On my most recent trip to Indonesia, I spent 3 weeks wandering around Bali with no set plan. Booking.com was vital in helping me find guest houses that not only fit my budget, but also had all the amenities I was looking for.
One of my favorite things about the app is that once you book with them a few times, you are granted “Genius” status. What this means is that you get some better rates and deals on places that regular users may not see.
I have also noticed that the room offerings are different on Booking than on other search engines. For example, I recently found a cool hostel in Venice I wanted to book. The app offered double the amount of rooms with much better prices than any other place I checked, including Google!
The icing on the cake: Booking’s cancelation policy is great, many times there is no fee. This especially comes in handy when places are totally different IRL than on the app, which unfortunately happens more often than you think!
*IMPORTANT TO NOTE
Make sure to call and confirm booking directly with the hostel or hotel prior to your trip as there have been reports of people booking through 3rd party sites that have arrived and found no reservation or no rooms available.
38 Comments
Dale
Awesome list! A couple of there I hadn’t heard of and will check out. Have you tried the wordoftravel app – it lets you find and follow travel blogs (it doesn’t look like yours is on there yet), share travel tips with friends and keep all of your travel research in one place. One to check out and maybe add to your list!
Dhanvi
This is such a helpful guide . Being a solo female traveler I personally liked your advice to for travelling alone in India, so bold and true. If you can adapt, India is not so difficult to deal with.
Dhanvi
Wonderful! well done, keep it up!
This article is very helpful, so far I have always had difficulties for travel bloggers who are having a hard time marketing their blog
Scott
These are all great apps that I love to use. My favorite new app discovery is Mobile Passport. I have Global Passport and usually use that when entering back into the US. However, I’ve found that the line for Mobile Passport users is even shorter (maybe just a few people) during my last couple international trips. Mobile Passport is a total time saver when coming home!
Vanessa Shields
Great list of travel apps! Some of these like Google Translate I love using. I’m interested in trying Roadtrippers!
Sydney
This is a great list! Sometimes the Mobile Passport lines are even shorter than Global Entry. Another one that is really handy if you’re traveling with a group is Splitwise.
Carrie
Glad I found this post! A lot of the apps are new to me so that‘s really helpful!! Also: stumbled upon rome2rio during my last trip and it‘s literally so cool!:)
Payton
Love it! We’re headed to New Mexico on Sunday so I’m gonna try some of these!
Patrice
Lots of great ideas here to keep any avid traveler checking out new apps for quite some time! I don’t use Skyscanner that much and wasn’t aware of the Cheapest Month option.
Amanda
Wow! I’m a full-time traveller and I didn’t even know about all these apps. I see several here that can be helpful, thank you for a great post!
Andi
I have been traveling for many decades and recently discovered Rome2Rio – OMG it is so good! Very accurate info too (at least from France) and I would now highly recommend it to others!
Kez
We LOVE Rome2Rio and Hopper! So many on here we haven’t heard of though, thank you so much for sharing 😍
Tiffany
Literally such a lifesaver! Saved and bookmarked this link for my next trip and will be sharing with friends. Thank you! 🙂
Chris
I have not heard of many of these apps. Thank you for the tips. I will be using some of these especially Tripit
Josh
Very helpful list. Tripit seems like a great app for me. I’m always looking for ways to compartmentalize and organize information to use later.
Joanne
Love the idea of Valuta and Polar Steps. They’re both new to me so I’m off to check them out. Thanks for sharing!!
Merrie Rodriguez
I had been using Travefy for planning out my trips but they recently got rid of their free services, so I just downloaded TripIt and so far so good! I’m liking the interface of the app a lot.
Stephanie
This is such a useful post, some of these apps I haven’t heard of before. I’m definitely going to check out Polar Steps
Jessie
Wow this is seriously such a great list!! Thanks for sharing!
Michelle Barrett
This is actually very useful thank you 😊
Jordan
Such great recommendations! I hope most of these apps already but learned of a few new ones (including Valuta Currency Exchanger that I downloaded right away!).
Rebecca
Great post. A lot of these apps have certainly helped me out with planning and out of many sticky or hilarious situations on the road.
There are a few recommendations here that I have not heard of before and am excited to check out.
I will definitely be using road trippers to help plan my next road trip and Tripit.
Sarah
Thank you for sharing. There are a few I didn’t know about 🙂
Google Translate is good for single words or very short sentences, but I wouldn’t recommend it for long sentences though.
Ana
I’ll have to check out these Apps. You’ve put together a great list! Thanks for sharing.
Nadia
This is a great list. I am saving this article for myself as I love traveling and I am sure I will be needing one or more of these apps. Love the images.
Erin
So helpful!! Thank you! I love this and I’m excited to check some of these out! Saving on my travel board!
Lerato
Thanks for sharing these great tips. Will be useful this week because I’m planning a Christmas trip
Seun
Super helpful
Olivia
I love these recs! I’ll have to download some of these for my future travels. Great post!
Morgan
Great list! I love Mobile Passport, it’s my number one travel app.
Pauline
Very good list!
I mainly used skyscanner I must say because I rarely have a destination in mind but if your mind is set on a particular place hopper is great.
Train line is excellent in the UK, a bit less abroad but still very good and so easy to use!
Hayley
Ooh I definitely need a few of these! The mobile passport app sounds awesome – had no idea about it! Polar steps also sounds so awesome
Nikki
Love this list! I’ve used several ones but need to download the others. Great recommendations!!
emaroundtheworld
Glad you found this post helpful! There are so many useful tools that don’t cost anything and make our travels just a little easier.
Ashleigh
Love love love this, found it super helpful as some of these apps I have never heard of, also I use been as a way of tracking where I have been!!
emaroundtheworld
Been is a great one too! It was definitely between that and Polar Steps for this post, but I also use Been 🙂
Helene
Whoa so many apps I had no idea about the mobile passport is super nice and I am thinking I need to try it out! Thanks for sharing all of them, great article.
emaroundtheworld
Mobile Passport is amazing and SUCH a time saver! Before getting Global Entry, it is all I used when traveling. Good luck and happy to have helped! x