My Favorite Travel Planning Tools
There are many apps and websites to help organize your travel and itineraries (I still love my Excel spreadsheets!). But, stop. Back up a bit. Where are you going? What is the best itinerary? Where should you stay?
Here are four of my favorite tools to help get you started PLANNING that next amazing trip.
These are my honest opinions and recommendations — I do not receive any compensation or discounts during our travel. This story does include some affiliate links for which I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please click the links to support my blog.
1 | Google Flights can help you plan where or when
I know I’d rather spend my money on an epic adventure than pricey airfare. Flights can be a large part of your travel expenses, so why not start with a good deal on this part of your budget. Google Flights is a search tool that has literally helped me choose where or when to go on several of our vacations. Change dates, play around with multi-city and one-way flights, etc. Warning: it can get a bit addictive!
Skyscanner and Momondo are similar tools, but I find Google Flights is far superior in helping decide where or when to go based on flight costs. Once you have your travel dates, maybe go to Momondo or Skyscanner and search the same itinerary. These results will show OTAs (online travel agencies such as Expedia) that may have a lower price. In the end, I prefer booking directly with the airline and Google Flights provides an easy link to do so. You are not booking with Google Flights — it is a search tool.
Two very important notes:
- All airlines are not in Google Flights, e.g. Southwest Airlines.
- Always search using a PRIVATE or INCOGNITO screen to avoid dynamic pricing against yourself!
Where?
Enter your travel dates and departure city plus other filters such as flight duration or departure time — but leave the “Where to?” blank. Or, enter something very broad such as “Europe”. When you click “search” Google Flights will show flight prices for many locations. I also like entering a city such as New York or Chicago versus a specific airport because Google Flights will show the best price and time for the various airports.
For even more fun, enter a low price and play around a bit with this field. This is how we decided to go to France when I found $500 direct flights for spring break and a $350 flight to Portugal another time.
When?
On the other hand, if you have a specific destination and flexible dates, enter city information but not your dates. When you click the date field a calendar will show prices by date. You can also play around with the length of your trip at the bottom of the calendar.
Log into Google and save the search to track that flight over time.
Use the filters for better search results
My favorite filters are Price and Number of Stops. The Duration filter is especially handy for international travel with a connection — a price may look great until you see an overnight layover! Departure Time and Arrival Time filters are also useful in eliminating extraneous results if you have time restrictions.
The number of travelers can change your ticket price
I recommend you start with getting the pricing for one traveler. Often there may not be enough tickets at this price for your entire family. You only know this if you 1) search a single traveler first and then 2) search for your family of five, and divide that by five. If the price is higher per ticket, and you have the patience, you can save some money by booking as many passengers as you can at the lower price and booking the other traveler(s) in a second reservation.
2 | TripAdvisor Forums have great threads by location
Trip Advisor reviews can be helpful at times; however, the TripAdvisor Forums are really great for broader travel planning topics and travel advice. Use the Search Forums field to peruse past discussions by location. Or, submit a question if you do not see a similar thread.
The Trip Advisor Forum community can be incredibly helpful, especially when you get stuck on itinerary details. For example, Maple_Marshmallows recommended: “Drive to Seward (3.5 to 4 hrs) with some stops, including a detour to Russian River Falls. Go to Alyeska Tram if [the] weather is clear (it might not be on the way back north)”. We took her advice and she was right about the weather!
Of course, take these comments with a grain of salt as sometimes the “experts” are not really experts or may have differing interests to yours.
3 | AllTrails helps you find trails hiking, biking, and more
Put a location in the AllTrails website or app to pull up nearby trails. Click in for directions, parking information, and reviews that may even include current conditions. You can also change the activity search to road biking, mountain biking, backpacking, etc. The free app has always met my needs.
FITZ BITS TIP: If you are traveling internationally use the local term to google hikes, such as “wandern” in German. Otherwise, you will get Americans’ opinions and not the local point of view and directions. Browsers such as Chrome and Safari have easy translation options.
4 | See a lot more using Google's Street View
Google Maps is great for mapping out a road trip or multi-destination trip. However, I also use Google Maps to scope out the location of an airbnb or hotel before booking it. Take it one step further by using Google’s Street View tool to see imagery of the route you would walk to get to town — or the ski lift! Airbnb often does not include an address so you have to see if there is enough information in the description or reviews to figure it out.
Start by entering the location in Google Maps. Now, click on the yellow pegman icon in the bottom right corner. Any street that has an interactive route will show up with a blue line. Activate the street view by clicking on the blue line where you want to see the street. Now, you can “walk” down the street and make turns using the arrow that appears on your screen. In more remote areas there may only be photos that you click into on the light blue circle.
Other honorable mentions...
Travel blogs, YouTube, podcasts
Travel blogs (like mine!), vlogs, and podcasts are also invaluable sources of information.
Visit your local library
And, I admit to a little old-school research by checking out travel books from the library for big trips — especially international travel.
Get travel advice from a local on a city tour
City tours are a great way to get a lay of the land + some local advice. We especially like bike tours because you can get out and see a lot more in a short amount of time. We have gotten a lot of great advice from our guides — as well as other participants.
I also like booking the “free” walking tours that are offered in so many US and international cities. They are not actually free, you are expected to tip the guide at the end of the tour. We usually tip $10–$15 per person depending on the size of the group, length, and quality of the tour. The group size is usually pretty large, but this is an inexpensive way to see and learn more than on your own.
