The Best Travel Tools

Google Flights: I use this the MOST as it always finds the cheapest flight prices. I would recommend using this to find where the cheap flight is and then book it directly through the airline. You can choose to watch a flight and Google will notify you when the price fluctuates.

Agoda and Kiwi: You can choose to book a flight through a 3rd party booking like Agoda or Kiwi if they flights show up cheaper on your google flight search instead of booking direct. I’ve done this many times and haven’t had issues.  However I have heard people having nightmares going through route as the airline can not help you if things go wrong, so if you do go this route only do it if you don’t care if things go wrong or if you have travel protection. I find it’s a great way to save some cash by getting cheap flights.

Expedia: This a great platform to use for booking flights that you need to have free cancellation. There is a feature where you can search flights with free cancellation in the event you need flexbility on your flight or you want to secure a flight now but may need to cancel it in 24hours for whatever reason.

Skyscanner: The next best for finding flights especially as it has a feature called “everywhere” which lets you serach flihts from your location to anywhere in the world and it filters it by cheapest. This can be really handy at picking your next destination if you don’t know where to go.

Hopper: This app lets you search flights and it tells you if the current prices are good or not based on past data and it’ll notify you when the price drops.

*Make sure you don’t buy flights too early or too late, as flights are cheapest about 6-8 weeks out. Flights flown on Tues & Weds are usually the cheapest, and never buy ON Fri-Sun. Flight prices usually spike over the weekend so search again during the week. 

Tripadvisor:This platform everyone knows. Very popular and useful for just about anything. Finding the perfect accommodation, tours, things to do, places to eat, and reviews. 

Hostwelword: This is great for booking cheap accommodation if you’re either on a budget or looking for a social atmosphere because you’re traveling solo. You can book shared dorm rooms or private rooms if you want the social aspect but prefer to sleep alone. They usually provide organized activities, happy hours and scheduled tours. There’s also party hostels or more chill laidback ones. Read the reviews. Good for all ages but typically on the younger side.

Booking: This is my absolute favorite platform to use. Here you can find everything – shared hostels, cheap hotels, homestays, fancy hotels, unique stays, apartments, etc. The more you book, you advanced to what’s called Genius levels that offer different levels of discounts.

Agoda: This is a similar platform to Booking. Oftentimes they will have same properties but with different pricing. They also offer some properties that won’t be shown on Booking. I use both.

Airbnb: Everyone knows this one. This is great for private stays, unique stays, large groups, or having the ability to have a kitchen, etc for longer stays.

Expedia: This is great to use if you’re all about fancy hotels, which I’m not. So I only ever use Expedia for booking free cancellation flights when I need to provide an exit flight upon entering a new country.

Couchsurfing: This is a platform for travelers to crash at another traveler’s home for free. The host will provide their couch or a spare room for a cultural exchange. Great to meet locals, get local recommendations and save money. Costs $2.99 per month to use.

Host A Sister: This is a private Facebook Group that is for women only. Hosts from around the world participate in house swapping or hosting another traveler free of charge. If you’d like to use this, please consider joining the group over on Facebook and again this is for women only. I’ve linked their public page.

~If you like the idea of free stays, I created a free guide on 10 Ways to Travel For Free. Please sign up for my monthly newsletter at the bottom of this page where I share tips and tricks on travel. When you join you’ll automatically receive two free guides: The 10 Ways To Travel For Free and How To Score Free Flights.

*Tip: I always check between the hostelworld, agoda and booking apps to see which ones have the best places and prices to choose from. The price can vary across apps depending on your discount status. And as always, please read the reviews carefully & stay safe. 

Airolo: Before you travel to any country, you should secure your data before you even land. This will prevent you from having any headaches trying to organize transport, maps, and getting to your destination. Trust me, not all airports have reliable wifi and once you leave the doors of the airport you will be SOL. The desks at the airport who sell simcards overcharge. If you’re like me with a new iphone, there isn’t even a slot for a physical sim. Your best bet is to just get an e-sim. 

Whatsapp: If you aren’t alreay using this – download it immediately! The rest of the world aside from USA and Australia it seems like, uses this for communication over SMS text. It works the same, as in you can send text, make phone calls and do video calls, except it’s done over the internet instead of through a phone plan. So you can use your data or WIFI. There’s no fees for crossing international borders and a lot of overseas businesses use it in some countries so it’s brilliant. I only use whatsapp. Don’t even bother sending me an SMS.

IG or FB: You can use these to make phone calls and video calls nowadays as well. My dad doesn’t use whatsapp or know how to download it so we always communicate via FB messenger for texting and video calls.

Zoom or Google Meet: These are great if you are traveling and need to do business meetings. There are free versions so long as the meeting stays under a certain time.

Skype or Google Voice: If you are traveling abroad and need to make a phone call from “within your country” to ” your country” for example a bank. You just pay to top up your account and you can make phone calls.

*Tip: If you’re traveling, do NOT ever use your home plan abroad. Don’t even pay for an international plan, it’s just not worth the cost. It is SO much cheaper to get a local sim card or an Esim. The great thing about an esim is that you can have multiple phone numbers on at the same time.  

Maps.me: This is my favorite map for offline maps. You can download a country and have access to it when you don’t have data. You can save spots you want to go so you can visually plan your trip. It’s also cool because other travelers have added viewpoints, trails, waterfalls, etc and will sometimes rate whether it’s good or not worth it.

Google Maps: This is also a really great app to use for driving to destinations and choose toll routes or not. It also let’s you download offline maps as well for when you don’t have data. You can also save places you want to go by city, by category, etc. Really cool. People actually sell their saved locations for places if you want a list of places to check out before you arrive somewhere – this can be especially cool for off the beaten spots that someone’s found.

*We use the satellie view in Google Maps when we need to find a secluded, wooded area to hide and camp in sometimes. 

Trailwallet: A budget app that allows you to track your spending. You can set up a trip, add multiple currencies, and see a pie chart of how you’ve spent your money. You can set a daily or trip budget and it’ll show you how much you have spent each day and in total and how much you have left to spend. I use this everytime I’m somewhere new to monitor my spending. If you are traveling longterm it’s so important to be mindful of where your money is going so you don’t run out!

~This app actually isn’t in use anymore. I still use it cause I already have it downloaded but many recommend TravelSpend instead.

Splitwise: This app is incredible for traveling with other people. You can easily set up a group and each person can add what they’ve spent and who it should. be divided between: the whole group or just a few individuals. At the end of the trip is easily shows who owes who what. It makes tracking group spending so easy.

Google Translate: This app is awesome because you can download a language and use it offline to translate. This is perfect for being in remote areas of a country where no one might speak your language or English. You can even use the camera function to scan the words on a menu or sign and it translate it right on the screen for you.

Busuu: Great for learning a new language or at the very least the basics for traveling to a new country. There is a free or paid version. I chose this one when learning German because it offered more explantation on grammar in my opinion. I renewed my paid membership to learn Spanish but so far I haven’t gotten very far…lol

Duolingo: Probably the most popular app for learning a new language or the basics. There’s also a free or paid version.

*Tip: I’d always learn the basics befor going somewhere new. This is to be polite and also can be very helpful. Things such as hello, bye, thank you, please, where is the bathroom, how much is this, may I pay.

Uber: This is the go-to for most countries. If there isn’t uber then they most likely have the equivalent. Research that country and download the app.

Didi: A service similar to Uber

Lyft: Another service similar to Uber, usually their competitor.

Gojek or Grab: The uber of Southeast Asia. I LOVE them because you can take a motorbike instead of a car if you want and they deliver everything under the sun.

Flixbus: This is the way to travel around Europe if you’re on a budget. These buses practically go everywhere and are at a great price, perfect for backpackers. 

12go: The BEST platform to use for organizing buses, trains, ferries, etc in Asia. Highly recommend to organize everything through here as you. can compare prices from different operators, times, and pickup/drop off points.

Bolt: Similar service as Uber that’s in use in Europe, Africa, Asia.

Omio or Rome2rio: Omio is my fave platform to use if I need to book trains, buses, or ferries in Europe. They make it super simple to. dovia an app. andyou get the ticket right to your phone. You can also search Rome2rio for additional routes, but they were acquired by Omio.

*If there’s multiple options, consider checking a few to compare prices. They are a lot more than this list, I’d look at what’s local to where you’re going. 

**If you are using trains, trams, buses, or ferries look for the local app for that if Omio, Rome2Rio or 12go doesn’t work. 

Lightroom: This is the BEST app to edit photos. The mobile version is free. You can play around on your own and create your own presets or you can buy them from other photographers. These can make your photos pop and give you a cohesive look.

Inshot: A free tool used to create videos, reels or tiktoks. A popular one amongst creators.

Capcut: Another free tool used to create videos, reels or tiktoks. This is probably the most popular.

Unfold: A tool to cerate beautiful, cohesive stories

Canva: This is the best app for so many uses. Creating reels, reel covers, stories, etc.

DJI Fly: The app for flying your drone that you can use to edit and create videos within the app.

Davinci Resolve: A serious platform for editing videos if you really want to get into making professional looking ones with colorgrading.  This is free compared to Adobe Premier Pro.

**There are several tools out there, these are just some really popular ones. 

Express VPN or Atlas VPN: If you’re working remotely or need to access anyting that requires you to be “in your country” when logging in, this is useful. It changes your IP address so it appear you are there. You can even use this to book flights from a place like India so your prices are cheaper.  

Viator, Klook or Get Your Guide Useful for booking organized group or private tours and walking tours. Love using these platforms. 

Contiki, G Adventures & Tour Radar: Popular companies to book group travel with if solo travel is not your thing!

RemoteYear: If you want to work and travel with like minded people. This is a great way for you to travel as a digital nomad if you don’t like solo travel.

Camping Apps: Like Wikicamps. Useful for finding free or paid campsites, water sources, etc. Search for your destination and their local app.

All Trails: Useful for hiking, finding trails, etc.

I hope you found these tools valuable. For more travel tips head on over to my blog to read more!