Our Favorite Travel Planning Tools
We’ve been traveling full-time since 2018 and much of that travel has been in our trusty RV and truck. However, we also love European travel and the more we go the more we fall in love with Europe and continue planning trips! We also take breaks from the RV now and then in the states, so we do a variety of travel and wanted to share some of our favorite tools for trip planning!
Flights
I am big on saving money and finding the best deal ALWAYS. My process for getting flights isn’t the fastest, but it’s saved us a lot of money by taking the time to check multiple sites for flight deals! There are 3 sites I love and find great deals on, so I check all of them when planning a trip.
Google Flights- My favorite feature is that you can put in an airport you want to fly out of and then put “anywhere” as the destination and you can see all the prices for potential destinations! This is fun when you have a free weekend and want to go somewhere but just don’t know where!
Kayak.com I’ve used Kayak for years and love to set up alerts when I know specific dates I’m looking at.
Booking.com I love this platform because they have a great loyalty program. The more you book with them, the higher level you get and the higher discount you recieive each time you book.
HOWEVER… Unless I’m using Booking.com specifically to get points with their loyalty program, once I find a deal using either Google Flights or Kayak, I then go directly to the airline website and unless it’s more expensive to book through them, I book on directly.
It’s an easier process to check in and make changes if necessary when booking directly through the airline.
Accommodations
Booking.com & AirBNB
My #1 booking app is Booking.com because of their Loyalty program as well as their variety of accommodations they offer.
However, just to make sure I’m getting the best deal, I always check Airbnb next to make sure there’s not a better option available.
Rental Cars
I recently used DiscoverCars.com for the first time on our last European adventure, because we wanted to check out Ireland by driving, and we secured a 10 day rental through them at a great rate ahead of time online. I was able to see all the car rental options, filter them by rating and other parameters, and it was really easy.
Why we will be using them again in the future:
Upfront pricing: Many other websites hide fees and extra costs from you. DiscoverCars.com includes all mandatory fees, taxes, and extras in the quoted price so there won’t be any unpleasant surprises when you arrive at the rental desk.
Great reviews: They are heavily reviewed on multiple websites like Google, Trust Pilot, Facebook, etc.
We can use them everywhere: 145+ countries, 10,000+ locations, 700+ partners… no matter where our future European travels take us, if we need a car, we can likely get one!
Activities
Quad tour through the desert in Morocco booked with Get Your Guide
How we find international activities
Google: The first thing I always look for when traveling to a new place is FREE things to do. I typically just do a Google search for “free things to do in ____.”
Most cities have a decent amount of free things to do like parks, sometimes museums, monuments, etc.
Trip Advisor:
I then go to TripAdvisor to search for the most popular sites in that area and make a list of what I want to check out.
Get Your Guide:
When it comes to activities or tours you have to pay for, I love using Get Your Guide. You can search all the available activities in an area and book right from the site.
We used this so many times in Europe. I did my research, and at first assumed the site must mark up the tours/activities, so I checked directly with the tour operator I was interested in and saw pricing on their website and it was the same!
This gave me confidence to just book through Get Your Guide because it kept all my bookings in one spot, sent reminders, etc. and made it a lot easier to keep up with what we had planned!
Well, that’s the quick rundown on the tools we use to plan our travels! I hope this helps you save some money when planning your next adventure.
Other Articles on international travel
Historic cathedrals, a Euro Cup frenzy, strolling old town, and sampling the iconic Kolsch beer that was invented here, we packed a ton into our short visit.