8 of the Best Vacation Planner Apps
There are so many vacation planner apps out there for travellers but which ones are the best and most useful? We have listed below 8 of what we consider to be the best and these are the ones we use all the time to seamlessly and effortlessly plan our trips.
“Happiness is, planning a trip to somewhere new, with someone you love.”
– Marie Cribaillet –
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you click on our affiliates / advertisers links and make a purchase, we may receive a small commission, but at no extra cost to you. AND, many times, you will receive an offer. Win/win! The products and services we write about and mention are the ones we love. We only recommend items that we feel are of good quality and would be helpful to our readers. While we pay for our travels out of our own pockets, these small commissions do assist in keeping us on the road. Thank you!
Best Vacation Planner Apps for Travellers
1. TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor is one of the most popular vacation planner apps. Unlike other apps that feature only major cities, TripAdvisor offers listings of both top attractions and hidden gems in just about every city of the world, along with restaurants, shopping, hotels, and flights.
You can create customized itineraries by saving the places you’re interested in to the app’s new Trips feature (trips can be kept private or shared publicly.)
When you search for a city in the app, you’ll see a feed of other users’ trips, photos, videos, reviews, great places to visit, to eat, and articles about that destination, all offering ideas and inspiration.
The forums on TripAdvisor are also a great resource for getting specific travel-related information from other travellers and those in the know.
However, we personally believe the most valuable feature in TripAdvisor are the reviews left by people on restaurants. We save our favourites (based on reviews) to our Trips and slowly work our way around the city we are visiting trying out the different recommendations and writing our own reviews.
Operating Systems: Android, iOS, Web
Cost: Free
2. Booking.com
Booking.com allows you to find the best hotel deals at a moment’s notice, or in advance. Hotels, motels, B&Bs, and luxury apartments for your next trip are all bookable in seconds, with paperless confirmation, no booking or credit card fees, and 24/7 support from the Booking.com team.
Filters help you to narrow down your search and from there, you can sort your search to assist in comparing features and price of various accommodation options. Each accommodation also provides a review section by past guests which can assist in making your final decision.
Operating Systems: Android, iOS, Web
Cost: Free
3. XE Currency
XE Currency is our preferred choice of currency converter app and it is constantly being updated and offers live exchange rates for “every world currency”.” We love the fact we can store our most recent currency rate searches and access them even when offline.
Operating Systems: Android, iOS, Web
Cost: Free
4. Visit a City
The Visit a City app is a great starting place when it comes to planning your day to day itineraries in a city. When you select a destination, the app offers recommended sightseeing guides based on the number of days you plan to spend.
Start with one of these adjustable Visit a City guides, and then edit your itinerary by changing the day you visit a place, revising the amount of time you spend there, or deleting the attraction altogether. Visit a City then lets you know how far apart your points of interest are i.e. three minutes by walking. It also includes the estimated time that you’ll spend at each place and visiting hours.
You can also book tours through the app and get general travel information about the destination, such as the best time of year to visit or tips for saving money.
Once you have planned your day-to-day itineraries, these can be downloaded and viewed offline.
There is also a feature that gives you directions to your next attraction on the itinerary by linking with MAPS.ME, Apple Maps, Google Maps or Uber.
Visit a City helps solve two common trip planning challenges: figuring out how long you need to spend at each place, and maximizing your vacation time by grouping nearby attractions together. It is the easiest way to personalise your trip!
Operating Systems: Android, iOS, Web
Cost: Free
5. Skyscanner
The Skyscanner app helps with literally everything related to travelling. You can search, compare, and book cheap flights, hotels, and car rentals anytime and anywhere. Combine low-cost carriers, choose a long transfer time and visit one more city along your way, or choose the fastest flight possible if you need to be in another state or country as soon as possible. The service provides you with enough number of flights to select the most appropriate.
Similar to Google Flights, you can see the cheapest dates to fly, and you can also get alerts when prices change. If you’re not sure where exactly you want to go, Skyscanner offers a category that lets you explore “Top Deals” from your nearest airport, as well as a curated list of destinations at affordable prices.
When you book your flight, hotel, and car together you get a more significant discount.
You can monitor your bookings with status updates in Trips and move booked flights from one trip to another in the Trips tab. This lets you move things around without losing your saved details.
Operating Systems: Android, iOS, Web
Cost: Free
6. MAPS.ME
MAPS.ME is one of our favourite vacation planner apps. One of the main reasons is the ability to download maps and stay completely offline. Not only does it allow you to plan out your trip via roads, but it also includes bicycle paths, hiking trails, and back roads.
The MAPS.ME data comes from OpenStreetMap. You can perform detailed searches (by coordinates, names, categories, and addresses) even when you are offline. Some of the more common categories used by MAPS.ME are Lodging, Transport, Business, Attractions, Shops, Finance, Education, Health, Food and Entertainment.
As a bonus, it also includes travel guides, public transportation, and Uber integrations, as well as a hotel booking feature. If you are looking for a tremendous journey planner, MAPS.ME could be your new best friend.
OS: Android, iOS
Cost: Free
6. Rome2rio
The Rome2rio app searches just about every mode of transportation – plane, train, subway, bus, ferry, taxi, Uber – figures out the logistics of getting there and then recommends the best ways to get from point A to point B.
You can enter either two destinations within a given city or two points farther apart, and the app will display your options, including the time it’ll take to travel and the approximate cost. Note that the listings are for planning purposes only, and you can’t actually book your flights or tickets through the app.
Operating Systems: Android, iOS, Web
Cost: Free
7. TripIt
TripIt is one of the best vacation planner apps available to assist with travel organisation. It turns an inbox full of scattered booking confirmations for hotels, tours, car rentals, flight confirmations and restaurant reservations into a single master itinerary that you can access offline, sync with your phone’s calendar, and share with loved ones. You simply forward each confirmation email to [email protected] and let the app do the rest.
OS: Android, iOS, Web
Cost: Free (Upgrade to TripIt Pro ($49/year) for other useful features such as real-time flight alerts, rewards program tracking, and the ability to locate alternate flights if your original plans are disrupted.)
8. Google Translate
Google Translate is an essential app for travellers when you don’t speak the local language. It supports over 100 languages and can translate both text and the spoken word. In its most basic form, you set the language you want translated and the language you want it translated into, type in the words and Google Translate translates it for you.
However, over the years the service has become far more sophisticated and powerful, particularly the smartphone apps. Now Google Translate can access your phone’s camera and microphone to translate signs and menus through your camera’s lens or listen to and translate conversations in real-time.
We have primarily used this app for real-time conversations in taxis to tell drivers where we want to go, and translations of menus in foreign languages.
OS: Android, iOS, Web
Cost: Free
In Summary: 8 of the Best Vacation Planner Apps
Crafting a trip itinerary can be both fun and overwhelming at the same time. How do I get from A to B? Which places are an absolute must-visit, and which ones can I skip? How much time should I spend at the museum, and how close is it to that restaurant I want to eat at for lunch? Also, how can I keep all my ideas and bookings neatly organized?
The best vacation planner apps can solve all of the above problems for you. Download these apps and you can throw away your endless spreadsheets and Word docs.
Do you use any other apps which I haven’t mentioned above? Please comment below.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you click on our affiliates / advertisers links and make a purchase, we may receive a small commission, but at no extra cost to you. AND, many times, you will receive an offer. Win/win! The products and services we write about and mention are the ones we love. We only recommend items that we feel are of good quality and would be helpful to our readers. While we pay for our travels out of our own pockets, these small commissions do assist in keeping us on the road. Thank you!
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