almost all of the travel websites are free to use. Bon voyage! 

Best websites and apps to save on airfare

Keeping up with airfare prices has gotten easier thanks to sites like Google Flights and Kayak . To use them, just type in your home and destination airport, pick the flights that work best for you and then set an alert to track the price. For example, Google Flights will send you an e-mail showing if your tracked flight went up or down in price. Both sites also let you see which days are cheaper to fly in that month. Airfarewatchdog also lets you search flight deals.

If you haven’t decided on where exactly you want to go, sign up for Going (formerly known as Scott’s Cheap Flights.) Their newsletter comes straight to your inbox with deals on domestic and international locations. Or you can follow X (formerly Twitter) handles such as @TheFlightDeal for flights, too.   

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Best websites and apps for flight information

Once your flight is booked, you’ll want to keep tabs on gate changes, layover information and more. FlightStats.com can help you plan a smooth trip by advising you on the best time of day to fly from a specific airport and which terminals to avoid when connecting flights. You can also view live updates of flight delays and sign up for free e-mail and phone alerts. Flightaware.com also tracks and predicts flight delays.

If you’re delayed by weather or some unforeseen event, it pays to act quickly. The TripIt Pro smartphone app ($49/year) will send you alerts about cancellations, delays or gate changes, sometimes even ahead of an airline announcement. Use it to locate alternate flights, find out when better seats are available, get fare refund notifications, track your rewards program points and more.

Best websites and apps to save on hotels

Hotels.com lets you search just one site for accommodations at hundreds of thousands of properties. Plus, its rewards program is simple: earn OneKeyCash for every dollar spent on eligible hotels, vacation rentals, flights, car rentals and more when you book on Hotels.com (or partner brands).

Similarly, HotelTonight is an app that lets users book hotels at low last-minute rates. Priceline Express Deals helps you find the best bargains, but there’s a catch. Priceline doesn’t tell you which hotel you’re booking until after you pay.

And try TripAdvisor.com for a detailed list of rated hotels (and excursions) that are close to your destination. The site links you to partner sites, such as Expedia and Travelocity for fulfillment. Click on the "check rates" button and select the site or sites you’d like to try — a new window with results will open for each partner.

Best websites and apps to save on vacation rentals

Vacation rentals are an especially good value for groups because they generally offer more space and amenities for prices similar to or less than hotel rates, particularly if you look at it on a per-bed basis. Check out VRBO and Airbnb to find the perfect experience. For Marriott loyalists, Marriott Bonvoy lets you browse its 30-brand portfolio — which includes more than 2,000 private homes.

At the other end of the scale, if you don’t mind college-dorm-level amenities, check out Hostelworld.com as a way to save money on vacation rental properties . The site lists more than 17,000 hostels in over 180 countries around the globe and includes reviews.

Best websites and apps for cruises and vacation packages

At CruiseCompete.com , more than 500 travel agencies vie to give you the lowest prices for dates, ports and ships you specify, whether you’re booking well in advance or at the eleventh hour. You set up a CruiseCompete account, and they send you their best offers without ever seeing your personal information.

Kayak.com and Tripadvisor.com will also knit together vacation packages for you. Just type in your destination and travel dates to get the best prices.

Best websites and apps to save on rental cars

Hotwire often offers the best-published deals on cars by collecting rates from its eight rental car company partners, including Alamo, Enterprise and Hertz. The site also offers "hot rates" from rental companies that aren't identified until after you’ve paid.

And while Hotwire does offer some good prepaid rental car deals, in certain international cities for the best overseas auto deals you should check out AutoEurope . It offers rentals at more than 20,000 locations worldwide, and customer service is available 24/7.

AutoSlash is also a good site to find rental deals, as it will apply the best coupons and discount codes to your rental and re-book your reservation if the system finds a better deal.

If you rent a car on your next vacation, consider booking it with a credit card that covers rental car insurance .

Best websites and apps to save on international train tickets

Trains are often the fastest and cheapest way to travel within and between European countries. Our favorite for checking timetables and booking tickets on European train lines is RailEurope . But you might be able to catch better deals directly from European railways’ sites if you don’t get lost in translation — and make sure you have what you need to travel to Europe as an American!

Best websites and apps for travel insurance

You never know when an emergency will spoil your travel plans. That's what travel insurance is for. But don't just go for the default options from agencies and travel providers. At Squaremouth , you can compare plans and prices from multiple insurance providers with just one search and narrow your search results by specifying the kind of coverage you need. Another option is InsureMyTrip.com .

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Rivan joined Kiplinger on Leap Day 2016 as a reporter for Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine. A Michigan native, she graduated from the University of Michigan in 2014 and from there freelanced as a local copy editor and proofreader, and served as a research assistant to a local Detroit journalist. Her work has been featured in the Ann Arbor Observer and Sage Business Researcher . She is currently assistant editor, personal finance at The Washington Post.

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Must-Have Travel Tools: 75 Best Apps and Websites for Every Explorer

Written by Dan

Updated on August 17th, 2024

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
• 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

We’re learning about new apps and websites for travel, all the time. From working remotely while you travel, to finding your way around a new city, “there’s an app for that.”

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.

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.

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 things while you’re traveling with friends . 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

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.

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.

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?

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 .

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!

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 .

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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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Tjena ! We’re Becca & Dan.

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17 Best Travel Sites for Hotels, Flights, Tours and Car Rentals

Booking.com tops our list for the best travel booking websites, but there are a few others we recommend for specific purposes.

With so many travel booking websites on the market today, finding the best deals for your travels can be tedious. Thankfully, there are several top travel websites you can use when booking flights, hotels and tours.

From flight aggregators to hostel and hotel booking sites, the websites in this list will make planning and booking your travels a little easier. Whether you’re trying to score cheap flights or find the best tour on the other side of the world, these are the best travel sites for making it happen.

I realize all of this information can be a little overwhelming. Every online travel site out there seems to do something different, and sifting through hundreds of search results to find something you like is time consuming. The offers are endless, but the ideal booking site doesn’t overwhelm its users with options or questionable services.

I have personally used every single company on this list for booking travel , and most play a crucial role in allowing me to adventure around the world. These are the best travel booking sites for helping you plan the ultimate trip.

• Our Top Picks
• Best to Find Cheap Hotels: Booking.com
• Best Hotel Rewards Program: Hotels.com
• Best Site for Vacation Rentals: Vrbo
• Best Booking Site for Hostels: Hostelworld
• Best Booking Site for Hotels in Asia: Agoda

Best Hotel Search Engines & Booking Sites

Finding the right accommodation is one of the most important decisions to make while traveling. Location, amenities, and cost are all factors to consider when looking for the right hotel or hostel for your adventure.

And while there are dozens of hotel booking websites to choose from, finding the right place doesn’t have to be complicated.

Here are the best sites I’ve used for fining hotel deals:

Booking.com : Best to Find Cheap Hotels

Booking.com has, by far, the largest number of hotel search results. With over 5.7 million listings in 227 countries, they’re the first place you should look to find hotels online. In addition to hotels, Booking.com also has hostels, guesthouses, apartments, vacation rentals, and all-inclusive resorts available.

With Booking.com, the advertised price is the final price you pay. Other travel websites may have hidden taxes and fees that aren’t explicitly stated, so you’ll end up paying more than you thought at the reservation desk. But with Booking.com, there are no unexpected fees or hidden resort charges. This makes budgeting and trip planning much easier.

All reservations come with a price match guarantee. That means Booking.com will refund the difference if you find a lower price for your hotel on another website after you book. This best price guarantee is an unbelievable perk that could save you a lot of money in the long run.

And once you make your second booking, you’ll automatically become a Booking.com Genius, which rewards you with member-only discounts and offers (even freebies). It’s like accessing a whole world of insider information without actually having to sign up for anything. Genius members receive 10% to 15% off rates, free breakfast, and free room upgrades.

Plus, Booking.com also lets you search for and book your flight, rental car, and attractions, so you can just put in your travel dates and create full vacation packages from one site!

Hotels.com : Best Hotel Rewards Program

Although they aren’t as big as Booking.com, Hotels.com is still a great option when looking for the best deals on hotels. They have over 300,000 hotels in over 19,000 locations around the world. Besides traditional hotel rooms, they also have apartments, cottages, hostels, motels and all-inclusive resorts.

Like other travel sites, Hotels.com lets you filter the search results by date, price, and amenities. You can also sort by distance to find hotels close to certain attractions or neighborhoods. Plus, look at hotel reviews by real, verified users.

Despite the name, Hotels.com lets you search and reserve more than just hotels. They also have a wide range of vacation rentals available including chalets, condos, and full houses.

One of the main reasons for booking with Hotels.com is to take advantage of their unique rewards program. Once you sign up and book 10 nights, you’ll get to stay one night for free. Your free night can be redeemed at one of their 200,000+ properties in popular destinations around the globe without restrictions or blackout dates. Hotels.com also shares a rewards program with Expedia and Vrbo, so you’ll be able to take advantage of savings with any of these sites.

Hotels.com reward members or app users can also unlock secret deals on accommodation. These are specially negotiated discounts that will save you even more money for certain hotel or accommodation listings.

App users can also find last-minute deals using the “Deal for Tonight” feature. You’ll find huge discounts (up to 40%) when looking for a room with same-day check-in.

Vrbo : Best Site for Vacation Rentals

If you want the comforts of home while you’re halfway around the globe, then Vrbo is an excellent alternative to traditional hotel booking websites. Vrbo is a search engine that lists thousands of homes, vacation rentals, apartments, and condos for anyone who wants to experience a country while living like a local, whether staying in the city center or out in the woods.

Ideal for couples, families, or those needing a bit more privacy, Vrbo lets you relax without the hassle of dealing with a host or other travelers. They also tend to list more luxury vacation rentals that have a much higher standard compared to other rental sites.

For this reason, the vacation rentals on Vrbo might cost more than your average hotel from other travel sites. However, you’ll get much nicer accommodations.

Vrbo also has great customer service. All guests are protected by their Book with Confidence Guarantee, which comes with a 24/7 hotline, payment protection, and even last-minute cancellation coverage. So if your host cancels your booking before you arrive, the Vrbo team will try and find another place for you to stay. You can also buy travel insurance so you get a full refund in case you have to cancel.

In addition, Vrbo has a rewards program called One Key that lets you earn rewards on every dollar you spend on travel. This loyalty program is shared across Vrbo, Expedia, and Hotels.com, so you’ll be able to get package deals no matter how you travel.

Hostelworld : Best Booking Site for Hostels

Hostelworld is the top travel site for researching and booking hostels all over the world. They operate in over 178 countries and have a database of seemingly every hostel in existence.

When looking for a hostel, you’ll find accurate ratings and hotel reviews from real users on this booking site. The review score considers information about security, facilities, services, atmosphere and overall value for your money. And they only accept reviews from people who have booked through Hostelworld, so you know the reviews are genuine.

If you want to save money, Hostelworld is an excellent option for those on a tight budget. That’s because most hostels allow you to book a bed in a dorm room, which is far cheaper than booking a private room. But if you want some extra privacy, some hostels have private rooms with (or without) en-suite bathrooms.

You’ll be able to filter hostels by certain amenities, like free breakfast or on-site laundry. You’ll also see a list of different events happening at the hostel during your stay, from pool parties to pub crawls.

However, Hostelworld really shines when it comes to its great customer service. They will refund the price difference if you find your hostel on another site for cheaper. And if you can no longer go on your trip, you have up 24 hours before check-in to cancel without losing your deposit.

Agoda : Best Booking Site for Hotels in Asia

Agoda started out as the top hotel booking site for hotels in Asia, but since has expanded its offerings worldwide. They also have non-traditional accommodation types like homes and hostels. From capsule hotels in Tokyo to private bungalows in Bali, Agoda has over 2 million properties to choose from.

Generally speaking, prices for Agoda hotels are comparable to other travel websites. However, you can save money by booking a hotel through their secret deals program.

With the secret deals program, the identity of the hotel will remain anonymous until you complete your booking. But you’ll be able to see the hotel’s star rating, neighborhood, and amenities before reserving. Some luxury hotels don’t like to advertise their cheap rooms openly, so this is a way to sell rooms at discount prices without making it too public. If you aren’t set on staying at a specific hotel or chain, this program is an excellent option for saving money on accommodation.

By booking on Agoda, you have the opportunity to maximize your earnings with the Agoda PointsMAX program. Once you sign up and link your Agoda account to one of your other mileage programs, you can earn up to 6,000 points per stay. Some of their current partners include American Airlines AAdvantage, United Mileage Plus and KLM/AirFrance Flying Blue.

Couchsurfing : Best for a Free Place to Crash

If all you need is a couch to sleep on, Couchsurfing will help you to find it. Instead of spending the night in a hotel, you’ll be using this booking site to find a couch to sleep on in the home of a friendly host. Trust me — it’s not as awkward as it might seem!

For those needing a bit more privacy, some people also list their private rooms through Couchsurfing. But generally speaking, you’ll usually be staying in the same living quarters as the host.

You’ll also be able to connect with like-minded people from all over the world who want to share their culture and show you the best parts of their city. They’ll tell you about the best local hangouts and restaurants so you can avoid the tourist traps. They might even be interested in joining you for sightseeing in the city or drinks at the local pub. In my experience, hosts are eager to interact with their guests.

When you’re browsing for places to stay, you can search for hosts by gender, age, language, and house preferences. Whether you’re allergic to cats or looking for wheelchair-friendly accommodation, you can easily find the ideal housemate. Remember, you should be looking at the host just as carefully as you look at the apartment itself. Make sure you read the reviews left by other guests. The more reviews, the more confident you’ll feel about staying with that host.

The goal, ultimately, is for you to return the favor whenever you’re at home, thus keeping the Couchsurfing spirit alive around the world. (Trust me, it can be just as fun to host as it is to surf.)

But best of all, unlike pretty much all other travel websites, Couchsurfing is completely free! It’s customary to bring a gift or cook for your host as a token of appreciation for letting you stay in their place, but besides that, you’ll be able to see the world without spending a single penny on accommodation.

• Best Hotel Booking Websites
• Airbnb Alternatives
• Airbnb vs. Vrbo
• Airbnb vs. Hotels

Cheap Flight Booking Websites & Search Engines

In the world of online travel, booking a flight is one of the most important initial steps to having a great trip. And unless you’re planning on spending thousands to sip champagne in business class, the cost of your ticket will probably be a significant deciding factor in what you book.

Although you could book directly with the airlines, using online travel agencies (OTAs) allows you to compare pricing to find the best rates for your trip. To help you figure out where to book your next flight, consider one of the flight search engine travel sites in this section.

Keep in mind that these search sites are not booking sites . They simply compare rates for flights and redirect you to other sites to complete your purchase. You’ll get tons of results, but it’s up to you to sort through them. You should also take the time to use more than one website to compare pricing. Results may vary!

If they send you to a small website you’ve never heard of, do your research to make sure the company is dependable (although these OTAs don’t tend to deal with shady booking websites—a big reason these are the ones I recommend). It’s important to look at the fine print, as some companies might have their own cancellation fees or change fees in addition to the fees set by the airlines.

Google Flights

It seems that you can find anything you want from Google. There’s Google Maps, Google Scholar, Google News, Google Earth, and now Google Flights.

Google Flights is always the first search engine I turn to when I’m looking for the best flight deals. They scan through all available flight options for both major airlines and online travel agencies and then sort through the results to show you the best possible option for your trip. Like Google Maps, or anything else from Google, they’ve really mastered the art of searching, and this is one of the best sites to find deals.

The calendar view makes it easy to pick dates with the best price. And if you haven’t locked down your travel dates, you can check for flights with their flexible date tool. For example, you can search for the cheapest flights in January or even a one-week trip in the next six months.

You can also use the Date Grid in Google Flights to see the cheapest flight combinations for different departure and return dates. Or, check the Price Graph to compare how the prices are likely to change over the next few months. This is a great tool for identifying significant price drops for your desired route.

Many times you’ll want to search for a specific airport, but if you’re also flexible with your destination, you can search for flights by continent or country. This flexible search is an excellent option if you’re looking for a last-minute weekend getaway without a set destination in mind.

And unlike other travel websites, Google Flights will make sure you’re getting the best rates by offering money-saving recommendations. They’ll let you know that by flying in two days later — or to a different airport nearby — you could save even more money.

Whether you’re booking an RTW adventure, a weekend getaway to New York or simply browsing for inspiration for your next trip, start with Google Flights. And if you’ve got the time to really learn how to use Google Flights , I highly suggest it. Knowing how to squeeze the most out of this incredible tool is a skill well worth having.

Skyscanner is a great travel site for cheap airline tickets, and it’s always my second stop after Google Flights. They search through over 1,200 different airline companies and smaller OTA sites to compare the best offers for your travels.

You can also use their “Everywhere” search engine to look up the cheapest flight going anywhere in the world. The results show the average price for a country, so you’ll need to narrow down the search by destination city to see the exact price for a specific airport. However, you’ll get a better idea of which countries tend to have cheaper flights.

It’s also easy to filter for nonstop flights, included luggage, nearby airports, departure/arrival time, and more so you can find deals on the exact flights you’re looking for.

I recommend downloading the Skyscanner app. Not only can you search and book flights through the app, but you can also use the “Explore” feature to find destinations for solo travel, quick getaways or last minute trips (which is especially handy if you’re traveling open-ended).

One last bonus: Skyscanner also lets you search for deals on hotels, vacation rentals, rental cars, and even complete vacation packages. This travel site has it all.

Momondo is another flight search engine that should be on your radar. This company scans through thousands of airline companies and OTAs to display rates for both domestic and international flights. And unlike other sites, Momondo shows prices for many of the smaller OTAs overlooked by Google Flights and Skyscanner.

I also use Momondo to find out when the best time to fly is. I particularly love their matrix that highlights an entire month, meaning you can compare prices to find the lowest price possible.

On the search results page, Momondo offers bar charts that show prices for different departure and return dates. You can use this feature to spot any significant price drops for flights if your dates are flexible. Play around with these features — it takes some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it, you can score some fantastic travel deals.

You can also look at the “Flight Insights” page to see price trends and analytics for your exact route. This page uses historical search data to show you the cheapest month, day, and even time of day to book. It will tell you the cheapest airlines that serve your route, along with how far in advance you should be booking to save the most money.

In addition, you can consult the “Price Forecast” feature to see if prices are expected to increase or decrease in the near future. If so, you can set a price alert to notify you if the cost of your flight drops.

Dollar Flight Club

Finding inexpensive flights can be time-consuming, but Dollar Flight Club simplifies the process by sending exclusive deals straight to your inbox. Most of their offers are 60-90% off the list price, with savings averaging around $500 .

Dollar Flight Club uses technology and historical data to find cost-saving deals. Although you can’t search for specific dates or destinations, you will still find great domestic and international deals if you’re flexible with your plans.

When you sign up for the free version of Dollar Flight Club, you’ll get one email a day for your selected departure region. Or, you can upgrade to premium to get four times as many deals for multiple departure airports. Premium members also receive instant SMS alerts as well as deals for cheap domestic flights over the weekend. Signing up for Premium Plus will give you access to their rewards program with more deals and offers for tickets for business and first-class flights.

Going (Formerly Scott's Cheap Flights)

Going was formerly known as Scott’s Cheap Flights, and it is another one of my favorite travel sites for finding affordable flights. Like Dollar Flight Club, they send emails for flight deals on domestic and international airline tickets. Most deals are 40-90% off the original price!

But instead of using an algorithm to find great deals, members of the Going team search all of the fares by hand to find deals. This goes a step above others to make this one of the best travel sites out there.

When you sign up for the free version, you’ll receive 15-20 selected deals per month. Even though you’ll select a specific airport as your preferred point of departure, it includes deals from an array of different cities. If you only want to see deals from your specific city, then you’ll want to upgrade to the premium version. Not only does the premium membership include an extra 30-35 deals per month, but it also includes error fare flights and offers for summer and holiday travel.

While Scott’s Cheap Flights has rebranded and changed the name, it’s still an awesome place to find flights for your vacation package.

• How to Find Cheap Flights
• Cheap Flight Hacks
• How to Use Google Flights
• 11 Genius Hacks to Take the Stress Out of Flying
• How I Booked an $8,967 First Class Airplane Ticket for $5.60

Recommended Tour Companies

Sometimes, we all need a little bit of adventure to keep us on our toes while we’re on the road.

Maybe you’re a solo traveler interested in joining a group backpacking experience through Asia. Perhaps you want an action-packed itinerary full of hiking, diving, and bungee-jumping (just make sure you have travel insurance that covers those adventure activities). Or maybe you simply want an agency to take the stress out of planning by giving you a list of all the top places you must visit. Whatever your reason, here are the best travel sites for tours and fully guided vacation packages.

GetYourGuide

GetYourGuide is a search engine with a massive database of tours and attractions in over 7,000 destinations around the globe. I’m talking more than 40,000 activities like street food tours, skiing and snowboarding trips, skip-the-line museum passes, and boat excursions. You name it, GetYourGuide has it, and their one of the best sites for finding and reserving travel activities.

If you’re visiting a new city for the first time, GetYourGuide also takes the hassle out of planning the perfect itinerary. You can reserve your spot on a tour or purchase your tickets for an event directly through their website or mobile app.

Best of all, all tours come with detailed reviews full of handy insider information, so you can hear first-hand from past clients if the activity is worth it. Not to mention, most of the offers are more affordable than if you were to book directly at the attraction itself.

It’s not the best place for all-inclusive vacation packages, but when it comes to travel sites for tours, GetYourGuide tours are a great way to soak in the culture of a city. From wine tasting to helicopter rides to snorkeling, you’ll be able to get the lowest price (guaranteed) by booking on GetYourGuide.

G Adventures

If group tours are more up your alley, then G Adventures is one of the best sites for you. Whether you’re traveling Europe by train, cruising through the Galapagos, or cycling through the countryside in China, there’s a tour for almost every traveler.

These aren’t your run-of-the-mill group tours. G Adventures are small groups (averaging 10 travelers) that all share a common desire to explore the world. When you look online, you’ll see tours organized by travel style. You’ll be able to book vacation packages specifically catered to 18 to 30-year-olds, tours focusing on health and wellness, and even active tours for adventure lovers.

Solo travelers are also welcome to join a tour with G Adventures. Whether you’re looking for full vacation packages or short day trips, you can expect to meet some awesome people along the way.

They’ve also partnered with National Geographic to create immersive tour experiences. Whether you’re learning how to tango in Argentina or cooking authentic meals with a local Thai family, these tours will give you a deeper appreciation for your destination’s history and culture.

Intrepid Travel

Intrepid Travel is like G Adventures in many ways — they offer small-group tours for adventurous travelers in more than 100 countries. Tours are divided into themes, like adventure cruising, cycling, and culinary. And if you’re interested in meeting other like-minded travelers, they have also organized trips specifically for people between the ages of 18-30.

But Intrepid sometimes goes to places where G Adventures does not, and vice versa. Intrepid also has tons of amazing deals available year-round. Many trips are discounted up to 50% and some tours can be reserved with just a $1 deposit. And if you’re eager to leave ASAP, then you can browse a variety of last-minute deals.

They’ve also partnered with Lonely Planet to create unique, niche experiences. With hundreds of single or multi-day vacation packages, you’ll be able to get off the beaten path to see the world through the eyes of a local.

But the biggest perk of traveling with Intrepid Travel comes down to the group leaders and small group sizes. You won’t feel like you’re just getting carted around because every tour is led by a local guide, meaning you get a more authentic experience.

One important note, for many trips, Intrepid requires you to have travel insurance . That’s a good idea anyway though.

Best Rental Car Sites

For many trips, you’ll need to rent a car to get around once your flight arrives. Finding rental cars can be frustrating and expensive.

Fortunately, by using one of these car rental sites , you can find the best prices and reserve your vehicle ahead of time, so there’s no stress at pickup. These travel websites let you search through many car rental providers, compare pricing, and make a reservation. Here are the best travel sites for finding rental cars:

Rentalcars.com

It’s all in the name here. Rentalcars.com is owned by the same company as the hotel site, Booking.com . It is a search site that lets you find car rentals and easily book them online.

Rentalcars.com has a great streamlined process for searching, filtering, and paying for your rental car. With just a few clicks you can find the best deal and have your car reserved. Plus, listings on Rentalcars.com typically have free cancellation when you book through their site. That’s a big win in my book because I hate stressing about what will happen if my flight is delayed or if I have to cancel my trip.

Rentalcars.com typically has great discounts available. In my experience, I’ve often been able to find the best prices compared to other rental car websites.

They also offer insurance directly though their site, though you may not need it if your travel insurance already covers rental cars.

Ultimately, one of the main things I look for in rental cars is the lowest price possible. Would I like to drive a BMW around on vacation? Sure. But typically I’m saving pennies for a trip and don’t want to spend them all on car rentals.

Priceline is one of the best travel websites to find low-price car rentals. They will often offer “Express Deals” which give you a much lower price than you’d get going directly through a car rental agency.

How do they do it? Priceline was the first travel site to offer “opaque rentals.” While that sounds complicated, it just means that you don’t know what car you’ll get until you pick it up. As long as you aren’t picky, this is a fantastic way to save cash on car rentals.

As a bonus, you can get package deals if you use Priceline to reserve flights, hotels, or even trips with a cruise line. They also have a loyalty program that can help you save on travel over time. For many travelers, this could be a one-stop shop for the ideal vacation package.

Unlike the other travel websites on this list, Kayak doesn’t let you reserve rental cars directly through their website. Instead, Kayak is just a big search site that filters through dozens (or maybe hundreds?) of other rental companies, travel websites, online travel agencies, and other related resources. You put in your travel dates, and Kayak gives you a list of options offering competitive prices. They then give you a link to book your car through the site or company that’s offering the deal.

The benefit of Kayak is that, because it is searching so many different travel websites, you can find great deals that other websites may not show.

If you want help with your entire trip planning process, Kayak also lets you search for flight deals, hotel deals, and even complete vacation packages.

Travel Booking Websites FAQs

What is the best travel site to book through.

Booking.com is the best (and largest) travel booking site.

Is it cheaper to book through a travel agent or online?

Booking online will almost always be cheaper than using a travel agent.

How do I get the best travel deals?

You can get great travel deals by comparing across multiple travel booking sites.

What is the best rental car site?

Rentalcars.com is our top pick for the best rental car website.

What is the best site for cheap flights?

Google Flights is always a good starting point when searching for cheap flights.

Jeremy Scott Foster

I’m curious why Airbnb is not listed, are they not a good option?

Given their high (and increasing) fees, lack of consistency and poor customer service, the TravelFreak editorial team can’t, in good faith, recommend booking with Airbnb. We do consider them to be a viable option, but can’t stand behind them as a company nor recommend them to readers.

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The Best Sites and Apps for Finding Last-Minute Travel Deals

Is your suitcase packed yet?!

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Last-Minute Flight Deals

Google Flights

Google Flights is a search engine that gathers fares from other travel sites. According to CNET, it bests other travel search sites , due to the fact that it's super speedy (plug in your dates, departure, and arrival destinations, and flights pop up almost instantaneously). If you can be flexible, leave your destination blank and then scroll through the list of cities that pop up to find the cheapest flights for your upcoming dates.

Cheapoair.com

Cheapoair.com is all about discounted flights. Click on its "Last Minute Flights" tab to find the absolute cheapest rates (if you're interested, book it as soon as possible before it goes up!). A recent sweet deal was a roundtrip flight from Philadelphia to Orlando starting at $81 (2 weeks out from departure date). There's also a toll-free number to call to hear about unpublished fares.

Vayama.com focuses on international flights, and there are always good last-minute deals to be found right on the homepage, so you don't have to go clicking around. A recent search saw an American Airlines offer from New York to Casablanca, Morocco, starting at $676 (2 weeks out from departure date). Also, check out its "Trending Deals" section for the most up-to-date offerings.

Last-Minute Hotel Deals

HotelTonight

While this app lets you book up to a week in advance (or 100 days in advance for stays up to 14 nights), it's really geared to last-minute bookings, so if there's a hotel you've had your eye on, this is your chance to stay there at a reduced rate. Deals go live each day at noon, and there are thousands of hotels to choose from, including the Mondrian in Miami. Download for iTunes and Google Play .

Another last-minute hotel-booking app is One:Night, which lists its same-day offers starting at 3 p.m. Though operated by Standard International — the parent company behind Standard Hotels, which are listed already — it also has several other stylish hotels, such as New York's Gramercy Park Hotel and LA's Viceroy L’ermitage Beverly Hills. Download for iTunes and Google Play .

While this last-minute hotel-booking app got its start as a website in England in 1999, it now has access to more than 200,000 properties around the world (but it offers more U.K. hotels than anyone else, including places like London's Radisson Blu Edwardian Grafton and the Hilton Edinburgh Carlton in Scotland). Download for iTunes and Google Play .

Last-Minute Travel Booking Site Deals

LastMinuteTravel.com

With a site called LastMinuteTravel , you can expect prime deals for spur-of-the-moment travelers. The site offers deals on everything from flights and hotels to car rentals and packages, so you're sure to find something. A recent search found a four-star Berlin hotel for $96 per night. Other sites to check out include LastMinute.com and GoLastMinute.com .

Priceline.com

Priceline basically offers one-stop shopping: Not only can you book your hotel room, but your flight, rental car, and cruise as well. It still has the "Name Your Own Price" feature for choosing hotels, which offers steep discounts (if you don't mind not knowing where you'll be staying until you book). Its app has app-only hotel deals, including super last-minute deals with its "Tonight Only" feature.

Expedia allows you to save big when you bundle a trip — meaning book your hotel and airfare together — and often has great last-minute prices, but for its most up-to-the-minute offerings, check the Unreal Deals tab. A recent search turned up a 4-night trip to Vegas, with a stay at The Palazzo tower (within the The Venetian), including airfare, from $605 per person (2 weeks out from departure date).

Last-Minute Vacation Package Deals

Gate 1 Travel

Gate 1 Travel has vacation packages to almost every corner of the world. It offers escorted travel packages, as well as independent trips. A recent independent vacation to Milan, featuring airfare, 4 nights of accommodations, and daily breakfast was going for $769 a month out. While there are always good deals on the site, you can also check its "Last Minute" section for the latest offerings.

CheapCaribbean.com

Who doesn't want to save money on a tropical getaway to the Caribbean or Mexico, perhaps places like Aruba and Cancun ? Find all the latest affordable last-minute deals under CheapCaribbean's "Nice Packages" tab — a recent offering for an all-inclusive resort on Mexico's Riviera Maya for 3 nights, including airfare, was going for $599 (down from $1,229) 2 weeks out.

Last-Minute Cruise Deals

CruiseCompete.com

If cruises are your thing — or even if you are a first-timer — you can get quotes from multiple travel agencies to get awesome last-minute deals through CruiseCompete.com . Check its Super Cruise Specials, where a recent deal included a 7-night Mediterranean cruise from Miami, starting at $445 (one month out). You can also get special deals, such as two-for-one cruises and select sailings where kids cruise free.

Under Cruise.com's Last Minute Cruises section (in the Cruise Deals section), you'll find lots of discounted sailings, including a 4-day Western Caribbean cruise from $279 per person departing from Miami, less than a week out. There was also a 4-day Bahamas cruise for $378 per person a month out.

Jill is the former travel editor at BestProducts.com, showing her expertise on everything from the Best Rooftop Bars in NYC to the 30 Most Beautiful Cities in the World;  the NYC native has previously worked at Travel & Leisure and has written articles for The New York Times , InStyle, Huffington Post , and Fodors . Recent trips have included the Bahamas and Natchez, and Patagonia and Vietnam are high on the bucket list. Though she’ll deny it, she is kind of obsessed with buying refrigerator magnets from the places she visits.

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Best Online Travel Agencies

Booking.com is our top choice for making your trip arrangements

Ligaya Malones is an editor, blogger, and freelance writer specializing in food and travel. Ligaya's work has appeared in publications including Lonely Planet and BRIDES.

Planning a trip can be easier through an online travel agency than if you handle each aspect of the planning separately. You can book hotels, air travel, rental cars, and more through a single site, and booking everything together sometimes results in discounts. By inputting a destination, a range of dates, and other preferences, you will see a list of options for each aspect of travel.

The best online travel agencies offer options from the largest number of airlines, hotels, car rental agencies, and more. Look for sites that offer discounts for combining reservations for different aspects of your trip. For example, the best sites will have lower rates if you book both plane tickets and a hotel through their services. The best sites also provide reviews from customers who actually have booked through the service. These are our top picks.

• Best Overall: Booking.com
• Best Budget: Skyscanner
• Best Price Predictor: Hopper
• Most Innovative: Kiwi.com
• Best for Eco-Conscious: Kind Traveler
• Best for Social Impact: I Like Local
• Best for Design-Forward Homestays: Plum Guide
• Our Top Picks
• Booking.com

Kind Traveler

I Like Local

• See More (4)

Final Verdict

Frequently asked questions, methodology, best overall : booking.com.

 Booking.com

This industry leader offers one of the most comprehensive trip planning platforms on the Internet.

Lots of options to choose from

Interface is easy to use

Numerous filters to customize your search

Tricky to tell whether changes/cancellations can be made with Booking.com or the vendor directly

Booking.com was founded in 1996 and has grown into an industry leader that stands out for being one of the most comprehensive trip planning platforms out there. From one website, you can compare and book accommodations, flights (including one-way and multi-city flights), sightseeing activities, and even airport taxis. The website lists more than 28 million accommodation options, from hotels, hostels, and B&Bs to vacation homes and luxury resorts—you can browse more choices per destination on Booking.com than other online travel agencies. The website also performs well on cost and typically returns lower-than-average prices for flights and hotels. 

Booking.com's interface is also easy to use. On the home page, search for a hotel by entering your chosen destination and dates. Then, use the extensive list of filters—such as price range and distance from the city center—to narrow the results down and find the best fit. You can also search for a specific hotel, or seek inspiration by clicking through options grouped by destination or property type or by topic such as the country’s best Michelin-starred hotel restaurants or the top cities for vegan travelers. The flights, car rental, and other tabs are just as intuitive. 

Best Budget : Skyscanner

 Skyscanner

You can compare prices across airlines, hotels, and car rentals.

Simple interface

Option to toggle searches between specific dates or by monthly calendars

Search Everywhere button is great for spontaneous planners

Extra clicks are required to make a final purchase

Must read fine print for changes/cancellations—may need to deal directly with the vendor

Ads on the sidebar can be distracting

Find deals on airfare, hotels, and car rentals with an aggregator site like Skyscanner , which uses a metasearch engine to compare prices from all online travel agencies and the airline, hotel, or car rental company in question. Run searches with fixed dates, opt to compare airfare prices month to month, or click “Cheapest Month.” Searches also include options for nearby airports or non-stop flights only. With hotel searches, you can choose to select only from properties with free cancellation, a cleanliness rating of 4.5/5 or higher, or 3- or 4-starred hotels only. Car rental searches include an option to select “return car to different location.”

Once you’ve found the best rate, click on the link to be redirected to the third-party site to make your booking. Feeling spontaneous? The Search Everywhere button on the homepage offers a list of the cheapest flight deals for destinations both locally and across the world—just plug in your departure airport first.

Best Price Predictor : Hopper

The company claims a 95 percent accuracy rate at predicting when flights and hotel rates will be cheapest.

Color-coded system makes it easy to determine cheapest days to buy

App is easy to use

Option to track flights and receive alerts when the best time to buy arises

Some have mentioned the app functions better as a research tool than a booking tool

Unclear whether Hopper will price match if you find a cheaper flight elsewhere

Hopper is a travel app available on iOS and Android that aims to help travelers save on airfare by usng historical data and their own algorithm to predict when flights will be cheapest. Just type in where and when you’d like to fly and Hopper will present you with a color-coded pricing calendar indicating how much tickets are likely to cost. (Green is the least expensive, then yellow, orange, and red for most expensive.) Hopper will also recommend you either buy now or wait, or you can choose to watch a trip and receive notifications on the best time to buy. In addition, the app has expanded to offer hotel and car rental price predictions, too.

Some newer features since the app’s inception in 2009 include an option to freeze a price for a limited time—for an extra fee—as well as exclusive app-only discounts. Hopper is free to download, and you can choose to book directly through the app, though some users mentioned they use Hopper as more of a research tool before booking directly with the airline or hotel. The company claims a 95 percent accuracy rate at predicting flight rates up to a year ahead.

Most Innovative : Kiwi.com

This metasearch engine scours the web to piece together the ideal itinerary using planes, trains, buses, and more.

Creative itineraries get you where you need to go, especially if you’ve got a multi-stop trip

Kiwi Guarantee offers rebooking or cancellation protections

Nomad option appeals to travelers with a lot of flexibility

Creative itineraries mean you may not fly out of the same airport you flew into

Kiwi Guarantee has an additional fee

Charges all-in-one fee for booking flights, trains, buses (though you can always purchase a la carte)

Travelers planning multi-city destinations and seeking a bargain, as well as those looking to take planes, trains, and automobiles to get there, might consider Kiwi . Kiwi is a metasearch engine that scours and pieces together itineraries from various airlines (even if they don’t have a codeshare agreement), considers multiple airports (even if your arrival airport is different from departure), and offers booking options, whether you’re looking at very specific dates or more general ones (up to 60 nights).

Some will find the ability to make multiple bookings for a particular trip more convenient than going at it manually several different times, though note that you must opt into the Kiwi Guarantee program to access rebooking and refund protections should your reservation change or be canceled. Kiwi’s Nomad option allows you to plug in a bunch of destinations you’d like to visit and the length of your intended stay, and the website will churn out the most affordable itineraries for review.

Best for Eco-Conscious : Kind Traveler

A give-and-get business model means booking accommodations with exclusive perks, a donation to environmental organizations, and more.

All participating hotels include a local give-back component

Exclusive savings and perks

Participating hotels are located in some of the most beautiful places in the world

Inventory is much smaller compared to other booking platforms

Some of the amenities mentioned are based on availability only

In 2022, Kind Traveler (an online trave agency focused on hotel bookings) announced an increase in environmentally and socially conscious hotels, charity donations, voluntourism opportunities, and additional perks like waived resort fees or a welcome amenity.

Unlock exclusive hotel rates and perks from participating Kind Traveler hotels with a minimum $10/night minimum donation to a local charity. For example, stay at the Six Senses Laamu in the Maldives and receive up to $33 off the nightly rate and perks such as a food and beverage credit and an Earth Lab or Alchemy Bar workshop when you make a donation to Manta Trust. The organization funds coastal research to protect the island nation’s large yet fragile population of reef mantas.

Select from more than 140 participating hotels from the Hawaiian Islands to Bozeman, Montana, and the Maldives. Charities include wildlife, human rights, arts, education, and environmental preservation organizations.

Best for Social Impact : I Like Local

Choose from a host of travel experiences with the peace of mind that 100 percent of the cost goes directly to local partners.

Social impact mission woven into organization’s business model

Immersive experiences led by local guides

Range of experiences offered

May not be best fit for those seeking upscale, luxury experiences and stays

Can’t sort experiences by a list of countries (though an interactive map is available)

No experiences outside of Africa and Asia

For an online travel agency with a booking platform designed to route dollars spent directly to the communities travelers intend to visit, consider I Like Local . Visit the website to browse a host of travel experiences in countries including Indonesia, Kenya, and Cambodia. Experiences include homestays and farmstays as well as wellness and culturally oriented experiences—from cooking and cycling tours to weaving classes.

To search for an experience, select from drop-down items like travel dates and experience categories, or view a global map and click on a country to view experiences that way.

The platform got its start in 2014 and has grown to 4,000 local hosts across nearly 20 countries. As a social impact organization, 100 percent of each booking fee goes to local hosts. To date, 16,000 travelers have booked with I Like Local.

Best for Design-Forward Homestays : Plum Guide

Browse and book seriously vetted, design-forward vacation homes.

Highly curated inventory of vacation rentals across the world

Design-forward

Thorough vetting process

Does not publish guest reviews

Other platforms have homes available across more destinations

When it comes to booking a vacation home, serviced apartment, or condo, travelers are spoiled for choice. Plum Guide is an online travel agency that specializes in accommodations—though not just any home makes its directory. The company claims that each potential home listed on its site must jump through 150 hoops to be included, from internet speed and mattress and pillow quality to the showers’ water pressure and the home’s proximity to dining, shopping, and attractions.

Search by a featured collection on the website such as “ pet-friendly homes ” or “one-of-a-kind homes in Palm Springs.” Scroll to the bottom of its homepage to view its top destinations, as well as a list of all destinations where Plum Guide homes are available, including Barbados, Mexico, Portugal, Switzerland, the U.S., and Turkey. Note: From the top right-hand corner of the site, use the dropdown menu to select currency of choice.

As long as you know what you value most out of your travel experience—such as affordability, social impact, or luxe accommodations—there’s an online travel agency to help plan your next trip. Be sure to read the fine print, as some agencies are third-party websites and not direct vendors. If you're not sure where to start, Booking.com is your best bet for a smooth user experience and hard-to-beat offers on flights, hotels, and other travel arrangements.

What Is the Biggest Travel Agency?

Our choice for best overall, Booking.com, is known as an industry leader with listings for all major hotels, airlines, car rental companies, and more. It boasts more choices for accommodations per destination than any other site, and we found its interface to be user-friendly.

Are Online Travel Agencies Worth It?

This depends on your needs and priorities. The best online travel agencies certainly can save time by booking everything all at once. However, if you're someone who is good at haggling and enjoys the details of planning a trip, you might be able to find better deals by reaching out to hotels or other destinations and speaking to someone personally.

Is It Cheaper to Book Online Than With a Travel Agent?

Not always. A travel agent you know and trust should have the experience and connections to find deals that can match or surpass what you'll find online. Additionally, if something goes wrong, travel agents provide you with an actual person you can use as an advocate to correct the problem . But if you don't have access to a good travel agent, online sites still provide plenty of ways to streamline planning and save money .

We considered dozens of online travel agencies and narrowed down the options based on user experience, volume and quality of inventory, unique offerings and specials, and customer reviews. We also assessed travel companies’ environmentally and socially conscious policies.

Catherine Falls Commercial / Getty Images

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The 10 best online travel agencies in 2024

The top 10 online travel agencies.

• Booking.com
• Lastminute.com

Best online travel agencies for business travel

1. travelperk.

Main offerings and features:

• Industry-leading travel inventory
• Flexible booking with FlexiPerk
• Safety alerts with TravelCare
• Integrated travel policy & approval flows
• Centralized invoicing
• Easy & real-time expense reports
• Carbon offsetting with GreenPerk
• 24/7 fast customer support in target 15s
• VAT reclaim
• Integration with 3rd party tools , such as expense management or HR software like Expensify and BambooHR

Save time and money on your business travel with TravelPerk

2. sap concur.

• Works with some of the biggest brands
• Easy tracking and reporting of expenses for expense reports
• Many connected apps, such as Uber and Airbnb for cars and hotels
• One solution for a variety of business travel spending

Click below to compare both platforms’ features and benefits

• Ample integrations
• Award-winning mobile app
• Employee-centric travel management

Click below for a more detailed comparison between both platforms:

Best online travel agencies for leisure travel, 1. booking.com.

• Intuitive booking tool and website
• Flight + Hotel booking for easily planning trips with no cross-referencing travel websites
• Simple car rental options and taxi hire
• Available in over 40 different languages and offers over half a million properties across 207 countries
• You can book experiences in your destination city to entertain you on your travels
• Genius rewards program

• Simple interface and booking tool
• Deals when making more than one booking
• 38 different languages and offers a 24-hour, multilingual customer support service
• Free cancellation within 24 hours of booking
• Millions of reviews to help make your decision

3. Lastminute.com

• Filter hotels according to budgets, star ratings, guest ratings, board types, and more
• ATOL protection on flight + hotel bundles
• Flash sales for last-minute deals
• Payment plans to spread out the cost of travel
• Extra entertainment booking for your trips, like theatrical productions and day trips
• Gift cards for gifting travel

• Expedia rewards for hotels, cars, and more
• Experienced support
• Compare cruise lines
• Big savings when booking flights, hotels, and car rentals
• Operates in nearly 70 countries and in over 35 different languages
• Luxury travel options

• Book hotels, flights, cars, and bundles
• 24/7 support
• Lower prices on the app
• Great last-minute deals for spontaneous travel

6. Bookmundi

Best online travel agencies for flights

1. skyscanner.

• Super flexible booking filters
• Cheaper flights and hotels than other OTAs
• Price alerts for travel routes of interest
• Easy-to-use booking tool and UI
• Hundreds of location and currency options
• One-way, return, and multi-city travel options

2. Kiwi.com

• Simple flight booking tool
• Partnerships with Booking.com and Rentalcars.com
• Discover deals anywhere with the option to open up your search
• Easy-to-use app

How do online travel agencies work?

What are the advantages of booking through an online travel agency.

• Access to comparison tools
• Peer reviews to help you with your decisions
• Flexible cancellation policies
• All your travel in one place
• Local flights and deals

Rewards programs

Comparison tools, peer reviews, flexible cancellation.

Flexiperk: Cancel anytime, anywhere. Get a minimum of 80% of your money back.

One account for all of your travel needs, a local approach to global travel, wrapping up.

Make business travel simpler. Forever.

• See our platform in action . Trusted by thousands of companies worldwide, TravelPerk makes business travel simpler to manage with more flexibility, full control of spending with easy reporting, and options to offset your carbon footprint.
• Find hundreds of resources on all things business travel, from tips on traveling more sustainably, to advice on setting up a business travel policy, and managing your expenses. Our latest e-books and blog posts have you covered.
• Never miss another update. Stay in touch with us on social for the latest product releases, upcoming events, and articles fresh off the press.

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