Travel Planning Resources and Apps

Before you go out on the road our top travel planning resources and apps will help you get the most out of your travels. From transport to finances, these simple travel planning resources have improved our travels countless times.

Get Set for the Exciting Road Ahead

We wanted to share a few last useful resources that will help you plan the finer details of your trip beforehand and once you get out there on the road.

As we quickly found out, a little (and we mean little) advance travel planning can go a long way. It takes the pressure off and usually means less poor snap decisions and frustrations.

Our Top 7 Travel Planning Resources

1. Travel Blogs 

Yes, we would say you should read blogs, wouldn’t we? But when we were sitting on our sofa in our London flat desperately trying to work things out this lot kept us motivated and gave us some great travel ideas. Plus they inspired us to start our own travel blog!

Goats on the Road – Nick and Dariece, a Canadian couple that now lives a location independent life and writes great detailed guides to regions of the world and more, checks these guys out.

Migrationology – Mark Wiens loves food, we mean he really loves it and travels mainly to eat. Check out his amazing blog and YouTube channel that will make you hungry in seconds.

Nomadic Matt – Matt has been travelling since 2006 and only recently slowed things down. His blog is an amazing resource of travel knowledge and hosts an active travel community too.

The Secret Traveller Blog – This travel writer from 1Cover has gone incognito to share some of the best-kept secret spots around the world and other useful travel tips. 

2. Wiki Travel 

Just like Wikipedia but dedicated to travel and constantly updated by real travellers. That makes it a brilliant free travel planning resource for getting detailed and current information, specifically when it comes to transports and accommodation.

Visit wikitravel.org and type in the name of any destination to get an idea of the type of info and details it provides. Really useful on the go for stuff like suggested taxi fares and cheap eats.

3. Airbnb 

When looking for accommodation we always take a look at Airbnb first to get an idea of prices across different areas of a city or town. Our top tip is to use the map on the right of the screen to search. Zoom in to see the pins with prices across a specific geographic area and keep the ‘search as I move the map’ box checked.

This gives you a great overview of the general price of places in the area you are searching. Scroll to a different area to compare prices. We have often found we can save several dollars a night just by adding an extra 5 minutes walk to the city centre.

READER BONUS: As a reader of this guide we would love to give you $20 off your first stay with Airbnb via this exclusive link. You’re welcome!

4. Lonely Planet 

The kings of the travel guide book since the 1970’s they are still top dog in the digital age. As previously mentioned we love to carry a physical guide book with us, but Lonely Planet guides are also available as eBooks if you want to save the extra weight.

You can even download single chapters to save some pennies and if you sign up to our monthly newsletter we’ll let you know when they have any flash sales. They also have a fantastic blog and forum where the members are always willing to help.

Okay, it’s not a free resource but you can often trade in your unwanted paperbacks at a local book exchange so it’s as good as.

READER BONUS: You can get 3 for 2 on all Lonely Planet physical and digital guides in their online shop right now just by following our special link. Lovely.

5. Other travellers 

Some of the best information isn’t on the internet… shocking we know. Lots of times we have met other travellers coming from the opposite direction on a fairly well-established backpacker trail and have swapped advice and tips with them over a beer.

This is a great free travel planning resource because it’s bang up to date and honest information, who knew that hostel you were going to book has been flooded and is based on real experience.

We’ve found a lot of online accommodation sites just emailed a hotel for details and never actually stayed there so get social with your fellow travellers.

6. The locals 

Travel planning resources don’t get better than this, hand in hand with the above point, ask a local. Even if there’s a bit of a language barrier you’ll always find someone keen to have a go at communicating with you and you never know what you will learn.

We’ve had people take us by the hand to show us something the tourists just don’t know is there. You’ll soon tune into whether someone is being genuinely helpful or just trying to scam you or sell you something.

The general rule we follow if anyone approaches you and asks ‘where you from?’ they want something from you. Think about it, people just don’t usually do that where you live so why would they anywhere else, use your judgement.

7. Loveholidays

Thinking of a quick holiday, but not sure where to start? Try the UK based loveholidays website for some great destination ideas. They offer the best value holidays with a bespoke way of searching by what matters to you.

3 Useful Travel Apps to Download

Trail Wallet 

Kristina loves it and used this app from day 1. It’s really easy to use and means we can track our spending on the go on our iPhone. It’s great to know how you are doing compared to your daily budget as you travel and it’s helped us to preserve our hard-earned travel money on numerous occasions.

Best of all it’s built by a digital nomad couple that understands how important tracking travel expenses can be and now helps to fund their adventures. Check out their app site for details and to download the app.

TripAdvisor

The website often divides opinion but the app has proven very useful for us on the go. It means you can quickly get details on accommodation or restaurants close to you. We use it more to avoid the really bad places as anywhere with 5* reviews all the way tend to inflate their prices to match. Details and app links here.

XE Currency Converter

Invaluable when you have just crossed the border and are desperately trying to work out how many KIPs to the Dollar to avoid being ripped off.

Just tap in any amount in your selected currency and it displays that amount in any other currencies you have chosen. Details and download links here.

Don’t Over Plan. Be Flexible.

As a final note, don’t get fixated on planning every last detail. As John Lennon famously said, “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans”.

Once you set off, stuff can change. You’ll meet other people along the way and maybe follow them for a bit, maybe not. You might not be feeling it in some places and move on quicker or love it and stay much longer.

Being flexible is all part of travelling and you’ll need to adapt to the world around you as it isn’t going to adapt to suit you anytime soon. Stuff happens, plans change and it’s best to just go with it as long as you’re enjoying it and experiencing what you want to, great, keep on going!

Take-Aways…

• A little advance planning can go a long way in reducing stress and avoiding poor choices
• Use our top travel planning resources to help you plan wisely before and during travel
• Also, download our 3 top apps to help you out on the road
• Be flexible to have the best experiences, things change, it’s all part of the fun of travel

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