Whenever I travel, I am really dependent on websites and apps. They just make my trip so much safer, easier and cheaper. Here are the websites I mostly use when I travel.

Planning

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Summer is coming and I start planning my next trip, but… Where to next? I start by typing into Google “best places to go in July” and start my research depending upon budget, time restriction and wants (such as beach/hike trip, etc.). Lonely Planet suggests Iceland as a beautiful place for outdoor activities such as hiking, kayaking, cycling. Great, I love being active in the summer!

The “where” and the “how”

Okay, I have chosen the destination, but how am I going to get there and where am I going to stay? Time to check out Airbnb, Booking, Skyscanner and Expedia. For me, this is the only boring bit; however, of a great importance. Making sure I don’t need to worry about having a place has a really calming effect on me- once this is done, the adventure begins! One of the biggest advantages of Skyscanner is that once I type in the departing and arrival airport, I can select “whole month” as my dates. This allows me to look at the cheapest and most expensive days to travel to and from these particular airports and plan my dates accordingly. Apparently, the 14-21 July is the cheapest. When I have my dates, time to find the most suitable located place with the best price-quality ratio. Airbnb is great for shared room, entire place or private rooms in shared accommodation. Booking is the most useful website when searching for hotels, in my experience.

Getting around

After I reach my desired destination I search on TripAdvisor where to eat, what are the best attractions in the city or what to do. Okay, I have found where to, but how do I get there? Thanks to apps such as Google Maps and Wifi available in most of the hotels, I can easily reach wherever I want to go without having to ask a hundred times until I reach. This is particularly useful when travelling to countries where English is not the primary language of the citizens. However, even if I am in Thailand, let’s say, and want to ask a local person something, I can always use apps such as Google Translate. Even though this app is not always the most accurate one, it does the job when asking simple things.

Afterthoughts

Once I get back, I get a tonne of emails from the places I had booked through like Booking, the airline websites, etc. asking me for my opinion about my trip. This is a great opportunity to express dissatisfactions or any thought you had during your trip. This really matters for these companies-  it helps them improve and eliminate the problem in the future.

Enjoy your next trip!