Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could find travel tools that save you time and money? Tools that are easy to use and do exactly what they’re supposed to? Well these 19 apps for planning a trip do exactly that! And you could even say that a few of them are the best travel apps for Europe too, since they have offline features – but we’ll get into that, don’t worry!
If you’re like me, you don’t like having tons of stuff that you never use – apps included. (That’s probably why I love packing light)
And throughout the years I’ve tested literally hundreds of apps that promise to find the cheapest flights, the best road trip routes, and the prettiest travel pictures. But unfortunately most of them just took up memory on my phone.
So in this list you’ll only find the best travel apps – the ones that will actually save you time, money, and headaches.
And the best part? I’ll show you how to use them in this post!
Each one of these travel apps will help you either plan your vacation or be a useful travel tool while you’re enjoying your trip.
But here’s a pro tip – download them before you travel to avoid any extra data fees!
Ok let’s get to it!
The best 19 apps for planning a trip:
- One note
- Skyscanner
- Hotels.com
- Hotels tonight
- Google Maps
- Mobile Passport
- Google Translate
- Google Earth
- Spotify
- Golden Hour & Blue Hour Calc
- XE currency
- Qapital
- 2048
- Skype
- Play Books
- Uber
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The Most Useful Apps for Planning a Trip
1) One Note - overall best travel itinerary app
OneNote is by far one of my favorite travel apps for planning a trip. In fact, you can use OneNote for pretty much anything.
I started using it college, but now I use it to plan our household chores, for planning our destination wedding, our detailed travel budgets, and of course, travel planning!
The best thing about OneNote is that you can use it offline, and everything is in one place. Here’s how it works:
You start by creating a notebook – let’s call it “Travel.”
Then you add sections – Here’s where I add in a vacation I’m planning. So I have a tab for Italy, another one for Germany, etc.
Then finally you have pages – mine look like this for each trip:
- Complete Itinerary
- Important info (flight numbers, hotel addresses, etc)
- Things To Do
- Places To Eat
- Packing List
- Still To Do
2) Skyscanner - best flight app for planning
Skyscanner is my go-to app for finding the cheapest flights anywhere I want to go.
I also use it for finding the cheapest destinations to travel to.
So let’s say I only have vacation time in April, but I want to have an epic vacation for the least amount of money – the key here is to be flexible and you’ll get a whole bunch of possibilities.
Or let’s say you know you want to travel to Japan, but you’re open with the dates. Well, you can see what month is the cheapest, and then narrow it down to the exact day that’s cheapest and most convenient for you!
It’s such a great tool and I never plan a vacation without it – just having it on my phone has inspired me to travel more!
And I can even show you how I used Skyscanner to find an international flight for $56!
3) Hotels.com - best app for hotel planning
Julien & I have used the Hotels.com app for years – and for good reason.
Their free rewards program is perfect for people who love to travel!
After staying 10 nights, you get one night free! Which means we usually get a free hotel night every trip (or at least every other trip)
PLUS I can usually find discounts that are only available through the mobile app…you know…for those of us that do a promo code search before each booking 😉
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4) Hotel Tonight - best for hotel hacking
If you’ve never heard of the HotelTonight app, basically it’s for finding last minute hotel deals wherever you are.
So it’s a great app for planning a trip – last minute 😉
But the other way that I personally use it is a little bit more planned out. Let me explain.
When I was planning our trip to Venice I noticed that the hotels were super expensive..and I mean that even the icky-looking places were at least $200.
So I booked a decent looking room with the Hotels.com app, but I kept monitoring the HotelsTonight app, just to see what kind of last minute deals I could find.
Then right before the cancellation window ended for the original room, I found a great last minute deal on this app, and booked that hotel instead.
Then I cancelled the original room with no penalty and we even saved some money on a nicer room!
*Use code VREGLY and get $25 off when you book your upgraded room 🙂
5) Google Maps - best map app for planning
Good old Google Maps!
Most people think of it as just a GPS system, but it’s so much more than that!
Here are just some of the ways I’ve used this app to plan vacations:
- Downloading offline maps for traveling internationally and saving on data
- Finding cute boutique hotels that don’t show up on booking sites
- Saving points of interest and activities to do in my destination
- Pre-planning how long it will travel between two stops on my itinerary
- Actually use it as a GPS while driving in other countries
- To guide me through public transportation (like buses and metro rails) in other countries – this has saved us too many times to count and now it’s my go-to!
6) Mobile passport - best for flying into the united states
Coming back into the US through customs is probably our least favorite part of any trip – we usually end up standing in line for 1-2 hours minimum.
We even looked into Global Entry but it has a lot of hoops to jump through before you actually get approved.
With the Mobile Passport app, you can scan in your passport information ahead of time, and just send the info to customs as soon as the plane lands.
That way, you get to skip the line for passport-scanning, and head right to the entry line – and they usually have a mobile passport line there too!
Since we’ve started using this app, we’ve saved at least an hour every time we get back into the country. And the app is completely free to use so there’s no reason to be standing in that line!
7) Google Translate - best app for translating signs and menus
Traveling to a country where you don’t understand the language can be a little scary – especially if you decide to drive or use the public transportation!
But Google apps is perfect for translating quick phrases abroad, without having to pull out your pocket dictionary.
But I’ll show you my favorite part of this app…a little hidden feature 🙂
If you tap on the camera icon below the text input, you can take a picture of a sign, menu, etc and have the words translated for you.
We use this feature all of the time on vacation and I suspect it will be helpful to you too!
8) Google Earth - for planning activities & photos
I absolutely love the Google Earth app for planning a trip!
At first glance, I’m sure you wouldn’t think of it for travel planning, but here’s why you should:
- You can get an idea of where you’re going ahead of time by using the street view and positioning yourself into the map
- You can then look around the area and see other things to do in that same spot
- You can scan the map and find interesting looking places to visit
- You won’t be as disoriented when you get there – and you’ll know what to expect
- You can see what photo opportunities are nearby ahead of time!
9) Spotify - best music app for traveling
You’re probably already familiar with Spotify.
But did you know that you can download entire playlists and listen to them offline?
And if you’re thinking – why is this helpful for traveling, here are 3 good reasons:
- Listen to your music in the metro where there’s no signal
- You don’t have to listen to local radio when driving (although it can be interesting for a bit!)
- Make and download your own travel playlist (we have ours and it hypes us up as soon as we get to our destination!)
10) Pinterest - best app for finding activities
Pinterest is such a great tool for planning things to do in a new place. You simply search for “(your destination) things to do” and voila!
You can filter out things you want to see and add them to your OneNote as you go, it’s that simple.
You can also search for some of these also to help you plan your trip:
- (Your destination) travel tips
- (Your destination) photos
- (Your destination) itinerary
- (Your destination) road trip
- (Your destination) packing list
11) Instagram - app for finding the best photo spots
Even though I haven’t spend much time on our Instagram lately, I do always, always use it for travel planning. Here’s how I use it:
- To find new things to do – search #arizona for example and a whole heap of drool-worthy photos comes up – usually with the exact location of where it was taken
- Save these amazing spots into a new folder for travel planning later!
- You can also use it to look up what a place actually looks like and then decide if you want to add it to your itinerary.
12) Golden hour & blue hour calc - for planning gorgeous photos
One of my favorite things about going on vacation is getting amazing photos to share with my family and friends later – and to print out for our photo wall at home 😉
But if you know anything about photography, you know that the lighting has to be just right for that drool-worthy photo.
That’s where this app comes in.
Enter your destination and you’ll get an entire list of times for sunrise and sunset golden hours – perfect for that gorgeous lighting!
And you can even input future dates, so you know exactly what time to plan your photos.
13) XE currency - for accurate exchange rates
If you’re traveling out of the country, you’ll need to know the exchange rate from USD to the other currency.
Please, please, please don’t rely on the exchange booth operator to give you the most reliable information!
Do your wallet a favor and know how much the rate is in advance, that way you’ll know if you’re being ripped off!
This information is also important to know if you want to buy anything abroad – which of course you do ;P
Being able to have the accurate exchange rate – and doing a quick math equation in your head – will give you the price of things in USD, and help you make better decisions on international purchases.
14) Qapital - best app to save money
Talking about saving money…
Did you know that on most international purchases you’re going to pay a 3% foreign transaction fee?
And that little 3% may not sound like a lot now, but when you spend hundreds of dollars on your vacation, it starts to add up!
But not to worry – there’s a great way to avoid this!
Simply get a debit card (or a credit card) that doesn’t have these foreign transaction fees – like the free Qapital card.
By downloading the app, you’ll be signing up for a free bank account and receive a debit card in the mail – one without any foreign transaction fees.
The app allows you to transfer money in between your regular account so that you can use the Qapital debit card abroad.
We’ve used this for the majority of our vacations and have saved so much money that would have otherwise been wasted in transaction fees.
Plus we set the app to round up on our purchases and put the “spare change” into a savings account for our next trip – completely automatically!
*Use my link and we’ll both get $20 – then you can refer your friends and family too for $20 each!
15) 2048 - best game to pass the time
Whenever your plan gets delayed, you can’t sleep on a flight, or you’re waiting in a long line of any kind, you’ll want something to pass the time.
This app is a simple game, but highly addicting. You won’t even know where the time went!
16) WhatsApp - best for free calls
I like WhatsApp for calling family back home when we’re traveling. So much easier than getting another SIM card or using those calling cards from back-in-the-day.
I just make sure that the other person has WhatsApp set up also and I’ve never had any issues with it.
17) Skype - best for video calls
Another way that I communicate with my family and friends while we travel is via Skype.
But usually Skype calls are reserved for beautiful places that I want to show someone while were actually there – like the time we were in the German Alps and we video called my parents to show them how gorgeous it was!
18) Google play books - for free entertainment
Google Play Books has a huge selection of books, both free and paid. So if you need something to do on the plane, this is a perfect option.
I usually download a book I want to read ahead of time and then read it on the plane or during a layover – and the best part is that you don’t have to take up luggage space with a ton of books.
19) Uber - alternative to public transport
We try to use public transportation on our vacations, or even just get around by walking.
But there are plenty of times when don’t want to walk or wait for the metro – and taxis are usually severely overpriced.
This is where Uber comes in.
Just make sure to check if Uber is in the city you’re traveling to before you go – and always stay safe by checking that the person is actually your driver before getting into the car!
*Don’t ask – Are you my driver?
*Do ask – What’s your name? And then check the app to verify your driver’s name!
And if you sign up for a new account you can get a free ride through my link 🙂
These 19 apps for planning a trip have been so helpful on our travels and I hope they will help you also! Don’t forget to download them ahead of time so that you don’t waste data if you’re traveling abroad!
And don’t forget to subscribe for access to our free travel resource library! It will help you plan your vacation like a pro and it only takes 5 seconds!
Happy travels!
– Veronica
Pin me for later!
You deserve to travel more!
Travel planning is hard. But it doesn’t have to be. Get access to our free travel resource library to start crossing things off your bucket list!
IT ONLY TAKES 5 SECONDS!
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