When it comes to vacation planning and execution, travellers rely on their smartphones more than ever before. Travel apps are not only a source of inspiration, but they are also extremely useful for booking and managing logistics, such as making restaurant reservations or finding a great fitness class wherever you are flying next.
There are numerous apps available to assist with everything from last-minute flight changes and day-of hotel bookings to guidebooks and foreign-language dictionaries that fit in the palm of your hand. Apps can help you navigate a new city, convert currencies, pack the perfect suitcase, and even provide on-the-ground local knowledge. There’s an app for everything when you’re on the road. Here is a list of top apps to book your holidays:
TPG App
It’s impossible to discuss travel apps without mentioning the new TPG App. You can use it to keep track of your credit card, airline, and hotel point balances; earn points and miles more efficiently by using the right credit card; calculate how many points or miles you’ll need to book your dream vacation; and even curate your own news feed so you see the news and advice that matters most to you first.
Roadtrippers
Roadtrippers is ideal for planning that epic road trip you’ve always wanted to take, as it not only plans your driving route but also allows you to book hotels and activities along the way. The app is especially helpful for discovering interesting and off-the-beaten-path roadside attractions, as well as cool restaurants and must-see landmarks.
For $29 per year, Roadtrippers Plus includes offline maps, live traffic information, and other features.
Kiwi
Kiwi is primarily used to book flights, but it will also handle all of your basic travel bookings, including flights, hotels, car rentals, and even activities and tours. The app provides useful information on destinations as well as airports, such as where to find lounges, ATMs, and luggage storage during a long layover.
Flights can be booked in a variety of ways, including round-trip, one-way, and multicity itineraries. If you’re looking for ideas, check out the Nomad feature, which has pre-planned flight itineraries, such as the Tour Europe option.
Expedia
If you travel frequently, you’ll need an all-in-one travel app, and Expedia is a tried-and-true option. Expedia allows you to book every aspect of your trip, including hotels, flights, and rental cars. The app also allows you to combine travel and lodging deals, search for cruises, and research things to do once you arrive at your destination.
If you want to stretch your travel budget even further, Expedia promises exclusive deals for mobile users, as well as additional perks for members of Expedia’s rewards programme.
Tripadvisor.com
With 588.8 million visitors, TripAdvisor is the most visited website. This should come as no surprise. TripAdvisor has over 660 million reviews about hotels, restaurants, and activities from all over the world.
Although many people visit TripAdvisor solely to read reviews, the website also allows users to compare hotel prices from various booking websites. They’re also experimenting with booking directly through TripAdvisor.
Trivago
Trivago is a meta-search engine based in Germany that compares hotel prices from over 400 booking websites for over 1.8 million hotels.
They cover over 1.8 million hotels, but this pales in comparison to Booking.com’s 27 million listings. This means that you can still find a lot of accommodations on Booking.com that aren’t on Trivago.
Booking.com
Booking.com is not only one of the best hotels booking apps, but it is also one of the top-rated travel apps for Android. More than 100 million people use and trust the app as of this writing. That many, indeed.
This app is unique in that it allows you to find travel, home, and hotel reservation deals whether you’re travelling for business, a vacation, or a weekend getaway.
This app allows you to search for hotels, home and vacation rentals, hotels, and other properties totaling 1.5 million worldwide. You can search for a hotel by name, a specific landmark, attraction, or city with a single tap.
TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor is one of the most well-known hotel and travel booking apps available. And quite rightly so. It is, in essence, the ultimate travel planning tool.
It assists you in finding the best hotel based on your own preferences as well as the recommendations of local experts and other travellers. It is not only for booking hotels, but also for booking everything else you might need while on vacation: restaurants, attractions, tours, you name it.
Whether you just want to see specific restaurants or hotels on a map, reserving tables or booking rooms, or looking for great recommendations, TripAdvisor is an app you can rely on.
